This Past Weekend with Theo Von - The Man Who Overcame Tourette's： Marc Elliot ｜ This Past Weekend

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00:01:44.820 Today's episode is a young man who, I'll be honest with you, I don't know if he had Tourette's or not, if I'm being totally frank.

00:01:54.400 We were looking for a Tourette's guy, someone who had Tourette's or has had Tourette's.

00:01:59.240 A lot of our listeners know I beat down syndrome when I was young.

00:02:02.700 You know, the doctor said 95% chance that he has it, and then eventually said 40% chance.

00:02:08.040 And by the time I was like 11 years old, they're like 0% chance, maybe 5% chance.

00:02:13.180 So I understand people overcoming afflictions and rare diseases, but this guy, we wanted to have somebody in who had Tourette's.

00:02:21.900 And Tourette's is a French disease that made its way to America and afflicts millions of people, maybe even hundreds of millions.

00:02:29.120 And we had a fascinating conversation.

00:02:32.520 He was very kind to come in.

00:02:34.200 He's given TED Talks on the subject, and this is a man who found a way to master, you know, those, you know, one of the Lord's most dangerous and wild gifts, which is Tourette's. 0.97

00:02:49.280 Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today is TED Talker, author, and Tourette's defeater, Mr. Mark Elliott.

00:02:58.240 I'm sitting here, Mark Elliott.

00:03:11.580 Thanks for joining us today, brother.

00:03:13.360 Thanks for having me, Theo.

00:03:14.200 Yeah, I appreciate it, man.

00:03:15.860 And I was like, because you, you know, I was looking at some of your videos, looking at your TED Talk, and I was like, wow, this guy, you know.

00:03:25.380 So, at first, I was like, because it's about Tourette's, mostly about Tourette's syndrome, you know.

00:03:31.760 It's about a lot of things.

00:03:32.960 Yeah.

00:03:33.380 Yeah.

00:03:34.060 Well, okay, so then, well, tell me what Tourette's is, man.

00:03:37.140 So, if somebody doesn't know Tourette's, you know, like, what is it?

00:03:41.160 Okay, so, when I grew up.

00:03:44.540 Yeah.

00:03:45.000 Let me start there, because I think it's a little bit easier.

00:03:46.800 Okay.

00:03:47.120 The way that I understood Tourette's syndrome is that it's a neurological genetic disorder that's involuntary and has no cure.

00:03:55.780 Yeah.

00:03:56.160 It's like just somebody working freelance, really, on their own.

00:03:59.220 You know, it's somebody just, the Lord, I feel like, is just remixing somebody, and they're just kind of shook.

00:04:03.540 Well, you know, some people, I mean, it's sort of, I mean, it's bizarre when you see somebody, you know, ticking.

00:04:10.740 Because it's, obviously, if you know it, it's not as bizarre.

00:04:14.160 Yeah.

00:04:14.460 But, you know, just from, you know, if you're just walking, or you're at McDonald's, or you're walking somewhere, and you just start seeing someone bark like a dog.

00:04:22.100 Yeah.

00:04:22.560 Doing things uncontrollably, that, it's.

00:04:24.780 Oh, we had a dude named Jim Wager, and he would bust out the N-word every now and then, you know?

00:04:29.760 And I don't use the N-word, unless you do. 0.99

00:04:32.040 You know what I'm saying?

00:04:33.260 But he was this white guy, and he would just, and so, a lot of times, people would just take him over and, like, set him in, like, the black area of, like, the schoolyard, you know?

00:04:42.420 And just run off and, like, just wait for him to go off, you know?

00:04:46.820 And then, and that was kind of wild.

00:04:49.620 I mean, you know, like, so you have, I mean, I guess kids can be more cruel about it.

00:04:53.420 But, yeah, I guess for most people, if they think about it, like, if I think about it, I don't know about most people, but it's like, yeah, it's a disease, or it's a syndrome, or it's a thing where you are, like, involuntary.

00:05:05.660 It's almost like somebody is, like, you're a puppet of, you know, some dark lord or something.

00:05:11.300 Of a dark lord, yes.

00:05:12.760 I mean, some people did, I think some people believe that you actually are possessed by the devil kind of thing.

00:05:18.040 Oh, yeah.

00:05:18.200 Because it just, it looks, it looks, it's just intense when you're watching it.

00:05:22.020 Yeah.

00:05:23.320 But let me just explain a little bit of how I actually experienced it, because it sort of evolved over the years.

00:05:28.420 Okay.

00:05:29.100 But you had it.

00:05:29.940 You still have it, or you have it?

00:05:31.200 You had it.

00:05:32.000 I don't have it anymore.

00:05:32.920 You beat it.

00:05:33.900 I beat it.

00:05:34.420 Hell yeah, dude.

00:05:35.360 Hell yeah.

00:05:36.680 Wow, you beat it, man.

00:05:38.040 So, and I don't say that I cured it.

00:05:40.400 I mean, it was a journey.

00:05:41.920 Okay.

00:05:42.640 And we can talk, and I'm sure we'll talk about it more.

00:05:44.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:44.980 But basically, you know, I even posted some videos about this, but basically, the way that I experience Tourette's is that there's a very uncomfortable feeling on the inside.

00:05:54.520 Yes.

00:05:54.960 Okay.

00:05:55.560 So I always tell people, you know, think of an itch.

00:05:57.840 Right.

00:05:58.340 You know, so if you think of an itch right now, you'll probably just get one.

00:06:01.640 Right.

00:06:01.860 Which is how it works.

00:06:02.620 I don't know how that works with the mind.

00:06:04.060 Yeah.

00:06:04.300 Itch craft.

00:06:05.220 That's called itch craft. 0.91

00:06:06.340 Itch craft.

00:06:07.320 Yes.

00:06:08.380 So there's, see, exactly.

00:06:10.720 Yeah.

00:06:11.160 But yeah, you can start it.

00:06:12.380 You think it, you get it.

00:06:13.580 You start thinking about it.

00:06:14.720 Okay.

00:06:14.880 So there's this uncomfortable feeling in my body.

00:06:17.600 Okay.

00:06:18.220 And when I was a kid, the only way I knew how to get rid of that feeling was to, or to say a word.

00:06:27.880 Okay.

00:06:28.280 Or to, you know, hump my, thrust my hips, whatever it was.

00:06:33.760 Okay.

00:06:34.060 And as soon as I ticked, that itch went away.

00:06:37.700 Okay.

00:06:38.460 And it felt amazing.

00:06:39.640 Right.

00:06:40.040 You just feel so much better because that discomfort, whatever that itch is, it was gone.

00:06:46.500 Now, of course, when I was a kid, I didn't have that type of understanding about it though.

00:06:51.560 I just was, there was, so basically there's the itch.

00:06:55.980 Right.

00:06:56.000 You don't have an understanding of it.

00:06:57.100 So you're just living it.

00:06:58.480 I'm just living it.

00:06:59.300 And I wasn't like, oh, I have this, this itch and doing it.

00:07:02.780 It all was one big mesh kind of ball of Tourette's, you know? 1.00

00:07:08.200 Yeah.

00:07:10.060 And the, the, the thing is when you use that analogy though, you have to be careful because people could then, you know, say, well, why'd you just not scratch it?

00:07:18.440 Just don't, don't scratch it.

00:07:19.740 And, and that's a great question, but it's tough.

00:07:23.500 You know, imagine having 10, like instead of just that one itch that you might be feeling on your leg, imagine now having 10, 15, 20 itches all in one spot.

00:07:33.860 Yeah.

00:07:34.640 Oh, well then if somebody looks at you and says, I have an itch right now and I'm not scratching it, that person is, we usually, you know, that person's with Satan or that person is like a, that's a sociopath.

00:07:45.540 You know what I'm saying?

00:07:46.160 Imagine somebody leaning over to you and be like, Hey man, I have the biggest itch.

00:07:50.820 I'm like, you know, my, my leg is, my arm is itching so bad, but guess what?

00:07:54.340 I'm not going to scratch it. 0.92

00:07:55.340 You're like, what a psychopath, you know? 0.97

00:07:57.600 So yeah. 0.93

00:07:58.380 Wanting to scratch an itch, that's totally normal.

00:08:00.200 You can't not.

00:08:01.320 It's like you would do it no matter what.

00:08:03.300 Yes.

00:08:03.540 And growing up, I didn't, uh, I didn't know of any other way it could be.

00:08:08.700 Right.

00:08:09.280 That was just the way it was.

00:08:10.620 Right.

00:08:11.540 And so my definition of Tourette's now has sort of evolved over time, but this is kind of interesting for me.

00:08:18.200 And this is just my opinion.

00:08:19.240 Yeah.

00:08:19.480 That itch that I described to me, that's Tourette's syndrome.

00:08:24.320 Okay.

00:08:25.000 That feeling, whatever that is.

00:08:26.880 And then when you see somebody tick or somebody would see me tick, that was actually me in a sense, coping with my Tourette's.

00:08:35.880 Okay.

00:08:37.280 Does that make sense?

00:08:38.220 Yes, it makes sense.

00:08:39.180 So the itch is the Tourette's, the uncomfortability, the, you know, uh, the, you know, the baffling uncomfortability, the need to do something, the incontrollable desire to act.

00:08:50.960 Yes.

00:08:51.360 Um, that is the itch.

00:08:52.660 That's the Tourette's. 0.79

00:08:53.700 And then your reaction, your tick is a.

00:08:57.880 It's the release.

00:08:58.900 It's the way that I can get rid of that, that uncomfortable feeling.

00:09:02.040 Because as soon as that feeling goes away, you feel.

00:09:04.480 Normal.

00:09:05.000 You're normal.

00:09:06.200 Yeah.

00:09:06.340 But with Tourette's syndrome, it's difficult because that feeling comes right back.

00:09:10.980 Okay.

00:09:11.600 You know.

00:09:12.000 It starts to build up again.

00:09:13.140 Feel, you know.

00:09:14.000 Now, how, is there special ways, like I remember this one kid, like the same kid, this boy Jim Wager at school, they would put like, you know, if they laid him on the, no joke, they'd lay him on the ground and put like cement on his back.

00:09:24.840 Cement pieces.

00:09:26.020 And he would not get it for a while.

00:09:28.120 And it would like.

00:09:28.760 What do you mean cement pieces?

00:09:29.420 Calm him down.

00:09:30.140 Just like, you know, blocks, not cinder blocks, but thick kind of chunks of cement, you know?

00:09:36.660 So, and it would like, I don't know if that was the weight of it or something.

00:09:39.520 It would kind of like, you know, it would exacerbate the desire or the buildup, I guess, of the Tourette's in him, you know?

00:09:47.820 I mean, it was also kind of old school, you know, not doctor, you know.

00:09:52.600 You do whatever you can.

00:09:53.620 I mean.

00:09:53.780 Yeah.

00:09:54.020 But I remember, yeah, at one point they were stacking and then it got a little bit weird because people were just stacking pieces of cement on him, you know?

00:09:59.540 Like, and at one point he was basically in like a, I mean, it looked like he was in his own little 9-11 there, you know?

00:10:04.700 He was just like in a big pile of rubble.

00:10:06.540 But he wasn't.

00:10:07.320 Like a karate chopper.

00:10:08.440 Yeah, yeah.

00:10:08.660 It almost seemed like.

00:10:11.060 Dude, did you ever have that teacher that would come to school?

00:10:14.060 It was always like this weird teacher.

00:10:16.080 He would come to school and do like the karate presentation for the student body.

00:10:19.340 Did you ever have that?

00:10:19.960 Oh, you're bringing back some memory.

00:10:21.660 I mean, yes, a vague memory of like, you know, sort of like a 50-year-old man, like the huge, you know, in the white karate jersey, whatever you call it.

00:10:32.760 Yeah.

00:10:33.260 The gi.

00:10:33.860 The gi, thank you.

00:10:35.060 Yeah, that was a big thing in the South where every like other year or something, one teacher would put on like a skill they had.

00:10:41.020 And this one dude had nunchucks, I guess, you know, and he had an assistant and he literally, they started it and he hit this girl right in the neck.

00:10:49.800 So, and then they just shut it down.

00:10:51.620 No one with nunchucks knows how to use them.

00:10:53.700 Yeah, thank you.

00:10:55.180 Thank you, dude.

00:10:55.760 Was she okay?

00:10:56.360 And that should be a crime.

00:10:57.180 Oh, who knows?

00:10:58.200 I mean, this was a different time when they didn't care if everybody was okay, you know.

00:11:02.100 But anyway, so yeah, not trying to, you know, but I would see, I saw this, the only experience I had with being around somebody with Tourette's when I was young.

00:11:09.920 And this isn't about me, but it was just, you know, this boy that had it and how people would react to him.

00:11:16.320 And then, you know, people would do things like, I remember a lot of people would like kind of hug him or push on him sometimes.

00:11:22.260 And it would, it would make him kind of feel okay or comfortable for a little bit.

00:11:27.140 Did you find ways that made the Tourette's feel more comfortable to you or to kind of like quell it so that it didn't build up so fast?

00:11:35.780 Because like you said, you relieved it with a tick.

00:11:38.580 Yes.

00:11:38.900 You would release it or relieve it and then it would start to build up again.

00:11:42.160 I tried so many different things.

00:11:43.940 Okay.

00:11:44.220 I mean, I did medications.

00:11:46.720 Okay.

00:11:47.200 Well, the cool thing is with that analogy that I was describing with the itch and the scratch, now sort of looking back, I see that, and again, I'm not a doctor.

00:11:55.560 This is my diagnosis of how I saw it.

00:12:00.080 When you take medication, in a sense, that numbs the itch.

00:12:03.220 Okay.

00:12:03.980 So now if the itch is numbed, you have less of a desire to want to scratch that itch because you don't feel it as much.

00:12:09.960 So for a lot of people with Tourette's or sort of other neurological disorders like that, I think that's so beneficial and helpful to them because they don't have that desire.

00:12:19.400 Like you're not ticking as much.

00:12:20.920 Okay.

00:12:21.460 For me, though, the consequence and the ramifications were the side effects from the medication.

00:12:27.160 Oh, really?

00:12:27.820 Which basically like-

00:12:28.540 They got wild ones?

00:12:29.480 What is it?

00:12:31.100 Say that again?

00:12:31.900 What is some of the side effects?

00:12:32.720 Oh, some of the side, it was, I mean, I had sedation.

00:12:36.580 I mean, I just was sleeping all the time.

00:12:38.040 I mean, even one time I had really suicidal thoughts.

00:12:42.020 And I wasn't a really depressed person.

00:12:44.960 Right.

00:12:45.700 But it just, it messes with you.

00:12:48.980 Yeah.

00:12:49.420 And you're not the same.

00:12:51.300 It's sort of like there's this kind of wall or this sort of like buffer between-

00:12:56.220 You and the world?

00:12:56.840 Yeah, a little bit.

00:12:57.580 Or you and yourself almost a little bit.

00:12:59.960 That's probably more what it's like, you know?

00:13:02.520 That was my experience with it, you know?

00:13:04.200 I mean, that's a very accurate experience.

00:13:05.580 I've found that with antidepressants, it's like, yeah, I don't feel depressed, but I

00:13:10.120 also don't know if I'm 100% and I'm just sort of separated from my feelings overall.

00:13:16.120 So I don't feel as much of whatever my feelings are.

00:13:18.780 Yes.

00:13:19.560 And for somebody, that might be worth the trade.

00:13:21.740 Right.

00:13:22.200 But for you, that wasn't-

00:13:23.360 It was not worth it, no.

00:13:24.400 It wasn't worth it.

00:13:25.500 I mean, I was, yeah.

00:13:28.540 I mean, it's, and it's just tough.

00:13:29.700 I mean, you're in such a difficult position already, you know?

00:13:31.900 So, I mean, to be, for a lot of people in my situation, your tics are that bad, you're

00:13:37.220 trying to do whatever you can to end this.

00:13:39.200 You just, I just remember a lot of times crying because it was just so bad.

00:13:43.860 And it was like-

00:13:44.860 Wow.

00:13:45.400 And, you know, I was an interesting person.

00:13:47.700 And you definitely, you got diagnosed with it.

00:13:49.620 I was diagnosed.

00:13:50.380 I mean, I had-

00:13:51.440 It's not self-diagnosement.

00:13:53.260 This is not, yeah, I didn't have a self-diagnosis.

00:13:55.140 I mean, I started when I was real little.

00:13:57.300 So, I had, you know, like little things like sniffing and-

00:14:00.820 Oh, yeah.

00:14:01.520 My brother even put like a contraption on my nose when I was a kid because I was just like-

00:14:05.480 Like imagine, it wasn't sniffing.

00:14:06.760 It was like an outward sniff.

00:14:07.960 So, imagine like your little brother like constantly sniffing on your face.

00:14:12.000 So, he like tapes something on me.

00:14:13.840 Oh, yeah.

00:14:14.020 It's kind of cute, but it's, yeah.

00:14:14.060 I could see it being alarming after a while.

00:14:15.880 Alarming for, you know, just-

00:14:17.980 It's not even alarming like maybe something's wrong.

00:14:20.300 It's like, what's happening?

00:14:21.920 You know?

00:14:22.040 At a certain point, yeah.

00:14:22.860 It's like, this is weird.

00:14:23.120 Like, yeah, my brother's a French bulldog all of a sudden, you know, or something, you know?

00:14:29.120 So, I kept doing stuff like that.

00:14:31.140 And then, supposedly, the way it goes down is my dad was reading Ann Landers, which was-

00:14:38.300 I don't know if it's still around, but it's like a medical column or something on the newspaper.

00:14:42.560 Yeah, was she medical?

00:14:43.420 Was it medical, Ann Landers?

00:14:44.500 I know that-

00:14:45.120 What'd they have?

00:14:45.660 Dear Abby was self- 0.91

00:14:46.840 Something like that.

00:14:47.980 But some sort of self-help, yeah.

00:14:49.260 Yeah, you know?

00:14:49.600 She was like a grandma that gave you good advice.

00:14:51.480 Yeah, Ann Landers, yeah.

00:14:52.800 He was reading the article, and so the way I kind of imagine it, you know, he's reading

00:14:56.400 the article and sees me and reads the article and sees me, and eventually, he goes, you

00:15:00.340 know, maybe he's got Tourette's.

00:15:02.120 Right.

00:15:02.660 It was an article about Tourette's and the Ann Landers.

00:15:05.280 And we went to a neurologist, and, you know, there's no blood tests or anything like this.

00:15:09.680 This is-

00:15:10.340 Oh, really?

00:15:10.840 So, there's nothing like that?

00:15:11.940 There's nothing like that.

00:15:12.920 This is a behavioral thing.

00:15:14.660 Yeah.

00:15:14.880 I think in order to be diagnosed with Tourette's, you need to have both motor and vocal tics.

00:15:20.100 I had both at the time.

00:15:21.380 You had both?

00:15:21.780 I had both.

00:15:22.500 I mean, you were making the joke about the friend that you knew.

00:15:25.540 I used to tick the N-word as well. 0.54

00:15:26.820 Oh, yeah.

00:15:27.520 So-

00:15:28.260 Well, if you're going to do it, do it.

00:15:29.700 You know what I'm saying?

00:15:30.180 You got to go all out.

00:15:31.000 At least if I get busted saying it, dude, I don't have Tourette's, you know?

00:15:34.340 Or I might.

00:15:35.220 I'm going to put that out there.

00:15:35.800 That day you do.

00:15:36.700 Yeah, I'm going to put that out there right now.

00:15:38.220 But, yeah, it's like if somebody, you know, so you would say that.

00:15:42.700 You'd say you said them all.

00:15:43.700 I mean, it would get-

00:15:44.480 I did everything.

00:15:45.140 Did you have control?

00:15:45.960 Like, did you know if an N-word was coming? 1.00

00:15:47.580 You're like, oh, shit, I got to get to a white area of town? 1.00

00:15:50.440 I mean, that's pretty much how it was. 1.00

00:15:53.100 No way.

00:15:53.840 Well, the thing is, with the analogy that I was describing to you.

00:15:57.440 So, first off, I wasn't saying the N-word when I was, you know, in fourth grade.

00:16:01.940 Right.

00:16:02.140 But, you know, I've heard of some cases where, you know, you hear some kids are saying just inappropriate

00:16:07.240 things when they're young.

00:16:08.240 Yeah.

00:16:08.400 Not even that they have a- they're not even cognitive to understand what they're saying,

00:16:12.740 I don't even think, you know?

00:16:13.860 Right.

00:16:14.240 It's just maybe they know it's not a good word.

00:16:16.420 Right.

00:16:16.760 You know, or something like that.

00:16:18.000 But as I got older, I also had pretty serious OCD.

00:16:23.420 And OCD was basically, you know, obsessive compulsive disorder.

00:16:26.820 And it was basically the same thing as the Tourette's in the sense of there's this uncomfortable

00:16:31.100 feeling and I have to do something to get rid of this.

00:16:35.160 Okay.

00:16:35.300 So, the way that it manifested for me was, I would- I used to think of what's the riskiest

00:16:40.380 thing I could do.

00:16:41.680 And whatever the hell that was, that became my itch.

00:16:46.100 So, I used to stick-

00:16:46.800 Okay.

00:16:46.860 So, give me an example of that you're about to, I guess.

00:16:48.400 So, I used to stick my hand down the garbage disposal.

00:16:50.680 Oh, yeah.

00:16:52.460 Yeah.

00:16:52.900 My mom was- when she heard that I was doing that, that was- that didn't go over well.

00:16:56.720 Yeah.

00:16:57.000 That's a free basin.

00:16:58.100 And it's not that I don't like my fingers.

00:17:01.500 Yeah.

00:17:01.740 I mean, I'm so grateful to have my fingers, but there was just this-

00:17:04.820 You want to ride the darkness.

00:17:05.960 You want to ride the darkness.

00:17:08.100 Yeah.

00:17:08.740 And sometimes I would lift myself over the ledge of a- if I'm on a building or, you know,

00:17:15.320 at a friend's patio or something.

00:17:17.420 And then, when you're around people, I used to think of what's the riskiest thing I could

00:17:21.520 say.

00:17:21.900 Hmm.

00:17:22.480 And this isn't, you know, rocket science.

00:17:25.100 Right.

00:17:25.440 Think about any time you meet somebody.

00:17:27.180 Oh, yeah.

00:17:27.740 Within a half a second, you know- you could- you know three risky things you could say

00:17:32.460 to that person.

00:17:33.200 Mm-hmm.

00:17:33.700 That would either offend them or would be about their insecurity.

00:17:37.320 Yeah.

00:17:38.060 Within a half a second.

00:17:39.100 Oh, definitely, dude.

00:17:40.300 Yeah.

00:17:40.480 You know, so instantly, I would see someone. 0.82

00:17:42.880 So, if I saw, you know, a really fat person-

00:17:45.780 What would you say about Theo?

00:17:46.520 Yeah.

00:17:46.940 What would you say?

00:17:47.720 I maybe would say-

00:17:49.220 It's okay.

00:17:49.660 Well, the thing is, so growing up, you know, the mullet was something that was, like,

00:17:54.120 totally not okay.

00:17:55.100 Yeah.

00:17:55.460 For us.

00:17:55.820 You know, I would maybe tick, like, Hoosier.

00:17:57.920 Right.

00:17:58.560 Or mullet.

00:17:59.380 I would maybe start ticking mullet.

00:18:00.780 Oh, just start saying something.

00:18:02.260 So, it's like something that feels forbidden that you maybe wouldn't say.

00:18:05.100 Yes.

00:18:05.600 That thing starts to bubble up in the background.

00:18:07.260 Yeah.

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00:19:49.380 Don't laugh.

00:19:50.640 All right.

00:19:50.900 My bad.

00:19:53.120 So hold on.

00:19:53.900 Now, I'm curious about this because you know what to – so, like, say if I, you know,

00:19:59.320 look at you, right, and I would think, like, you know, I would think this, you know, the

00:20:06.060 first thing I would think would be, what's that store that's in all the malls?

00:20:11.560 You know, what's that –

00:20:13.640 You know that one.

00:20:14.580 I know the one that goes.

00:20:17.040 The one that goes that's in every mall where people buy, like, nice clothes, but it's

00:20:21.320 even in, like, smaller malls, too.

00:20:23.740 Banana Republic.

00:20:25.140 So I would think, like, Banana Republic, like, right when I saw you, you know, or, like,

00:20:28.480 J.Crew or something, you know, like, kind of like a put-together kind of, you know,

00:20:31.480 men's shop, right?

00:20:32.720 Okay.

00:20:33.000 And not – and so – but, like, yeah, I might not just say that right when I saw you.

00:20:37.100 You know, like, I wouldn't think of that even as a bad thing, but just like, oh, you

00:20:39.940 know, you see, the guy's nice.

00:20:40.960 He's put together.

00:20:41.620 So I think, oh, that might be something popping in my head.

00:20:43.600 Banana Republic, you know, J.Crew, you know, Wells Fargo, something in my head

00:20:48.320 that pops up, so then if I was just sitting there – now, is that an idea that comes

00:20:53.720 to you?

00:20:54.020 Here's what I'm asking, sorry.

00:20:55.540 Is it an idea that comes to you of something negative to say?

00:21:00.280 Yes.

00:21:00.880 Okay, so it's an idea.

00:21:02.260 I'm literally – I'm literally thinking, what's the worst thing I could say right now?

00:21:05.740 Okay.

00:21:06.540 And whatever that was, that became the itch.

00:21:08.640 I don't know the physics behind that, like, the mechanics of how that worked, especially

00:21:13.940 then, but it was just until I then said that word.

00:21:17.300 So if I was with you, oh, my God, I got to say mullet.

00:21:20.620 I got to say mullet.

00:21:21.520 And I'm – this dialogue is going on in my head.

00:21:24.260 Right.

00:21:24.860 And what was also hard about it – 1.00

00:21:26.620 But is it just being an asshole? 1.00

00:21:27.700 I mean, to some people, it's just – they're just being an asshole. 1.00

00:21:31.080 If they have that, what's the difference between somebody who's just an asshole and 1.00

00:21:34.740 somebody who has Tourette's, then I guess? 1.00

00:21:36.880 That's a good question.

00:21:40.540 The thing is, is that I don't think – I think it's more about the person's intent.

00:21:46.220 Okay.

00:21:48.380 You know, so where there's a lot of – there's people who say a lot of mean things to people.

00:21:54.900 Right.

00:21:55.360 And they are purposely trying to hurt the person.

00:22:01.740 Correct.

00:22:02.080 Meaning, you know, trying to degrade, trying to do something to take them down.

00:22:08.180 Yeah.

00:22:08.420 Where with me, with the Tourette's syndrome, and I think, you know, most people with Tourette's

00:22:11.980 syndrome, that wasn't what I ultimately was trying to do.

00:22:17.100 Mm-hmm.

00:22:17.240 Even though it seemed from the outside, dude, you're just saying – you're just saying

00:22:20.940 really offensive things.

00:22:21.920 Yeah.

00:22:22.200 And you mentioned that you were going to – I don't know if we were going to watch it

00:22:24.940 later or not, but there's a clip from South Park.

00:22:27.460 Yeah.

00:22:28.060 I don't know if that's one of the ones that you saw.

00:22:29.940 Yeah.

00:22:30.120 It is.

00:22:31.240 Yeah.

00:22:31.840 We have some – do you want to pop in on them now, Nick?

00:22:33.980 Sure.

00:22:34.700 Tourette's is like a cough or a sneeze.

00:22:36.720 It isn't contagious like some people think.

00:22:39.820 A lot of people with Tourette's have different tics.

00:22:42.300 My tic is that I have to bend my neck and step my fingers, but a lot of people don't even

00:22:47.200 notice it.

00:22:49.680 This really isn't all that fun. 1.00

00:22:52.020 Ah, shit! 1.00

00:22:55.920 Piss coming from my ass! 1.00

00:22:57.760 Ooh. 1.00

00:22:58.300 Is that Nick Swartzen?

00:22:59.380 I think the last one was actually Nick Swartzen.

00:23:01.980 Maybe Nick Swartzen has Tourette's.

00:23:03.340 Yeah, dude.

00:23:04.040 He might, bro. 1.00

00:23:05.340 He told me the other day he was going to shit out of his armpits. 0.99

00:23:08.780 And I think that – and that was in a Christmas card, so he certainly may have it. 0.99

00:23:13.560 Okay, so we see a clip like that, right?

00:23:16.220 I mean, first off, I'm laughing because I haven't seen that in a long time.

00:23:18.540 Right, right, right.

00:23:19.240 I mean, South Park is brilliant.

00:23:20.460 I mean, I think just them in general, I think they have a certain brilliance of how

00:23:24.200 they do things.

00:23:24.940 Yes.

00:23:27.100 Undeniable.

00:23:27.460 I had a – I really had a belief growing up that you have to make light of things.

00:23:34.180 Mm-hmm.

00:23:35.380 And I also – I had an amazing support system with my family, and I had a belief that if

00:23:42.160 I wanted to be – if I wanted people to be tolerant of me, I also needed to be tolerant

00:23:46.580 of people.

00:23:47.160 Okay.

00:23:47.900 Mm.

00:23:48.160 And, I mean, when I see that now, it's a little bit different from when I had it,

00:23:53.020 but it also was – I mean, it's really funny.

00:23:55.500 I mean, it's –

00:23:55.940 Oh, yeah, yeah, it's funny.

00:23:56.300 I mean, when he sees it when – the very first scene, when Cartman finds it, he learns

00:24:02.260 about Tourette's syndrome for a – he goes, I found the golden ticket, and he sings this

00:24:08.900 whole song, and, you know, to the –

00:24:11.660 Because he found a way to be able to say what he wants to say.

00:24:13.440 To say whatever he wants to say, yes.

00:24:14.880 Right.

00:24:15.060 And that's why I was thinking of – I thought of this clip, because when you were asking 0.99

00:24:18.080 about, you know, what's the difference between somebody who's just a jerk? 0.99

00:24:21.340 Right. 0.99

00:24:22.020 And it's – you know, I don't think most people with Tourette's view it that way.

00:24:27.820 Mm-hmm.

00:24:28.040 I don't think that they're the kind of person – or I know I wasn't –

00:24:32.560 Who would think – no, agreed.

00:24:33.560 You know, it's like – it's – you know, because – and this is the other thing to it.

00:24:37.660 So, there's funny parts to it, and it's great, and then there's also all the other

00:24:42.260 times you don't – it's not funny.

00:24:44.060 Right.

00:24:44.320 You know, like, I was – you know, I had an older brother that liked men and was gay. 0.63

00:24:50.880 Right.

00:24:51.840 That's tough to, you know, constantly be around your brother and say –

00:24:56.000 Oh, yeah. 0.97

00:24:56.600 And tick really offensive things for gay people. 0.96

00:24:58.960 Right, right. 0.91

00:24:59.840 So, yes, it is funny.

00:25:01.980 Mm-hmm.

00:25:02.560 And then there's also the pain –

00:25:04.880 Right.

00:25:05.960 – of what it's like to be in front of people.

00:25:08.220 I mean, I had black friends.

00:25:09.420 Yeah.

00:25:09.700 I had great black friends.

00:25:11.420 Yeah. 0.81

00:25:11.780 Ticking the N-word right in front of their face.

00:25:13.240 But then also, like, you are like a lesson for everybody in – you know, since it's

00:25:19.680 involuntary, you have the ability to be a way that everybody could kind of just learn

00:25:25.920 about, you know, tolerance, really.

00:25:28.880 You know, it's almost like you're just like kind of like this tutorial, kind of this bootleg

00:25:32.940 tutorial that's kind of floating around the universe when you have it of, you know, be

00:25:37.880 tolerant, you know, because it's not – it's coming from another realm, really.

00:25:43.320 It's not, you know, it's not like you're sitting there and you got a 30-second timer

00:25:47.220 and you clock in and then, you know, in 29 seconds you're going to straight up drop

00:25:51.420 an N-bomb, you know, or, you know. 0.67

00:25:55.740 That's crazy, though.

00:25:56.680 It's almost like – you're like the Bruce Willis of, like, profanity, kind of, I feel

00:25:59.540 like, you know.

00:26:00.260 Yeah.

00:26:01.020 I mean, it was – obviously, you know, every –

00:26:02.660 It was like pop quiz, hot shot.

00:26:04.320 I mean, everyone –

00:26:04.960 Nine seconds left on this before I yell fatty to everybody here in the cafeteria.

00:26:10.740 But it was more than just cuss words.

00:26:12.320 I mean, I'm taking racials, thirds, cuss words. 0.56

00:26:14.480 You know, if I, you know, walked up to somebody and they had a mole, I would start ticking

00:26:19.480 mole, you know, and that was right when –

00:26:24.200 Austin Powers.

00:26:24.820 Thank you.

00:26:25.620 Yes.

00:26:26.260 Austin Powers came out with the whole mole-y-mole, the guac.

00:26:29.080 Oh, yeah.

00:26:29.600 The whole scene.

00:26:31.620 I mean, that was real, though, for me.

00:26:33.540 The moles were hella popular then, dude. 1.00

00:26:35.200 They've gone back out of style.

00:26:36.820 I have noticed that, dude.

00:26:38.260 Along with Fred Savage.

00:26:39.280 That was Fred Savage that had that mole in Austin Powers.

00:26:41.280 Oh, it's true, huh?

00:26:42.460 And if you have a mole, dude, I had some moles when I was growing up, and I, like a

00:26:45.360 normal person, cut them all off one night when I was drunk in high school, which is

00:26:49.140 something I highly recommend to a lot of people, dude.

00:26:51.920 What happens?

00:26:52.700 Because I had the same thought a couple times.

00:26:54.160 Oh, I just took some toenail clippers and just sawed them all off, dude, and had a couple

00:26:57.700 of drinks.

00:26:58.320 One of them kept coming back for about six years, and finally I got to the root of it.

00:27:01.440 You got to get in there.

00:27:02.660 Get in there.

00:27:04.380 But you know one thing that's fascinating, man, when I hear you talk about this?

00:27:07.020 And look, we're just, yeah, we're joking about this in some light, you know?

00:27:10.300 It's like, but we're not, I'm not, you know, discrediting that, you know, the disease or

00:27:15.200 people that suffer from it, you know, at all.

00:27:19.380 Like, and I think it's, I think it's fascinating, man.

00:27:21.980 I mean, I couldn't, I'm trying to equate it to, like, what does it feel like?

00:27:26.840 Like, because I have this feeling inside of me sometimes that makes me want to, like,

00:27:30.860 do something bad, you know?

00:27:33.300 It's like a misbehavior almost.

00:27:35.400 It's like, and for me sometimes it's like a, you know, some people will call it like

00:27:38.700 an alcoholism or something inside of them that, like, it's like a restless, irritable, discontent

00:27:45.160 feeling.

00:27:46.160 And it's almost like when you see a power line and it's cut and it's on the street,

00:27:49.740 but it's still live, you know?

00:27:51.240 It's like, that's, that's the feeling I get inside of myself sometimes at night.

00:27:54.480 And it's like, I can't, it's like, I want to do something.

00:27:58.020 It's just like, I need to do something right now.

00:28:00.340 And I don't even know what it is, but it's like, I need to do something so I can just,

00:28:05.180 then I'll be okay.

00:28:05.900 What I don't even, I don't even know what it is.

00:28:07.840 But when you're talking about Tourette's, it made me think like, man, that's, I, that's

00:28:13.460 something like that I get, but it's in my whole being.

00:28:15.900 It's like in my, and I guess when you really have Tourette's and you have that, I can't

00:28:21.900 imagine, I have some control of whether or not I do something.

00:28:25.100 I can't imagine not having control and knowing that whatever this is, like a champagne bubble

00:28:30.260 is just going to bubble up to the surface of you.

00:28:32.440 Yeah.

00:28:32.880 I don't, I think it's actually pretty correct what you're saying.

00:28:35.440 I mean, I, I really believe sort of everybody has Tourette's now.

00:28:40.000 Yeah.

00:28:40.240 And again, I, I won't keep qualifying it, but it's, this is my experience now, you know,

00:28:46.720 of my journey of living with Tourette's for 20 years.

00:28:50.280 Right.

00:28:50.460 You know, my friends and I, we think when I wrote my first book, we were estimating, I

00:28:55.680 probably ticked around 25 million times, you know, that's like, comes out to like over

00:29:01.440 3000 times a day, you know?

00:29:03.260 So, you know, really experiencing Tourette's, knowing what it was like living with a day in

00:29:09.660 day out and then overcoming it and going through that journey.

00:29:12.540 Yeah.

00:29:13.500 I, I just, I, I, I think about it and feel about it very differently now.

00:29:17.920 And I sort of think that in a sense, we all have Tourette's.

00:29:21.320 Yeah.

00:29:21.820 And I, so I think it's, it does make sense that you say that as I'm describing it, you're

00:29:26.020 like, you know, I wonder if I feel, I think I know that feeling or might know that feeling.

00:29:30.900 Right.

00:29:31.000 I can relate a little bit to that feeling.

00:29:32.780 I really can.

00:29:33.600 And I don't mean that, I'm not saying that I can relate to having Tourette's, but I can,

00:29:37.000 when you said that, man, it's, it was very specific, like, man, that's the feeling that

00:29:41.580 I get.

00:29:42.280 It's like an uncontrollable thing and it, it's in me and I can feel it like, it's almost

00:29:48.640 like an amoeba or something that is like alive.

00:29:51.100 And it's like, it's not really in a specific spot, but it's like on the edge of my skin,

00:29:55.140 it's in my throat.

00:29:55.980 And it makes me want to do something, you know, it makes me want to, you know, for me, 0.99

00:30:02.080 it usually comes out in like a master, like masturbation, smoking cigarettes, it makes me 0.99

00:30:06.420 want to do something bad to myself. 0.99

00:30:07.900 That's what I feel like for me.

00:30:10.420 But yeah, so I can't, I can't, I can't imagine if you're just sitting there like nine years

00:30:16.020 old and you just feel the dark arts bubbling up.

00:30:19.520 Well, I don't, what I, what I don't know is why that feeling started for me, you know,

00:30:25.820 and.

00:30:26.380 Was there a time before that you didn't have it?

00:30:28.500 I mean, supposedly, you know, I started ticking when I was around four or five.

00:30:32.000 Okay.

00:30:33.340 And so whatever it was, you know, my, my body, whatever it was, just, let's say it is genetic.

00:30:42.740 Let's just say it is, you know, I mean, I, I experienced it way less that way, but who knows,

00:30:47.260 but maybe my, uh, you know, one of my mentors said to me, you know, maybe your body had a

00:30:52.180 genetic predisposition towards feeling that feeling.

00:30:55.100 Right.

00:30:55.660 Okay.

00:30:56.020 So maybe my body was more sensitive in feeling that feeling.

00:31:00.540 And as I just grew up, you know, as a little kid and you feel that feeling, what do you

00:31:05.000 do as a little kid?

00:31:05.740 If you feel uncomfortable.

00:31:06.720 Yeah.

00:31:07.220 You do whatever you can to not feel uncomfortable.

00:31:09.440 Right.

00:31:10.060 So literally this is how I hypothesize it.

00:31:12.000 Yeah.

00:31:12.540 I'm sitting there one day.

00:31:14.380 I'm making this up.

00:31:15.260 Yes.

00:31:15.560 I have a feeling and I go, Oh, I don't like that.

00:31:19.640 Okay.

00:31:20.020 I feel better.

00:31:20.700 Right.

00:31:21.040 Done.

00:31:21.960 And the 20 seconds, two minutes, five minutes go by and all of a sudden the feeling comes

00:31:25.220 back again.

00:31:26.060 And I go, Oh, I know how to get rid of that feeling.

00:31:28.280 Yeah.

00:31:29.120 Yeah.

00:31:30.520 And it just goes on and on and on.

00:31:33.640 So the way that I think about my Tourette's is that in a sense that I, it was a type of positive

00:31:38.440 feedback loop that, um, I just continued to do and I didn't ever learn.

00:31:44.520 Like a self-soothing type of thing.

00:31:45.880 Yeah.

00:31:46.160 And I never learned a different way to deal or cope with that feeling.

00:31:50.040 Right.

00:31:50.580 You know, it wasn't, uh, and who knows if you would have, this was probably your, because

00:31:54.500 a lot of times naturally you'll do what you need to do.

00:31:57.060 So, yeah, you know, and some people, I don't know the exact statistic, but you know, 50,

00:32:01.460 maybe 50% of people grow out of Tourette's, you know, and some people's tics wax and wane

00:32:06.100 and different things.

00:32:07.540 And so, you know, everyone's got a different body, a different, they relate to their body

00:32:11.940 differently, sensations in their body.

00:32:14.300 Yeah.

00:32:14.760 Um, you know, all these different kinds of things.

00:32:17.040 So, um, and do you have to now say, if, are there people who are diagnosed with, like,

00:32:24.260 do you, does a doctor diagnose you?

00:32:26.400 Is it, how does the diagnosis go?

00:32:29.220 Because when I saw it, when I, when I was like watching some of your tech, I was like,

00:32:33.080 this guy doesn't have any, this guy seems fine.

00:32:35.180 You know, this guy seems good.

00:32:38.060 You know?

00:32:39.020 Well, it's, it just depends on what, when, what videos you saw and when.

00:32:44.340 Right.

00:32:44.620 Now, yes.

00:32:45.140 When you go back to the ones from you growing up and different points in your life and

00:32:48.240 showing like, it's like, oh, wow, that would be, I couldn't imagine that.

00:32:52.020 Would we have the ability to play the tick compilation?

00:32:54.560 Yes, absolutely.

00:32:55.200 Yeah, let's get some ticks out. 0.98

00:32:56.540 No, let's get them.

00:32:57.480 Uh, it's, it's your, Mark Elliott tick.

00:32:58.960 You would just type in Mark Elliott tick compilation.

00:33:01.300 Okay.

00:33:01.680 Let's, I want to see these bad boys, dude.

00:33:03.880 Because I'm not sure which one you, yeah, which videos you saw.

00:33:06.940 And can you put some, uh.

00:33:09.160 There'll be sound with it.

00:33:09.880 Put some trap, trap music in the background.

00:33:12.180 Have you ever done that?

00:33:13.180 Have you remixed your ticks?

00:33:15.680 Dude, how have you not remixed your ticks, dude?

00:33:17.640 We'll have, somebody, uh, somebody, uh, fan of the show will definitely, uh, put some

00:33:22.120 trap music to, to Rats, dude.

00:33:24.940 How do they not have that?

00:33:26.720 I think, well, they have it now.

00:33:28.100 Yeah, dude, you could have a whole album.

00:33:30.920 Oh.

00:33:35.340 So this, once I beat it, I used to then play this clip.

00:33:39.740 Really?

00:33:39.940 At the beginning of my speeches because no one would believe me that I had to Rats.

00:33:42.700 It's that you had it.

00:33:45.640 Oh.

00:33:49.620 Um.

00:33:50.440 Um.

00:33:54.360 And it. 1.00

00:33:56.760 Can you say, can you say, fuck, fuck, fuck. 1.00

00:33:59.480 I have Tourette's, by the way, just want to throw that out there, okay? 1.00

00:34:02.060 Come on, come on. 0.99

00:34:04.020 Here you go.

00:34:04.660 Here.

00:34:05.400 Here you go.

00:34:06.080 Here.

00:34:08.420 I said, come here, I've got Tourette's, I've got Tourette's, I've got Tourette's.

00:34:11.600 Oh.

00:34:11.780 What's that, guy?

00:34:13.740 We're trying to buy something from you?

00:34:15.340 No, this was a security guard at the library.

00:34:17.800 Oh.

00:34:21.040 He was actually very gracious.

00:34:31.580 He was.

00:34:35.420 So was this, is this something that, so you have this bite, it's like a sound and a biting

00:34:39.580 for it.

00:34:39.840 Some people will only be able to hear this.

00:34:42.200 Um.

00:34:42.660 I won't get it.

00:34:42.840 It's me going like this.

00:34:43.800 Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut.

00:34:45.800 Yeah.

00:34:45.820 It's basically like Peyton Manning.

00:34:47.200 You're like Drew Brees, basically, but no one's ever snapping the ball, kind of.

00:34:51.400 Now, was this something you have?

00:34:52.460 I'm reliving, I'm living my dream of being a QB, right?

00:34:55.100 All the time, just nonstop.

00:34:57.680 But that was so.

00:34:58.600 Dude, blue 42, you throw in two blue 42s right there, bro.

00:35:01.980 It must be an arrowhead or something, because they can't see him, so it just keeps yelling

00:35:05.400 hot.

00:35:05.680 Yeah.

00:35:06.840 And it's a feeling that's, for that, you know, it's a feeling in my teeth, it's a feeling

00:35:12.480 in my throat.

00:35:14.880 How does this relate to like a cerebral palsy almost?

00:35:17.140 Because you, now, because that I feel like, or like a, I'm trying to think of something

00:35:21.520 that would be like the deep end of maybe along that same spectrum, you know, where it like

00:35:25.820 gets to so much where you can't even.

00:35:28.560 I don't know it enough.

00:35:29.880 The way that a doctor explained to me pretty early on, they described Tourette's syndrome

00:35:35.520 as the mother disorder to me.

00:35:36.980 Okay.

00:35:37.540 Because we're talking in the realm of neurological genetic sort of involuntary disorders, because

00:35:44.820 you can't really compare Tourette's to like MS.

00:35:48.600 Oh, that's what I was thinking about, MS.

00:35:49.820 Or Parkinson's and things like that in the same way, because with my very little knowledge

00:35:55.260 of those kinds of things, like, you know, like a tremor is, that's something that's

00:35:59.940 happening truly not at the will of the person.

00:36:04.300 Like if you have Parkinson's, I think, it's like, you know, their arm is shaking.

00:36:07.460 It's not just like, oh, I have this itch and I need to keep going like this.

00:36:10.860 But it's like they're, the physiology is doing that.

00:36:15.460 Where with the Tourette's, it's not like my mouth was, it's not that my mouth just did

00:36:21.760 that from a divine.

00:36:23.960 Right.

00:36:24.720 It's, I'm saying, Mark, okay, you need to move your mouth now.

00:36:29.980 Okay, I feel better.

00:36:31.120 To get better.

00:36:31.740 Yeah.

00:36:31.860 So that's why it's different the way that I, that a way that I understand it.

00:36:35.600 But, but it is the mother disorder.

00:36:37.360 Okay.

00:36:37.600 So underneath it, they would just, so the mother, so it's kind of the root of some of

00:36:41.600 those other disorders you're saying when you said the mother disorder.

00:36:43.960 Well, I don't know if it's the root, but he, the way he described it is if there's

00:36:46.640 this umbrella and the top is Tourette's, there's a lot of comorbid disorders.

00:36:51.460 Okay.

00:36:51.720 So like ADD, ADHD, social anxiety, anxiety, OCD, those kinds of things.

00:36:57.380 And oftentimes people that are diagnosed with Tourette's, those other disorders are much

00:37:01.540 more debilitating than the ticking itself.

00:37:04.000 Right.

00:37:04.360 You know, cause if you've got really bad OCD, I mean, that can really mess with you and

00:37:10.780 limit you and what you can do in life.

00:37:12.840 Oh yeah.

00:37:13.120 We had a dude I remember in school and he had a, um, I guess it was like a big bag or something

00:37:19.320 and every, I mean, two, three times a day he'd have to get in this bag.

00:37:23.860 It was like a huge duffel bag, you know, like a ski equipment bag.

00:37:27.100 And this dude would just get in it, yeah, get in it, zip it up and then get back out.

00:37:30.520 You know, it was like, he was like a magician, like he worked like a magician's assistant,

00:37:34.420 but there was no magician.

00:37:36.180 You know, you just see this dude just lay his bag down, get in a bag, zip it up from

00:37:40.600 the inside, then unzip it and get back out and just sit back at his desk.

00:37:44.280 There he goes again. 0.98

00:37:45.060 And it was just like, damn, you know, Lonnie's bagging himself, you know, and everybody was 0.99

00:37:49.080 just losing their minds. 0.99

00:37:50.040 But, um, but I think it's funny the different, you know, like, man, I can, you know, the more

00:37:56.640 you say some of this stuff, man, and I'm not trying to make this about me at all, but it

00:38:00.400 makes me think a lot about how people describe alcoholism, you know, how they describe it

00:38:06.280 like it is this thing that they just feel like they have to do.

00:38:12.000 There's a, something inside of them that is an uncomfort that makes them then feel like

00:38:17.380 they have to engage in drugs, alcohol, illicit activities to quell the uncomfort.

00:38:22.560 It's not like most of the time it's not people like, oh, I love the taste of beer all the

00:38:26.720 time.

00:38:26.960 That's why I drink or that's why I love cocaine.

00:38:29.260 It's like there's an uncomfort and to quell it, these are the things that I'm using, you

00:38:34.980 know?

00:38:35.860 Um, so it's really fascinating because it sounds in some ways like some of the roots are the

00:38:40.180 same.

00:38:40.500 There's an uncomfort that builds up and then you are doing your.

00:38:47.380 You're doing something just to relieve it, just to make it go away.

00:38:50.300 It's not, and it's going to come back.

00:38:53.100 Yes.

00:38:53.560 And so how do you get from where you were then to where you are now, where now, you know,

00:39:00.780 you don't, you are, uh, you know, recovering, you're recovering Tourette's.

00:39:07.720 I'm a recovering ticker.

00:39:09.060 A recovering, what is it called?

00:39:10.100 No, I made the joke, a recovering ticker.

00:39:11.860 Oh yeah.

00:39:12.440 Hey, a recovering ticker.

00:39:13.160 Um, I just want to say, you know, I, I, I do understand what you're saying and I don't

00:39:17.320 think it's that far of a stretch.

00:39:19.140 Right.

00:39:19.500 What you're describing.

00:39:20.880 Yeah.

00:39:21.200 Um, which I know is a sensitive issue.

00:39:23.160 Yeah.

00:39:23.400 Yeah.

00:39:23.500 And I, and I know it is too.

00:39:24.700 Yeah.

00:39:25.080 And so, uh, you know, because we also just live in very sensitive times right now.

00:39:30.500 Yeah, that's true.

00:39:31.100 You know, and so it's, it's difficult because some of the things that I'm trying to say,

00:39:35.520 it's, it's a delicate balance because I'm one, I'm sharing my experience.

00:39:39.640 Right.

00:39:40.560 Um, I do believe though that by sharing some of my experience, it might shed light into

00:39:45.220 other people's experience of them dealing with Tourette's.

00:39:48.260 Yeah.

00:39:48.600 Because growing up, I only saw it one way.

00:39:52.280 Hmm.

00:39:53.680 It was, you have Tourette's, this neurological genetic disorder that's involuntary and has

00:39:58.600 no cure.

00:39:59.320 So, uh, you know, with respect to that feeling, this is kind of the way I think about it.

00:40:03.780 So if there's that feeling, and as I got older, I had more of that awareness about, okay, look,

00:40:08.120 I've got this itch and this scratch.

00:40:09.520 I don't know how else to change it though.

00:40:11.120 This is, this is, this is my.

00:40:13.300 It's like the itchy and scratchy show from, uh, Simpsons a little bit, but like in one person.

00:40:17.700 In one person.

00:40:18.460 Yeah.

00:40:18.680 Can you imagine?

00:40:19.220 It's basically like Tom and Jerry constantly.

00:40:21.360 All the time.

00:40:21.960 And you're both characters.

00:40:24.700 I'm both characters.

00:40:25.380 And it's also, I'm, it was a war zone on the inside.

00:40:28.680 Wow.

00:40:29.000 Because not only was I just, you know, one thing, if it was just myself on the planet and

00:40:34.340 there's not a single person, it's just me all day scratching.

00:40:37.640 Right.

00:40:38.000 You know, but it was, you know, I, I, I didn't have a lot of self-confidence.

00:40:42.080 I'm, so I'm thinking about the feeling and then I'm going, oh my God, I'm about to take

00:40:45.940 mullet.

00:40:46.380 What's Theo going to think about me?

00:40:47.540 Oh my God, is he going to be offended?

00:40:48.720 Oh my God, what's going on?

00:40:49.500 And all this is going on through my head or imagine, you know, you're about to say the

00:40:54.320 N word.

00:40:54.620 Yeah.

00:40:55.180 Yeah.

00:40:55.420 Or when I was in an airport, I would take bomb all the time, you know, things like that.

00:40:59.920 So it's, you know, or I mean more funny ones too.

00:41:03.480 Or even when I was with a girl, I would take other girls' names.

00:41:06.500 Really?

00:41:06.660 I would take the P word or not. 0.99

00:41:07.940 You say vagina? 1.00

00:41:08.480 I would take P word everything, man. 0.99

00:41:10.020 It was crazy, you know?

00:41:11.080 That would be so crazy.

00:41:12.680 Imagine if right when you pick a girl up and you're like, uh, drop her off early.

00:41:16.940 You just, she can tell immediately if you're interested or not.

00:41:20.240 The funny thing is one time there was a girl.

00:41:22.200 That's crazy.

00:41:22.960 No, there was a, this girl.

00:41:24.380 At least you get it out of your system. 0.98

00:41:25.380 The rest of us have to mill around all night, you know, just bullshitting, spending $40

00:41:30.340 at Chili's and then we got to take the girl and we're not even interested.

00:41:34.640 It's more of a test.

00:41:35.480 So if you say it, you kind of just see where they're at.

00:41:38.000 And then, but what the funniest thing was one of those uncomfortable things wasn't even

00:41:42.440 a sexual term.

00:41:43.700 It was, I met a girl, just, I just, I was crazy about this girl.

00:41:47.840 We go on the first date and I start ticking.

00:41:50.300 I love you.

00:41:51.340 Oh.

00:41:52.060 The first date.

00:41:52.960 I mean, that is, that was painful in a way.

00:41:56.920 Oh, that's painful.

00:41:57.940 I do.

00:41:58.220 I've done that over text here where you get a girl's number and then seven minutes later 0.87

00:42:00.840 you're like, I love you.

00:42:02.560 And then you get blocked.

00:42:04.180 I think I have text rats, but no man.

00:42:07.640 And I shouldn't have made a joke out of that moment.

00:42:09.300 That's a real moment, man.

00:42:10.280 I, I can't imagine that dude, because then it's like, well, did that start to show you

00:42:15.740 something like unique about like feelings and stuff though?

00:42:18.540 Because then it's like, you know, save you, because there is something funny.

00:42:23.260 If you meet a girl and like in your head, you know, you go off on, you know, this adventure

00:42:26.740 like, oh, I'm in love with this girl or something special.

00:42:29.200 And, and sometimes that happens just immediately out of the gate, you know, you'll, and within

00:42:33.140 two minutes you have all of these, you know, you guys are living in a castle and she's beautiful

00:42:36.660 and there's all these perfect things going on in your head.

00:42:38.820 And did you start to find that sometimes your Tourette's was a good, like crystal ball

00:42:44.060 of people that were like good people or people that meant something to you?

00:42:49.340 I didn't feel it that way.

00:42:50.520 You didn't?

00:42:51.000 It was just a nightmare.

00:42:52.060 It was.

00:42:52.560 It was.

00:42:53.040 But you know what I'm saying?

00:42:53.860 I know what you're saying, but it just was.

00:42:55.620 It wasn't that.

00:42:56.320 It wasn't that at all.

00:42:57.260 Oh man.

00:42:57.560 It really was.

00:43:00.140 I had no control over my mind.

00:43:02.960 Yeah.

00:43:03.320 No control over my body.

00:43:04.740 Yeah.

00:43:04.980 And that is why though, I think it relates to so many things because that feeling, whatever

00:43:11.400 it is for people, we all have these feelings and so often don't feel we have control.

00:43:17.640 And what makes Tourette's unique, I think is that, and again, I haven't been an alcoholic.

00:43:22.260 I haven't done these things, but for all of us that have that feeling, you know, if you

00:43:26.920 have that uncomfortable feeling and you want to get a drink, you have to go get a drink.

00:43:30.000 Or if you want to overeat or you want to just eat to cover that feeling, you got to go to

00:43:34.300 the refrigerator, whatever it is.

00:43:36.820 With Tourette's syndrome, you don't have to go anywhere for it.

00:43:39.780 It's just right in your body.

00:43:41.880 It's like a one-stop shop.

00:43:42.760 It's just a one-stop shop.

00:43:44.120 So I, you know, in some sense, I think that's what makes it unique, but I think what also

00:43:48.820 then makes it very universal is, is that we all, and I think there's, you know, as a

00:43:53.480 society, we have trouble dealing with those feelings.

00:43:56.760 And I just learned a very specific way to do it, genetic or not, it doesn't really matter.

00:44:02.100 That was just how it went for me.

00:44:05.360 That you learned a very specific way to deal with that feeling.

00:44:08.340 And what I think makes it also different is, you know, when somebody, like, have you ever,

00:44:12.240 you know, been uncomfortable and you just go to the refrigerator?

00:44:14.740 Oh, yeah.

00:44:15.140 You don't even realize it.

00:44:16.320 Maybe you just, you're just all of a sudden at the refrigerator.

00:44:19.440 The thing is, we don't call that a medical condition.

00:44:21.960 Right.

00:44:23.240 That's just you dealing.

00:44:25.140 Snacking, yeah.

00:44:25.840 Snacking, you know?

00:44:27.360 And again, it's not like snacking is the same thing, the same dynamic.

00:44:31.200 No, no, we're not saying that.

00:44:31.880 It's okay.

00:44:32.380 You can, you know, for a kid that's ticking.

00:44:34.140 Our audience isn't a bunch of freaks, man.

00:44:35.540 Our audience is like totally, you know, usually understanding about like, you know, discussing

00:44:39.340 things.

00:44:39.680 But I think it's neat is that for me, when I started to shift my perception that way with

00:44:44.740 help, everything changed.

00:44:46.440 But I want to know what is, so it seemed like you had, you started to find some solution for

00:44:51.680 yourself in that moment.

00:44:52.680 But, so, as I was describing with the metaphor, is it a metaphor and analogy?

00:44:59.320 I'm not sure.

00:44:59.960 It's okay.

00:45:00.260 It's okay.

00:45:00.820 Dude, yeah.

00:45:01.340 I don't know anything and everybody's been listening for a while now.

00:45:04.120 Yeah.

00:45:04.560 I think our audience is pretty understanding.

00:45:05.940 Okay, so that, if I've got that dynamic, I got this itch and I got this scratch.

00:45:10.400 Basically, when I was a kid, doctors told me, hey, that itch, by the way, that's a neurological

00:45:15.780 genetic involuntary thing.

00:45:18.780 You got it.

00:45:19.280 Just let it go.

00:45:19.800 So, imagine, as a kid, what do you think I'd do when they tell me that?

00:45:25.400 That just becomes, basically, the law of gravity.

00:45:28.980 Like, I don't even question that, ever.

00:45:30.880 You don't even question what the desire to act out or do something or say something strange?

00:45:35.100 No, because it's, they told me, that's...

00:45:37.300 That's just science.

00:45:38.640 That's gravity.

00:45:39.260 That's your gravity.

00:45:39.900 Yes, that's Tourette's.

00:45:40.660 Right.

00:45:41.160 And remember, it's no cure.

00:45:43.520 This is involuntary.

00:45:44.760 This is genetic.

00:45:46.000 Yeah.

00:45:46.200 I mean, think of those words as a child, as you're hearing those words.

00:45:49.820 Like, it's genetic.

00:45:50.940 It's, you know, neurological, you know.

00:45:53.320 Well, especially if, yeah.

00:45:54.400 Yeah, yeah.

00:45:55.220 Oh, I would think it would very much sentence you to a way of thought and belief.

00:45:58.320 Yeah.

00:45:58.860 And these were great doctors, by the way.

00:46:01.160 Yeah.

00:46:01.460 These were good people.

00:46:02.700 I even know some of them still, you know.

00:46:04.340 But why then, as a child, with respect to this whole itching and scratching and ticking and all this stuff, why would I ever evaluate it again?

00:46:14.520 Or even know how to evaluate it.

00:46:16.080 Right.

00:46:16.800 It's just, okay, this whole thing that's going on, this is Tourette's.

00:46:21.400 Right.

00:46:21.640 It's all just under one big label of Tourette's syndrome.

00:46:24.740 Okay.

00:46:25.180 So, what took you out of that, then?

00:46:26.740 And I know you're getting there.

00:46:27.780 So, just, I wanted to preface that, because that helps see, it's like, why would you ever question that?

00:46:31.500 Right.

00:46:31.900 Like, if people tell you, like, yeah, you'll never bend your leg from a kid, and you're a child, then you'll just probably think your whole life you never will.

00:46:38.900 Exactly.

00:46:39.340 Yeah.

00:46:39.640 And rarely would some people even think to go back and think, well, can I bend my leg?

00:46:43.160 Yes.

00:46:43.620 And when I speak, oftentimes, you know, I talk about with childhood, like, we're told so many things as a kid.

00:46:49.480 Oh, yeah.

00:46:50.300 That some are totally true, and some are totally false, though.

00:46:53.820 Yeah.

00:46:54.540 So, you know, this is just what you're told.

00:46:56.840 And the thing is, is the one caveat to that is, as a kid, you don't know the difference between what's true and false.

00:47:02.760 Right.

00:47:03.540 So, you don't know the difference between Santa Claus and eat your veggies.

00:47:06.660 Yeah.

00:47:07.080 It's the same thing.

00:47:08.060 Oh, it's interesting.

00:47:08.660 I was thinking about that last night, that kids believe that Santa Claus exists. 0.99

00:47:11.780 That's fucking baffling, dude. 0.99

00:47:13.420 It's baffling. 1.00

00:47:14.040 Do you believe there's a senior citizen in the sky?

00:47:16.000 You know what I'm saying?

00:47:16.840 Traveling like that?

00:47:17.960 They'd shoot him down over half these countries.

00:47:20.880 Somalia.

00:47:21.240 In this day and age.

00:47:22.080 Oh, you know how many other small sleighs would pull up alongside him in Somalia? 1.00

00:47:26.260 Steal all of his shit? 1.00

00:47:28.280 Pirates. 1.00

00:47:28.780 Yeah.

00:47:29.100 Different times, you know.

00:47:30.500 But, yeah, but as a kid, we believe that wholeheartedly.

00:47:33.140 So, it really does take you into the mind of a kid.

00:47:35.800 It's good to try that on, right?

00:47:37.620 Right.

00:47:37.980 So, then when I was older, I guess this is now eight, nine years ago, I met this other speaker,

00:47:43.940 and he introduced me to these amazing classes called Executive Success Programs.

00:47:47.380 And these courses had nothing to do with Tourette's, nothing at zero to do with Tourette's.

00:47:53.680 Okay.

00:47:54.300 These are classes that teach people about emotional intelligence, fears, limiting beliefs, all

00:48:02.640 those sorts of things.

00:48:03.560 Things that you don't learn in regular school.

00:48:05.320 Right.

00:48:06.100 So, when he-

00:48:07.240 Was the dude named Gary that did it?

00:48:09.240 Gary?

00:48:09.800 Yeah.

00:48:11.180 That did what?

00:48:12.020 Told you about the classes.

00:48:13.000 No, his name was Daniel.

00:48:14.100 Oh, sorry.

00:48:14.700 That's so funny.

00:48:15.220 You're a mind reader as well.

00:48:16.220 No, I just know a dude named Gary, and he sent me some links, but I was just wondering

00:48:19.600 if it was the same guy, Gary Whitehill.

00:48:21.760 I don't know Gary Whitehill.

00:48:23.000 Yeah.

00:48:23.360 Great guy.

00:48:24.840 So, the cool thing was, I ended up finally going to the classes.

00:48:28.600 Again, zero to do with Tourette's syndrome.

00:48:30.680 Okay.

00:48:31.120 They just teach you about the human psychodynamic.

00:48:34.160 So, I ended up going through the classes.

00:48:35.800 It's a 16-day course.

00:48:37.560 And after the first five days, I started to learn so much about myself, of just how I work.

00:48:43.460 And again, when I say I learned about myself, literally what I'm saying is, you go to school

00:48:48.060 to learn about math, arithmetic, well, that's math.

00:48:53.080 Yeah.

00:48:53.520 Is it?

00:48:54.080 But also, yeah.

00:48:56.440 You learn about those things, right?

00:48:57.940 Yeah.

00:48:58.800 Outdoors.

00:48:59.580 Those kinds of things.

00:49:00.280 But when you're an adult, right?

00:49:01.800 There's a bunch of things at school, most schools, general public doesn't teach you about

00:49:05.780 like, how do you deal with fear?

00:49:07.880 How do you deal with failure?

00:49:09.460 Yeah.

00:49:09.780 Like, things that are very real for all of us.

00:49:12.460 And you're just kind of supposed to figure it out when you're older, kind of thing.

00:49:15.360 Yeah.

00:49:15.540 Like, how is race relations not a class that they have in elementary school?

00:49:18.700 You know what I'm saying?

00:49:18.880 All of that stuff.

00:49:19.560 Yes.

00:49:19.940 Okay.

00:49:20.900 Unbelievable.

00:49:21.780 And how do you- 1.00

00:49:22.400 We're still teaching kids about a fucking Gerald Ford dude. 0.99

00:49:24.980 You know what I'm saying? 0.99

00:49:25.920 Who I think played for the Celtics or was a president. 0.99

00:49:28.020 Who gives a fuck is what I'm saying. 0.99

00:49:29.780 You know what I'm saying? 0.99

00:49:30.260 Yeah.

00:49:30.620 Emotional intelligence should be the number one thing we're teaching kids after how to communicate.

00:49:35.160 Play for the Lions.

00:49:36.540 Who does he play for the Lions?

00:49:37.460 He did.

00:49:37.820 Gerald Ford?

00:49:38.440 Gerald Ford, I'm pretty sure, back in the day.

00:49:40.220 Did he?

00:49:40.520 No?

00:49:40.860 I could see that, actually.

00:49:41.840 Is that not true?

00:49:42.700 Did I make that up?

00:49:43.380 I'm sorry.

00:49:43.640 I could see that.

00:49:44.080 It's okay.

00:49:44.500 I have no idea.

00:49:45.100 Go on.

00:49:45.540 But the point is, I didn't learn about those kinds of things.

00:49:48.280 And I started going through it.

00:49:49.460 I started learning about these things.

00:49:50.840 Right.

00:49:51.960 And a lot of-

00:49:52.600 In the executive, what is it called again?

00:49:53.660 It's called Executive Success Programs.

00:49:55.080 Okay.

00:49:55.540 So I started to learn a lot about the nature of fear as well.

00:49:58.600 Now, with OCD, remember, I also had really bad OCD.

00:50:03.720 And I started, like, starting putting pieces together.

00:50:06.940 I go, you know what?

00:50:07.700 Like, maybe that feeling that I've been talking about.

00:50:10.880 I go, maybe there's-

00:50:12.180 I have a bunch of fears around it.

00:50:13.840 Because there was, you know-

00:50:15.340 Remember, it's like you have to do something to feel better.

00:50:17.880 So if you don't do it, it's not okay.

00:50:20.740 Right.

00:50:21.000 And I started realizing, like, maybe I have some fears there.

00:50:25.420 So right after the first five days, I ended up going down to Panama.

00:50:31.820 I had a bunch of speaking gigs in Panama. 0.98

00:50:34.280 And with my OCD and stuff, with the Tourette's, I had a bunch of shit around my face and touching. 0.94

00:50:40.640 You maybe have heard of people like this. 0.97

00:50:41.940 Oh, yeah.

00:50:42.560 It's like, you can't-

00:50:43.080 You know, because germs and all the da-da-da. 0.93

00:50:44.840 Oh, yeah.

00:50:45.340 Just freeze-tagging themselves all the day.

00:50:47.340 Yeah.

00:50:48.980 Yeah. 1.00

00:50:49.340 Fucking some dude just sitting there patty-caking himself. 1.00

00:50:52.400 And he fucking- 1.00

00:50:53.120 One dude almost knocked himself out one time. 0.99

00:50:55.060 Dude, he high-fived himself about 800 times.

00:50:57.140 Almost broke his wrist.

00:50:58.060 You know, it's funny, you're making a joke.

00:50:59.140 But seriously, sometimes if a friend touched my, like, one side of my face, I would go,

00:51:02.960 dude, you got to touch the other side of my face.

00:51:04.340 Yeah.

00:51:04.600 Just stuff like that.

00:51:05.660 Dude, it's so funny you say this.

00:51:06.480 When I used to walk down the street when I was young, I would, I would, like, bite this

00:51:10.480 side of my mouth.

00:51:11.520 And then I would have to bite on this side of my mouth.

00:51:13.360 Same.

00:51:13.640 And I would bite on this side of my mouth.

00:51:14.980 And, dude, I did that for probably eight years, man.

00:51:18.140 Okay.

00:51:18.720 Same. 0.97

00:51:19.040 And when it went away, I never fucking, I would, it was all I would think about when 0.99

00:51:23.580 I was walking and biting, making sure I was even. 0.98

00:51:25.980 And then when it finally went away, I never fucking thought about it again. 0.97

00:51:29.500 Ever again. 0.96

00:51:30.100 Until pretty much maybe now and one other time in the past 25 years.

00:51:33.600 So similar stuff to that.

00:51:35.500 So basically, I'm at the beach and I go, you know what?

00:51:38.680 I'm going to, I'm going to start going against this.

00:51:41.040 And I had, you know, get all these fears about germs in my face and I go, F this.

00:51:45.340 And I take all the sand on the beach and I start rubbing it all over my face.

00:51:50.300 And it was, I really look at that as the beginning of beating my Tourette's because it was, it was

00:51:58.500 finally me going, you don't control me.

00:52:02.000 I'm going to start taking control here.

00:52:04.440 And, and that experience was just so emotional and also just eyeopening for me.

00:52:10.880 Cause I, you know, what do you think I said to myself after that?

00:52:14.160 Like I'm rubbing this all over and then I'm there and I go, I'm okay.

00:52:18.640 Oh yeah.

00:52:20.060 I'm okay.

00:52:20.860 Right.

00:52:21.120 Like, yeah, the devil didn't come.

00:52:22.460 A dragon didn't, the earth didn't split open and fire eating.

00:52:26.100 Yes. 0.99

00:52:26.620 You know, all the kids from my childhood didn't come back and rip me back into the fucking universe. 1.00

00:52:30.940 None of that shit. 1.00

00:52:31.580 Cut my genitals off. 1.00

00:52:32.680 None of that shit. 1.00

00:52:34.000 So I ended up going through more of the classes and the president of the company, her name was Nancy Salzman. 0.99

00:52:41.040 And she ended up coming to my training.

00:52:43.000 And on the sixth day, you start to look at fears and it was really cool because I had had enough shifts at this point that I go, you know what?

00:52:54.120 I might be afraid of losing Tourette's.

00:52:57.040 You might be afraid of losing it?

00:52:58.820 Losing it.

00:52:59.840 Like stopping it.

00:53:01.860 Like, and again, I know it sounds crazy.

00:53:04.260 And it was, if you would have, if like, I would have known you Theo back then and you would have known me the day before I would have started that training.

00:53:10.300 Yeah.

00:53:10.540 And if you would have said, hey, Mark, you might be afraid of losing Tourette's.

00:53:13.380 I would have been like, what did you just say to me?

00:53:16.860 Why?

00:53:17.200 Because it was your identity?

00:53:18.620 It was so much.

00:53:20.120 And again, I wouldn't, even if, even if you would have said, Mark, it's part of your identity.

00:53:23.340 I go, what do you mean it's part of my identity?

00:53:24.720 Yeah.

00:53:25.100 I wouldn't even, even have known how to talk to you about that.

00:53:27.560 Oh yeah.

00:53:28.100 This is just, I have Tourette's.

00:53:30.160 That wild boy.

00:53:31.240 Yeah.

00:53:31.500 You know?

00:53:32.620 So.

00:53:33.080 Wow.

00:53:33.260 That is crazy that somebody would say that because it's the last thing you would think.

00:53:37.440 But you found that there was truth in it.

00:53:39.460 For me, there was truth.

00:53:40.960 And I started to do a bunch of explorations and I finished that course.

00:53:45.040 And that was really all about the Tourette's was like, you know, looking at the fear, but

00:53:49.140 I just started learning just a lot more about my mind and my thoughts and how a lot about

00:53:54.180 the mind body connection about how, you know, things are connected.

00:53:57.280 And so that was September or excuse me, that was over a summer.

00:54:02.680 I took that whole course.

00:54:03.740 The whole school year went by and I'm back on the road speaking.

00:54:08.080 At the time I was, I was speaking a lot of high schools and colleges all around the country

00:54:11.820 and did no more of the classes.

00:54:15.180 Because by the end of that school year, that feeling had gone down so much that literally

00:54:21.940 I started to need to almost like fabricate ticking a little bit.

00:54:26.260 Oh, wow.

00:54:27.760 So now you're playing a role of a ticker.

00:54:30.400 Yes.

00:54:31.220 To keep up with your thing.

00:54:32.300 I needed to, I still had the urge to tick.

00:54:35.340 So it wasn't like it was done by any means, but it was, you know, these people were hiring

00:54:39.040 me and I had Tourette's syndrome. 1.00

00:54:40.560 You better show up with fucking Tourette's. 1.00

00:54:41.780 Yes. 1.00

00:54:42.140 You know what I'm saying? 0.99

00:54:42.760 If you say you're fucking, you know, running dope, you better show up with a mule, you know? 0.99

00:54:47.500 Like that kind of thing. 1.00

00:54:48.760 Don't come in a cup and tell me it's milk.

00:54:50.060 Exactly.

00:54:51.300 So at that point I go, you know what, Mark, you can beat this.

00:54:55.640 And I ended up going back the following summer and I took some more courses.

00:54:59.380 Really?

00:54:59.740 I was there for 17 days and now I came with the intention and every day I worked on my

00:55:06.940 mind, my body, everything relating to the Tourette's, anything that I could think of

00:55:10.460 that, because basically what I found was, is that my Tourette's was way more emotional

00:55:15.280 and psychological than it was physiological.

00:55:17.660 Wow.

00:55:18.720 Man, it's, I can't even tell you enough, like everything you're saying, it's very similar

00:55:23.340 to stuff that you hear in a lot of like 12 step programs, you know?

00:55:26.460 It's like, it's whatever's behind the behavior.

00:55:30.460 Yes.

00:55:31.000 Well, ultimately, and what I, what I talk to people about is that I found, not I found,

00:55:36.120 through the help of some amazing people and tools, I found the cause.

00:55:41.280 Of your Tourette's.

00:55:42.240 Of the Tourette's. 0.97

00:55:43.340 And let me, let me clarify, let me clarify.

00:55:45.580 I don't even know if I found the, the cause cause of it all, but I found a way to short,

00:55:50.680 short, short circuit the whole system.

00:55:53.700 Yeah.

00:55:54.620 And I found of so much of what was causing that feeling.

00:55:59.820 So that's what I'm saying.

00:56:00.680 I don't know what originally caused it, like how that feeling got there.

00:56:05.080 Right.

00:56:05.920 Fine.

00:56:06.400 Maybe it's neurological, genetic, who cares?

00:56:08.740 Right.

00:56:09.020 Okay, great.

00:56:09.600 So I had it.

00:56:10.520 The question is, what can you do now?

00:56:11.980 Yeah.

00:56:12.920 And, you know, with the incredible help of these people and ESP, I, I found a way to begin

00:56:18.740 to undo it.

00:56:20.340 So those were courses you went to.

00:56:21.780 Now, what about somebody who doesn't have the money to go to courses or who's not like,

00:56:25.920 what can, you know, somebody that has like a, a tick even, even if their tick isn't at

00:56:31.800 the level where they would get them, you know, it'd be classified as Tourette's, you know?

00:56:35.360 Um, I believe that there is a bigger thing going on in the world where it's like, we

00:56:40.240 don't use our human interaction isn't as used as much anymore.

00:56:43.860 Like we're kind of out of this like colonial survival kind of times and tribal times and

00:56:48.420 we're getting a lot more into like a sedate time.

00:56:50.780 And so our nerves, which used to be like kind of the leaders of like what was going on,

00:56:56.480 what was over the, the, the ledge.

00:56:58.240 If somebody was outside, is my family all in the home, you know, the, the, that system

00:57:02.240 that was always a running and it's a security system now has kind of been like idle in us

00:57:06.840 for a long time.

00:57:07.800 And so it seems like I wouldn't be surprised if there could be things starting to kink in 0.88

00:57:11.740 it or, you know, it's settling into its kind of new unnecessary system, you know, unnecessary

00:57:17.400 use.

00:57:18.340 So I could see like a lot of things like alcoholism, Tourette's, like just, uh, malfunctions of

00:57:24.840 it, you know, or, um, errors in the city, you know, just from not use, you know, like, cause

00:57:31.200 when you think about how much in a couple of generations, we're not using our fight or

00:57:35.340 flight much at all.

00:57:36.460 And to think such a powerful system sitting inside of us, it's like, what's going on there?

00:57:43.160 You know, it's almost pretty bizarre and I have no proof of that, but when I just think

00:57:47.440 of things on like a more of like a macro level, I could easily see in hearing you say that

00:57:52.240 and seeing how many people are like, you know, struggling with their feelings and stuff

00:57:56.200 these days and, and, and feeling like a desire, but not knowing what to do.

00:58:01.500 Um, I could see a lot of that being a little bit in the same umbrella, like you were talking

00:58:06.380 about earlier, you know?

00:58:08.000 Well, I think it's, but, but back to the question, what do people do if they don't have that?

00:58:12.000 They don't have the ability to go to the, um, executive, uh, programming and they don't

00:58:15.500 have that.

00:58:16.720 Well, I think, I mean, one, I hope even just being able to talk about it like this can begin

00:58:21.500 to help somebody see what if there's a different way you can look at it, right?

00:58:25.140 You know, because, okay.

00:58:26.320 So reframe something for me.

00:58:28.060 Well, simply, even as I've been describing is when I grew up for 20 years, this is neurological,

00:58:35.600 genetic, involuntary disorder with no cure.

00:58:38.940 So the question is, okay, maybe that's true.

00:58:41.540 Maybe that's not the, what an individual can start thinking about is what if that's not

00:58:47.880 true?

00:58:48.340 What if that's not true?

00:58:52.020 Like why, I think just in general, what would it mean to be just more curious about yourself

00:58:58.960 and your life?

00:59:00.340 Let's say you can't go get help.

00:59:01.740 You can't do whatever.

00:59:03.040 What, you know, can you just start questioning yourself and go, what if it could be different?

00:59:08.400 Again, I mean, the way that it started was, you know, I did, I went to a class, had a really

00:59:13.040 different insights into myself.

00:59:14.620 And then I went to a beach and I go, I'm going to do something different here.

00:59:19.300 I'm going to start thinking about this and see what's on the other side.

00:59:23.600 Contrary action.

00:59:24.560 You know, because it was just so emotional for me not to do that.

00:59:28.280 Oh yeah.

00:59:28.780 So I think really one of the biggest prerequisites for anything in life, if you want to change

00:59:35.900 is you have to one, be curious.

00:59:37.760 Yeah.

00:59:38.260 And you have to want to change.

00:59:39.960 Oh yeah.

00:59:40.720 Yeah.

00:59:41.040 They had a dude, I remember this dude, Samuel, when I was growing up, they said he couldn't

00:59:44.740 walk, right?

00:59:45.180 He's in a wheelchair.

00:59:46.280 It turned out his parents were too lazy.

00:59:49.200 They never taught him to walk. 0.98

00:59:50.740 So it turns out one day he fucking got up, you know, a couple of buddies helped him in 0.95

00:59:54.760 the gym and by the afternoon he's shooting hoops, you know? 0.96

00:59:57.260 This was someone you knew? 1.00

00:59:58.700 And it's like, well, what the fuck, man? 0.98

01:00:00.120 You know, like, but if he doesn't ever get curious or question that thing, if you just 0.99

01:00:04.400 sit in his chair forever thinking like, yeah, this is where I'm going to be.

01:00:07.840 And man, when you say that, what you were talking about is contrary action.

01:00:10.400 You're talking about like, man, I don't want germs.

01:00:12.380 I don't want things in my face.

01:00:13.320 When things touch my skin, it makes me feel uncomfortable. 0.99

01:00:15.180 I'm going to fucking stick my head into the fucking universe, you know, two handfuls 0.99

01:00:20.000 at a time and go through the looking glass. 1.00

01:00:22.660 I mean, that's next level.

01:00:24.440 That's next level in that moment for you.

01:00:27.700 But it's also, it's just contrary action.

01:00:30.180 It's like, yeah, like I have trouble.

01:00:32.560 Like, you know, there's a lot of therapist methods where it's like, okay, let's look through

01:00:35.920 your past and think of what happened and try and figure it out.

01:00:39.380 And then there's a lot more active, proactive therapist methods that I've found from going to

01:00:44.500 therapy where they're like, I don't care what happened in your past.

01:00:47.120 If you want to have a better sexual relationship with your girlfriend, you need to get in bed 0.64

01:00:52.120 with your girlfriend and lay there and start there as opposed to sitting in a room and wondering,

01:00:57.740 well, I don't know why we have these problems, you know, like, but I've definitely started

01:01:02.620 to notice that there's two methods from going to therapists.

01:01:05.200 And so it's kind of like what you're describing.

01:01:06.800 It's like, you can sit there and know the facts and go through and the file folders and look

01:01:11.660 back through a lot of your history or you can, like you did, you had a frame of reference,

01:01:17.260 a frame of perspective.

01:01:18.160 It sounds like in just.

01:01:19.680 I want to say for me, what was cool is I, it was really both ways because by going through

01:01:25.420 the class and, and really, really what happened is, is that I was able to proactively lower

01:01:32.820 that feeling.

01:01:33.540 Um, so that itch within about a year and a half went down 90%.

01:01:39.140 Wow.

01:01:40.220 So, and, and a lot of that feeling I found was through bunch of triggers throughout my

01:01:45.020 whole life.

01:01:47.220 So it was this beautiful synergy between going deep in there.

01:01:52.900 And the other reason I felt lucky is because a lot of people are willing to go deep in there,

01:01:57.460 but they don't have a tool that really can help them find where to go, how to get rid of

01:02:01.720 it, it ends up that the tool was incredibly sharp.

01:02:05.320 And so I was able to go in there.

01:02:06.780 And as I was going through some of these processes, which is just conversations with people, I would

01:02:11.060 have this amazing experience or realization.

01:02:13.320 And all of a sudden that feeling would go boom, boom.

01:02:17.560 I mean, I'm doing down because the feeling would start going down.

01:02:21.060 So it wasn't like I, for a way that a lot of people, a way that I think a lot of people

01:02:27.720 try to beat their Tourette's or help their Tourette's or whether it's alcoholism,

01:02:31.280 OCD, or anything in life where it's a type of challenge like that.

01:02:37.040 Sometimes you just sort of stick your head down and you just lean right into it and you

01:02:40.860 go.

01:02:41.740 And that's great.

01:02:43.400 And that is what some of what I did.

01:02:45.160 But what's also really nice is what if there's a way that you can make that really uncomfortable

01:02:50.480 feeling diminish?

01:02:52.020 Yeah.

01:02:52.420 And so you don't, it's not such a mountain to climb.

01:02:56.460 Right.

01:02:57.480 And that's why I feel so grateful because I didn't have to go climb a mountain.

01:03:07.500 Right.

01:03:09.140 I had to work my ass off.

01:03:11.000 Yeah.

01:03:11.320 And there was something deep inside of me.

01:03:13.700 Yeah.

01:03:13.880 Some, I also was really sick as a baby for an intestinal thing.

01:03:18.480 And I think that that played a lot into it, but I have a really strong will.

01:03:23.680 Right.

01:03:24.320 And I was willing to, on that beach, go, you're going in.

01:03:28.260 Yeah.

01:03:28.820 And I don't know where that came from.

01:03:30.480 Yeah.

01:03:31.060 But I had that in combination with a group of people and tools that made that battle so

01:03:37.800 much easier.

01:03:38.620 You need help.

01:03:39.680 Does that make sense?

01:03:40.420 Yeah.

01:03:40.700 So it, it, it, it wasn't just like, I was like a Spartan going.

01:03:45.240 Yeah.

01:03:45.560 It was, I was a Spartan plus I had, I don't even know what, I mean.

01:03:50.480 You had some training wheel humans.

01:03:51.800 You had partners.

01:03:53.080 You had people that knew what to do.

01:03:54.680 Yes.

01:03:55.000 You had conversations that a lot of time can unlock.

01:03:57.660 Yes.

01:03:58.100 Yeah.

01:03:58.600 That literally unlocked my potential.

01:04:01.500 My, my, I mean, literally the way that I, I connect with it is they helped me in combination

01:04:07.600 with how hard I worked.

01:04:08.620 I literally became more conscious.

01:04:10.880 I became more self-aware and that I go, oh, that, that feeling.

01:04:17.360 And, and one metaphor that I'd tell people as a way to describe this is one way that I

01:04:22.420 got helped is, so there's this feeling and I was a little kid and I go, oh, that's a

01:04:26.700 bad feeling.

01:04:27.660 That's a shitty bad feeling.

01:04:29.400 But what if there was a way when I was a little kid, which was not possible, that I could

01:04:36.200 have decided it was a good feeling.

01:04:38.020 And the way that I think about it is, do you, do you like massages?

01:04:42.340 Do you like the kind of massages where it's like super painful, like elbow in the back?

01:04:46.520 Oh, dude, I told him last week, we paid a couple of Vietnamese dudes to beat us up downtown. 1.00

01:04:51.820 70 bucks. 0.99

01:04:52.380 So you like, you're one of those sickos, but you like it. 0.96

01:04:54.620 Yeah, the top rope in there and everything. 0.98

01:04:55.620 It'll come off the ropes.

01:04:56.560 It'll do whatever you want.

01:04:57.700 So you like it hard, right?

01:04:59.940 Yeah.

01:05:00.180 I like some attack in there.

01:05:01.380 Okay.

01:05:01.840 Now do you know? 1.00

01:05:02.500 I like a little bit of fucking, you know, Vietnam too, if you know what I'm saying. 1.00

01:05:05.620 Yes. 0.99

01:05:06.640 I don't know how that ends, but if you, you know.

01:05:08.400 Yeah.

01:05:08.520 It is, it's a 70 bucks.

01:05:10.740 70 bucks will last about a half hour.

01:05:12.760 The question is though, do you know people though that don't like it hard like that?

01:05:17.380 Yes.

01:05:17.780 Okay.

01:05:18.260 So this is what's so interesting.

01:05:20.440 Here you have two people getting a massage and one person loves the pain.

01:05:26.260 Another person hates the pain.

01:05:29.000 So what if when I was a kid, I could have changed my perception of that feeling?

01:05:34.620 Like I had that uncomfortable feeling.

01:05:38.700 What if I could have loved it?

01:05:40.260 Right.

01:05:40.980 Right.

01:05:42.460 Yeah.

01:05:42.860 What if you'd have been somebody that loved it?

01:05:44.860 Yeah.

01:05:45.480 Now again, there's no way I could have done that.

01:05:48.680 Right.

01:05:49.200 As a kid.

01:05:50.260 But some people get scared and they get excited.

01:05:53.740 That baffles me sometimes.

01:05:55.060 Some people like, you know, like evil Knievels, they jump off of stuff and they're fired up.

01:05:58.860 Dude, if I go flying off of something on a motorcycle.

01:06:00.920 Yes.

01:06:01.460 Not doing well.

01:06:02.500 Yes.

01:06:02.860 You know?

01:06:03.500 I guess it's very alarming.

01:06:05.440 And I wouldn't even try.

01:06:06.440 I mean, for me, that's like a nightmare.

01:06:08.880 Yeah.

01:06:09.020 I would think of it as a nightmare.

01:06:10.020 But it's interesting how some feelings to some people are totally a different feeling.

01:06:14.780 So what I was able to do with the help of all these people is that I was literally able

01:06:20.100 to manufacture and literally almost rebuild my pathways.

01:06:26.040 Did you do EMDR?

01:06:26.860 Did you do any of that or no?

01:06:27.780 Mm-mm.

01:06:28.740 And it was all through just, or a lot of it was through, I mean, I know it's a lot of work.

01:06:32.060 That stuff is a lot, you know, it's a lot of work.

01:06:34.380 If you want to go back and really work on stuff, you know, I know that it is a lot of work.

01:06:39.060 Yes.

01:06:39.780 The cool thing was, is that my experience was, is that the way that the process was, it was

01:06:43.680 incredibly, it was-

01:06:45.560 Formatted?

01:06:45.880 It was formatted and it was also very simple at the end.

01:06:49.200 Not as simple, you have to be very skilled to work with somebody, but meaning within 30

01:06:54.540 minutes, you know, I could talk about an experience and feel very different.

01:06:57.840 Do you work with this company now?

01:06:59.540 Is this a company you're partnered with?

01:07:01.540 Yes.

01:07:01.580 So what was really cool is that, so I was going around the country speaking, you know, for

01:07:05.260 years and then, you know, it was an interesting thing.

01:07:08.920 Like, I'm on the stage, you know, in 2011, I was college speaker in the United States by

01:07:13.820 Campus Activities Magazine.

01:07:15.800 Okay.

01:07:16.220 So I'm sharing-

01:07:16.740 You went to NACA and did those and all that?

01:07:17.740 All those things, yeah.

01:07:18.400 Yeah, yeah.

01:07:18.860 APCA?

01:07:19.440 All those.

01:07:19.980 Oh, yeah.

01:07:20.300 So the reason I'm sharing that is because like, my whole life was Tourette's, you know,

01:07:23.220 and I'm going around talking about Tourette's and- 0.99

01:07:25.300 Oh, yeah, you're that fucking shaky bad boy. 0.99

01:07:27.420 Dude, I'm shaky bad boy. 1.00

01:07:28.260 Jimmy Jango, bro, you know?

01:07:29.460 And I was, my whole thing was really about kindness.

01:07:32.620 Right.

01:07:32.720 It was really about tolerance and kindness.

01:07:35.360 And it was an interesting thing though, because now here I'm trying to help people on stage

01:07:39.980 and yet I'm getting helped in a whole other way.

01:07:44.020 Like I'm getting penicillin back here.

01:07:46.240 Right.

01:07:46.560 And I'm having a 40 minute talk with people.

01:07:48.820 So when I realized that there was a way that I could help people in this way, that's how

01:07:52.660 I wanted to learn how to help people.

01:07:54.160 I see.

01:07:54.540 So you were helping people, you were talking about Tourette's and then you got involved with

01:07:57.860 the ESP group.

01:07:58.660 Yes.

01:07:58.940 Okay.

01:08:00.360 And so, you know, I was able to do that over the last, you know, five years and it's been

01:08:04.740 unbelievable.

01:08:05.660 And one cool thing was after we started, after, you know, what happened to me, and again,

01:08:12.820 ESP had nothing to do with Tourette's, but once it happened, you know, the founders, they

01:08:18.480 started going, you know, Keith Ranieri and Nancy Salzman, I think they started to go, what

01:08:22.280 if we could, what if we could replicate this with other people?

01:08:25.000 And so over the last four years, we've been able to replicate it with 10 other people

01:08:30.640 with Tourette's.

01:08:31.480 Get into the program and get better.

01:08:33.020 Yes.

01:08:33.400 Wow.

01:08:33.720 Well, we created a special thing just for people with Tourette's.

01:08:37.020 And this is the crazy thing.

01:08:39.080 So it took me like a year and a half to get down 90% as I was describing.

01:08:45.220 Guess how fast it's been replicated.

01:08:48.640 I don't know.

01:08:49.840 Take one guess.

01:08:51.080 Seven.

01:08:52.420 Seven what?

01:08:53.080 I don't know.

01:08:56.640 Like seven months?

01:08:58.660 Yeah.

01:08:59.360 I think so.

01:09:00.620 Four hours.

01:09:01.440 Oh, wow.

01:09:02.500 Jesus, man.

01:09:03.260 I hate guessing.

01:09:06.180 People can get rid of using this, can get rid of Tourette's in four hours.

01:09:09.620 Oh, no.

01:09:10.920 No, they can't.

01:09:11.940 They really?

01:09:13.780 So I kid you not, it was probably one of them.

01:09:16.900 That sounds like something I would say.

01:09:20.460 I'm dead serious.

01:09:21.400 So this, so I want to be really clear.

01:09:24.080 It's not saying anybody can get rid of their Tourette's syndrome.

01:09:26.660 I'm saying people that had severe Tourette's syndrome that had tried tons of different things

01:09:33.720 that wanted, that deeply wanted to get rid of it and end it for themselves.

01:09:40.120 And also, you know, we went through quite an interview process because we're looking,

01:09:43.320 you know, we were looking for very specific people that, you know, we thought just met a

01:09:47.140 bunch of different conditions that thought, you know, that they would be a good candidate

01:09:50.900 for this.

01:09:52.400 For all of those people, I would say seven, seven or eight, two or three out of the 10

01:10:00.220 are down 70%.

01:10:01.980 Wow.

01:10:02.560 And the other six, seven are down 90 plus.

01:10:07.040 Wow.

01:10:07.440 And what was so neat is, is that once this started happening over the last four years,

01:10:12.380 we have this incredible filmmaker who, he goes, we got to start filming this.

01:10:17.040 So we started to film it.

01:10:18.940 And so what was so neat is, is that, you know, I would find someone with Tourette's or someone

01:10:22.840 would tell me about somebody with Tourette's.

01:10:24.300 Yeah.

01:10:24.700 And we would go through this whole process to see if they would be a good candidate.

01:10:28.080 And then once we thought if we had, you know, a good candidate, a film crew would go out

01:10:32.760 to their life, film their whole life with Tourette's, they would come work with us in

01:10:37.340 Albany, beat their Tourette's, and then we would go back into their life and film their

01:10:41.220 life without Tourette's syndrome.

01:10:42.940 Do you guys, y'all aren't like in the, it's not, you guys can't be like in the Special

01:10:46.100 Olympics or anything. 1.00

01:10:46.840 I feel like you can fucking run that shit if you could tighten. 1.00

01:10:49.540 I can't be in the Special Olympics. 1.00

01:10:50.960 No, but I will tell you, I'd much rather just train for the regular Olympics now.

01:10:54.260 I mean, just because it's, I mean, life is so different now.

01:10:57.940 Is it really?

01:10:59.020 What do you miss about having Tourette's, man?

01:11:02.340 Like really having it?

01:11:03.620 You know, the thing that I miss is, I miss in some ways, let me think about this for one

01:11:11.080 sec.

01:11:11.380 I, I, I, I'm trying to think, I'm going to try and think what I would miss.

01:11:17.060 The thing is you, people knew me.

01:11:22.260 Yeah.

01:11:23.900 Oh, you're a rare element, man.

01:11:25.220 I remember.

01:11:25.680 People knew me.

01:11:26.520 People knew you.

01:11:27.160 So, part of what my experience has been over the years is that I had to start how to learn

01:11:35.000 in a way that I never did before, how to relate with people.

01:11:40.620 I can, I can understand that.

01:11:42.400 And I think, you know, that's not unique to Tourette's.

01:11:44.400 I think we all have different things.

01:11:45.820 You know, you're a, I don't, I don't know a lot of your history, but I, you know, you

01:11:49.800 were a comedian.

01:11:50.480 You know, you've been a comedian in a long time.

01:11:52.220 Yeah.

01:11:52.380 So, now imagine if somebody said, hey, Theo, comedy's done.

01:11:56.740 Never can make a joke again.

01:11:59.160 And then think about what it would mean to how every conversation now you had with somebody.

01:12:03.900 Oh, that's, that's a really good correlation, man.

01:12:05.620 I would be baffling.

01:12:06.880 You know?

01:12:07.400 And so, that's also what was so neat is, is that I was going through the classes.

01:12:11.220 I was taking a lot.

01:12:12.260 But I was doing a lot of work to also build a foundation just to learn how to be more

01:12:18.180 me, how to learn how to be with people again, because my whole life, I always had the Tourette's.

01:12:23.740 I always had this, this thing.

01:12:26.880 Yeah.

01:12:27.800 And that, so it was, it was interesting because, you know, the first whole journey was beating

01:12:34.080 the Tourette's.

01:12:34.840 Right.

01:12:35.380 And then there was a whole other journey after that.

01:12:37.380 Who were you without the Tourette's?

01:12:38.780 Exactly.

01:12:39.140 It was almost like, yeah, it was like, it was, now you're Clark Kent and you're like, 0.99

01:12:42.620 well, who the fuck is, who, who, who am I? 0.99

01:12:44.580 Yes. 0.99

01:12:45.340 Dude, it's funny you say some of that.

01:12:46.460 When I was, you know, in high school or right out of high school, I got, I did a reality

01:12:50.380 television.

01:12:50.800 I worked on MTV for a little while.

01:12:52.500 And I remember after that, you got real popular and went to school and all these kids knew you.

01:12:57.500 And this was back when they only had, you know, 40 television channels.

01:13:00.640 And, but then after that, I didn't know, I still, it had been like real formative years.

01:13:07.840 I didn't really know who I was, you know, I was just kind of getting out into college

01:13:10.840 and into the world.

01:13:11.780 And then I became, you know, I was this guy that was on this, on television, you know,

01:13:15.320 and, and it was very uncomfortable to get away from that.

01:13:19.300 I mean, I remember having visceral reactions.

01:13:21.120 I remember I'd go to the gym and like, I would sweat and without even doing anything, my head

01:13:26.760 would itch.

01:13:27.380 I'd feel these needles in my neck and head and like extreme uncomfort.

01:13:31.020 Cause I had, I was nobody without that thing kind of, and I didn't want to be that.

01:13:36.020 I didn't like that, you know, and I didn't, and I wanted to get away from that.

01:13:40.240 But at the same time, I was like, I had no clue who I was, you know, because for a couple

01:13:44.900 of years, this was kind of who I was.

01:13:46.560 It just gave me, everybody always came and talked about that, or that was the thing or

01:13:49.980 something or, you know, and it was just hard to be, it was hard to learn who I was,

01:13:54.700 you know?

01:13:54.980 So I can't even fathom that man, like being in this shaky cage and all of a sudden, you 0.99

01:14:00.900 know, you're out of the cage and you're like, well, fuck, it's kind of wild out here. 0.99

01:14:04.620 It's been wild. 0.99

01:14:06.180 And I think for naked almost in a, in some way.

01:14:08.660 Absolutely.

01:14:09.820 And I absolutely feel naked.

01:14:12.460 And I think what's hard for a lot of people that were close to me was growing up, I was,

01:14:17.620 I was such this gregarious kid and I was outgoing.

01:14:21.020 I was, you know, I was student body president of my high school.

01:14:23.940 I, I did plays and sports.

01:14:26.300 I became an inspirational speaker.

01:14:27.820 But how could you do all that with Tourette's, I wonder?

01:14:29.860 Well, the thing is I learned to compensate so much.

01:14:34.900 Right.

01:14:36.460 That I did.

01:14:37.580 And again, I had this incredible support system that, I mean, what most people don't have,

01:14:45.420 but I, I learned to that even because I didn't have that, that strong sense of self.

01:14:52.320 Yeah.

01:14:52.560 I just did whatever I could to try to be normal, to try to get people to like me because I felt

01:14:57.900 like I was, because I was three, I felt like always three steps behind because I had the

01:15:01.720 Tourette's.

01:15:02.280 Yeah.

01:15:02.920 So the moment I started, I met you, I'm already behind because I got the Tourette's.

01:15:06.260 I got to make up for all this stuff so that you go, okay, will you like me?

01:15:09.400 Am I okay?

01:15:10.440 Yeah.

01:15:10.800 Yeah.

01:15:11.640 So that really has been the most profound experience of all this is finally starting

01:15:18.140 just to be more me.

01:15:19.780 Yeah.

01:15:20.060 And just going, I mean, now I, when I talk to friends too, like the way that I think

01:15:26.340 about my life is like my whole life, I was in the deep end of the water.

01:15:29.720 Yeah.

01:15:29.880 And I didn't know how to tread well.

01:15:31.080 And I'm just, you know, trying to figure it out, get by, not offend people.

01:15:35.900 What are people thinking?

01:15:36.700 You know, all that stuff.

01:15:37.740 And, and really only like the last two years did it feel like I made it to the shallow end

01:15:42.960 and I just started walking out of the pool.

01:15:46.080 And that I'm, and that it's just like, I'm learning how to be normal.

01:15:51.080 Yeah.

01:15:51.760 But just like on the inside, it's just so much more quiet now and I can just learn how

01:15:56.980 to be with somebody and be with me.

01:16:00.760 Yeah.

01:16:01.340 And something that I never imagined.

01:16:03.820 I didn't even know that could exist for me.

01:16:05.700 Like it was just.

01:16:06.660 Right.

01:16:07.620 It's yeah.

01:16:08.300 It was like a, it was like being another ethnicity almost or being another culture. 0.97

01:16:12.480 Yeah.

01:16:12.780 So that's been a, it really has been these different journeys, but so I'm excited to keep,

01:16:18.000 keep going, keep finding more of me now.

01:16:20.300 I want to really, can it flare back up Tourette's?

01:16:23.480 So the thing is, I don't, I don't think of it in that way or experience it in that way

01:16:28.440 because the way that I also look at it now is, you know, I, I have like a very serious

01:16:36.400 impulse disorder.

01:16:37.620 Okay.

01:16:38.780 But you, so, but it's still Tourette's though.

01:16:41.360 Well, what I'm saying is, is like that feeling that we're going to call Tourette's.

01:16:44.740 Okay.

01:16:45.320 Like it was, uh, like I had an extreme impulse disorder.

01:16:50.300 Okay.

01:16:50.600 Like any feeling that I felt, I, I indulged it.

01:16:54.700 Okay.

01:16:55.200 Okay.

01:16:55.480 Now again, by no means that may, that's an involuntary feeling that I had.

01:17:00.580 Right.

01:17:00.860 And I had no way to do it differently.

01:17:03.080 Right.

01:17:03.520 So over the years, I've gone through a lot of, with a lot of work on myself and training

01:17:09.460 to really learn how to become less impulsive as well.

01:17:11.780 Right.

01:17:12.100 And so what are the, so what are some of those things that people can use even if they're

01:17:14.900 not, uh, doing Tourette's?

01:17:16.900 Um, the thing is, it's, what can people do?

01:17:21.040 It's, I wish it was.

01:17:22.460 Because if you can't take the court, like, because the course is where you guys take it

01:17:24.660 where and where?

01:17:25.220 No, unfortunately the courses don't even exist at the moment right now.

01:17:28.480 But if they had the courses, like, yeah, someone can't, couldn't afford to go to a school

01:17:31.660 or go to a place or get into a program like that.

01:17:34.520 Um, meditation, it sounds like is one good thing.

01:17:37.020 I think, you know, I think doing one things like that is meditation.

01:17:39.800 Of course, when I had Tourette's and someone said do meditation, I say, you know, go screw 0.93

01:17:43.180 yourself. 0.95

01:17:43.740 Right.

01:17:44.120 But then you commented on, yeah, but right.

01:17:45.680 But then you probably helped, huh?

01:17:47.460 It helped, but it was so hard for me because as I was just describing, I had no, it wasn't

01:17:53.460 quiet on the inside.

01:17:54.640 And it's easy to say to someone, well, just try to be quiet.

01:17:57.560 It's like a Best Buy in there.

01:17:58.980 Black Friday inside of you.

01:18:00.320 It was crazy.

01:18:00.960 Yeah.

01:18:01.160 So, you know, I think, I think the best advice for somebody is try to begin to challenge things

01:18:12.360 if you want that.

01:18:13.780 Right.

01:18:14.880 And I wish that I could say.

01:18:16.580 What, what do they do in the four hours?

01:18:19.500 In the four hours with respect to somebody that beat it?

01:18:22.380 Yeah, yeah.

01:18:22.920 Because you just tell them what you just said for four hours?

01:18:26.920 No, you don't tell them that for four hours.

01:18:28.040 So the thing is, is, I mean, the methodology, it's, it's a profound way to help somebody, um,

01:18:33.720 basically break limiting beliefs, um, and help them become more rational.

01:18:39.460 Hmm.

01:18:40.700 So, you know, it's, so it's like, it's trying, if you're trying to help somebody with, like,

01:18:44.120 let's say you're still, you know, an adult and you walk around still believing in Santa

01:18:47.840 Claus, um, we can work with somebody to start to ask them a bunch of questions where they

01:18:53.440 on their own begin to realize Santa Claus isn't true.

01:18:55.940 Ah, I see.

01:18:56.860 Okay.

01:18:57.400 That's a really cool process to take somebody with that.

01:18:59.880 You need to be very skilled to do.

01:19:01.360 Yeah.

01:19:01.460 You got to be skilled.

01:19:02.220 You have to be skilled to help lead somebody to help them deduce things on their own.

01:19:06.140 Yes.

01:19:06.400 That's a valuable skill.

01:19:08.020 So what, and what made it so powerful and why it could happen in four hours is because

01:19:11.880 somebody wasn't deductively telling me it.

01:19:15.100 So somebody could, so for instance, if, if, I mean, it would be insane if somebody goes up

01:19:19.440 to somebody with Tourette's cause they've heard this interview and go, uh, don't tick.

01:19:23.540 Yeah.

01:19:24.260 That would be, not only would it be insane, it would be, um, I don't even think.

01:19:28.680 A couple pointers for you, bucko.

01:19:29.660 Yeah.

01:19:30.300 I don't even think that would be moral.

01:19:32.220 It would be, it would, I don't think that would be a good thing.

01:19:34.860 It'd be old school for sure.

01:19:36.080 Part of the reason that I was able to, why it's so permanent is because I was able to,

01:19:42.260 as you said, deduce on my own those realizations.

01:19:46.320 And when you have that type of realization, it's, it's like a perceptual shift.

01:19:50.300 It's permanent.

01:19:51.060 Yes.

01:19:51.600 So does it mean that I have no feelings in my body anymore?

01:19:55.040 Absolutely not.

01:19:56.100 Do I still feel that Tourette itch?

01:19:58.860 Very little.

01:19:59.840 Yeah.

01:20:00.100 And I still do things to help change my relationship with it.

01:20:03.780 But to say that I have Tourette's syndrome at this point, I think would be insulting to somebody that really is struggling.

01:20:10.580 Right.

01:20:10.840 Deeply with it.

01:20:13.500 So within those four hours, you know, it's, it's, it's trying to help somebody.

01:20:17.160 It's not about reframing or, you know, feel the feeling, but don't do it.

01:20:21.040 It's really helping them have really neat insight into how they relate with that feeling and also figure out what's going on in their life that might be causing that feeling.

01:20:31.020 Like, yeah.

01:20:31.620 And that's how we were able to, how I, not I, how Nancy was able, you know, to help people so quickly.

01:20:37.780 And the cool thing is, is that this past year, a documentary came out and you can literally see on the screen, you can see this happen.

01:20:45.520 You can see within four hours, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's profound to watch.

01:20:52.680 And I really believe that, you know, one day that this, you know, sort of this methodology and also this movie can really open the eyes for a lot of people because I believe that this can open the doors for Tourette's, for ADD, ADHD, social anxiety, anxiety, OCD.

01:21:12.220 Yeah, no, I think some of the stuff you're saying, it's like, even if someone had Tourette's, right?

01:21:17.740 It, who knows what other stuff builds around that over time and magnifies it so much more.

01:21:23.980 Yes.

01:21:24.220 Whereas even if you can go back through and scrape away some of those things by helping them deduce in their own time, in their own react.

01:21:33.040 So it actually, they figure it out, which is such an articulate thing that some therapists and stuff will be able to do because they ask you questions and they help you figure out in a way where you figure it out.

01:21:42.160 Yes.

01:21:42.600 They don't, you're not telling somebody something.

01:21:44.360 Um, then they can, you can knock away so much of the stuff that, that, that makes everything so much tougher.

01:21:51.880 You know, whether it be Tourette's or, I mean, it's some of the stuff they're using in a lot of other programs in some ways, but I think that's fascinating, man.

01:21:58.680 Um, you know, and it's just the power of like people helping people.

01:22:02.460 You know, I always wished I had a stutter.

01:22:05.540 They had a dude by us named Douglas Huval, right?

01:22:08.040 And he was, he might've even had a stutter. 0.89

01:22:10.440 He might've been pretty ignorant, honestly, but he was a nice kid. 0.92

01:22:13.080 But I remember he had a stutter in school and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. 0.93

01:22:16.320 And I'd impersonate him and the teacher would be like, what are you doing?

01:22:18.520 You're making fun of him.

01:22:19.360 And I'm like, nah, I just, I want this.

01:22:21.100 I want to be like this, you know, this guy's so unique.

01:22:23.180 Um, but yeah, I guess, uh, I don't know, man, it's definitely fascinating and it's definitely

01:22:29.740 seems like it's been quite a journey, you know, I can feel that you're passionate about

01:22:33.420 it, you know?

01:22:33.920 It's been an incredible journey.

01:22:35.020 Yeah.

01:22:35.460 I mean, I've learned, you know, just so much about just the human, human behavior, human,

01:22:42.880 the way that we interact with each other, the way that we treat people.

01:22:45.500 Yeah.

01:22:45.820 And that's really why, you know, when I started speaking 10 years ago, it was all about kindness

01:22:49.640 because basically people, people were making judgments and assumptions about me without

01:22:55.240 knowing me, which is normal, right?

01:22:57.620 It's normal.

01:22:58.120 You see somebody, you, you think it's okay to think negative things about people.

01:23:02.720 Yeah.

01:23:03.420 The question is, is do you really know what's going on?

01:23:07.080 Right.

01:23:07.620 And so I think it was a neat thing because here it was, I was doing all these crazy things

01:23:11.800 and people were acting on those judgments or acting on those assumptions.

01:23:15.140 And then they, they took whatever they saw me doing as if it was truth.

01:23:19.640 Um, and so really when I started speaking, the message was about the first phrase that

01:23:24.940 I used was live and let live.

01:23:26.580 Yeah.

01:23:26.780 I want to live my life.

01:23:27.560 You live your life.

01:23:28.620 But really it's like, look, if you don't like, can you recognize that whatever you're

01:23:34.800 thinking about that person, you don't really know.

01:23:39.020 Right.

01:23:39.640 And if you don't really know, no matter how much hate you have towards that person, can

01:23:45.180 we at least be kind?

01:23:46.420 Right.

01:23:46.720 But can we, can we at least treat people with kindness, even if we have really negative

01:23:53.640 feelings about them?

01:23:54.480 Cause we don't really ultimately know.

01:23:58.180 Yeah.

01:23:58.500 You don't know if the guy is being rude to you, you know, or has having a tough morning

01:24:01.420 or just cut you off.

01:24:02.120 You don't know if he, you know, his house just burned down or, you know, he just lost

01:24:05.940 somebody or if he even just killed us, you know, you don't know if he just killed somebody

01:24:09.040 like, you don't know what he's going through, you know, like you don't know what somebody's

01:24:11.800 going through sometimes.

01:24:14.280 But yeah, no, look, I think it's fascinating to hear about.

01:24:16.360 It's fascinating to hear like, you know, like your respect for the Tourette's condition,

01:24:20.860 you know, like the level that you feel like, you know, you had it, how you envisioned it,

01:24:25.360 how you, you know, recognize it inside of yourself and, you know, ways that you use to deteriorate

01:24:33.920 it, you know, or quell it to a place that's more manageable for you and, and, and that

01:24:39.600 you're able to be aware of that at the same time so that you can, you know, communicate

01:24:44.480 it to other people.

01:24:45.360 I mean, yeah, I mean, it's definitely, you know, cause I was like, does it, I was like,

01:24:49.780 does Mark, it doesn't seem like he has Tourette's, you know, but then when you get in and you

01:24:53.580 hear about it, it's like, oh, well, this is very relatable.

01:24:57.880 I feel like, you know, um, but, uh, there's a couple of videos we want to play real quick

01:25:02.580 of a couple of, Nick, you want to lead us into that?

01:25:04.520 Yeah, and we actually had one caller, uh, call in with a question, too, about living

01:25:08.680 with it, but yeah, we can pop the headphones on, and then after that, we'll look at some

01:25:12.020 examples of Tourette's in pop culture and we'll get your grade on how it was depicted.

01:25:15.580 Sure.

01:25:15.940 Okay.

01:25:17.360 That's a great, uh, photo there.

01:25:20.320 It was pretty good, actually.

01:25:21.820 That's quite a stencil.

01:25:22.720 Is it a stencil?

01:25:23.560 You know, I don't know who did that.

01:25:24.820 Some man sent that in, probably, honestly.

01:25:27.300 Some dude.

01:25:27.580 That's actually really, uh. 1.00

01:25:29.000 Trying to fuck, probably. 0.99

01:25:30.100 So there's a lot of, we get some real lurkers, man. 1.00

01:25:32.580 Beautiful look.

01:25:33.160 Theo Vaughn.

01:25:34.720 I'm a huge fan.

01:25:35.760 I have a question for your, um, guest who has, who had Tourette's Syndrome.

01:25:40.180 Um, how, how often did you get laid while you had Tourette's Syndrome?

01:25:45.220 And how hard was it to get women or men, if you're into that?

01:25:49.540 Um.

01:25:49.960 I respect that.

01:25:50.520 And then how often have you gotten laid since you've stopped your Tourette's Syndrome?

01:25:56.240 Um, all right.

01:25:57.040 God bless you.

01:25:57.900 Good night.

01:25:58.260 That, God bless you, came in a little surprising, but I still respect it.

01:26:03.520 Onward.

01:26:04.400 Oh, man.

01:26:04.800 It was so uncomfortable with women. 0.99

01:26:06.320 Really?

01:26:06.740 Oh, man.

01:26:07.180 Well, partly because how little self-confidence I had.

01:26:11.700 Yeah.

01:26:12.700 Again, it's all, you know, it's always easy.

01:26:14.960 Okay.

01:26:15.180 When you're looking at someone from the outside, you think you know what's going on.

01:26:17.780 Yeah.

01:26:17.980 But on the inside, I, you know, I, I did not feel that confident about myself.

01:26:22.260 Oh, yeah.

01:26:22.500 It looked like I was super confident because of the level of compensation that I was doing

01:26:27.000 all the time.

01:26:28.260 Yeah.

01:26:28.780 Were you doing crazy stuff?

01:26:30.000 Were you wearing necklaces and stuff like that?

01:26:31.980 Like, were you trying to like.

01:26:33.060 No, it wasn't like I was trying to look like I was super rich, but I was trying to look like

01:26:36.080 I was put together.

01:26:36.960 Right. 0.99

01:26:37.300 And it wasn't a shit show on the inside. 0.99

01:26:39.060 Right. 0.99

01:26:39.300 Were you wearing like a, um, tuxedo and stuff like that?

01:26:44.040 Not, no.

01:26:45.240 Luckily, no.

01:26:45.920 I still had some semblance of like, let's try to be in rapport with people.

01:26:48.520 Oh, good, good, good, yeah.

01:26:50.460 Yeah. 0.99

01:26:50.860 You can't be showing up like it's a damn, you know, like you're a Joe, you know, Joe 0.99

01:26:55.000 Black or something. 0.99

01:26:55.760 Exactly.

01:26:56.760 At a, yeah, at a, at a rave or something.

01:26:59.360 But it was weird with women. 1.00

01:27:00.560 I mean, it was, I mean, just imagine hooking up with a girl and, you know.

01:27:04.360 You just crush it now?

01:27:06.420 Is it easier now?

01:27:07.260 It is infinitely easier, but it's also just because I have more confidence with myself.

01:27:11.880 Yeah.

01:27:12.080 So after I, you know, I beat the Tourette's syndrome, I mean, just to, I mean, sex is one 0.92

01:27:17.360 thing.

01:27:17.820 Yeah.

01:27:17.920 Just imagine sitting with a girl and not saying the riskiest thing. 0.97

01:27:23.340 Oh, yeah.

01:27:23.940 I can't. 0.98

01:27:25.180 But I could definitely say this, dude, Beat Tourette's Let's Fuck would be the best book 0.97

01:27:29.280 ever, even though that is not what we're talking about. 0.88

01:27:32.780 But I do want to let people know that, that, that you have a book, you have two books now?

01:27:38.460 What do you have?

01:27:39.060 Tell me about it.

01:27:39.280 No, I have a book that came out about six years ago and it was called What Makes You Tick.

01:27:43.800 Okay.

01:27:45.020 And, but another book would be, I think, really good at this point, you know, because I,

01:27:49.300 that book, I had just started ESP and, and, and beating like the 90% when that book came

01:27:56.200 out and I also just wasn't as open about my participation in ESP at the moment just because,

01:28:02.760 you know, there was a bot, there was bad stuff about ESP back then.

01:28:05.420 There's even more bad stuff about ESP now.

01:28:07.520 Is it like landmark?

01:28:08.260 Is it like a group kind of?

01:28:09.680 No, it's unfortunately, it's, I mean, it's definitely in the same realm, you know, it's

01:28:13.640 in terms of, it's a group of people that are trying to help people.

01:28:16.300 Yeah.

01:28:16.820 You know, but now it's in the news with a bunch of controversy around it and things like

01:28:20.240 that.

01:28:20.700 And that's not the set.

01:28:21.480 Is it, did we have a, oh, we have Michael Rosenbaum on here.

01:28:24.220 Yes.

01:28:24.600 Unfortunately.

01:28:25.040 Yes.

01:28:25.260 Same group.

01:28:25.840 Oh, wow.

01:28:27.040 So it's, you know, it's, it's been a profound journey to, a friend said to me recently,

01:28:33.180 so here I used to have Tourette's and I used to experience so much prejudice because I was

01:28:38.420 taking the N word in public.

01:28:40.100 And now that I've beaten Tourette's and now I'm just a white guy walking around, it's in

01:28:45.800 a way I'm experiencing more prejudice now.

01:28:47.640 Wow.

01:28:48.540 And so.

01:28:49.780 Yeah.

01:28:50.240 Welcome to the club, dude.

01:28:51.540 You know, at least you got to say it a bunch.

01:28:53.740 Yes. 0.99

01:28:53.960 You know, we're fucking out here on an island. 0.98

01:28:56.560 Well, I hope that made sense. 0.99

01:28:57.580 Isn't that the reason I said about, and now I'm a white male is because white males in 0.65

01:29:01.340 our culture don't experience a lot of prejudice relative to a lot of, you know, a white male

01:29:07.300 compared to someone with Tourette's experiences less.

01:29:09.840 I see what you're saying.

01:29:10.900 So it's interesting now of, of still seeing is that even without the Tourette's, I'm still

01:29:15.440 learning so many lessons about prejudice and the nature of how we treat people and how

01:29:19.920 we label people, whether it's a group or, or a syndrome or whatever it might be.

01:29:25.220 Yeah.

01:29:26.120 So.

01:29:26.920 Yeah.

01:29:27.020 We battle with that too.

01:29:28.000 Like, you know, in comedy and, and just talking about stuff, it's like, it's different, you

01:29:31.820 know?

01:29:32.300 I mean, hell, I don't even think you could legally have, you couldn't even have Tourette's today

01:29:35.300 in Los Angeles.

01:29:35.900 Like they, I feel like they'd hang you at the, at the cross if you dropped a couple 0.65

01:29:39.340 of bombs out there, you know?

01:29:40.820 Like when I was growing up, you could have some Tourette's, you know, you'd have a dude,

01:29:43.960 you know, everybody, you know, people could have something, you know, they carried a dude

01:29:48.560 over there in the, in the area and he sets off a couple of M bombs or use them, but inappropriate

01:29:53.260 terms, people were more understanding.

01:29:54.740 Can you even have Tourette's nowadays and be accepted?

01:29:57.440 Well, the thing is, I mean, people were, I was really open and I, you know, my family really

01:30:02.320 was supportive and we pushed it.

01:30:03.880 I would always tell people I had Tourette's.

01:30:05.280 I would make announcements on planes and my classes.

01:30:07.700 I think in general, most people are, I think at the core do want to be understanding.

01:30:13.560 I think what's difficult is that we live in a time where, where people don't, there's

01:30:18.700 not a lot of critical thinking and, and people are so quick to.

01:30:23.100 Yeah.

01:30:23.520 Just be mean.

01:30:24.340 Just be mean or jump on the bandwagon of being mean with other people and whatever it

01:30:28.740 is.

01:30:28.900 They don't want to communicate.

01:30:30.740 So, um.

01:30:32.080 It's weird that they would say someone with Tourette's has a problem communicating and

01:30:35.140 now it's like, so I'd rather have Tourette's than be, you know, one of these social justice

01:30:39.460 warriors who's just beating everybody who doesn't want to have a conversation sometimes, you know?

01:30:43.780 Well, I think, I mean, one of the big things that I, in trying to talk about kindness and

01:30:47.400 stuff is it's interesting how we as a society, we fight bullying.

01:30:52.420 Yeah.

01:30:52.580 With bullying.

01:30:53.300 Right.

01:30:53.680 We fight hate with hate.

01:30:55.840 Yeah.

01:30:56.020 And the question is, do we want to, do we want to continue to perpetuate that or do we

01:31:00.620 recognize maybe there's other ways that we can treat people?

01:31:04.280 I love that, man.

01:31:05.340 I agree with that a bunch, you know?

01:31:07.040 It's like even, yeah, it fascinates me sometimes how much, uh, people will be hateful and just

01:31:15.140 because it matches their point of view that it's okay to be hateful.

01:31:18.460 You know, it's like, um, oh, you can't be hateful, but as long as, but I can, you know,

01:31:23.520 it's like, how do you not recognize, I mean, being hateful is being hateful, you know?

01:31:27.380 But go on.

01:31:28.540 Well, I want to say, it's not that I'm above that.

01:31:30.680 Right.

01:31:31.620 I used to so much all the time fight hate with hate.

01:31:35.020 Yeah.

01:31:35.420 You know, even when, you know, I was growing up with my older brother who was gay, man,

01:31:38.400 I was one of those people pioneering, you know, if you didn't like gay marriage, oh, I hated 0.99

01:31:43.660 you. 0.97

01:31:44.040 Right.

01:31:44.320 And then luckily, you know, through a lot of my education and going through some of

01:31:48.580 the classes too, I've started to really want to be different.

01:31:52.080 Yeah.

01:31:52.580 And recognize, you know what I do?

01:31:54.760 There are things that I, I really dislike or people that I don't dislike.

01:31:58.020 And the question is, okay, can I still be different even if I feel that way?

01:32:01.300 Yeah.

01:32:02.060 Yes.

01:32:02.420 That's it.

01:32:02.800 That's the biggest thing.

01:32:03.800 It's like, yeah, I know some great people who don't like, who probably would be, who,

01:32:07.900 who would be against gay marriage.

01:32:09.540 Right.

01:32:10.220 And I'm not going to hate those people for that.

01:32:13.460 They're great.

01:32:14.160 They're good people just because their belief system or whoever taught them or something

01:32:18.340 they, that's their thing.

01:32:19.840 Like it doesn't mean that they would be rude to gay people or that they would treat them

01:32:24.080 differently.

01:32:24.640 They may have some old, you know, a religious belief and that's their thing.

01:32:28.200 It's like, or anybody's religious.

01:32:30.160 That doesn't mean I have to believe it.

01:32:31.760 It doesn't mean I have to agree with it, but also doesn't mean I have to shun somebody because,

01:32:35.680 you know, um, their beliefs are different than mine.

01:32:39.440 You know, it's, it's baffling to me that we do that or, and why would we do it?

01:32:44.500 You know, uh, because it's not understanding it's, it's not accepting really.

01:32:48.600 Well, the reason I think we do it is because I think we're not aware of how we all do do

01:32:52.760 that.

01:32:53.180 Yeah.

01:32:53.820 And that was also, that's a good point.

01:32:56.260 And it's also, you know, it was like part of my journey with the Tourette syndrome.

01:32:58.760 It was, I couldn't even see the, the, even just about the fear of losing Tourette's.

01:33:03.680 I wasn't even willing to look at that.

01:33:05.720 Maybe not even willing.

01:33:06.620 I didn't even know.

01:33:08.160 And so it was with help that I could start to become more aware of that.

01:33:11.140 And then when you start realizing like, you know what?

01:33:14.220 I also don't like a lot of people or, you know what?

01:33:16.880 I also feel negative feelings towards people.

01:33:19.420 That's when you can start to have a little bit more compassion when you see someone else

01:33:24.380 doing it, you know?

01:33:25.300 But now we live in a time where, you know, someone's caught on video saying some prejudice

01:33:29.660 thing.

01:33:30.160 And, and then what do we do to that person?

01:33:32.860 Yeah.

01:33:33.500 We're completely prejudiced to that person.

01:33:36.500 Yeah.

01:33:36.860 Instead of offering it out, well, how can we, what can we learn from this?

01:33:39.760 How can we, this person, you know, how can we accept them into a fold and make them feel

01:33:43.480 comfortable and make them feel like, oh, we all make mistakes, you know?

01:33:46.700 And that doesn't mean you can't hold them accountable still.

01:33:49.040 Yeah.

01:33:49.580 Agreed.

01:33:49.960 A hundred percent.

01:33:50.620 But the question is, can you hold someone accountable and still be kind, you know, and

01:33:56.980 Do you think it's the media that's more like that or humanity is more like that?

01:34:01.320 I struggle with that a lot.

01:34:02.900 I think the media is just an extension of humanity.

01:34:05.040 I think it's, you know, it's like, you know, when someone talks about a company, like someone's

01:34:08.940 like, well, this corporation.

01:34:10.220 Yeah.

01:34:10.320 And it's like, look, it's, yes, it's a company, but just people.

01:34:12.780 Yeah.

01:34:13.680 It's just people.

01:34:14.680 It's people.

01:34:14.940 It's not a robot.

01:34:15.640 You know, it's, it's, uh, it's people.

01:34:17.640 And so, um, I think this is hard for all of us, but, uh, I think it's, it's just really

01:34:24.140 what I've come to learn so much throughout all this journey of, you know, with the Tourette's,

01:34:27.640 without Tourette's, my experience now in the company, experiencing a lot of prejudice of,

01:34:31.400 I don't really know a lot.

01:34:34.660 I do want to stand up for things, but, um, I think there's different ways we can do it.

01:34:39.080 And I think, you know, when you look at history and you look at someone like Martin Luther

01:34:41.860 King, his whole message of nonviolence.

01:34:44.600 I mean, here, look what he stood up for, but he did it nonviolently with compassion.

01:34:49.560 That narrative is basically non-existent right now.

01:34:52.280 Yeah.

01:34:52.940 And instead it's sort of, you know, we live in a time where if you think somebody did

01:34:57.360 something wrong, you point the finger and. 0.99

01:35:00.500 And people will quote Martin Luther King Jr. and then go out and beat somebody's ass 1.00

01:35:04.160 too. 0.99

01:35:04.780 It's like, this is insane, you know?

01:35:07.260 But yeah, look, man, I love some of the ways that you, uh, I love hearing some of this

01:35:10.620 and being reminded of it.

01:35:11.720 Like, you know, I'll find every day, like I'm me, I'll be mean about stuff.

01:35:15.180 And then I'll realize that I had a part in something.

01:35:17.020 I'll have to go back and, you know, apologize or, you know, I mean, it's.

01:35:22.560 And I'm with you too.

01:35:23.340 I mean, this is a constant journey for myself.

01:35:26.100 It's not like I'm above this.

01:35:28.140 I don't do this.

01:35:28.860 It's, but it's more of, I want to keep becoming a person that's not like that.

01:35:33.080 Yeah.

01:35:33.360 I want to become a, I want to become a person who's, you know what?

01:35:36.840 I can feel really negative thoughts about somebody and still be kind.

01:35:41.860 Yeah.

01:35:42.440 That's not easy.

01:35:43.300 Say what you mean.

01:35:44.140 Don't say it mean.

01:35:44.900 My brother always says that to his kids sometimes.

01:35:46.840 Say what you mean.

01:35:47.540 Don't say it mean.

01:35:48.620 That's what he says.

01:35:49.460 I mean, it's just one little thing about what you're saying, but yeah, I agree, man.

01:35:52.640 It's like, I'll get upset at groups of people sometimes.

01:35:55.020 And, and then I'll be like, well, what's really going on here?

01:35:57.840 You know, and, uh, but I think we're getting to a place like that inside where people are

01:36:02.120 thinking about those types of things more.

01:36:03.500 Let's look at a couple more videos real quick so we can shut it down over here.

01:36:06.520 We got to, uh.

01:36:07.400 Cool.

01:36:07.660 This is from the 1970s.

01:36:09.380 Quincy.

01:36:10.100 Okay.

01:36:12.540 That's the haloperidol, isn't it?

01:36:14.640 It'll be okay once I get up there concentrating.

01:36:17.800 I better go see when they want you.

01:36:19.520 We got a courtroom here and the kids got the, the rats, I guess.

01:36:24.620 I feel like I just swallowed a butterfly collection.

01:36:26.680 Well, you're going to be fine.

01:36:29.540 I just, I don't want to scare them.

01:36:32.000 I feel so small.

01:36:34.900 Well, just think of David and Goliath.

01:36:36.740 Yeah, but I don't have a slingshot.

01:36:40.880 Dr. Quincy, I don't know if I can really go through with this.

01:36:43.960 Oh, you're going to be fine.

01:36:45.660 You couldn't do it, Tony.

01:36:47.320 Honest, you can.

01:36:51.520 There you go.

01:36:52.240 And that's Quincy is the movie and it's about.

01:36:53.820 It was a TV show about, uh, some doctor, psychologist that helped people.

01:36:58.600 I've never actually seen that clip before.

01:37:00.180 Oh, well, there you go.

01:37:01.160 Nick did some good digging right there.

01:37:02.820 You put him on a disease at night and that guy will really show up in the morning with

01:37:05.980 some wild clips.

01:37:07.080 Yeah.

01:37:07.280 So for the people who are just listening, that guy, he just had like facial tics and stuff.

01:37:11.400 How did that look?

01:37:12.660 That looked pretty.

01:37:13.380 I mean, I think you have a lot of people who do those kinds of tics that don't have Tourette

01:37:16.980 syndrome.

01:37:17.240 I'm sure you've met people that, you know, blink their eyes and stuff.

01:37:20.900 And also if someone's listening and you've been blinking your eye, you know, you don't

01:37:24.040 have to freak out.

01:37:24.780 It's not like you have Tourette's.

01:37:26.040 It's.

01:37:26.560 You might have dust.

01:37:27.360 You might need an air purifier.

01:37:28.820 So that grade for that one.

01:37:30.660 That was pretty low.

01:37:31.480 I'm not sure what was, he was also doing something with his hands.

01:37:34.260 Not, not in an intensity like his depiction.

01:37:36.460 How.

01:37:37.400 Yeah.

01:37:37.720 Did that actor do a good job?

01:37:39.360 What did he do on a one to 10 of that Tourette?

01:37:40.660 I actually thought that was a pretty good.

01:37:41.940 I mean, especially with the eyes.

01:37:43.220 I mean, that's not.

01:37:44.020 What do you think?

01:37:44.340 A seven?

01:37:45.240 I'll give it a six.

01:37:45.900 Okay, wow, six.

01:37:47.380 Tough grader, but.

01:37:48.060 Wow.

01:37:48.540 That was lauded like at the time when I was doing digging of like just a good depiction

01:37:53.360 and very educational.

01:37:54.920 I thought it was good.

01:37:55.580 This is my first standard, so I could give it an eight too.

01:37:57.920 Give it a six, bro. 1.00

01:37:58.760 Fuck it, man. 1.00

01:37:59.500 It's Tourette's that guy barely did it. 1.00

01:38:00.940 He did it twice, you know?

01:38:02.200 You gotta, I wanna shake up.

01:38:03.180 I wanna see it real shake up.

01:38:04.680 Here we go.

01:38:05.060 This is Amy Poehler in Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo.

01:38:09.420 Okay.

01:38:10.560 Hello?

01:38:11.300 Oh my God.

01:38:11.840 Is this Ruth?

01:38:12.900 Yeah, I'll be right down. 1.00

01:38:14.120 God damn it! 0.99

01:38:15.900 Nice day, huh? 0.99

01:38:17.480 Yeah. 1.00

01:38:18.740 Shove it up your ass! 1.00

01:38:21.040 Yeah! 1.00

01:38:23.880 Wow.

01:38:25.020 Jeez.

01:38:26.000 You okay?

01:38:26.960 I'm sorry.

01:38:28.200 I have Tourette's syndrome, and it causes me to have these uncontrollable outbursts.

01:38:33.380 It's not so bad.

01:38:34.780 Yeah, it's okay.

01:38:35.980 I mean, you get used to it.

01:38:37.760 Ball sweat!

01:38:39.160 Anus!

01:38:40.280 Anus liquor! 0.99

01:38:41.060 You know, there are some places I can't go, nipple-biter! 1.00

01:38:48.120 Da-da-da-da-da-da! 0.99

01:38:50.440 What are you talking about?

01:38:52.320 Oh my God.

01:38:54.680 I can't believe Rob Schneider, and Rob Schneider seems like the guy who would try to bang out

01:38:58.560 chicks with Tourette's or different syndromes and stuff.

01:39:00.760 He's been in some dark stuff.

01:39:01.860 I would give that one a lower one, because that's like, I would give that more like

01:39:04.500 a three or four.

01:39:05.400 Okay, and why is that?

01:39:06.240 One thing is, you know, I was aware that I was saying the bad word.

01:39:09.180 I would try to muffle it.

01:39:11.060 Okay.

01:39:11.520 You know?

01:39:12.140 So I used to like add words even sometimes.

01:39:14.780 So if I was going to say the N-word, sometimes I would add the word dad.

01:39:17.520 Oh yeah.

01:39:17.840 It's like a, and then it would, yeah, you know, to try to muffle it, where that one seemed.

01:39:23.300 Or just start singing a rap song.

01:39:24.740 Yeah.

01:39:25.260 Or I would say like chinkopotamus or something like that. 1.00

01:39:28.160 Well, a lot of times I would, I would go, hi, hi, even if it wasn't a bad word, like

01:39:33.960 if I felt the tick, hi, hi.

01:39:35.720 Oh, right on.

01:39:36.240 Like you're doing magic.

01:39:37.220 Yeah.

01:39:37.680 Like you're starting, like you're introducing people to something.

01:39:39.720 Oh, hi there.

01:39:41.140 Yeah.

01:39:42.100 Wow, bro.

01:39:42.740 Now that's pretty cool, because then you're in like a wild, it's almost like you're in a game

01:39:47.240 with yourself sometimes.

01:39:48.880 Yeah, it was just a nightmare of a game.

01:39:50.480 It was.

01:39:51.000 It's like your move,

01:39:52.020 central nervous system, you know?

01:39:54.380 Yeah.

01:39:54.880 Let's look at one more

01:39:55.560 and get a rating on this one, man.

01:39:56.840 So what did you give Amy Poehler

01:39:57.820 got a two on that?

01:39:58.840 It was a bit outlandish.

01:40:00.020 It was three or four.

01:40:00.800 Three.

01:40:01.620 Three, yeah.

01:40:02.160 Small window between Amy Poehler

01:40:03.660 and that guy from Quincy.

01:40:04.980 Here's our last one

01:40:06.120 from TV's Seventh Heaven.

01:40:09.240 Oh my God.

01:40:09.720 Until God said...

01:40:10.840 God said.

01:40:12.100 God said.

01:40:12.700 God said.

01:40:13.380 God said.

01:40:16.040 They're in church.

01:40:17.240 Obviously.

01:40:19.300 Well, I appreciate the help.

01:40:21.560 The help.

01:40:22.600 The help.

01:40:23.140 The help.

01:40:23.620 The help.

01:40:24.660 The help.

01:40:25.300 The help.

01:40:25.780 The help.

01:40:27.740 His mother says he has ADD.

01:40:29.560 My son doesn't have Tourette's Syndrome.

01:40:32.000 Please, don't run away.

01:40:34.020 Your ADD, I could deal with.

01:40:37.060 But this, you know...

01:40:40.940 I just don't think I can bear it.

01:40:44.200 Dad's not accepting.

01:40:45.800 I actually give that one a nine.

01:40:47.400 I mean, that's pretty...

01:40:48.520 I think it's a good depiction

01:40:50.220 of the Tourette's

01:40:51.000 of what that's like

01:40:51.720 and I think it's also

01:40:52.340 a good depiction

01:40:52.820 of the parents.

01:40:53.520 I think it's really hard.

01:40:55.800 Yeah.

01:40:55.940 No, I don't...

01:40:56.580 It's...

01:40:57.780 The...

01:40:58.980 It wasn't just like

01:41:01.240 I had Tourette's.

01:41:01.980 The whole family had Tourette's.

01:41:03.680 Ah.

01:41:04.680 You know,

01:41:05.180 I would tell people

01:41:06.040 when I would walk into a room

01:41:07.400 or a restaurant

01:41:08.020 and I'd take the N-word

01:41:08.900 and I'm with some friends,

01:41:10.200 no one knows who said it.

01:41:11.580 Right.

01:41:11.980 Oh, that's fun.

01:41:12.880 I mean, it's not fun.

01:41:13.640 It's crazy.

01:41:14.200 Do you know what I'm saying?

01:41:14.800 Yeah.

01:41:14.900 Everyone turns and just looks.

01:41:16.320 Everyone's just as much

01:41:17.300 of a culprit that I am.

01:41:18.400 Yeah.

01:41:19.700 Oh, that's true, huh?

01:41:20.900 You're like,

01:41:21.300 Jesus,

01:41:21.800 everybody's looking at your mom

01:41:22.760 like she says it all the time.

01:41:23.920 Did you ever pretend

01:41:24.580 it was your mom?

01:41:25.620 So you were...

01:41:26.100 I didn't pretend it was my mom.

01:41:28.520 But it was, you know,

01:41:29.180 one of those things

01:41:29.860 where that kind of understanding

01:41:32.860 didn't come until later.

01:41:33.860 Did you have to dress 0.96

01:41:34.660 like a wigger kind of kid 1.00

01:41:35.880 just to pull it off? 0.96

01:41:37.700 No.

01:41:38.520 But I mean,

01:41:39.220 sometimes I would leave

01:41:40.300 when I would go to movie theaters.

01:41:41.460 I put washcloth in my mouth.

01:41:43.200 I had just one time

01:41:44.520 when I was younger,

01:41:45.360 I had a very serious situation

01:41:46.580 with taking the N-word.

01:41:48.020 But knock on wood,

01:41:48.940 I was very lucky.

01:41:50.380 And also, you know,

01:41:50.980 I did whatever I...

01:41:52.600 Because I wasn't...

01:41:54.300 I didn't have negative intent

01:41:55.780 to do something.

01:41:57.140 A lot of times

01:41:57.820 if I did say the N-word

01:41:58.740 and there was a black person

01:41:59.880 that heard me,

01:42:01.200 I would actually just continue on

01:42:02.860 with my day as normal.

01:42:04.580 Because usually I was...

01:42:05.840 I imagined

01:42:06.420 if you're going to say that to somebody

01:42:08.040 and you're trying to hurt them

01:42:09.500 or, you know,

01:42:11.080 really get their attention,

01:42:12.320 you wouldn't just pretend

01:42:13.520 like it didn't just happen.

01:42:15.100 Right.

01:42:15.500 Right.

01:42:16.700 Right.

01:42:17.200 Yeah.

01:42:17.420 You need to live accordingly

01:42:19.680 with what's actually occurring

01:42:21.380 in your life

01:42:21.840 is that it's something that happened

01:42:23.200 and you're just going on

01:42:23.880 to live in your life.

01:42:24.460 Yeah.

01:42:24.620 Because if not,

01:42:25.060 you're standing there

01:42:25.580 looking at them.

01:42:26.340 Then it's like you're waiting

01:42:27.200 to figure it out.

01:42:28.200 Yes.

01:42:28.460 And it's going to be

01:42:28.940 an interesting conversation.

01:42:30.860 A lot of...

01:42:32.180 Yeah, man.

01:42:33.320 I mean,

01:42:33.600 I just can't even imagine.

01:42:36.400 What was it?

01:42:36.860 Did you ever get a bonus word

01:42:38.000 that you never got again

01:42:38.940 that kind of popped in?

01:42:40.500 I mean,

01:42:40.760 I've said everything

01:42:41.500 you can imagine.

01:42:42.120 I mean...

01:42:43.120 You know...

01:42:44.560 What was one of your favorites 0.99

01:42:45.500 that would fucking flare up 0.97

01:42:46.680 every now and then, dude? 0.97

01:42:47.860 Anything around the holidays

01:42:48.800 or something?

01:42:52.220 Oh.

01:42:53.880 It's so hard to say, Theo.

01:42:55.080 I mean,

01:42:55.400 I had...

01:42:56.380 Anytime I see someone,

01:42:57.740 the funny thing is

01:42:58.420 they'll go,

01:42:58.700 Mark,

01:42:58.880 do you remember that time

01:42:59.740 when you...

01:43:00.840 You know,

01:43:01.060 this happened,

01:43:01.660 you ticked?

01:43:01.960 I'm like,

01:43:02.220 do you understand

01:43:02.840 how many times

01:43:03.620 that I ticked?

01:43:04.200 How many of those moments

01:43:05.480 I've had with so many people?

01:43:07.000 One funny one,

01:43:07.820 when I was in a fraternity,

01:43:09.660 somebody punched a...

01:43:11.140 It was...

01:43:11.480 You know,

01:43:11.740 there was like a drunken night

01:43:12.760 at the house

01:43:13.340 and somebody had punched a wall.

01:43:15.060 Oh, excuse me,

01:43:15.540 had punched a hole in the wall

01:43:16.480 and the whole pledge glass

01:43:18.120 had to come in front of it

01:43:19.200 and I started ticking,

01:43:20.420 I did it.

01:43:21.180 Oh, yeah?

01:43:21.720 Even though I didn't do it. 1.00

01:43:23.160 Oh, damn. 0.99

01:43:23.960 You know, 1.00

01:43:24.200 things like that,

01:43:25.160 you know,

01:43:25.440 it's sort of just like

01:43:26.380 everyone starts laughing

01:43:27.760 and, you know,

01:43:28.380 it's...

01:43:28.580 You're on trial for murder.

01:43:30.560 Yeah, you're just saying...

01:43:31.420 I'm guilty, Roger.

01:43:32.360 I'm guilty.

01:43:33.940 Wow.

01:43:34.380 Mark Elliott, man,

01:43:35.160 thank you so much, man,

01:43:35.980 for coming in

01:43:36.500 and spending time with us today, man.

01:43:37.660 It's been fascinating.

01:43:38.740 It's been a fun conversation.

01:43:41.040 And Michael Rosenbaum was in

01:43:42.440 and that was about...

01:43:43.960 The group is called Nexus

01:43:45.280 or something?

01:43:45.800 Is that a different or...

01:43:46.800 I think it's the parent company

01:43:48.320 of a bunch of different companies,

01:43:49.460 but really what's been

01:43:50.900 the most fascinating part about it...

01:43:53.140 Grappe or something?

01:43:53.460 I've seen one of them

01:43:54.040 around town before or something

01:43:55.140 or L.

01:43:56.540 No, because it was...

01:43:57.500 It might be a restaurant.

01:43:58.620 That was more of a restaurant.

01:43:59.640 It might have been a restaurant.

01:44:00.580 But it was...

01:44:01.640 You know,

01:44:01.880 it's so interesting

01:44:02.440 because, you know,

01:44:03.340 Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman

01:44:04.860 who are the ones

01:44:05.360 that created, you know,

01:44:06.460 ESP,

01:44:07.020 which are really responsible

01:44:08.060 for why, you know,

01:44:09.300 I don't have...

01:44:10.400 You know,

01:44:10.580 created the tools

01:44:11.320 that helped me beat

01:44:12.080 Tourette's syndrome.

01:44:12.700 It's just so fascinating

01:44:13.740 of how different

01:44:14.700 they're being portrayed

01:44:15.360 in the media right now.

01:44:16.460 Oh, because they're the group

01:44:17.580 that those are the same people

01:44:19.280 that got in trouble

01:44:20.140 with the sex cult or whatever?

01:44:21.800 And all that stuff, yes.

01:44:22.700 Really?

01:44:23.520 You know,

01:44:23.860 so it's so interesting for me

01:44:26.600 because...

01:44:28.040 The same people?

01:44:29.000 Same people.

01:44:30.560 So,

01:44:31.480 it's so interesting for me

01:44:32.640 because it's just like

01:44:33.340 as I was describing

01:44:34.040 with the Tourette's syndrome,

01:44:35.480 is that here,

01:44:36.320 people saw something.

01:44:38.720 They just saw one moment in time

01:44:40.580 and then they make

01:44:42.820 that one moment in time

01:44:44.160 as if that's a truth

01:44:45.120 and then they act

01:44:47.100 on those truths.

01:44:49.360 And so,

01:44:51.200 you know,

01:44:51.480 people that I,

01:44:52.420 you know,

01:44:52.560 that are dear friends

01:44:53.440 that are doing

01:44:54.320 really good things

01:44:55.060 in the world,

01:44:55.460 things that I'm doing

01:44:56.140 in the world

01:44:56.440 that are really good,

01:44:57.480 it's so interesting

01:44:58.180 to see then

01:44:58.980 how people can treat you

01:45:00.100 just when they hear

01:45:00.840 that there's a label.

01:45:01.860 Wow.

01:45:02.640 And this is why

01:45:04.020 now really with my speaking,

01:45:05.880 it's cool because

01:45:06.360 10 years ago

01:45:06.940 I started talking

01:45:07.660 about kindness

01:45:08.300 and it couldn't be

01:45:10.360 more apropos now

01:45:11.460 but it's not even

01:45:12.220 just about Tourette's syndrome,

01:45:13.440 it's really looking at

01:45:14.420 the title that I have now

01:45:16.080 is called

01:45:16.320 Guilty Until Proven Innocent

01:45:17.680 and really looking at

01:45:19.700 not only just the nature

01:45:21.020 of how we place verdicts

01:45:22.340 on our own life,

01:45:23.440 like with the Tourette's,

01:45:25.140 was really,

01:45:25.680 was my own mind

01:45:26.340 placing a verdict

01:45:27.040 but also the way

01:45:28.280 that we place verdicts

01:45:29.140 on other people's life.

01:45:30.260 Wow.

01:45:31.020 Yeah,

01:45:31.360 I could see that being

01:45:31.860 like a good turn

01:45:34.160 at like the,

01:45:34.700 you know,

01:45:35.000 as a second half

01:45:35.740 of a speech

01:45:36.340 or if you're given a,

01:45:37.180 you know,

01:45:37.460 teaching people,

01:45:38.600 you know.

01:45:38.980 Yeah.

01:45:39.480 It's perfect.

01:45:40.160 You know.

01:45:40.820 Did you,

01:45:41.260 so you had experiences

01:45:42.120 with those people,

01:45:42.860 I mean you,

01:45:43.540 they taught you ESP,

01:45:45.040 they took you

01:45:45.460 through that program.

01:45:46.180 Of course,

01:45:46.620 I mean Keith and Nancy

01:45:47.720 and these are dear

01:45:49.360 friends of mine.

01:45:50.280 And then the,

01:45:51.840 because we had

01:45:52.180 Michael Rosenbaum

01:45:53.400 in here

01:45:53.800 and they,

01:45:56.000 did you ever see them

01:45:56.940 as being like cult-like?

01:45:59.040 No,

01:45:59.400 the thing is,

01:45:59.960 I mean it's just

01:46:00.500 such a funny thing

01:46:01.440 even,

01:46:01.840 you know,

01:46:02.060 growing up,

01:46:02.560 you know,

01:46:02.700 you hear about cults

01:46:03.880 and all those sorts of things.

01:46:04.840 Oh yeah,

01:46:05.300 wizardry.

01:46:06.200 Wizardry.

01:46:06.560 And then it's just

01:46:07.400 kind of interesting

01:46:07.960 is that once you're

01:46:08.720 on the other side

01:46:09.400 and you see actually

01:46:10.280 how,

01:46:11.200 you know,

01:46:11.340 when you start using

01:46:12.020 words like cult

01:46:12.880 or something like that,

01:46:13.740 like basically

01:46:14.280 it stops people

01:46:15.460 from critically thinking

01:46:16.720 anymore.

01:46:17.260 That's true.

01:46:18.320 And,

01:46:18.620 you know,

01:46:18.800 versus,

01:46:19.280 okay,

01:46:19.420 look,

01:46:19.760 you know,

01:46:19.920 maybe someone's

01:46:21.200 doing something

01:46:21.780 that you don't like

01:46:22.680 or you don't know

01:46:23.360 but the question is

01:46:24.160 is like,

01:46:25.540 you know,

01:46:25.980 why is that bad?

01:46:28.180 You know,

01:46:28.340 if they're just doing

01:46:28.800 something that's

01:46:29.180 different than you.

01:46:30.100 Right,

01:46:30.280 so would you say more

01:46:31.320 they were a helpful

01:46:31.960 group of people

01:46:32.680 that just had some 0.53

01:46:33.660 maybe wild sexual

01:46:34.560 activities sometimes?

01:46:35.900 I don't know anything

01:46:37.220 about that stuff.

01:46:38.220 Oh,

01:46:38.320 so you don't even know

01:46:38.740 anything about that?

01:46:39.340 I don't even know

01:46:39.860 about that stuff.

01:46:40.780 What I just know

01:46:41.540 is that these are people

01:46:44.140 that have done

01:46:44.580 profound things

01:46:45.440 in the world.

01:46:46.080 Wow.

01:46:46.560 And,

01:46:46.960 you know,

01:46:47.620 stuff like with

01:46:48.100 the Tourette's Project,

01:46:49.120 obviously it's a little bit

01:46:50.080 on hold at the moment.

01:46:51.200 Right.

01:46:51.560 But I'm so excited

01:46:52.940 to bring that out

01:46:53.680 into the world.

01:46:54.260 I mean,

01:46:54.400 I think that we can help

01:46:55.520 millions and millions

01:46:57.700 of people.

01:46:58.840 It's so fascinating.

01:47:00.020 It's just because,

01:47:01.000 yeah,

01:47:01.220 like,

01:47:02.940 yeah,

01:47:03.380 they get,

01:47:03.800 you get labeled,

01:47:04.620 you know,

01:47:05.020 involved in a behavior

01:47:06.640 because there's a lot

01:47:07.460 of people out here 0.99

01:47:07.920 doing wild sex. 0.99

01:47:09.120 You know what I'm saying? 0.98

01:47:09.520 I get invites to do

01:47:10.480 all kinds of things.

01:47:11.380 You know,

01:47:11.600 they got,

01:47:12.300 some fellow almost

01:47:13.020 paid me 10 grand

01:47:13.980 to go and,

01:47:14.620 you know, 0.98

01:47:15.300 thug out his wife 0.99

01:47:16.200 up there at a hostel

01:47:17.100 somewhere outside

01:47:17.720 of San Francisco.

01:47:18.820 But I'm just saying

01:47:19.700 it's like there's people

01:47:20.500 and that guy might be

01:47:21.320 a stand-up guy

01:47:22.200 at a,

01:47:22.500 you know,

01:47:22.880 at a Ford dealership

01:47:23.980 or something.

01:47:24.480 You just never know

01:47:25.500 who,

01:47:25.980 you know,

01:47:26.220 who's doing what

01:47:26.940 and does it matter?

01:47:28.240 Well,

01:47:28.320 that's the thing

01:47:28.860 because not only

01:47:29.840 do I not know

01:47:30.480 about that stuff

01:47:31.380 is that I think

01:47:33.220 the deeper

01:47:33.740 and the bigger question

01:47:34.740 for our society

01:47:35.640 is more is

01:47:36.360 what I know

01:47:37.100 isn't good

01:47:37.780 is not about

01:47:38.600 a hypothetical

01:47:39.180 but trial by media.

01:47:41.200 Oh, yeah,

01:47:41.520 it's horrible.

01:47:41.880 And things like this

01:47:42.520 where is that really

01:47:44.680 how we want to be

01:47:45.860 where,

01:47:46.920 you know,

01:47:47.360 you have,

01:47:48.440 you know,

01:47:48.600 and I mentioned sort of

01:47:49.320 it's like,

01:47:49.560 you know,

01:47:49.720 if you point at somebody

01:47:50.640 now,

01:47:51.080 it's,

01:47:51.380 have you ever seen

01:47:51.720 the movie The Crucible?

01:47:53.020 If you haven't seen

01:47:53.720 the movie,

01:47:54.040 see The Crucible.

01:47:54.820 With Harry,

01:47:56.240 Beecher Stowe,

01:47:56.800 who's in that?

01:47:57.180 It was a long time ago

01:47:58.480 but you,

01:47:59.440 I think it's Harriet.

01:48:00.400 It's,

01:48:01.180 again,

01:48:01.580 it's,

01:48:01.800 I'm not saying

01:48:02.360 if you think

01:48:03.740 something is wrong,

01:48:04.560 it's important

01:48:05.020 to speak up about that

01:48:06.380 but how you do

01:48:07.680 that's really important.

01:48:08.900 Yeah.

01:48:09.860 And,

01:48:10.320 you know,

01:48:11.240 with respect to the media

01:48:12.260 and how we treat people

01:48:13.300 whether it's through

01:48:13.920 allegations,

01:48:14.740 whether it's through gossip,

01:48:15.940 whether it's through

01:48:16.380 any of these things,

01:48:17.440 can we still be kind?

01:48:19.580 Yeah,

01:48:19.780 the media does not,

01:48:20.560 the media does not set

01:48:21.380 a good example.

01:48:22.360 Because it's,

01:48:23.560 you know,

01:48:24.780 and maybe we don't,

01:48:25.480 if it's just an extension

01:48:26.240 of us,

01:48:26.620 maybe we don't.

01:48:27.820 But yeah,

01:48:28.240 it's interesting,

01:48:28.900 you know,

01:48:29.080 they don't put in

01:48:29.820 those articles,

01:48:30.360 this is a group

01:48:30.780 that's helped

01:48:31.300 millions of people

01:48:32.440 or hundreds of

01:48:33.040 thousands of people.

01:48:34.020 Well,

01:48:34.180 and it's,

01:48:34.560 it's,

01:48:34.980 it's just saying,

01:48:36.420 you know,

01:48:36.980 these are people

01:48:37.600 being wild

01:48:38.360 and you know,

01:48:39.720 you know,

01:48:40.240 who knows what else?

01:48:41.640 Yeah,

01:48:41.760 I think it's really

01:48:42.480 important that we

01:48:43.440 as adults,

01:48:44.200 we have to just

01:48:44.920 be a lot more

01:48:45.560 mindful with respect

01:48:46.680 to those types

01:48:48.200 of communications.

01:48:49.540 Did you ever get

01:48:50.360 invited in anything wild?

01:48:51.360 Was there ever

01:48:51.620 anything like that?

01:48:52.120 You never,

01:48:52.540 you never thought

01:48:53.120 anything about it?

01:48:53.480 That could have been

01:48:53.740 pretty cool though,

01:48:54.380 huh?

01:48:54.580 Yeah.

01:48:55.020 Oh,

01:48:55.360 dude,

01:48:55.640 definitely.

01:48:56.000 If you're the Tourette's 0.99

01:48:56.620 dude at an orgy. 0.97

01:48:58.480 But I think it's 0.99

01:48:59.360 a crossing guard road

01:49:00.800 is directing traffic,

01:49:02.040 dude.

01:49:02.300 All aboard! 1.00

01:49:04.260 Fuck! 1.00

01:49:04.520 I never was 1.00

01:49:05.320 and more than that though,

01:49:06.640 I,

01:49:06.700 it really,

01:49:08.140 I've just kind of

01:49:08.580 continued to learn so much

01:49:09.720 and so it's been

01:49:10.200 so beautiful of having

01:49:11.440 Tourette's experiencing 0.99

01:49:12.260 prejudice,

01:49:13.080 not having experiencing

01:49:14.240 Tourette's and

01:49:14.840 experiencing prejudice.

01:49:16.680 and I really

01:49:18.180 want to become

01:49:19.100 more of a voice

01:49:19.880 in our country

01:49:20.760 and for the narrative

01:49:21.780 of can we be kind?

01:49:24.420 Even if you think,

01:49:25.260 you know,

01:49:25.780 things are bad

01:49:26.600 that are happening.

01:49:27.840 Is there a chance

01:49:28.360 that what they were

01:49:29.300 doing,

01:49:29.940 like,

01:49:30.400 they were doing

01:49:31.520 something like

01:49:32.020 roping young women 1.00

01:49:33.500 into this sex thing

01:49:34.540 and it is completely 0.99

01:49:35.540 damnable 0.93

01:49:36.140 and you just 1.00

01:49:37.340 aren't aware of it

01:49:38.020 and you only saw

01:49:38.600 the good?

01:49:39.080 Like,

01:49:39.440 is there ever

01:49:40.200 objective times

01:49:41.120 when people are wrong

01:49:41.940 and you have to be like,

01:49:42.980 no,

01:49:43.260 you can't do that?

01:49:44.220 The thing is,

01:49:44.780 I don't even want

01:49:45.400 to comment on something

01:49:46.260 that's like crazy

01:49:47.420 hypotheticals like that

01:49:48.720 because then it even

01:49:50.240 validates that it's,

01:49:52.020 to be speaking about

01:49:53.020 that in the way

01:49:53.460 is legitimate.

01:49:54.720 What I do know

01:49:55.840 is that even in a,

01:49:57.820 even if you know

01:49:58.860 somebody did something

01:49:59.980 really bad,

01:50:01.440 what's so cool

01:50:02.780 is that we have

01:50:03.680 gold standards

01:50:04.440 in our society

01:50:05.320 of how to treat

01:50:05.920 people still.

01:50:06.500 maybe we can end

01:50:07.860 on this.

01:50:08.660 You can go in

01:50:09.500 on YouTube

01:50:10.000 and on YouTube

01:50:11.180 you can find

01:50:11.860 a bunch of videos

01:50:12.720 where someone

01:50:13.480 has murdered

01:50:14.160 somebody's,

01:50:15.320 like,

01:50:16.800 someone has murdered

01:50:17.860 someone's son

01:50:18.700 and you see

01:50:19.900 the mother

01:50:20.500 of that child

01:50:22.120 completely treat

01:50:24.160 that murderer

01:50:25.300 with love.

01:50:26.340 Yeah.

01:50:26.920 And look,

01:50:27.620 that's someone

01:50:28.000 who's still being

01:50:28.520 held accountable

01:50:29.100 but the mother

01:50:31.080 doesn't need to go

01:50:32.200 destroy that person's life.

01:50:33.940 Right.

01:50:34.700 So,

01:50:35.280 I think that's really

01:50:37.120 the bigger thing.

01:50:37.880 You know,

01:50:38.100 in life,

01:50:38.640 you know,

01:50:38.860 people make mistakes,

01:50:39.780 there's failures,

01:50:40.480 things happen,

01:50:41.100 bad things happen sometimes

01:50:42.100 but even with that,

01:50:43.540 can we still treat people

01:50:44.620 with decency?

01:50:45.500 Yeah.

01:50:46.200 So,

01:50:46.700 it's not really about

01:50:47.320 whether it's something

01:50:48.000 did or didn't,

01:50:48.660 it's what I do know

01:50:49.700 is what's happening

01:50:50.320 right now in our culture

01:50:51.400 isn't good.

01:50:52.900 Yeah.

01:50:53.520 Yeah,

01:50:53.960 and I think a lot of it

01:50:54.960 does come back

01:50:55.400 to how we treat each other.

01:50:56.860 And it's funny,

01:50:57.340 when you treat somebody

01:50:57.880 with decency,

01:50:58.640 then they,

01:50:59.320 it really,

01:50:59.880 in the end,

01:51:00.340 leaves them having to think

01:51:02.120 more about what they

01:51:02.880 actually did

01:51:03.620 because they're

01:51:04.180 they can't use

01:51:04.700 that energy

01:51:05.200 to then be angry

01:51:06.100 back at you.

01:51:06.980 It's not about

01:51:07.600 you and them.

01:51:08.720 It's about,

01:51:10.440 you know,

01:51:11.200 then it's just them

01:51:12.320 having a,

01:51:12.880 you know,

01:51:13.160 being set with the thoughts

01:51:14.400 of what they did.

01:51:15.240 You know,

01:51:15.680 I don't know,

01:51:16.840 it's fascinating,

01:51:17.560 man.

01:51:18.180 I mean,

01:51:18.560 we're,

01:51:18.880 you know,

01:51:19.560 we're late bloomers in here

01:51:20.640 so definitely

01:51:21.440 learning as we go.

01:51:23.960 But thank you so much

01:51:24.860 for being here,

01:51:25.320 Mark Elliott.

01:51:25.820 Thanks so much.

01:51:26.360 Yep.

01:51:26.620 ladies and gentlemen,

01:51:45.960 I'm Jonathan Kite

01:51:46.960 and welcome to

01:51:47.780 Kite Club,

01:51:48.640 a podcast where I'll be

01:51:49.920 sharing thoughts on things

01:51:50.980 like current events,

01:51:52.320 stand-up stories,

01:51:53.140 and seven ways

01:51:54.240 to pleasure your partner.

01:51:56.040 The answer may shock you.

01:51:57.760 Sometimes I'll interview

01:51:58.680 my friends,

01:51:59.800 sometimes I won't.

01:52:01.500 And as always,

01:52:02.360 I'll be joined by

01:52:03.060 the voices in my head.

01:52:04.460 You have

01:52:05.080 three new voice messages.

01:52:07.040 A lot of people

01:52:08.540 are talking about

01:52:09.440 Kite Club.

01:52:10.360 I've been talking

01:52:11.160 about Kite Club

01:52:12.060 for so long,

01:52:13.020 longer than anybody else.

01:52:14.700 So great.

01:52:16.020 Aye,

01:52:16.660 swia,

01:52:17.620 easy deal.

01:52:19.020 Anyone who doesn't

01:52:19.860 listen to Kite Club 1.00

01:52:20.800 is a dodgy bloody wanker. 1.00

01:52:22.940 Jermaine. 1.00

01:52:24.200 Ho ho, 1.00

01:52:24.580 I'll take a quarter pounder

01:52:26.360 with cheese

01:52:26.860 and a McFlurry.

01:52:28.020 Sorry, sir,

01:52:28.500 but our ice cream machine

01:52:29.240 is broken.

01:52:30.100 Ha ha ha!

01:52:31.360 No!

01:52:32.420 I think Tom Hanks

01:52:33.580 just butt-dialed me.

01:52:34.820 Anyway,

01:52:35.480 first rule of Kite Club

01:52:36.500 is

01:52:37.100 tell everyone

01:52:37.960 about Kite Club.

01:52:39.000 Second rule of Kite Club

01:52:40.160 is

01:52:40.740 tell everyone

01:52:41.800 about Kite Club.

01:52:43.240 Third rule,

01:52:44.160 like and subscribe

01:52:44.860 wherever you listen

01:52:45.840 to podcasts

01:52:46.400 or watch us on YouTube,

01:52:48.340 yeah?

01:52:49.000 And yes,

01:52:49.560 don't worry,

01:52:50.300 my Brad Pitt impression

01:52:51.300 will get better.

This Past Weekend with Theo Von - December 27, 2018

The Man Who Overcame Tourette's： Marc Elliot ｜ This Past Weekend

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