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Comedy

#691 - Johnny Hamcheck

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von · Theo Von

📅 2026-10-21 ⏱ 146 min episode · ~2 min read 📝 Transcript · 27,566 words 🎙 Johnny Hamcheck

A prankster millions know only by his voice tells, face to face, how car lots, poker tables, jail and relapse shaped the videos.

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✨ Transcribed & summarised by Whipscribe
In this episodeTheo VonColumbus, OhioSalvation ArmyLiberty UniversityToyotaWorld Series of PokerIRSTikTokZig ZiglarHome DepotMcDonald'sOhioHealth

▸Chapters

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▸Notable quotes

“This is the reveal that I've been holding off on doing for five years.” Johnny Hamcheck · at 2:12 — open in the transcript →
“The best stuff that Hamcheck did was during my 13 years of sobriety.” Johnny Hamcheck · at 1:30:23 — open in the transcript →

▸What this episode covers

Johnny Hamcheck, a Columbus, Ohio prankster known for point-of-view videos in which he poses as a construction boss hunting for chains, uses this conversation with Theo Von to show his face for the first time. He explains that he kept his identity hidden for five years mainly because fans enjoyed the mystery, that strangers still recognise him by his voice alone, and that the trick behind his hidden camera is confusion rather than concealment. At 50, he says he is tired of feeding the internet and wants a break.

Much of the talk covers the life behind the character. Hamcheck describes a religious upbringing with a father who drilled Zig Ziglar tapes and Bible verses, a year at Liberty University, and decades selling Toyotas, where he says he once moved 40 cars a month. Gambling ran alongside it: a World Series of Poker dream, a broken marriage, and years of tax debt. He is open about heroin, crack and fentanyl, months in a Columbus jail called the Workhouse, 13 sober years from 2010, a 2023 relapse after surgery, and getting clean again in February 2025.

The rest weighs what pranking costs other people. Hamcheck calls himself something like a journalist, yet he describes taking videos down when subjects or their families object, sometimes reposting them when views slow, and a ban from Columbus urology clinics after filming his own doctor. He recounts close calls, from a street gang with a knife to a driver pointing a gun, and talks through one-party consent laws with Von. Both men compare their recovery dates and hitchhiker stories before Hamcheck mentions a movie and documentary in the works.

▸About the guest

J
Johnny Hamcheck

Johnny Hamcheck is a 50-year-old prankster from Columbus, Ohio, known for faceless point-of-view videos on TikTok and other platforms. A former car salesman and manager, he revealed his face for the first time on this episode.

▸Key takeaways

01Johnny Hamcheck, a 50-year-old prankster from Columbus, Ohio, showed his face for the first time on Theo Von's show after five years of hidden-camera videos.
02Johnny Hamcheck's pranks rely on confusion rather than concealment: posing as a site boss chasing chains for Balboni, he holds the phone in plain view.
03Johnny Hamcheck says he sold up to 40 Toyotas a month in 2016, yet a poker habit and seven years of ignoring the IRS left him deep in tax debt.
04Hamcheck says his best videos came in 13 sober years; a 2023 relapse after surgery left him pranking while on fentanyl-laced pills.
05Johnny Hamcheck, clean since February 2025 and off gambling since 1 August, plans time away from his phone while a movie and documentary take shape.
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▸Questions this episode answers

Q1Why did Johnny Hamcheck reveal his face on Theo Von's podcast?Q2How did Johnny Hamcheck get his name?Q3How did Johnny Hamcheck start making prank videos before TikTok made him popular?Q4How does Johnny Hamcheck hide his camera during pranks?Q5What did Johnny Hamcheck say about his addiction and recovery on This Past Weekend?Q6How did poker and gambling affect Johnny Hamcheck's life?Q7What did Johnny Hamcheck and Theo Von say about recording laws for prank videos?Q8What is next for Johnny Hamcheck after revealing his identity?

▸Transcript

Our own transcript of the public episode, with a timestamp about every 90 seconds. Tap a timestamp or the link button on a paragraph to copy a link that opens this page there.

0:00I want to let you guys know that my new special, I'm Doing Fine, is out now on Netflix. And thank you all for the support. He's got those six-inch chains and those seven-and-a-half-foot egg rolls. He's a prankster. He's a content creator. This guy's one of a kind. And he's revealing himself for the first time today. I'm fortunate to sit down with Johnny Hamchick. Am I acting right? That's a good question Dude You gotta tell me man This is an idle new podcast bro But I'm comfortable But you know Dude One thing I would ask my friends All the time I'd be like Dude do I seem alright? Yeah Like I never had any idea If I seem alright or not Like my best friend Scott I remember one time Tell'd be like dude do i seem all right yeah like i never had any idea if i seem all right or not like my best friend scott i remember one time telling him like dude tell me who i am you know

1:10most of my life has just been oh 100 i don't know who i am i i look at myself from an outside body all the time and wonder what the hell is who do you think you are who are you there's it's a good question i don't think any of us know i mean maybe that's true dude life is weird bro like everyone's is weird though you know we're all down here trying to figure it out it's a messed up game you know and a lot of and some of us are kind of being a little bit perverts too there's a lot of pecker checkers out there bro i mean i told you dude who runs this shit dude i don't know but it's something else man uh johnny hamcheck one of the premier pranksters i would say right now probably maybe in the world dude that's i feel like you know you came on my

2:01radar just like probably as a lot of people just like through social media, just seeing your pranks. And today's the first day that you're kind of showing yourself. This is it. This is the reveal that I've been holding off on doing for five years. You know, it's been a game of cat and mouse with the Internet. And to be honest, it feels great. It just feels good to let them have them, let them have it. This is it. This is it. And I'm, you know, it feels good. It's like I had something in my stomach I needed to throw up for so long, man. And I can't explain how happy I am about doing this reveal actually, and saying what's up to all the people and thanking them for all the love. And it's been

2:44a fun journey, but it's time to move on to the next stage of my life, you know? And I don't know what that's going to be, but I'm done hiding from the public. You know, it's caused so much stress, dude. Does it really? Yeah. Just acting funny about, Oh, you can't take a picture. You can't send it to your friends. Like, and it was only for the fans. I only did it for the fans because they love then a lot of them are going to be upset you know that you're revealing yourself yeah oh yeah yeah and because you have you have millions and millions of views on your pranks but you've never shown who you are no in the very early days in my first tiktoks i i did. I had TikToks with myself. I did this alibi prank, and I'd go to Walmart and say,

3:29hey, will you do a video with me? And I showed myself early on, and then when I saw that the people on the Internet were saying, I love that he doesn't show himself, and then I jumped on board and just made it POV with never showing myself. And it's been like a really – it's been a fun game. It's been, I mean, fun for them, but cause everybody comes up with their own image of what they think I look like, you know, let me ask you, did you know what I looked like? Didn't have a clue. No way. Yeah. Didn't have a clue, man. And I was curious and it is this thing. It's like, yeah, it adds to a level of mystery. You don't even know as the viewer, you just don't even think about it. You're like, oh, this is this voice, but yeah, I don't know who it is. And I think I'm probably an average

4:09viewer. I don't go back and, you know, I didn't go back and research the first one if there was a reveal. I just always assumed that there wasn't. What's some of the stress that we don't see about hiding your identity? The fans are always zooming in on reflections, you know, when I shoot videos when somebody has glasses on and they think I don't know, but I know exactly what I'm giving them. I like to give them little glimpses, you know, and it's like I said, it's gotten annoying for me to try to keep playing that game. But I did it for the fans' sake. I didn't really do it for myself. I was tired of this game years ago, you know. Not of the pranking, but of the hiding. The hiding. Yeah, the hiding. I mean, pranking. I mean, I'm a little burnt out on the

5:00pranking. I'm not going to lie. I mean you i'm 50 years old you can't street prank and just it's like come on man it's time to do something different you know and i don't i don't care what it is but anyway i'm talking too much um no well we want to hear you talk um and and i do want to show people at home and just so some people may be hearing your voice and they may not be exactly familiar but uh trevin let's play one of, just play 20 seconds of Johnny Hamshag. Hey, sorry I'm late, buddy. What? I said sorry I'm late. Oh, you're good. Yeah, did they tell you I was coming? Who are you? I'm Johnny, project manager. I know. Okay, yeah, Balboni told me to bring those chains to you guys. What the hell do you do here?

5:44I flag. I know, you're doing a good job, too. Well, thank you. Yeah, they toldi told me to bring those chains to you guys. What the hell do you do here? I flag. I know. You're doing a good job, too. Well, thank you. Yeah. They told me about you. I'm off today, but did my girl bring the Chick-fil-A by? The Chick-fil-A? No, I don't believe so. She was supposed to bring some chicken sandwiches for everybody this morning for breakfast. Okay. Yeah. Dude, you must be, so many of yours that I watched or ones you pulling up on construction sites, you must be known at every construction site now. Yes. Yes. Just in North Carolina the other day, a young kid jumped out of the Bobcat. I saw his eyes instantly.

6:20I see them before they see me. They'd have a voice recognition. It's the craziest thing. It's like a blind guy that has super senses with his ears because they don't know what I look like. They match the voice up. I'll be walking in Vegas. I'll be in Beverly Hills. If I talk and people walk by me, they'll start getting curious. And when I tell them, no, I'm not Johnny, they're like, yeah, you are. That's a funny thing, man. I found that interesting about humans. Is it hard to find a construction site to work these days? Or are you moving area to area? What's that like? No, it's all about the individual. I'll pick out a guy that looks like he might not watch social media. Just, it's all about the goofy characters for me. Everything is

7:11about what they give me. It's like, it's not me most of the time, obviously it's just these people. But when I leave Ohio, I feel free because Ohio nine times out of 10, I don't even, I walk up insecure because I know they're going to bust me. So I'm like, I'm ready for them to catch me. Those videos do really well because my fans love seeing people recognizing me. So in Columbus, it's still cool to do those, but I don't mess with even any pranks really in Columbus. It's getting old. But I can still find tons of construction sites. And I've gotten lazy over the last few years where I pull up in the car. I used to walk, you know, all I got to do is get out, put a vest on and, you know. So you used to look more the part. Yeah. In the

7:59early days though, I walked up in shorts, no hat. Now I, i dude i pull up with the construction the hard hat on in my car which is the funniest thing because it's like the stupidest thing ever but when i first started pranking i had a very nice car i was you know i had you know i had a good job and would you have like a chevelle or something dodge neon Neon? Dude, I had a $100,000 Lexus when I first started doing these pranks. And it was a big black. So they bought it. And then I went broke and went kind of homeless. And then I was driving around these $500 cars. So it was really a funny transition. But did the Lexus help the pranks? Yeah, yeah. Because they're like, oh, this is definitely a boss.

8:42Oh, this is Balboni. Yeah, this is definitely the boss. Oh, this is Balboni. Yeah, this is definitely the boss. He runs stuff. He's, you know, but it still worked in a fucking G6 that I ended up. A friend gave me a G6, man, with duct tape holding up the panel. There was a bungee cord holding up the panels. But when I put that hat on, man, it was the funniest thing, pulling up. Like somebody's going to drive around with a hard hat on in the car you know so originally you would what you would get out and walk up was that did that create a different energy yeah that's a whole different one it takes more energy basically yeah so you got lazy not you just kind of pulled it up yeah because the window ones when they come to the window it's like they're on TV. It's perfect. Perfect. So those work too. But I used to just walk, man, miles, dude.

9:29Like Columbus, Ohio, I would walk from one end of town. I mean, I was putting 20,000, 25,000 steps a day before I went to work. You're putting those miles on your – On my feet. Yeah, on my dogs, man. And that was when I had a job. I'd go into work at 1. I'd make six – in the early days, man, it was when i had a job i'd go into work at one i'd make six in the early days man it's like six videos a day i i mean i can make them all day long if i want i mean it's but it gets old and you know gotta do something different but i don't think it gets old for us but it probably starts to turn into a lot more of a job than it does like something that's entertaining for you i call it feeding the fish feeding the internet and feeling that pressure to keep giving them something and

10:11they get so upset when i don't post for a while and it's like uh yeah it's an addiction and you know you know that i have addictive tendencies and i I hate the addiction to feeding the fans, these videos. And then if I don't have a viral video or something, man, I get like, I get withdrawal. I get sick. You know, you start to feel bad about yourself. Even it's a, it's literally a dopamine addiction. Like when I, if I don't have a fresh killer video, that's going viral, then I feel, I start to get sick. And after a weeks i get sick man and i have like this i gotta go get some i gotta go get i gotta go get a video and they don't make like a suboxone for pranksters no if they did i would take it right now i'd get i'd get off i'd get off the pranks

10:57right away go to rehab yeah get on that methadone homieie. You know what I'm saying, bro? Oh, my gosh. Suboxone, speaking of that, I mean, we'll talk about that later, but that is the hardest drug to ever get off of. I had to kick that in February 25, and it's the worst. I mean, it was harder than getting off the hard fentanyl. It was harder than getting off fentanyl. Yeah, before you go down that road, I know that, because we've talked a little bit about addiction, right? We're both in recovery. Yeah. So amen to that. Amen,? We're both in recovery. Yeah. So amen to that. Amen, bro. Amen. Good job. Amen. Good job. I'm very happy for you and anybody that's actually taken that path. The toughest knuckles in the world, bro.

11:36You need them in that game because it's an internal battle, bro. Nobody's going to do it for you. It's the biggest war of a human's life man amen yeah yeah amen bro yeah so um let's start from the beginning in your life bro because you've had some i mean you were a used car salesman you were in a band you dealt with heroin addiction you've been to prison dude you've got me not prison but the county jail for like six months. So I've been to jail many times, but I have never gotten a number is what they say. Oh, shit. No way. Yeah. But they said prison was way better than the county jail I was in. It's called the Workhouse in Columbus, Ohio. It's the worst place. It's the worst. You didn't like it?

12:22Does it even have stars on like google review or whatever would you like it 50 gangbangers and not just just every type of criminal and there's one bathroom behind the brick wall you know that everyone gets to use and everyone's fighting every day i mean i fought a couple times they're picking up people on mattresses while they're sleeping and launching them across the room to the weaker people. It was so. But I found, I mean, dude, you find God when you're in those places. Like I was part of this Bible study and we got up every morning and read the Bible. But man, when you don't know when you're getting out and if you've never had your freedom taken away, you need to to appreciate life. I always say that sometimes

13:05i get so comfortable out here i'm like man i need to go lock myself up just to remember that feeling of getting out man wow of just the gratitude of being free bro yeah a freeish freedom is something that we all take for granted man it's geez do, geez. Did you ever celebrate like a holiday in prison? Sorry, in jail? No, but I just celebrated my birth. Last year down in Florida, I was in long-term treatment. I was down there for two months. And I celebrated my 49th birthday down there. But when the whole rehab facility found out who i was it really helped man i had all these fans in rehab with me and they were just going crazy and it was like i was happy to to make it fun for them you know if somebody's ham checking in a rehab dude dude in long-term

14:01treatment where we're all just trying to get by for two months, you know. Oh, yeah. That was the last time I was on hard drugs. I got clean in February of 25, thank God. Now, what was your question about jail? Oh, holidays in jail. I mean, no, but my ex-wife was – I was in there, and she had a little baby. She had my son, and it was stressful. Dude, that's a crazy way to refer to your son as she had a little baby, but I do. Yeah, my son, he's the man, dude. He's awesome. But that's awesome, dude. How did you get into pranking you're from ohio yeah so i was always a class i mean i always remember that first time that everyone was quiet in the library and i farted you know like you just never forget the humor and

14:56and the laughter that comes with that so i remember getting addicted to being the class clown in seventh grade me and my friends would prank these Chinese restaurants you know my my buddy's parents were doctors so we'd go in his basement they had the fancy phones in the 80s the big speak the ones you could use speakerphone it was I mean so we would prank this Chinese restaurant all the time man man. What would y'all do? Well, I would call and ask them if their fortune cookies were true, you know. And we would order all these egg rolls, so many egg rolls. But I said, are your fortune cookies true? Because this one says I'm going to eat a big turd and blow up. Like, that's not even funny, but my buddy reminded me of that the other day.

15:47But we called him every day, and then—so the owner got so mad. What did he get mad about? Well, apparently, they were getting all these orders for Eddie, and we were little kids. We never came and picked them up. Oh, so you guys would make orders for Eddie? Yeah. We ordered 7 1⁄2 half inch egg rolls for Eddie. And it was not cool because they're working their butts off and we're just little kids laughing on the phone. But the craziest stuff happened. This guy that ran the restaurant, I'll never forget one time he said, you come down to my restaurant, I'll blow your fucking head off. And he said that to me and three of my friends. And then he said, you'll get yours in the mail. And we got subpoenaed in the mail in seventh grade.

16:37You got subpoenaed by the Chinese in seventh grade? The restaurant. Yeah, yeah. So we had to go to court. I went, me and two friends and his parents took us to court. And we sat at a big table and got lectured. And they told us how many thousands of hours we cost them in business. And my buddy's dad's car got towed while we were in there, too. He must have been pissed. They were so pissed. It was so funny. I'll never forget that shit. What other stuff would y'all say to them over the phone? Because it just to. I mean, all I remember is making them mad, ordering egg rolls. You know, I don't remember really. Because egg rolls are good. I don't see. But I guess, and you're not going to pick them up.

17:20So you have no plan to pick up the egg rolls you're ordering? No. pick them up so you have no plan to pick up the egg rolls you're ordering no and i think i was probably just practicing my impression of a chinese person or something bobby's chinese dude he doesn't give a fuck even even if you ask him he fucking denies it he's a pussy that's crazy yeah he's a good guy but he's also fucking he's one of those people that like denies where he's from or whatever you know he he where is he from china is he okay yeah but he denies where he's from or whatever you know he he where is he from china is he okay yeah but he denies it he's just like he's kind of like he's like kind of like um he's like dj khaled or whatever because he's from palestine he just doesn't talk about it oh okay

17:57but bobby just has something against his own culture or whatever bring up a picture of him. He used to dance too back in his home country or whatever. Oh yeah, I've seen him. He's a funny guy. Is he out in LA? I don't know where he lives. He probably denies wherever he lives. I don't think, he won't even tell you where he fucking lives. It's just the kind of guy he is. But he's dealt with a lot of shit. That's the shit that makes me glad I don't have hair. Sometimes I feel like the people with hair have to figure out how to look cool, you know? And I'm like, you know, I don't have to worry about that shit. Oh, yeah. He looks like he's been sniffing fireworks right there. But he's good. He's definitely a good guy.

18:42So you guys would call over there, and do you remember any of the other things you would say that the fortune said? No, I don't actually. My buddy just reminded me of that. It stuck in his memory for that long, and he just told me. What was it again? My fortune says that I'm going to eat a giant turd and blow up, you know, and he just thought that was so funny. I don't really think it's that funny, but he'll never forget me saying that. But I just remember the guy saying, I'll blow your effing head off, you know? Like, that's crazy to say that on the phone, but back then you can trace calls, you know? But not from their country, dude. They've been in so many wars and stuff, and a lot of their family have been victims of stuff like that so i think fuck it yeah i'm gonna blow

19:33his head off they look at a lot of people especially bro i think you have to think that chinese restaurants look at anybody who calls as the enemy, dude. Yeah. Because they must get 80% of their calls must be people just fucking with them. Back then we'd pulled up in the yellow, the phone books, man. You can call it the yellow pages. It's okay. I know what you're talking about. Do you? I don't think you're old enough to remember that shit, man. But we used to just pick names out. Oh, I thought you meant it as like a racial book or whatever. Oh. But yeah, I see what you're saying, dude. Oh, the big-ass phone books that we would do prank calls with the rotary dial and shit. I was holding a big-ass VHS camera on my shoulder at a young age.

20:20We hung this banana like 20 stories down, and i tied a tied a kite string to a banana and there was this heavy set guy tanning with all this oil on and i dangled and we had the we had the camera um and we dangled the the banana all the way down onto his belly from 20 stories oh well i mean it was up it was in panama city it was very high up but it was impressive yeah i've lost so many of those good tapes you know god i hate losing y'all slowly moved it all the way down oh yeah yeah it was awesome oh it's beautiful yeah and it just did you touch him or just get as close as possible i think i dangled it i don't remember it landing on his belly but he was like laid out like a frog, man. I'll never forget that.

21:07He was all greased up, and he looked like a frog from up there. And it was so impressive that we got it right in front of his face, though. Fuck yeah. Yeah. Fruit face, and they call that. If you can, dude, you, I mean, that's, the problem is there's not like a, there's not like an Olympics for the fucking awesome shit like that. You know, there's an Olympics if you can jump over something. But if you can dangle a piece of fruit or produce or something, 20, about 20 stories down and get it two centimeters away from a guy's mouth. I probably have the world record, you know, without even knowing it, you know. Yeah, I bet you have a few of them, dude. Yeah, that's true. What was it like growing up where you grew up?

21:50Like, what was your home life like? Like, were your parents, like, were you, like, I mean, this is retarded. Did you come from, like, was your dad a clown or whatever? Or what was going on? Man, he was basically a clown. I mean, he, so I was born in New York City because my dad was in the Coast Guard. So I'm proud to have been born in New York. And I lived there for three years. And then we moved to Ohio. So I grew up in, you know, my dad's, my dad's dad was, my grandpa was a preacher, you know, at a small little Bible church. And it was just, but my dad was wild he played guitar he didn't drink or smoke my dad never has done any drugs or anything man it's like so strange that somebody can go through life without doing anything like that not having a drink or anything

22:40i'd take a rip off of something dude i know I know. I mean, how do you handle life? But he was, before we went to the pool every day, we had to like read Zig Zig, listen to Zig Ziglar audiobooks on how to be successful, you know, and then memorize the Bible. What was Zig Ziglar? Bring that up. Bring up an audiobook, just a link of it on YouTube if you can. I'm Zig Ziglar and I'm in a studio sharing with you a couple of thoughts before we go to the live audience. To begin with, this program is literally for everyone, whether you're a mechanic or a physician, whether you're a college professor or a kindergarten student, the information is something that you will benefit from. So, okay. So, and this is, and this one's called developing the qualities of success. So

23:34Zig Ziglar was like a motivational speaker. Yeah. He, it was about sales and being motivational speaker. Yeah. He listened to that. Yeah. And memorize the Bible. You know, we had to memorize certain books of the Bible, do like pull-ups, push-ups. And it was just like this whole routine before we could go to the pool. But my dad, I was kind of—I was embarrassed of him when I was young. I mean, he would wear this—he'd put this rubber old man mask on and drive down the road. And I'm a little kid in the backseat, and he's scaring people on the highway, you know. Dude, and my dad was actually an old man drive down the road. And I'm a little kid in the backseat and he's scaring people on the highway, you know, and, um, dude, and my dad was actually an old man.

24:09Yeah. So that's the white hair in the back of this rubber mask, dude. Oh yeah, dude. My dad used to give away, he had like, he got this deal, like stock and vending machines or something, but he quit like the first time he, he got too much of the deliveries. They deliver all the chocolates and everything and the pretzels and the mints or whatever. So he left all this shit in the back of his car and the windows were always cracked because they wouldn't go all the way up. So the rain would get in and it got hot in there. So bro, but then for years, we'd have to sit on top of all these boxes of fucking melted chocolate and bullshit. You get out of there, you have chocolate and pretzels stuck to your skin.

24:45Are you serious? Oh, bro. It was horrible. They had mushrooms growing out of the bottom of his car and shit. Like, it was a fucking produce section of a vehicle. It was like a chocolate salad, bro. His whole car was a piece of shit. And so every time we'd get out, not only would we be so ashamed of ourselves, but we would just be covered in, like, nougat and fucking bullshit and shame but go on no dude that's funny my dad ended up doing the gumball machines eventually in life did he yeah he was taking gumball machines to but like but did y'all have a sack of gum in the fridge because my my old roommate did gum and he had uh at night he'd have to come home and put a sack of like bro he had like 1100 gumballs in a garbage bag he'd have to keep them in a fridge at

25:30night but bro we would be getting high and shit and we'd go in there and we would eat like bro oh we'd eat 11 gums bro and he bro the taste goes away in three seconds of those he would lose his mind bro he'd have to fucking go for a run. He couldn't even handle it. And we would lie about it. And our faces would be all like blue and pink on the edges, bro. Like we had a damn gender reveal going on in our throat, bro. We'd just been smacking on his fucking, on his product, bro. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Anyway, go on, bro. No, no. But, you know, looking back, I was like, why? You know, my dad played guitar on the porch, you know, and sang his songs to everybody in the neighborhood. And he wrote them?

26:10Yeah, yeah. He's a great musician. He plays all these, like, awesome folk songs that are his, you know. And he was a good athlete. He'd be running his miles and shit when I was getting on the bus. But when you're younger, you're kind of embarrassed at everything your parents do. You know what I mean? But looking back, he taught us to build stilts. And we were walking around the neighborhood on these giant stilts and riding unicycles, just doing all the weird shit. What do you mean riding unicycles? Was he trying to be seen by people or was he trying to, like, be seen by people, or was he trying actually to do unique stuff? Yeah, I think it was just that he'd like to do unique stuff, you know.

26:52He'd build a boat in the backyard, you know, and we'd sleep out on a flat boat out on the water and stuff. And, like, I mean, it was cool. I think it's cool now, but when I was younger, I was embarrassed. Oh, dude. Getting embarrassed to your parents? Bro, my mom got a sheepskin jacket or whatever from New Jersey, and she was all excited about it. She saved up for like two years for it, bro. I don't even know how she got a hold of it. She got like a good deal on it or whatever. But it had real, you know, like the curly stuff that comes off of a sheep or whatever what is that called that real wiry shit wool yeah yeah yeah yeah that was it bro she had that real wool and she had it bro and she had this bitch bro she looked like a

27:38she looked like a care bear that somebody like had never blow dried or whatever that had been it was insane dude and she would wear it everywhere and she'd be like i have on my new jersey jacket and dude we couldn't even like that but it was all see the wool around the neck it the whole thing the whole thing was the wool when was this i don't even know i quit keeping track of time once I hated the world. You feel me? Yeah. A hundred percent. Good idea, bro. It was so embarrassing, dude. And I would like, uh, Oh, I was always so embarrassed when I was a kid, you know, we held hands and prayed at every restaurant in public. And I was, you know, I was always ashamed of that, you know, cause the

28:23waitress always comes up when you're praying. Yeah. The waitress, I'm sure comes up and goes, Hey, aren't you the guy who said that you're going to eat a huge turd and blow your head off? We didn't always eat at Chinese restaurants. My parents took us to Pizza Hut sometimes, bro. Dude, Pizza Hut had Pac-Man and shit and the mini balls how great was it pizza was the best i still miss some pizza hut but they don't it doesn't taste like it used to it's not the same i think like cbs or paramount owns it now somebody does but i remember they made it big time dude they would have uh funeral parties at the one in our town, bro. Really? Yeah. Damn. And so, like, we'd be over there, and they'd be like, can you guys quiet down? We're doing, like, a funeral service.

29:09And we're like, bro, this is pizza. Do you remember the Red Cups? Those Red Cups were so good, man. The pop that came out of them. Oh, but it just, like, yeah, dude. And I would sit there fuming so angry that these people had died or whatever i couldn't even remember what was going on but shit like that just fucking pickled my fucking dick yeah you know i was just something's wrong with me though but anyway it was a party place pizza hut was a party yeah it was a party place dude and we had this little place called bj's pizza and they would never tell you what the BJ's stood for, but you knew. You already know. Right, and the middle of the pizza was always wet, bro. Oh, see, that's how Pizza Hut is now, man.

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32:44I mean, we were raised going to church every Sunday, you know. And I was just saying that, you know, and now, I mean, I'll bow my head and pray. And I'm not ashamed of it. It's just funny how, you know, when you're younger, you know, not many people at the restaurant are holding hands and praying before Pizza Hut. Yeah. It was just something. That reminds me, bro. My mom would make us pray. We would pray for clean clothes for everybody in the world. Seriously? Yeah. That's a good prayer, though, you know? It's pretty good. I just wrap it up. I pray for everyone going through a hard time, everyone suffering, you know? Oh, so you just do the whole, you just in and out with the prayer. I mean, no, no, not that quick, but that's one of my main focuses during a prayer because it covers so much.

33:34I'm like, I pray for all the people out there that are suffering today because everyone's going through something, man. Oh, for sure. It's freaking. It just seems, is that a little generic sometimes? I'm like, sorry, dude, I'm putting you on the prayer spot or whatever. I don't care, but I know that we're supposed to ask for, I mean, who knows what we're supposed to do, but I mean, I do isolate certain prayers, although I feel like God knows what he's supposed to do. You know? It's like. It is kind of weird, bro. If you know what you're supposed to do, right? Say if you're Willy Wonka, right? And you want people to come by in the morning to your factory and knock on the door and be like, don't forget to make candy today or whatever.

34:18You know what I'm saying? That's, it is, it's kind of crazy. It's annoying when people tell you what you already know you're going to do or you need to do. I mean, you deal with it. I deal with it. it like if you're ironing a shirt and somebody's like hey man iron that shirt yeah you know like no shit i'm getting around to it okay i was just about to iron it you know yeah like what if god's like dude i'm already doing this i mean i love people but man they're annoying i mean i'm annoying myself but I'm just saying that dealing with people. A lot of people are made out of just shit and fucking static. A lot of fucking bullshit. Yeah, dude. And then there's always some gay dude trying to fuck, just trying to fucking cum on your back or whatever.

34:58Dude, we used to have a gay dude in our town, and he would fucking, bro, he would J-O in his hands, and he would just fucking hum it off a building, dude. Are you serious? Yeah. That's crazy. For no reason. What? For no reason at all. Is this a true story? Yeah. What do you mean, Amchuk? Dude, I was locked up in D.C. on a U.S. Marshal's warrant because anything you do in D.C. is a federal crime. So, dude, but there's this one little dude. We're like in a pod in the U.S. Marshal's office, and there's like 30 of us in these bars. Yeah. And one dude can't stop whacking off, you know. And everybody kick him, you know, and be like, and then all of a sudden everything's cool, and then you turn around, he's in the back corner.

35:47I mean, people can't help it. You know, certain people. I mean, he obviously had some issues, but. Yeah, but I think, I mean, it's better than him committing a crime or a murder. Or what was he in for, do you know? Probably doing that on the streets, I'm guessing. But I don't know. I didn't talk to him, man. I probably helped stop him from doing that. I'll tell you this, bro. If I'm jerking off near you, kick me. I'm going to, bro, 100%. You're not coming on my back, bro. Hey, bro. No, bro. Dude, one of the best things I ever heard somebody say, don't come on my back and tell me it's raining. Don't steal my boxers and help me look for it either. That's what they do in jail. They take your shit and then help you look for it at search parties.

36:29Is it a fun game or it's actually just theft? No, it's just a quote. I always like to say that, you know, you steal your boxers and help you look for it. Oh, dude, we were on spring break, bro. We all were doing pills and everything, and we all, we had three guys sharing a room or whatever. We all stole each other's pills at the same time and then helped each other fucking look for them. No way. Yeah. And I was like, dude, no way. Somebody fucking stole your pills and somebody had stole mine and somebody stole Kyle's, dude. And we all had each other's pills. Bunch of shady motherfuckers man that is messed up um how do you hide the camera whenever you're out there how do you keep it concealed or do you not

37:12actually i'm just very creative and that's a question i've never answered before just like showing myself so it's uh i um the craziest thing it's not about the camera. I put them in some sort of weird hypnosis with the confusion and the stupidity that once I start engaging, I hold the phone right in their face sometimes, the camera. But in the early days, it was the backpack. I would act like I'm a college student and just like keep it right here. And then I'd be in a store and I'd hold eight things and just have it. But it was all about the confusion and getting their eye contact. And they believe me that I'm not, there's no way this guy's filming me with that phone right there in my face. And, and dude, now my phone has six cameras and it's orange you know and it's still it still works

38:07though but i i yeah that's that's something that everybody has wanted to know i call it the ham cam you know yeah it's uh because it's not about it's not about the phone actually you know it's just a weird thing i i mean is it a strategy that you use that was part of your plan when you approach people? Like I'm going to create this sort of confusion out of the gate or did it just kind of evolve into that? Yeah. I just always used to mess with people and like, act like I knew them. That was one thing I did at a very young age. Back when I was 1920 on Ohio state campus, we would roam the streets at night, you know, tripping on mushrooms and just talking to the street, the night people, you know, but God's warriors, they call them. Oh yeah.

38:51And they have the, they have the funniest stories and stuff too. But I, uh, I prefer attorneys and doctors. I'd like to prank more sophisticated people. Now I don't mess with – in the early days, I was messing with the sign holders, but it was the scammer ones, though. I wasn't messing with the ones that really needed it. I was just kind of busting the scammer, the scammer sign flyers. They call them flying a sign. I'm just out here flying a sign. Yeah, dude, the night people, bro. Oh, yeah, bro. There's something about being out at night. Dude, one night we'd been eating some mushrooms or something. We parked down here at the gas station just to see who was alive, right? And there's a dude fucked up.

39:43There's one guy unconscious who would like, was trying to get out of his car and had just given up. Right? So he's just like leaned up against like asleep in his own car with the door open one foot out of it. And then there's another dude. He's like, my car's broken. Can you help me? I was like, I don't know enough about vehicles, you know? And he goes, well, there's just like some engine trouble or whatever. And he's looking in the back of his car in the trunk, well, there's just like some engine trouble or whatever. And he's looking in the back of his car in the trunk, right? He's looking for the engine or whatever. So I was like, oh, fuck. Nobody can help this guy, right? Then there's another dude over on the side.

40:17He's dressed like Indiana Jones, right? For some reason. And he's like, oh, I'll help you, dude. And this dude, I see him walk over. He has a fucking machete hanging off the edge of his pants, like a real Indiana Jones guy. And I was like, oh, these are. Dude, they're warriors, man. They're warriors. These are the night people. These are the people that God makes as side quests, you know? A hundred percent. These are the after hour heroes of Christ, brother. The outfits on those people sometimes, they have some weird alternative weapon and usually have some glittery pink tank top on. Oh, yeah. They're ready to pump on somebody. I was out in L.A. recently and saw some really interesting outfits on some characters.

41:03Oh, they have guys out there that'll smoke their own cock or whatever you know they don't even care they'll fucking put a lighter to their own nuts people don't care anymore um so take me out of high school so you grew up you have this wild family you and your friends they were that wild it was just i just grew up in a christian family you know um but it's your unicycling bro yeah you're right we were the strange people in the neighborhood i could do gain do gainers off the high dives. We had a lot of very special skills that most of my friends can't. I'm still proud of that. Can you ride a unicycle? One wheel? Anyway, I like to throw that around still. I probably can't. Is it hard? Yeah, it's pretty hard what's the trick

41:45to it um like just practicing every day like it's i'd still fall off like five times before i was actually taking off and getting momentum yeah and just pedaling because the guy needs like it's always this like fucking just go one oh they go back and forth. Can you imagine the high ones? Like, gosh, like, you know, when they're like seven feet in the air, if you fall, man, damn. So what's, what's like your first kind of occupation that you head into, like out of college? So I went to college for a year at Liberty University. So I just wanted to get out of Ohio. And I, believe it or not, I saw an infomercial saying, come to Liberty University. And I called this number and they gave me all this free money to go to school there. And it's a Christian college

42:29in Virginia. But I went there for a year. I thought I was going to walk. I thought I could play football there. I thought I could walk on in football. Did you try? No, I went to one practice and saw they were like NFL sized athletes. Cause when I heard like one double A or division two, I was, I was way out of my league, you know? So I just started partying. My roommate was in a band and I fell in love with music. We started just smoking weed and recording music, man, like just recording anything. And I've always liked to record and listen back, but it started with smoking weed in college. And I fell in love with, you know, my buddy was just packing bars and I'd got to watch the excitement of somebody being in a band. And so I came back, I went to school for a year. I was like,

43:18hell no. I remember I just barely did enough. I, it wasn't worth my time. I was like C student. I was just part, I ended up partying more at the Christian college than I had in high school, you know? Oh, yeah. I mean, they party hard at those schools. Do they? Yeah, yeah. I mean. We all doing LSD and coke and shit? Bro. Or smoking crypto? For Christ or whatever? I put acid in my buddy. I look back on what i did to my old roommate he had never tripped before dude and i think it's the most fucked up thing i've ever done is put acid in my buddy's beer and then ask him later how he's feeling at the party dude that's just not cool at all now he works for the government and he's like and he won't even

44:02take my call he texts me all the time but dude he's so paranoid to talk to me and we were tight we're still tight but he just will never take my call for some reason and i think i understand oh dude yeah bro people how could i do that to somebody i got older and i was like what the fuck was i thinking man that's like kind of the ultimate prank i feel bad about it. I want to make it clear that it's not okay. And, you know, it happened though. You know, I just think it's crazy that I thought it was okay at the time. Oh, dude, no. Yeah. Well, yeah, a comedian did that to somebody and the guy developed like a severe, like, he like takes his shirt off all the time now or whatever. Something happened to him.

44:43So it's fucking, that kind of shit can, something can happen to him. And your guy joined the fucking CIA or whatever. He's basically very 007. Can't tell me what he does. Always flying in helicopters with the governor, all the politicians. He's still tripping. He's getting awards. Yeah. But it helped him. I think that this one, this time it helped him raise, raise the bar. He's really kicking ass now. Praise God. That's how God works sometimes, dude. And I'll say this time it helped him raise the bar. He's really kicking ass now, man. Oh, praise God. That's how God works sometimes, dude. And I'll say this. Also, they had a thing, vajipping. A lot of girls would put a head LSD in their vaginas back in the day.

45:13That was a big thing in our town. And one girl like— They put it in their vagina? Yeah, in their cooters or whatever. People call them different stuff, but people would do that. But they'd call it vajipping. That was a big thing. Bring that up, vajipping. And see see if people have that took off or not because that was a cool thing in our community uh taking lsc vaginally is often referred to or misspelled in online spaces as vajipan it's biologically possible but carries significant health risks makes sense to try shrooms up there instead it's more natural that's a good point yeah dude yeah if they made like a psilocybin based um iud or whatever yeah that shit would be popping bro this girl told me recently there's groups of

46:01people that try to collect as many STDs as they can. Really? Is that nuts? They're called frat. I mean, that's how sick the world has become. They're like, they go home and celebrate if they add another one to their, I mean, it's just a sick world that we live in. It's like baseball cards for your vagina or whatever. Oh, yeah. So take me back in, bro. You're dosing your roommate or whatever. He's in the CIA. What else happened well like i said i i wasn't college caliber football so i i called my buddies and they were they were working at the car lot in columbus ohio at this toyota store and they're like man we're selling cars man making three and four hundred dollars a car, you know? Oh, shit. And I was like, man, if these guys can do it, I can do that shit.

46:47And I went right back. I was 19 years old and started. That was a big job. I mean, I was making a lot of money for, and I was living on campus, you know, and, you know, making five to seven grand a month when you're 19 years old is a lot of money. I went right to the pawn shop and bought drums, keyboard. I bought everybody down on campus at Ohio State campus. I was just living with all my buddies who were going there now. And I remember that first check I got, I went and bought all the instruments that we needed and we started a band on Ohio State campus. But I was selling cars and I was pretty good at it right away. So that was the first big job I had. What made you good at being a car salesman?

47:33I think it was my work ethic from football and then my addiction probably because once I started getting – once I'd sell my first car, and the manager's like, on the calculator, yep, you made $400. You know how much that was to a 19-year-old broke college student. So I was like, but work ethic, because playing football was like, I think it taught me a lot, sports, you know. So nobody, I grinded pretty hard on the car lot. I would just, you work a lot in that business. Were you a good closer? Like, what was your thing? Like – No, God gave me this weird gift with my voice. It's the no pressure. I don't care if you buy, but customers always wanted to buy from me because I didn't care if they bought, but it was like, I sound stone when I talk or whatever.

48:28I sound laid back and they like that. It does some, it's something I can't teach. It's just a weird God given gift, a hundred percent, you know, because I always did good in sales. I became a closer years later. I was a manager and stuff like that. So they'd send you in the freaking auto Eckersley, huh? Oh yeah. Yeah. That was weird, but that was, that was fun. It was easy. It's the same shit. Just talk to them, ask them how they're doing, where they're from, and just how's everything else been going. Were you selling trucks, vans? Toyotas, actually. Yeah. In the early days, I was selling used cars at a Toyota store. But Toyotas, that was what I always liked to sell. Hell yeah. And what was like your most successful year, do you think selling them?

49:26Well, 2016, I was, I hit 40 cars a month, a couple of times, which was pretty, and I was winning a lot of awards, like top salesman in the city. And, uh, they'd give us envelopes full of like five grand every month and shit. And I'd give my wife a thousand and then keep four grand. I was, I was bad. Bro, that's freaking love, man. It's called mama don't know money. You know, I was like, babe, I got second place in the city. Here's a thousand. Go ahead and buy yourself something nice. But I had four grand to go play poker with, you know? And is that what you were doing with your money? Like, what were you doing with your money? Yes, yes. Did you notice your addiction start then? Yeah. I mean, I destroyed myself financially, like, many times over with chasing the big score in poker I mean

50:21I played in the world series of poker I mean I have some success you know I've got but but I literally once I got behind in life you know like owing the IRS a bunch of money and just building up all kinds of debt I was going, I was playing for millions of dollars and out in Vegas and I would put whatever I needed to into these tournaments to play. So yeah, I mean, a hundred percent addiction destroyed my marriage because I was gambling all the time. I mean, I always made it to my kids' games and stuff, but looking back, I was 13 years completely sober off drugs and alcohol, but the gambling was the biggest monster, man. And it wasn't until recently I quit gambling and it's like the most freeing feeling ever, dude, because it controlled my life for years, bro. It was bad.

51:11How did it start? Dude, these little fairs when I was a little kid had the wheel and the dice that rolled down. They were letting little kids. It was called the West Jefferson Ox Roast, man. I'm giving my little hometown a shout out. But I'd like to file a lawsuit against them starting. I mean, they started. There was a game called Big Six and then Chuck-a-luck, man. And then Chuck-a-luck? Chuck-a-l a luck the firemen would run this charity game but little kid we were betting dollars and we're little i mean same year i pranked the chinese restaurants man i was like in seventh grade when i started gambling at these little local fairs you know you know how the churches will have them and stuff sometimes the

51:55churches have them a lot especially bro, bro, I would go over. My buddy and I would drive over there. My buddy Lance, we used to drive over to, I think it was Virginia, dude. And his mom, I think, lived over there. And he would go into the strip club or whatever. I wasn't old enough. But he'd come out and tell me what the tits looked like and everything, and I'd sit out in the van. And so he'd be in there having some drinks where he had a fake ID and looking at the tits, whatever he'd come out and describe to me or whatever, wake me up, because I wouldn't stay awake the whole time waiting like a fucking pervert or whatever. I'd fucking get a little rest or whatever. Yeah. And then, but we would go to these,

52:36have these little church fairs where you could actually gamble and win money at them. That's what I'm talking about. You pull up Chuckaluck. One of the, I learned to scam at a young age with that game Chuckaluck. The dice would bounce around, okay? You had to put your money on a color. The dice had yellow, red, all the colors. But it would roll down this thing, this big dice, and bounce around. And the guys running it, the firemen, were just looking out at the people. And I would wait until we saw the – we'd see the dice land on yellow. And I'd slide the dollar on yellow. And it's all about the celebration, you know. I started, yeah, just like acting like you won and you did it. And, you know, you sell it right there that you sell the hustle.

53:22So they believed you won even if you hadn't? Yeah. They didn't see that you saw the dice bounce on yellow. And then you slide your hand and raise them at the same time. You slide the dollar and celebrate. Wow. Dude, but I do it in – I mean, I beat – so there's a game in Vegas that – it's – never mind. But it's a game I still – I mean, I'm not proud of that, but if you can beat Vegas, it's okay. Yeah, they probably do. I mean, not that I've really beat it, but there is one game I can – I use the fake celebration method, you know. If you celebrate loud enough, they're just like, yeah, pay the man. He won. He wouldn't be celebrating if, you know, if he didn't. But so it's so gambling even affected your like it affected, though.

54:06It started to get bad. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I was I was like taking I was going out to Vegas all the time. The wife was awesome. She she would support all my bad decisions, you know, because she was out to Vegas all the time. The wife was awesome. She, she would support all my bad decisions, you know, cause she was a sweet, she's amazing. And, and, uh, And this is why you were a car, car salesman. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was always successful in business, you know, always made a lot of money and, uh, because of the car business, you know, but I, I always hate, I've been an artist. I hated selling. I don't like talking to people into buying stuff, you know, but it's the way that I paid the bills and for years. But

54:44yeah, I made so much that I was very bad with my money and chasing poker. I just had this dream to win a world series of poker bracelet. Like my whole life was like trying to trying to win that you know so but I got in debt with you know the IRS because every year they take half my checks and then they still want 20 grand at the end of the year you know and I didn't save up 20 grand you know anyway I was yeah but addiction gambling addiction is one of my worst. I have no problem admitting it. It destroyed a lot of things in my life. I've kind of screwed up financially over and over again. And there was always gambling that got you, that helped put you in those tough spots? Yeah, I mean, I quit doing drugs and alcohol,

55:35but I would never want to let everything go. I was like, man, no way I'm letting cards go. Because poker is a sport. It's on ESPN, you know? It's not fucking – it's not gambling. Of course, dude. Yeah. Some guys wear cleats when they play it, dude. Dude, I did see a guy. Actually, Balboni plays poker, actually. You might not know that. But he wears cleats. Yeah, he wears cle plays poker, actually. You might not know that. I didn't even know. He wears cleats. Yeah, he wears cleats at the table. What's the most that you ever lost, do you feel like, and the most you ever won? I won $17,000 at one tournament, second place in a tournament. The last day I gambled down in Seminole, Florida, Hard Rock, Florida,

56:29I lost like seven grand in one day, but it wasn't that. It was just I couldn't stop myself from going back to the ATM, and I had won all week, but I busted out of this big tournament that was with 300,000 was like on the line. And I had all the chips in this tournament and just got super unlucky. God had been telling me to quit gambling forever. He's like, man, I gave you skills with art, with comedy. You have all these other talents and you're going to chase this dead-end road because all the top poker players go broke eventually. It's not a good career path, you know? Anyway, yeah, so addiction, gambling addiction was bad. And what about at that moment that you're like, I got to get clean from this?

57:19Well, it had been going on for years. I knew that I needed to stop. And then I had all these things happening with Johnny Hamcheck. I'm like, you got millions of fans that love you, and you're doing good at this. You don't lose. It's not luck. You can go out and make videos every day. But I just kept trying to score. It hit a big lick, you know, just hit a big one and try to get a million. Because I was always – I'm still dealing with the IRS, man. Yeah. You owe them? Oh, dude, you have no idea. I'm going to get one of those special agents, you know you owe them oh dude you have no idea i'm gonna get one of those special agents you know that comes to your house with the briefcase like will smith was in a movie like

58:04i i go downtown to the office and they're like you can't we can't help you here and the guy comes around the cubicle looking like did you say he owes over a hundred thousand you know like like oh like the big like he's like like hundred thousand? You know, like, like, oh, like the big, like he's like, like, yeah, he was snooping in. He's like, he can't do anything for him. You know that. Right. And, and I'm like, man, cause I'm trying to make things right. You know, I'm like, look, I'm here trying to settle this shit. You know, bro, it was just, I didn't pay, I didn't pay attention to IRS for seven years one time because I was so angry that they take half my check and then want 20 more at the end of the year.

58:42I'm like, man, they can come to the house and get it. Yeah, come pull up. That's the only – and they eventually did, you know. They eventually did. Oh, it's the biggest scam, dude. It is, dude. It's the biggest fucking scam. And then the money's not even used here in our country dude yeah what do they do with it i mean they're not fixing freeways we know dude but we can't really talk about it they're buying missiles for child care centers dude it's just you know they're busy you gotta get missiles at child care centers though our government is so busy buying missiles for childcare centers. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've thought about trying therapy with our long-term partner, BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average

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1:02:11advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosure at acorns.com slash Theo. So let's get back into pranking. How did Johnny Hamcheck start? One time I was in the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center for six months. I graduated class of 2002 there. Oh, nice. What branch were you? Oh, Army. Sorry, go ahead. Salvation Army. And that's what I always ask people. Do I get credit for this? I mean, I was in the salvation army so i want my discounts you know but anyway yeah dude you were on the front i was answering phones in the donation center at when i was living there this was during some hard times you know so i uh somebody said i want to talk to your manager. And I came up with, I said, hold on.

1:02:58They were mad at me and wanted to speak to my manager. So I put the manager on the phone and I just came up with the name Johnny Hamcheck. So that's when I came up with the name, particularly the name. But the pranking started. I was down in North Carolina working um, working at a car dealership in Greensboro and I was the top salesman. So I had an office and there was three rookie salesmen that had started that week. And I just had this idea. I was going to tell them they had to do all this crazy shit. And I told them I was the trainer. So I brought him in my office and I told, I told this, um, this young kid who just started, he was like a pastor, real nerdy kid named Ryan. And he, uh, I said, man, you're going to have to hold, you know, sometimes you're going to have to

1:03:51get swung on by these customers. And, um, I just told him he'd have to hold hands with customers and tell them that he loves them to sell a car. And I told him all this crazy stuff. He was going to have to take advantage of 90 year old ladies and stuff. I was like, are you ready for this? You know, and he was ready to quit after that little interview. But so I started making videos and they rotted on YouTube for years. I did a few of those where i told these rookie car salesmen they were going to have to do this crazy you know and um those videos were still some of my favorite videos and they are they out there right now yeah i i don't know um it's called a rookie car salesman they're they're the best car salesman prank. That is, that's the very first one that.

1:04:40And this is you right here talking to a potential, like a trainee. He had just started and I just brought him into my office because I had an office. I was just a salesman, but told him I was, they wanted, the bosses wanted me to train you guys. And this is the stuff I want to go over. And I scared him to death with some of this crazy shit that I tell him all right sometimes people will question how sturdy is your car I don't want to buy a car that's not sturdy you know and you got to let them know you got to get behind the car and you got to start rocking it from the front then you got to go around to the back you're pretty strong guy you work out work out a little bit but I'm still pretty strong

1:05:14you seem pretty strong yeah probably wrestled a little bit, but I'm still pretty strong. You seem pretty strong. Yeah, probably wrestled a little bit I actually know I was a musician and Probably got in a fight or something, right actually no, I'm pretty peaceful Well, you would I get behind the car and you got to push it until it starts rocking back and forth and you got To get it in a little rhythm and then you gotta get on the other side and rock it and sometimes you got to Get the customer and start rocking it with you okay yeah no big deal there um you may have to defend yourself sometimes sometimes customers yes you do you know any um martial arts at all i did take martial arts when i was younger um so i would feel pretty confident you might get swung on wow it's intense okay um

1:06:00this is wow keep playing oh yeah i've knocked a customer out before on the lot right back it up 10 seconds wow it's intense okay um oh yeah i've knocked a customer out before on the lot. Really? Right in front of the manager. Guess what the manager did? Walk inside. He high-fived me. Because I was swung on, okay? I was swung on. And Ryan, you gotta be ready to defend yourself just in case something like that happens, right? So you might want to pick up a couple classes of judo, maybe a little yoga on the side. Why did you guys swing at you? I mean, classes of judo. Yeah. Maybe a little yoga on the side. Why do you guys swing at you? I mean, what was the story? Can you give a little background?

1:06:42Well, not right now. I want to just go over, hit a couple more points with you, okay? But I took him. It wasn't hard. I'll tell you that much. I did a roundhouse kick on him. I used to do karate. Nice. What style? Just basic black belt. Okay. to do karate nice well uh what style um just basic black belt okay um now how do you feel this is a tough one for everybody but how do you feel about taking advantage of the elderly he will not do that and that's where he drew the line he's like no and i was like yeah it's all about dedication, Ryan. And, dude, he was ready to quit after this interview, dude. He's a manager now in the car business. Oh, let's go, Ryan. Ryan or Brian? Ryan. And he was a preacher, too.

1:07:28Like, he was already a preacher. Amen. I told him he'd have to price gouge 90-year-old ladies. And he said, I won't price gouge 90-year-old ladies. You understand what I'm saying, right? And I said, I won't price gouge 90-year-old ladies. You understand what I'm saying, right? And I go, it's all about dedication, right? Oh, man. So I did him, and then I did this young black kid, dude. And he was like, it's a dog-eat-dog world, man. And that's the funniest. And then I did this little Latino kid. And he's like, I told him we were going to have to go to geriatric conventions because the elderly are easier to sell cars to. G-cons, yeah. And we went to hospitals where people just got in accidents

1:08:08because they will sign papers easily. I told him, he's like, are we going to miss work? But, dude, when Rob, he's my friend now he said it's a dog eat dog world it's like so i got three versions of those and i was so proud of them and they rotted on youtube so i gave up for eight years bro i didn't make a video for eight years i said if if this shit don't do it yeah there's rob i said if if this shit doesn work, I give up on trying to be funny on the internet. Then TikTok comes around and my buddy said, dude, you should try your stuff on TikTok. And it was instant traction, you know? So what was the first TikTok that like the first one that popped off like that? For all the wrong reasons. Okay. I'm selling cars at this

1:08:54car dealership and these customers are speaking in their own language. And I always just told people how I felt. And I was like, you mind speaking English? I'm right here, OK? He's like, we are speaking in our language. And I said, yeah, but I'm right here. They just the Internet went crazy about this racist car salesman. And they they hated me. This TikTok went so, and it was at a different dealership. I was the manager at this time. And some big influencer with millions of followers got on the page at this Toyota store where I worked and said, this is 2021. And said, you have a racist car salesman there. The video was done years ago at another dealership. And then this one in Vegas. Who was the influencer that did it?

1:09:43I'll never, I never remember a name. It was just some, somebody, some girl that had millions of followers got on the Facebook page of my dealership and tried to get me fired for that. So I pulled it down, but I had seen the excitement, but. But it was negative though, right? It was a negative. Yeah. It was all negative. But it still felt exciting? Well. Like, tell me about that. I hated arguing with people that I'm not, I'm, I'm the farthest thing from racist, you know? So I was, I wanted to argue with them, but the whole, they didn't know me yet. The internet didn't know me. They didn't know know who i was they just saw this video where i'm telling some customers to speak english you know because they were whispering in their language

1:10:23right in front of me and i'm the car salesman sitting right in front of them and so i mean i shouldn't have said it or whatever well i don't know i mean it's some of it could be a level like i want to don't if you feel like you're being excluded or something i think you know and and i don't think it even matters really but. But it wasn't positive, but it still felt exciting? I guess I just saw that platform. I don't know. You're right. I don't know if it – I'm just curious. You know what I'm saying? Well, it was still funny to people that weren't offended. Okay. It was a funny video, and people still think it's, it's hilarious. But another one I, in Vegas, I walk up on these guys cutting bike locks off stealing. And my whole idea

1:11:04with Hamcheck was he's this idiot that just goes up to people in weird situations. And I was like, Hey guys. And they're like, they're like cutting this bike lock off two dudes stealing bikes in Vegas. I'm like, Hey guys, what are you up to? And they're like, get that motherfucking camera out of my face, bitch. And so that video went viral for all the wrong reasons also because I walked up on some thieves stealing a bike. So I didn't get to use my humor until the Juice for Milk video, the one that most people know. It's the Home Depot one where that – it's literally still my number one video. My favorite video. It's still my favorite. It's your favorite one? Yeah. And it's because I finally got to use my humor in something that wasn't hateful online.

1:11:54Got it. Let's see it. We've been trying to get a hold of you, but the machine down at the office is broken right now. Wrong guy. Or Justin? Yeah. Yeah. Hey. I wonder what happened to you, man. Bro, it's been rough, man. I ain't seen you forever. And you don't know this guy. The drywall deal in Newark. Dude, yeah. Still need that done? Well, you know what? I didn't know what happened, man. I figured Brian would contact me. Brian's always got my number. Well, dude, that guy kept fucking with me. Oh. And I had to put him out. So I got a big lawsuit going on right now. Oh, was that your property? I hit him with a hammer. You know, I got pissed off lawsuit going on right now. Oh, was that your property? I hit him with a hammer. You know, I got pissed off.

1:12:39No shit. Yeah, I hit him upside the head with a hammer. He was out for three and a half hours, man. Oh, fuck. But he deserved it, you know? Yeah. He just saw you fucking riding you and shit? He kept riding me, dude. I wasn't going to take it no more. That's fucking crazy, dude. This guy's a legend. I'm a little worried about what's going to happen. You ever done time? I did a little bit of time. I did too. Yeah. I did it before. I'm not looking forward to going back. This fucking food sucks. You know? Why haven't you been to the workhouse? Oh dude, yeah. Me too. We call it gladiator tanks, you know? Juice for milk. Yeah, dude. But you should have seen it, man. Sorry. No shit. It was one of them.

1:13:26Oh, because you trade shit in there? Yeah, that's where that whole juice for milk came from. And we both were familiar with the workhouse in Columbus, Ohio. So it's a horrible place to be. It was what I was telling you about earlier. Yeah. But everyone's trading trays and, you know, and I lost a lot of shit and I lost a lot of poker. It was spades. I lost like. In jail? Yeah, I was gambling in jail. I was losing my tray every day. I wouldn't eat for two days sometimes because I lost to these guys that were probably cheating. You know, but that guy is a legend, dude. And, uh, later I say, he said, man, I've been saying that all for six months and I want to hit somebody in the head with a hammer, you know, and that guy was so great. And as he walked away

1:14:09that night, I'll never forget. I was like, man, get that guy's contact, you know, and I've never been able to find him again, you know. Wow. Like, I see a lot of these people many times after, but that was my favorite prank because it was funny. It wasn't negative, you know. Yeah. Yeah, it's still one of my top favorites. Do some of them get kind of uncomfortable? Like, have you been in some uncomfortable situations? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, uh, one time I was surrounded by 20 gang members in Columbus, Ohio, and they made me, they wanted to kill me. One dude kept coming up behind me with a knife and my buddy was like yelling for me to watch out. And I kept turning around at the last second. So I apparently

1:14:54videotaped this gang gangster that was out on parole and he couldn't be on camera. So these girls were like, Hey, you can't record us. And I was, I smarted off to them. And then I was like, boom, it was 10 girls and 10 dudes. The girls were, they were like, they looked like Ninja turtles, man. They had white tank tops on and they were ready to kill me. Like fucking Jabbawockeez or something, huh? Something like that. Yeah, man. They were ready to kill me and I got lucky and got out of that situation. That was the first time I learned about double deleting on my phone. I didn't know that you had to delete it twice to make it go away. They made you do it? Yeah, right in front of them. And one dude kept me from getting killed by the others.

1:15:40That was an intense situation. Was that the scariest? My two buddies that were with me, we can all fight. We love fighting. But 20 of them, and three times the dude came up behind me trying to stab me, bro, and I just turned around at the last minute. And my buddies were tripping on acid, dude. I could not believe that they were going through this tripping. Why did they want to do acid if y'all were getting attacked or whatever? We met up that night. They didn't take it as soon as they started getting attacked. Oh, they didn't know? No, they were tripping already. And then we were walking down, we were walking down the street and I just made this video and caught these people. So I wasn't tripping, but they were, and I could not believe it that they went through that while

1:16:23tripping. Cause we all, we, we were all able to handle ourselves, but it was a bad situation, but I'll never forget turning around and almost seeing myself get stabbed like three times. That wasn't even a prank. I was just making a street video, which I do sometimes I'll never forget turning around and almost seeing myself get stabbed like three times. That wasn't even a prank. I was just making a street video, which I do sometimes. I'll just record like, you know, just visuals and I'll throw music to it. But yeah. And there's a lot of pranks. I'll catch couples cheating and they'll tell me in my DMs to please take it down, you know. And it's like, yeah, there's, there's a lot of interesting things over the years, you know? What's another, uh, of your favorite stories

1:17:05from pranking? Um, favorite stories is probably, I lived in this high rise building downtown Columbus when I got, ended up getting divorced in 2023. And that was kind of where Johnny Hamcheck, um, became really popular is like late 22, 23. But I had this neighbor who's worked at the prosecutor's office. He was an attorney or something. And I was, I went live on Tik TOK that night and it was like 1 in the morning, and I was playing my own music, and he comes over, and he pounds on the door, and I was like, I think I hear something. I was like live in front of all the people. You were in a disguise? No, no, no, no. When I do live, I just show POV still at that time, but it was my neighbor, and he comes over.

1:18:00He's like, I can't sleep. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, the bass. The bass is pounding through the walls. And I was like, it's not me. And he's like, it's like 1.30 in the morning. It had to be me. Kevin, there he is. So I the morning. It had to be me. Kevin, oh, there he is. So I took him a grapefruit to make peace. And the smile that he has when I, he says, I'll buy you these headphones. And I was like, would you? Because there's a pair at Radio Shack I've really been wanting. And Radio Shack doesn't even exist. But he's like, how much are they? And I was like, $500. You want to play that? Let's just play it, yeah. Yes. Look, if you'd like for the TV, if you need headphones for it, I'll buy them.

1:18:47How much are you? I don't want you to have to do that, but there's a really nice pair at the Radio Shack that I've been trying to get. I think it's like 500 bucks 500 the radio shack brand i brought this as a piece off i just don't want to have any trouble man you guys are really nice and i know but we're just i realize your sketches could be different during the summer. I know that. But it's just been brutal the last three months. And what type of music are you playing? I make beats and I've been doing, I mean, I was in a rock band for years. And then, but I got into making beats in 2006. And were you using too at the time? It know it depends my life has been in and out of rehab like forever because a lot of times people that are making beats are using yeah

1:19:45no but my best stuff came when i was fresh out of rehab man i had all this energy and yeah so oh that rehab fire bro dude i you, man, there's nothing like it. I mean, so grateful. Yeah, sometimes you'll go to do 30 days in rehab just to get that seven hours of feeling like you can make anything happen. You do. Like, it's a shame, but you feel it's called a pink cloud is what they call it. And it's real because this past time when I just quit smoking weed and drinking a few months ago, almost three months, and I mean, I was on a pink cloud for a while, and then life just hits you, and every day is not as glorious as it was. Somebody spray paints f*** it or whatever on your Ford Taurus, and then s*** starts getting shaky again.

1:20:33Yeah, man. Story of my life. You still drive that Taurus? It got repossessed. Damn. Not by the police, but I had a neighbor that was like a seancer or whatever. But she, she put like a spell on her fucking spell on it. And dude, it worked, bro. She put a spell on that bitch, dude, or a hex or whatever it's called, like an unpositive spell. And bro, that bitch, dude, or a hex or whatever it's called, like an unpositive spell. And, bro, that bitch shut down, bro. And it would shut down. I think she probably had like a replica of it at home and she would put a pin in it or whatever. Like she had one of those, what's it called? Voodoo dolls. Like a voodoo car doll. Yeah. That's a great idea. She had a voodoo car, dude,

1:21:15and every time she'd put a pin in that bitch, it would shut down, bro. Dude, that reminds me of my dad bro when we were kids the hood on his car weighed i think almost 17 000 million pounds right so we'd open that thing up and he would just get in there and the engine would be everything would be spinning he had like fan belts hooked to the everything the radio, dude. And he would get under there and just spray WD-40 under the whole thing like this, bro, to spray it. Really? To keep it going, bro. Dude. Did you guys have nice cars when you were young? No. No. No, no, no. My mom had a Dodge Neon. I'd go sleep in it at night. It was so nice. Pull it up. It was purple, semi-purple. Dodge Neon?

1:22:00Yeah, remember them? Oh, hell yeah. They were nice. I sold tons of those, man. Yeah, pull that bottom left one right there. Oh, my gosh. Mom got that bitch. I'd go sit in and put the seat down, and I'd sleep in that bitch at night. It was nicer than being in our house. Are you serious? In our apartment, yeah. Damn. That bitch was so nice, and it had multicolored fabric on the seats or whatever. It was nice. Yeah in our house. Are you serious? In our apartment, yeah. Damn. That bitch was so nice. And it had like multicolored fabric on the seats or whatever. It was nice. Yeah, I remember those. I mean, I sold cars since 94, 95. So I haven't heard the neon. I haven't heard the Dodge neon forever, man. They got discontinued.

1:22:31I think they were flammable. I don't know if that's true, but they were pretty semi-flammable. They were catching on fire for a while. Yeah. And people were like, that's for God or whatever. And I was likeable they were catching on fire for a while yeah and people were like that's for god or whatever and i was like i don't think that has nothing to do with god or whatever god's lighting them up yeah he should burn a lot of other cars too then my dad brought home an eagle premiere man really and he bought it without my mom and i know how that is like when a man goes and buys a car without the wife, that's – The crazy story is I broke the antenna off right that night, man. He was so pissed. I was just bling, you know, and it was one of those –

1:23:08and he beat my ass after that. I'll never forget. But it had power windows. I'll never forget the first car with power windows. You know, we thought we were doing something, man. Oh, my dream in life was to have a sunroof. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's so funny, dude. Thousands on the stupidest things, like minivans with sunroofs. People are just, you're so cool driving down the road with the $5,000 extra. What's the biggest racket in auto sales? What's one of the biggest rackets? Oh man, it's, it's the, it's the warranties on the back and the, and the finance office, a hundred percent. It's, uh, you don't need them on a lot of cars. And then a lot of them that they sell, I mean, um, they don they don't really cover it when something happens.

1:23:58So it's a big thing in the car business. That's where you make all your money at, though, in the back. On the warranty? Yeah, on the warranty, yeah. And what about that rubberized, and they used to rubberize the bottom or whatever? Yeah, the clear, what was it called? A clear coat. Yeah, they had a Z-bar and shit, right? They put what? Yeah, they called it Z-bar or under, yeah, undercoating. I don't know. That was, I think that was more in the 80s and shit, to be honest. I think they started putting that shit on everything. Clear coat your fucking cousin in that bitch for $30, bro. Yeah. They light the hood on fire and shit nowadays, man. Everybody used to do that. The Asians, bro, would do that when I was in college. They'd light the hood on fire and shit. Everybody used to do that. The Asians, bro, would do that when I was in college.

1:24:38They'd light the hood on fire and drive real fast. Really? Yeah. No way. Yeah. That sounds awesome, especially if you're tripping. It was like a crispy rice rocket or whatever it was called. Really? Yeah, pretty cool, pretty cool shit. Dude, that reminds me of when I was in D.C. You ever seen the show The Wire? Oh, yeah, that Baltimore show or whatever? Yeah, yeah. It was about the dope game in Maryland, I think. And I was – when I – I was doing good in Washington, D.C. for a while. And then when I relapsed, man, I was going into the most dangerous ghettos in the country. This is back when D.C. It was 2002, but I have a dope dealer in my car, and here comes this cop cruising slow, and the dope dealer would be like, put your seat back.

1:25:26So we both put our seats all the way back. Like, there's no seats in the car. Just close our eyes while the cop went real slow. So he's just looking at a car like no seats in that one everything looks normal here and it worked but it was a it was they were used to it they're like put your seat back so both seats are all the way back yeah yeah there's no headrests at all and i just thought that was the craziest shit man i love that shit dude god no that was nuts because it was just like the show The Wire. I'd walk up in sandals, dude, and I'm a mark just waiting to get killed. And were you pranking or were you scoring dope? No, no. I was just trying to buy dope, man. What were you on at the time?

1:26:11What were you using? So I was a heroin addict, and then I was trying to find heroin, and I couldn't find heroin. And I was like, give me the next best thing. And I started smoking crack in DC, man. I'm never crypto crack. Yeah. It's just crypto. I started smoking crypto in DC and, uh, yeah, man, you did. So, and it was one night you were trying to buy heroin. You couldn't find it. Yeah. And you settled for some crack. Yeah. I always wanted to smoke crack, man. What man what is it like well i could never do it without heroin it's an explosive buzz i hate i hate speed buzzes really myself i'm a i like to be relaxed you know like your weights yeah yeah yeah that's why i liked uh opiates you know that's why I like dope. And, um, but when you combine the two, it's just an

1:26:58explosive buzz. I used to dial 911 on my phone, man, didn't have it ready thinking that if I start, if I start dying, I can still hit the button, you know, like I swear. I mean, cause I used alone, you know, in the garage, you know, I mean, my wife would go to work i'd be off dude i mean addiction took me some really low places um but we don't have to get into that it's i mean i don't care i'm cool with talking about it all but uh were you ever using and also in between times when you were filming like were both things happening in your life at the same time like you ever get so high you thought you were filming somebody like you get fucking confused that you don't even know who's being pranked or what's going on?

1:27:40I was. I relapsed and after 13 years sober, I had a surgery and ended up taking painkillers again. And this was while I was ham check. You know, this was while in 2023 and kind of the prime of ham check. I started getting strung out again, you know, and I was, I was, I was out there pranking, um, on high on, you know, on pills that were laced with fentanyl and shit, you know, and, uh, we ever doze off during a prank or whatever. I don't remember specifically, but dude, I did those off. I hit my head on the counter like so many times. That shit was so stupid. What counter? What are you talking about? So I'd have my plate up in the cabinet. That shit was so powerful that just a grain, like I'd buy $50 worth of that stuff.

1:28:35Of what, of fentanyl? Fentanyl, yeah. And it would be white powder, and I would – just the tiniest little speck would get me high for all day, you know, because I had been clean for 13 years, you know. But you end up falling over. So I'd have the cabinet door open and and then you just like you start you just fall and i'd hit my head on the sharp part of the cabinet um and i'd wear a toboggan to work you know like and pull it down like a snow hat yeah even in the summer because you had fucking yeah because i had a gash because you had fentanyl head from the cabinet hiccups too and my girlfriend um yeah my girlfriend would always bust me out because i had hiccups but a lot of videos oh you mean fentanyl gave you hiccups yeah for some reason it gives

1:29:29you hiccups and it was funny so there's there's some videos where i got hiccups i'm like oh man i remember those days but yeah i had I did a lot of pranks while high, but I'll tell you what, when I went from no drugs or alcohol to smoking weed again, because the first step for me going down the bad road was I started, I allowed myself to smoke weed again. And, um, and I was laughing at my videos. I was like, oh my gosh, this is now I realize, you know, all these stoners are laughing at my videos. It was like, oh, my gosh, this is – now I realize, you know, all these stoners are laughing at my videos. It is kind of funny to watch them high, you know, but I couldn't make them high because I'm paranoid, you know.

1:30:07I'm like, see the camera. I'm like, I'm killing all these pranks halfway through the prank because I was, like, thinking that they saw the camera, and I just would hesitate. I couldn't make good videos. Like, everything went downhill when I started smoking weed and drinking again. Because the best stuff that Hamcheck did was during my 13 years of sobriety. Like, and I'm way sharper now. You can think on your feet a little bit better, you know. Yeah. Yeah, it's your God-given abilities, man, to be able to, those are really your best ones. Yeah. All that, all the drugs did was give you bigger, like even bigger balls than I already had to just infiltrate some crazy scenarios because I was numb, you know?

1:30:51But one time I pranked this guy in Columbus and he harassed my brother in North Carolina, like started all these death threats. Like that was a crazy story because my brother called me in the morning and I did these pranks where I'd ask people with how long it's been or like what at what point in their life did everything go downhill and they became homeless here in columbus i've seen those yeah but i never go i never actually talk to homeless people i go after i talk to people that are obviously not homeless you know this guy he's this real short dude with um this girl who ended up being like some playboy old um only fans model and he like sets himself up for the interview and shows off his watch and he's like makes this

1:31:46stance and he's ready and i hit him with the homeless thing and he's like he's like me and but they got so offended that they they looked up name, and then they found my brother's name, who I follow, my older brother. And they started harassing him, like threatening my brother. And that was when ham checking leaked into my personal life. And I was like, I mean, it's still very touchy, you know. I don't like embarrassing people. And I know that sometimes I put people's family on the internet and shit it's not it's not always cracked up to be I tell you yeah that seems like the tough part did you are there any videos that were really great pranks but you decided not to put them up because it was just too much well yeah there's one in particular where I'm asking

1:32:33this guy my normal prank it's like in the middle of the night. It's like 1 or 2 in the morning in Columbus, Ohio. And I ask people for small favors, you know, and I ask him to help me get some Jordans down off a power line, you know. And he says no, but I'll give you a blowjob, you know. He's like, I got nothing but a mouth, buddy. That's what he said? Yeah, yeah, he said it. He literally. The old bird feeder. He offered to give me a blowjob like four times in one video. Oh, yeah. And it was a really funny video, and it went viral. And then I got emails saying, hey, man, take this off the internet. You know, I'm going to sue you. And I never pay attention to those. I get those a lot. But I do have a heart, and I started looking at the guy's social media,

1:33:28and I saw pictures of him and his mom, and I was like, man, this poor lady has to know that her son's out there in the middle of the night asking people if he can blow them, you know, which is just a strange thing to do to ask a stranger, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think it is. I mean, well, I think some people, they call it like, I think in the gay culture or whatever, they call it bird feeding or whatever, because, um, my buddy's brother's gay and he's been gay for a pretty good amount of time, I think. It seems like, anyway. And he, for Halloween, him and his buddies always get dressed up like bird feeders. They turn themselves into, like, they'll get, like, kind of like a wood thing put on their head with their face,

1:34:09and it's, like, got a little thing where the bird can land. It's like, you know, they make themselves bird feeders. They look like birdhouses. Because the bird always has their mouth open? Oh, birdhouses, bro. They look like birdhouses, Because the bird always has their mouth open? Oh, birdhouses, bro. They look like birdhouses, yeah, so your bird can land in there. Oh, wow. So that's how they do it. So I think it's part of that culture is being out at night looking for those night birds or whatever. Maybe. I don't know. But damn, dude, yeah. So the guy was offering you a couple blowjobs out there at night? Yeah, and the video was very entertaining, but I felt a little bit bad. Yeah. So I would take it down, and then things would get slow on the channel,

1:34:49and I would say, well, the video was called BJ Balboni, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. And things would get slow on the Hamcheck channel, and I'd be like, man, I need some action. I need to grow these followers, man. I need a viral video. So in my head, I was like, release BJ Balboni. And every time I'd play it, it would go viral. And then he would email me again and say, hey, man, I just started this new job, and everyone's coming up to me saying that they saw me on the Internet. It is, I mean. People see themselves a lot on the Internet. Yeah. On TV. Yeah, I mean, because some of it's kind of exploitive. Do you feel like that? I mean, do you feel like, what does that feel like? I look at myself like more of a journalist sometimes because I catch a lot of things happening, you know, that I just happen to run into.

1:35:46But I do. I don't always like it. It's definitely not that easy to do because I have a really soft heart and I don't like hurting people's feelings. So I try to avoid that. It's hard to walk the line of funny without – that's why the construction pranks are so – they're popular and they're very harmless. Most of the construction bosses love it and they're waiting to get pranked by Hamcheck with the chains, you know. Oh, yeah. I've had a lot of those. With the six-inch chains? Or the six-foot chains? It started with six-and-a-half-inch cables in the early days, and then it It evolved to chains, you know, and, and, uh, yeah, it's now six and a half foot chains. Has there been videos that you didn't put out that you're just like, oh, this is too,

1:36:34something's too wrong with this or this is. Yeah, I have, I have a whole bunch of them. Um, I was in this one night, I got this hotel, it was late at night and I was at the casino gambling all night. And, uh, so I just booked this hotel in the worst part of town. I didn't mean to. $50 hotel or something, bro. So I hear this baby. It's the biggest cockroach hotel ever, man. This is a video I want to play one day. I'll save these videos for, like, certain times. For your wedding or whatever? Yeah, at the wedding wedding i'll probably play this one because there's a baby crying all night and i heard this baby screaming and i finally looked out the door like in the morning and it was this little black baby that looked just like

1:37:25buckwheat you know um and he was out locked outside of this hotel room man all night long you think he forgot his not his keys or whatever well those keys never work you know that's probably the situation dude how many times you get up to your hotel and those damn keys don't work and you got all your shit dude i get so pissed bro and this and he was just out there all night? His mom left. His mom left him. And so the video is crazy because this crackhead lady comes into my room and I'm doing all this prank on her. She's telling me all about the mom that leaves her kid all the time. And it was the saddest situation. And then I ended up having to yell at the hotel lady because she wouldn't call the police.

1:38:12And the mom came back, and I gave her a hard time. I got it all on video. But I recently got pulled over and arrested for smoking a joint in Pennsylvania. This was like last year. I'm still on probation in Pennsylvania, but I pranked the cops while I was doing my sobriety test. Yeah? Yeah. Did they know it was you? No. And I've been waiting to release that footage, but I know everyone's going to get the body cam footage once they see, and once I say this right now. But it's still funny as hell because they're telling me to hold my foot up like three and a half. I'm like, can I hold it six and a half in? I was like, does Officer Balboni still work here? And I literally got my phone back from them.

1:38:56I got arrested, but I got all this funny footage of fucking with them while I'm doing my sobriety test. They're like, how much weed's in the car? I'm like, 2.83 grams. I just bought it at the dispensary. I knew exactly how much I had in the car, you know? But it was funny that I was sneaky enough to get all this footage of them while they were making me do all the impossible tests, by the way, that nobody is going to be able to pass. Yeah, some of it's like admit your grandfather's a f***er or whatever, and you're like, what? Dude, how did that become a question? Yeah, dude, we don't even know. Dude, I'm not— We don't even know for sure. It's like, yeah, some of this shit is crazy, bro. It's impossible, dude.

1:39:39It's like, yeah, name seven black guys you're brave enough to tickle or whatever, and you're like, how can you even do that? Some of the—it's like impossible, dude. It is, dude. You know, name six friends friends years your mom would smash if you fucking left her home for the weekend you know be like who are they roger my yeah damien oh yeah of course um have you faced any lawsuits have you faced any actual lawsuits lawsuits? Um, fake, just fake ones, you know, like people send, um, emails, but I ignore them and they go away, you know, just like the bills, you know, I mean, I have, yeah, I, people, I always look and consider, okay, so this pastor, this is a funny one. This pastor flips me off,

1:40:28man. It's, uh, it's called the jaywalking pastor. I didn't know he was a pastor till his whole congregation begged me to take it off the internet. He made a public apology for this video. Wow. And I was like, no, if that's the worst thing you get caught doing in life was flipping me off. So he gets real mad. I said, I saw you jaywalking. You just tried it three times and this bus almost hits him. And he has a Starbucks and he's on the phone. And I'm like, you're jaywalking, man. I saw you do it. And he's like, he gave me the most angry bird ever. And it goes viral every time i post it you know and angry bird of christ or whatever basically but i just couldn't believe how that's not a big deal bro if if you if if

1:41:19that's the worst thing that they put on the internet of me is flipping somebody off i'm like hell yeah you know angry jaywalking pastor throwback let me see it it was a good one because the congregation begged me to take it off but i don't take off ones like this thank you sir you're jaywalking i just saw you you did it three times oh sir how dare you come over here right now i want to have a word with you, buddy. Does he come back over? No, but I always like to talk to people about what they've said or done. Then I get on a bus and make another little clip. I said, did you see what happened to that guy? But I will follow a lady that flipped me off two hours away to her job and just ask her why she's so miserable. Like I am the crazy guy that will have a conversation

1:42:32about your act, your craziness. You know, I just love to make people explain themselves, you know? Yeah. Is that what it is? What is it about the pranking? Like, what is it that you get out of it? What is it that you're trying? Like you just said, like, I want people to explain themselves, right? Like, yeah, I'm just, I'm curious about what that is. Cause it's, it's hard sometimes to joke with people. It's hard to keep a straight face. It's hard to keep an energy of a prank, right? It's really tough. Um, yeah, to answer your question, I just like watching humans in action. Like that's my biggest thing is just watching the crazy things that humans do, you know? So I like watching their reactions.

1:43:21As far as calling people out on stuff, like I'm going to ask the lady that sat me right next to this loud table when there's 80, you know, but I will just ask people. I don't want to punish them or anything, but I want them to realize that it was stupid what they just did, you know, and I want to ask, like, why they did it. Why are you so miserable, you know, and somebody's cussing you out in traffic or something, you know, I just like to pull up. This guy had a gun pointed at me. Okay. I thought it was his phone. It was a road rage situation and he was cussing me out, flipping me off. So I got my camera out and I started filming the early part of him cussing me out, cussing me out. And then I followed him.

1:44:08He pulls into this parking lot. I'm thinking I'm going to be recorded. I know the guy's going to get his phone out. So I put, I put this hat on and shades and I put the six and a half foot chains around my neck and I walk up to his car and I'm recording. And I'm like, I'm like, dude, I'm like, you think I said, why don't you say that to me now? You know, I was like, what were you saying back there? You know, and I walk up closer and I think he's holding his phone, but he has a gun pointed right up at the window. I never touch people or invade their space, but man, that was a crazy situation. So I just I was just calling him out. He pulled into a parking lot and I just walked up to his window.

1:44:53Everything's making a video, you know? And that's ridiculous, too. I'm recording too much, man. I got to take a break. If you're going that far where you're pushing things to the edge, like that somebody's actually pointing a gun at you? Yeah. And you're still right there? Did you keep talking said are you you're actually pointing yeah the video is pretty funny because i was like you're pointing a gun at me on this beautiful day i was like get out of the car and give me a hug buddy i was like you need a hug so i kept going although i was high for like two days realizing that i almost got shot in the face. If I was an idiot that touched people, I don't ever do that. I mean, I'm not like ever going to invade somebody, touch somebody.

1:45:38I don't ever do that. But that's wild to think that like a few years ago, if you'd have said, hey, will you keep pranking somebody if they have a gun out? You probably would have said no. Yeah. And then here you are at that space doing it. I knew it would make the video better, so I kept talking to him. But I wasn't afraid, but later on I realized that if I was dumb enough to have touched that guy or gotten closer, here he is. You don't know. Look, you've not hit me three times. No, I didn't. I knew what I was doing. You got a gun? You're threatening me with a gun right now i'm not threatening you with anything you're holding a gun sir you're the one that followed me i asked you if you wanted a hug and you don't need a hug

1:46:20you have a gun right now i don't need to hug just move on buddy let me give you a hug people like people are so disconnected now uh dude the world's a mess right now bro but do you think you're helping it here or do you know but he did deserve all i did was i was behind i was just riding his bumper and the guy went crazy at the beginning saying, fuck you, you know, just effing me, flipping me off for, for barely getting close to his car. I didn't even touch his car. Your car would be a lot. But it was because I was distracted looking at my phone and almost hit him and he saw it like, you know, you almost hit somebody over and over again. Dude, I'm telling you, man, I'm going to take a break from all this stuff, you know?

1:47:14It's been a long journey, and it's exciting to say that I'm going to do something different now, you know? What's the toughest part of the country to prank in? New York is tough, man. They've seen it all and they're not having my shit i've still gotten some videos there um the first balboni ben video was in central park um new york is tough though i get spit out pretty so it's always a challenge in places like that um la is kind of like that but i do pretty i do pretty well it's these towns in the middle of nowhere the guy's got cows and horses and you know you want to find some small towns in the middle of nowhere that's that's where i find the best stuff you know well you feel like people have

1:48:03patience here they have time yeah yeah people got time for you you know it's the thing that makes small towns great too yeah it's that people have time for you. You know, it's the thing that makes small towns great too. Yeah. Is that people have time for you. They're chill. They're laid back and they'll give everyone the time of day. You're right. They'll listen to some stupidity shit, you know. Are there some places you cannot prank because there are laws against it? Well, apparently, have you ever heard of the one party consent, two party consent? Yeah. How stupid is the one-party consent, two-party consent? Yeah. How stupid is the rule one-party consent? So one person in the conversation has the consent to praying.

1:48:39A one-party consent law means that you can legally record a conversation such as a phone call or in-person talk as long as at least one person involved in the conversation gives permission. If you are part of the conversation, you can record it without telling the other person. You gave yourself consent, basically. So what just so as long as you could be doing it, they don't know it's okay. Right? Yeah. But out in California, like, apparently,'s a two-party state, I think. So you generally must be a participant in the conversation to record it under one-party rules. So I couldn't record two other people having a conversation secretly. Secret, yeah, here it says, secretly recording a conversation that you are not a part of

1:49:24is usually illegal. If you're calling someone in a different state, the strictest law applies. If you call someone in an all-party, which is two-party consent state, from a one-party state, you typically need permission from all parties. I will say I'm banned from all the urology places in Columbus. I pranked my doctor about the ball-dropping surgery. And it brings up a good topic because I was unsure if I was able to record these real doctor's appointments, but apparently you are, you know. The bigwigs called me and asked me to take down these doctor's appointment videos that were some of the funniest shit ever. So this was my regular doctor that I went to, urologist, you know. And, you know, being on testosterone as I got older, you know, the doctor told me, you know,

1:50:24you've done hard drugs your whole life, you know, you need to be on testosterone. Yeah, your bag's cooked or whatever. Well, yeah, and I was concerned about my balls getting smaller, you know, you need to be on testosterone. Yeah. Your bag's cooked or whatever. Well, yeah. And I was concerned about my balls getting smaller, you know? And, uh, so I was sitting there, I was, I just had the idea that I'm going to ask them to lower my balls for me, you know, during my actual doctor's visit. So it was my real doctor. People think, man, you're crazy. You go and set up doctor's appointments to make pranks. And I was like, no, I just prank while I'm at my doctor. So I pranked this doctor so many times.

1:50:57The very last one, this is the compilation, I think. The very last one, there's one that shows them all because I pranked him over and over again. But at the last one, he goes, can you put your phone down for a second? And he says, are you the one that put me on TikTok? But it was after and I got banned from a lot of urology clinics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But once again, I want to talk to him about seeing if he can get my balls to hang lower because I've been asking him for months and I want my balls to hang lower, you know, because I don't feel like they hang low like they used to. And all my buddy's balls hang like way lower than mine. Okay, what brings you in today? Well, I mean, I've been talking to you for a while about this

1:51:47and I don't know what I got to do to get you to help me with it but I really want my balls to hang lower like they used to you know my you know remember there's got to be a way you can drop them down a little bit right okay okay because my buddies their balls hang a lot lower than mine. And this is an Asian doctor. There's something that you can give me, I'm pretty sure. I had never seen him till the last... Can you feel your balls? Barely. Let's take a look. Is there any way I can get my balls lowered? I've heard that people are doing that now. I don't know. I've not heard that surgery. Some of my buddy's balls hang a lot lower than mine. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same thing.

1:52:41This is my general practice. Some people have larger scrotums and longer scrotums, and so it allows for the balls, the testicles to come down further, and then some people don't have as low, or don't have as kind of loose of a scrotum. That's what I got, yeah. Yeah, so, and everybody's different, and there's no right way or wrong way. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. How are you, Doc? Hey, so are you. Oh, my gosh, geez. You're tired? A little bit. Okay. Ah, nice fresh blend you got there. I'm still trying to get my balls lowered, you know? Like, I'm trying to get them dropped a couple inches, you know? Like we were talking about last time? Okay. Remember? Yeah. You said you might be able to lower them a little bit. Let's take a look. Okay. Here's the thing. Maybe I can get a smooth dowel. Because some of my buddy's balls are a little bit smoother than mine. I have a lot of wrinkles. Let me take a look. Okay. But remember I talked to you about the lowering my balls a little bit

1:53:53can you put the phone down yeah are you the one that put me on tiktok wow what did he say was he hurt by it yeah oh yeah he said are you the one that put me on tiktok and i denied it of course and got through the appointment but they called me up the like ceo and and i got a letter in the mail saying i can't go to any of the ohio health or whatever but the funniest part about the first one when i when i quit recording he says the first thing i want to tell you is stop looking at your buddy's balls. And I was like, man, if I would have got that. I just didn't get that. But I tell the story. It was the funniest shit ever. And did you have to show him your balls actually sometimes too? Yeah, but it's part of the deal.

1:54:41I mean, I show my balls to the doctor, you know. Yeah, I don't care. And I never got an extra appointment for a video. Yeah. I just went to my appointments. Natural appointments. Yeah, and then kept making videos at the appointments. And then it's balling out, dude. In the United States, recording laws are divided into two-party consent states where every participant must consent to being recorded and a one-party consent state where only one participant needs to agree. In these states, you generally need the consent of every person involved in a private conversation or phone call to record it legally. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire,

1:55:19Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington. Those are two-party? Those are two-party. Oh, shit. I'm breaking some laws out there. Yeah. One-party consent states Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado. Tennessee is on there. Idaho, Hawaii, Indiana, Georgia, D.C., Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi. Wow. Ohio's got to be down there. Yep. There it is. The Dakotas and there's others too. All the rest of them we didn't name in the two party. Huh. I just find it funny, one party. I mean, come on. One person of the two and it's the one recording? Yeah. Giving yourself consent. It's stupid. Yeah, how do you figure that out for yourself? Because it is kind of like, I mean, if something really hurts somebody's feelings,

1:56:05do you feel okay leaving it up? Like, yeah, what is your, I guess, what do you feel about it? up like yeah what is your i guess what do you feel about it i'm just doing it wild west style man i mean i'm waiting for trouble and i know that it's coming you know i'm just used to i i mean like what do you mean it's coming or whatever well if somebody's upset i consider i take it into consideration, you know, um, like I pranked this, um, transgender therapist in Columbus, Ohio. I did, I told her that her dogs weren't picking up the poop and, um, she went crazy on me and yelled at me and then made all these TikTok videos about me, but she never once asked me like to take it down. You know, if she would have asked me to take it down, I would have, I didn't want to embarrass

1:56:56her or whatever. She's like, um, that was a very controversial video. I quit looking at the internet for a while because I had a whole group of people get sending me death threats and stuff like that. You know, is there something about the stress of it about that death threats and stuff like that you know is there something about the stress of it about that like that you like that like that's what i'm wondering it's interesting because dude that sounds horrifying to me like somebody's like man i hate that you just this is messed up like you're taking or you i don't like the way you're making me look you know i'm saying like like i don't know even for myself like one time I saw somebody made a video. I was just walking by.

1:57:30Like I was walking by a place. I'd eaten at or something. And somebody made a video of me just walking by, right? And they're like, oh, I just saw Theo Vaughn walk by. Looks like he's having the worst day ever, man. Hope he's okay, right? That's what it said. And dude, that had been like two hours earlier in my day. I saw that on TikTok. And I was having the best day. And it was like, fuck dude. But like people are like, man, hope he's okay. Then people are like, man, hope he's not overdosing or something. First of all, I wouldn't be walking by with both of my shoes on or whatever and a hat if I was overdosing probably, but it was just like all this shit. And I'm like, what the fuck dude? I'm having a nice day. And just cause some asshole

1:58:07wants to fucking put me like that. It makes me like, it didn't really bother me. It was just the inner, it was intriguing to me. Like, it made me like a little bit like, okay, well people can kind of film you whenever, which I didn't really love. But it's like, I don't know. It was just like, fuck, I'm having a good day. And then I see this and I'm like, fuck. I don't like it, Theo. I'll be honest. I mean, that's why I'm kind of – I wish I had something else to fall back on because, like I said, you can't just keep doing this shit. I'm lucky I've gotten away with it and survived five years of doing this, but I really feel bad for people. I want everyone to not ever be – like, I usually – people don't see what I do off the camera.

1:58:50I'll stop these people and tell them I was joking. I do not let somebody go away feeling like I just called them homeless because of what they wear. I just, I'm not the one that's going to show you when I give them money. You know, I hate when people post giving money away. It just makes me sick, actually. Yeah, that kind of stuff is very bizarre. This need to, like, be, I mean, I of stuff is very bizarre, this need to be seen. I mean, I don't know. It's a need to be seen, right, but to be seen doing something positive. I certainly understand the need to be seen because, I mean, that's what I do. I want to be seen. When I was doing those stand-up shows, I would ask the audience as soon as I went out there,

1:59:27okay, how many of you literally have no idea what you were coming to see tonight? And every freaking hand went up, and I'm like, you guys, all you had to do is search a little bit harder, and there's a million viral videos of people exposing me. Somebody did that to me. They posted me rapping at one of my shows. I just found this two days ago. So you do stand up. I was doing it. I was, I was doing it, you know, I was like, but dude, these standup places, they, they want you on the stage at seven 30 and they kick my fans out at nine and shit. And I was like, I wanted to hang out with everybody. I was talking to every single person. I didn't like, I need like a three hour venue. I was having fun, but then, you know, I wasn't –

2:00:12I'm not a stand-up comedian, but I was doing music. I was showing unseen videos that nobody's going to see on the Internet, and then I was doing questions and answers. My fans loved it, but you always get the one asshole that's going to make negative comments and stuff. Why'd you quit doing that? Well, I, or did you quit? Um, I kinda, I, it wasn't worth the money to be honest, man. And the exposure, like I was like, you know, sometimes I'd get like 1500 or two grand and I got this crew I'm taking care of and I'm traveling all over. And it was a great show with a hundred, 200 people there. And the bar was trying to give me 1500, 2,500 bucks. And I was just like, it wasn't worth it. Also like when people want to

2:00:56kill me, I'm telling you where to find me, you know? Like, so I was going to keep the lure going a little bit longer. Oh, so you're almost on the run sometimes in a way. Not really. I mean, but in a way I don't like telling somebody where to find me when I do get death threats, you know, it's like, I'll be here at seven 30 on stage. So you bring your gun. I, I pranked these Chicago police officers and, um, I, and they loved me. The captain messaged me and thanked me for showing light on his officers. And I was like, you guys can all come to my shows for free. You know, I want, I want them, I want them in the audience, you know, whenever I can have some backup, but dude, one video you did that was one of my favorites is the, like,

2:01:41cause some of them are like positive. I mean, it's all lighthearted. I feel like, I guess, but I mean, I guess I'm not the, or the ones that I've seen have all been like pretty just lighthearted kind of, it's just like, it feels like good fun. The one where the, you brought the eggs to McDonald's. Yeah. I just took that off recently. Cause she said her manager saw it, but. No, dude, that was one of my favorite videos, dude. He pulled up at McDonald's. Tell me what, yeah, just tell us what happened. Yeah, so I was at a rest stop traveling, doing pushups in the parking lot of McDonald's. I had these eggs that I had taken from my Airbnb and they were getting old. And it just, you know, it just came to me.

2:02:25I'm going to walk through the drive-through line and ask her if she'll make these eggs for me. That was enough for the video. I didn't expect her to actually make them for me and all that. And that video went crazy viral. She was loving all the attention. I sent her a couple hundred dollars. And then, like, just recently, she's like, hey, this is random, but my manager saw that. I need you to take all the videos down. And I was just like, oh, and I did it. I took them down, but I'll put them back up when it's time to release the egg video again. When things get slow, I'll be whipping out those eggs again. Trust me. Because it's like there was no harm in that and if mcdonald's is your main goal in life because i was like hey if you get fired i'll give

2:03:17you a job doing something else you know but and the manager loved it i had already told her manager so some bullshit i thought it was really cool but yeah who knows what people are i mean like i thought it was super cool i pranked an addict knows what people are doing. I mean, like, I thought it was super cool. I pranked an addict. Here it is right here. Oh, wow, that's still on the internet? Wow. Is it okay to play? Oh, yeah. It says, brought my own eggs to the McD's drive-thru in Florida. Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry to scare you. You're okay, you're just here. Would you mind doing me a small favor? Yeah. Well, I was wondering if you could make me a couple of egg McMuffins with, I brought my own eggs and- What?

2:03:54I mean I don't have any way to fry them. I was going to use an iron, but I was just going to see if you could throw them on the grill. I don't even need the buns. I just- Do you want to see the eggs cook? Yeah. Okay. Are you serious? You're so sweet. We close in just a couple of minutes, so I'm going to do it really fast. I thought you were just opening. We close and then we close for an hour, we do our deposits, and then we come back and see what's going on. Okay. You're so sweet. We close in just a couple minutes. I'm going to do it really fast. I thought you were just opening. We close and then we close for an hour. We do our deposits and then we come back and open again. If you can just make six of them scrambled and you can just throw the rest away.

2:04:20Nice Tacoma. You're loving that, aren't you? I'm standing in line. I'm a big Toyota fan myself. Girl, you better not get in trouble For this That's so nice of you I can't give you the whole hundred Give me 70 back please The internet killed me over that You should have given her the hundred I did inside and then I gave her more later You can't make everybody happy. I didn't even have an extra. Like, I didn't have it like that. I've never gotten ahead in life because of these videos. Like, people thought. Well, dude, you're making these obviously for the IRS, dude. So that's obviously what's going on. Everything is going directly deposited to them. Fuck. Oh, man, dude. Oh, that is probably the nicest girl right there. That's the sweetest girl. It. Oh, man, dude. That is probably the nicest girl right there.

2:05:12That's the sweetest girl. It was a good one, man. I love that idea that it got through. Yeah. It's funny. One thing that you've done and that I like to do over the years, too, is I like to pick up hitchhikers, right? That's something that I've always really enjoyed, you know, just because it's a total— I'm trying to think of what it is about it. Like, let me really think about it. There's something about like a weird thing of like fate or like just a Rochambeau with the universe. It's a gamble. There's something about it. And, uh, there was one I had, I picked up a guy, I think I was in Maui or something. I've been able to find that. Is that even still out there? I don't even know if it's still out there.

2:05:52But, oh, here we go. Chilling. Oh, shit, boy. One of my favorite outdoor animals right here. Shit. What's up, player? Hey, man. How you doing? Chilling, bro. Doing good. Theo, man. What's your name? Josiah. Josiah. How often do you hitch, bro? I've been doing it every day for five years. Gang, really? Yeah? Hey, what's up? Theo, man. What's your name? Josiah. Josiah. How often do you hitch, bro? I've been doing it every day for five years. Gang, really? Yeah, oh yeah. That's awesome, bro. That's fucking Maui shit. That's dope, dude. I used to love picking up hitchhikers in the States, but they don't really let you do it anymore. You can barely even meet anybody. Have you ever been picked up by any weirdos?

2:06:26Only a couple. Really? And it wasn't like anything like rapey or like, you know what I mean? Like weird stuff like that. It was more like, I'm an alien. This is where I'm from. Oh, really? Oh, cool. Any killers or murderers? There is, but I've never been picked up by one. There is. Catch and release, baby. That's a wrap. Let him go, bro. Catch and release. I don't kill, bro. That's awesome, man. I didn't know you did that i've always loved it dude i'll tell you this this is actually a good story i forgot about her i'm not i shouldn't tell you it's a good story because who the fuck knows if it is people will decide but i picked up a dude one time and he uh and i just asked him about hitching what it was like for him and who

2:07:05he's getting picked up by and he said well one of the craziest times he ever hitched a ride, he got into a guy's car and the guy just starts flooring it. He said the guy was on the run from the police, right? So next thing you know, he's getting, they're getting chased by the police for like 40 minutes. You don't need to say this, a hitchhiker. No way. He's running from the law with the guy. Yeah. He's running from the law with the guy. And he asked the guy, he goes, why'd you even pick me up he goes because i know this isn't gonna end well and i don't want to die alone that's what he told the guy whoa and they fucking ended up skirting off the interstate into a cornfield and uh and the the police got the guys or whatever but that that was and the police pull up on him

2:07:46like what don't get out of the fucking piece like i'm a hitchhiker so the dude driving actually ran for the hitchhiker ran from the police yeah with the hitchhiker in the passenger seat that's pretty dope actually yeah you're just going gangster on it man you're going heaven alone sounds it does sound scary i know that's why it's put together the way it is because you have to do it by yourself or whatever but it does sound kind of scary um what going to heaven alone or dying alone oh yeah yeah so bringing somebody along like you might as well do it yeah okay yeah i see what you're saying what's one of the wildest uh hitchers you picked up bro so i had to tell the the first time i hadn't slept in seven days

2:08:29i was kicking i was going through withdrawal. Withdrawal or use? Because both of those. Withdrawal. When you're coming off of heroin or fentanyl, you get really sick and you don't sleep. And sometimes I'll just hit the road because being on the road is a buzz of its own. It keeps me occupied. If I get some coffee and just drive, I can get hours out of the way that I would just be tormented at home in a room. So I picked this guy up and I always say, you're not, if you won't kill me, if I don't kill you right before they get in, I always get a verbal disclaimer. I get an agreement from them that they won't kill me and I won't kill them because I'm just as dangerous as they are. They just don't know it, you know? So yeah, it's like the hitchhiker's

2:09:13creed or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I do. And this guy was cool for a while. His name was James. And, uh, I took him all like several States away. He did, he did a dealership prank with me and everything. I made him, he walked into a car dealership and I did a prank with him, but he ended up saying some freak stuff. And I was like, dude, all right, man rides over bro. Like some sex stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like he was trying to sniff you out or whatever. Yep. Just trying to make a gay comment or something, you know, and, and I had to kick him out, dude. And as I was leaving, he was dragging that suitcase on the next exit ramp. And I said, you could have just not said anything weird, James.

2:09:56I mean, it's like, because if it gets weird, you got to go, bro. Yeah, it's tough. It's also tough to ride around with a guy for a few days if you're gay and not flirt a little. Yeah, I mean. That's got to be hard. I let him drive my car, and I slept for the first time in days, dude. He hadn't driven in seven years. I hadn't slept in seven days, dude. And he was, like, loving being behind the wheel. That was when I had the nice Lexus. This is a $500 Subaru I'm driving right here. Dude, that's cool, bro. God. But this is where I make him put the glasses on. It's a great adventure. It is. You get stories, and you're helping somebody, too. This guy had been walking for four days, and nobody picked him up.

2:10:39Really? No. How's it going? All right. How you doing? Good. Tired more out. Yeah. Well, before you get in, there's a couple things we need to go over. Okay, you ain't gonna kill me are you? And I won't kill you. All right Is that a deal? That's a deal. You promise? I promise. I'm just trying to get home I ain't trying to. Hop in you get you got to put them glasses on so I can keep an eye on you though No weapons no weapons no sir all right man i'm trusting you grab them glasses there in the door oh these are nice just put them on so i can keep an eye on you okay i've been out here walking four days it's easy to see him like that that's great that's fun dude this is fucking that's awesome dude me and my buddy caleb picked a hitchhiker up the other day man drove her just a lady carrying

2:11:42a bunch of stuff we're like dude we cannot drive past a woman carrying all that oh no you do have to analyze every hitchhiker, though. Like, you're like, do I really feel like risking my life today or not? Yeah. Dude, I drove a guy one time to get a bunch of gasoline or something back to his family. He didn't even say thank you. Dude. And that still makes me mad. That's crazy. He didn't fucking say thank you, dude. Should have gave you a Russian reach around. Dude. That's the least he could do. Yeah, he could have done anything for it. He could have even just said even just something like thank you. Yeah, dude. But to answer your question, yeah, it's not always fun, like putting people, you know.

2:12:23Yeah. The videos, yeah, there's a lot of negativity to it, believe it or not, even though mine are the nicest ones you see on the Internet. Everyone's harassing people and making them really angry. Well, do you think it comes from like, I'm just curious and I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything. Do you feel like I am? I am on the spot and I like it. It's okay. Yeah, it's fine. Do you think that it's about like we, like whoever's filming becomes the, the decider of what's okay. You know what I'm saying? I'm wondering what like the psychology of it is. And you would probably know more than anybody because you've had, what is the attraction to it overall? Do you think, have you been able to think about any of that?

2:13:01The attraction of it is just capturing humans in action, whether it's bad or good. Okay. This dope fiend comes up to my car, but she still looked decent. But I saw her coming a mile away. And by the end of the conversation, she makes up this crazy story about crying and everything about somebody at McDonald's. And in the end, I'm like, you sure you don't just need this money for dope? And she's like, okay. And it was beautiful because- It was real. I saw that one. Okay. So you saw that. And that one bothers me. In the recent repost of it, I cut out so much stuff that would make her look worse. I just like to show that I'm from the streets and I saw that shit a mile away. But I know that I can be recorded too in those moments.

2:13:52I'm prepared for the worst because of what I do. Like I know that one day, and that's why I'm like, it's kind of nice to control this reveal because people try to catch me and try to put me on blast and try to capture me getting upset all the time. And, uh, I mean, it's, uh, it can happen to me when I'm using dope. I could go buy it from a prankster and, you know, I used to make up stories on the street too. I was the best. Oh dude, I made it $40 every 10 steps I took when I was on the street because I still were you living on the street at some point I kind of but I would like stay at a dope in a dope dealer's garage or stay at some friends I was never the guy freezing on the concrete right which really hurts me to see I always had enough

2:14:45um people in my corner or just the dope man himself let me stay in the garage you know yeah um well you're charismatic guy i mean if you if you have if you can figure out people and you can navigate people you can only survive you're a survivor and i was a salesman already so i would when i walk up to people and i would be like hey you might help me out you know i didn't look like the typical addict begging for change on the street. So they would be like, I got a 10, I got a five. I don't know, but they're like, I'll buy you some food. And I was like, okay, that'll free up money for the dope. You know, like I was a good, I was a good panhandler, but I was getting fives and tens and twenties. And, um,

2:15:26And you were using it that time? Yeah. And my dumb ass would take the first 20 I got and walk all the way to the dope house. Instead of saving up like 300, just going a little further down the street, dude, as soon as you get enough to get to the back, I would walk miles back to the dope house. It was the funniest shit ever, dude. I was the stupidest addict ever. I still am. I'm an idiot, bro. Yeah, dude. Addiction's crazy, man. How did it affect your ability to parent and stuff over the years? Like, how was that? Did it get pretty bad for you in that space, or were you always able to show up in those spaces? Well, thank God. And are you a parent? Yeah, my son, he's a sophomore at Ohio State, man.

2:16:09Nice, dude. And he's a parent? Yeah, my son, he's a sophomore at Ohio State, man. Nice, dude. And he's a good kid. My ex-wife was my high school sweetheart, and I always knew she'd be the best mom. And we've raised an amazing kid. And he doesn't have, so far, so good. He doesn't drink or do drugs. He's the one that drives his friends around, and he loves God and, you know, God first and stuff, man. So I'm so happy about that. That's a blessing. Yeah. But he was a baby, like, one or two or just the years where I had to put him to sleep and, like, sleep. And then as soon as he fell asleep, I'd go and drive around and get high. Like he doesn't remember those days. I got clean in 2010 and stayed clean until 2023.

2:16:58But the gambling kept me from being present. There was always this monster in my head saying, when can you go to Vegas again? When can you, when's the next poker tournament? And so I look back on that and I'm like, man, saying, when can you go to Vegas again? When can you, when's the next poker tournament? Yeah. And so I look back on that and I'm like, man, even though I never missed the sports games and all that shit, the gambling still kept me from spending, being present and being the person I like to think I am today as far as like, like I told you, I don't have to tell my mom, I got to go just to go somewhere. Yeah. You know, like I can hang out and don't have to tell my mom, I got to go just to go somewhere.

2:17:30Yeah. I can hang out and watch Law & Order with my mom for freaking days and just chill with her. Man, it's just such a blessing that I got clean again. Amen. It's hard to get back in. It's easier to stay here than get back here, right? That's the truest statement I've ever heard right that's that's the most that's the truest statement i've ever heard man i was thinking about that today i was at a meeting today i was thinking about that i'm like god dude i remember just like and it's not long ago i say i remember like but you know it's like i got like 77 days or something right now what yeah mine's july 25th is it i'm august 1st you know wait that was the day I stopped gambling. I walked out of that casino.

2:18:11So my gambling clean date is August 1st. Let's go. That's awesome. No shit. But just the organizing of things, to party, to have a good, to all of it. And it's okay. It's no judgment against anybody or anything. But for me, it just, I couldn't work anymore. And I'm just praying I'm able to keep it away. But also, also dude, somebody said the other day I was in a meeting. I said, I had to admit to myself that I loved doing those things. A lot of times I'd be like, I don't love, I loved having a good, I loved it. That's the thing I didn't want to admit, you know, because then I can't really operate from a place that's the true honesty. I fucking loved it. I didn't like the stress, all the other stuff that I don't even think about

2:18:55that's going on. Yeah, dude, I loved numbing myself from reality, bro. I mean, it killed stress. It killed everything. And then I like to feel adventurous on it. People always said, oh, you have a hole in your soul, and that's what you're trying to fill. I'm like, no, I just like to get high on it. People always said, oh, you're, you have a hole in your soul and that's what you're trying to fill. I'm like, no, I just like to get high and take a walk in the woods and trip on some mushrooms and look at shapes changing. I, but I'm learning now that it's way more than that. Um, but I didn't like to be handcuffed. I had to get high before I did anything. Even if it was just weed or alcohol, it was like I didn't want to start my day until I got high.

2:19:38And being able to break those chains, man, and then the gambling thing too. I feel like I don't have handcuffs on anymore. Wow. It's the best feeling, dude. I'm so happy for you for that i'm happy for anybody yeah yeah this has like just to get some space to take a breath um johnny hamcheck what's what's next do you have a plan for what's next bro well i'm actually working on a movie um it's been in the works for a while but i have uh they're getting pretty serious about it they uh they said they're going to start following me around with cameras for a documentary here in a couple months so but i really don't know and i don't care so bright like just being clean i can handle anything coming my way that's why i always during my sobriety as long as i stayed

2:20:27the number one priority for me is sticking to my, you know, getting, staying clean, man. So I don't know what's next, really. I mean, the pranks now are just organic. When I see something and I feel like making videos, but I'm not going to slave to the social media. I really want to take a break. Actually, I'm really wanting to put the phone down for a couple months and I'll probably do it after this podcast, actually. How bad did the slaving get to be out finding videos? Would you find yourself at like a crazy amount of time hunting the perfect video? No, it's pretty easy, but the best ones come when you don't try. When you go out and say, I'm going to go find videos, it never works. It's when I'm taking a shit at a restaurant and I see a fanny pack hanging there

2:21:16and I know the guy's coming back for the fanny pack. And in my head, I already knew I was going to start a tug-of-war video with this guy. So I get my phone ready and everything works when you don't try. It's literally once I quit trying to squeeze onto things and accomplish things. So I have no goals in life, dude. I mean, I'm 50 years old, bro. And just being healthy and being around my family and just being a good person is all that matters. I want to do something positive with this platform. That's all I want to do is, is do something positive with it, bro. Like that's the least I to do is is do something positive with it bro like that's the least i can do i've had the most fun ever because of johnny hamcheck but i want to give back i want to do

2:21:58something with it positive man i don't know exactly what but it's uh it's gonna happen you know hopefully well if anybody can figure something out it's you man you it seems like you've lived a million lives man i think someone we didn't even really get to talk about. But, yeah, I just, I can imagine that. Like, I can imagine it's been a, it just, it sounds like it's been quite a journey, man. And, yeah, dude, thanks for pulling up today. Thanks for just spending some time together, dude. It's so funny, too, dude. The biggest prank of all is that you say you have two ponytails in the back. I don't have one even. You don't have any hair. Yeah. One video recently, the guy said, oh, you went completely the opposite direction. I was like,

2:22:42and it is one of the funniest things. And that's why I was happy to actually show. And everyone's going to say bald bony on the internet. And I love that one. One of's gonna say bald bony on the internet and i love that one one of my fans said bald bony and i love it and it's funny and it's great and i just don't just don't give a shit man it's it's all love and all fun and just you know i'm probably gonna take some videos down off the internet now oh no did i make you feel bad about it i'm sorry bro i'm totally i don't know what's right or wrong dude i'm just thinking out loud i'm messing with you like you mess with me dude like that fucking first conversation we had i don't know like i just couldn't keep up with you

2:23:20dude you're a genius and congrats on everything it's an honor to be here bro i can't tell you enough how how happy i am to actually just reveal who I am a little bit, you know? Oh, who runs this shit show, dude? It's a fucking— Dude, nobody knows what the hell's going on in this business, bro. Yeah, bro, nobody knows, bro. And that's life, dude. It is life. Dude, that is the truth, bro. Nobody knows what's going on in this business, dude. That is the truth. Dude, that's the thing that boggles my mind. You're telling me somebody created all this shit. Dude, we could talk forever about life, bro. But we could do it another time. Yeah, dude. Anytime you want. But yeah, dude, I'm glad you're out there busting people's ball bonies, dude.

2:24:02And it's fucking been an absolute blast to watch, bro. Johnny Hamcheck, bro. Love, bro. Thank you, brother. One love. watch bro uh johnny hamcheck bro love bro thank you brother one love now i'm just floating on the breeze and i feel i'm falling like these leaves i must be cornerstone oh but when i reach that ground i'll share this piece of mind i found i can feel it in my bones. But it's gonna take a little time.

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