Name: Tony Mandarich | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #311
Uploaded: 2020-12-07T14:00:31.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tony Mandarich | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #311' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tony Mandarich | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #311' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-07. Transcript available.

Tony Mandarich | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #311

Today's episode is brought to you by Gray Block Pizza.
Gray Block Pizza, 1811 Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles.
If you want pizza, then you want Gray Block.
Get that hitter, baby.
Today's episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind.
Flow State now comes in a bottle.
And Flow State, that's not a woman that you met somewhere maybe outside of
Detroit.
Flow State now comes in a bottle.
Matcha, no tropics, adaptogens, and a hint of honey.
It's the ultimate nemesis to procrastination.
Magic Mind.
Get Magic Mind.
Use promo code Theo to get 10% off magicmind.co.
Today's guest was the second overall draft pick in the 1989 NFL draft.
And maybe the largest offensive lineman that people had ever seen.
He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
He's lived many lives, to say the least.
We're going to hear a lot about that.
And he's transformed his own life through the power of recovery.
He is a retired athlete, motivational speaker, and photographer, Mr. Tony Mandarich.
We'll be right back.
Shine that light on me.
I'll sit and tell you my stories.
Shine on me.
And I will find a song.
I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done.
I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done.
Thanks for coming, man.
My friend Morgan Murphy, do you know who she is?
She is a writer.
She messaged you.
I think she sat on Instagram one time.
Right.
That's what she said.
But she messaged me yesterday.
She's like, oh, I'm so excited for this.
I'm such a big Tony fan.
She's a comedian.
Yes, she's a comedian and a writer.
And she's like, I'm such a huge fan of his photography.
Right.
Yeah.
She, I want to say about six months ago, messaged me or had commented on a DM
on Instagram.
And then I kind of looked her up because I saw she had that seal, like that she
was who she was.
Right.
So I was like, well, I just want to, because I didn't know who she was.
So I checked it out and I was like, oh, you know, she's a comedian and she's
been to, I think, Tempe Improv and all that stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
She's a, yeah, she goes over to the comedy store.
A lot of where I know her from and then she's written on a bunch of shows.
But it was just, you know, it's just interesting the people that will reach out
when you have a certain guest coming on.
Right, right.
And it always, it always surprises me.
Yeah, I told her if she's ever through Phoenix.
Yeah, that's what she said.
She's like, she just hasn't been, I guess.
That's what she said.
She's like, tell him I plan on, on seeing him at some point.
Cool.
Yeah, she's definitely a worthwhile, I mean, a lot of people are worthwhile.
Yeah, she seems very straight up, very authentic.
She's a cool chick.
Yeah.
And, or cool, whatever she is, man.
I mean, I know she's a woman, but yes, cool person.
L-B-G-T-Q-Y-N.
Yeah.
I don't know what letters to say these days.
My friend juggles now and he said he feels left out, so.
I want to call him the alphabet.
Oh, dude.
And that's not referring to her.
I'm just talking about.
Oh, in general, it's hard.
Can you imagine going to get your license now?
Uh-uh.
Male, female, Hispanic.
Ghost.
Right?
Yeah.
I'm like, I'm the alphabet.
Somebody, yeah.
I think it's just gonna, but the thing is, it's just gonna add up until it's
just everything
and then it's gonna come full circle.
It's so stupid.
Some things are getting absolutely ridiculous, man.
You live, where do you live these days?
I'm in Scottsdale.
Oh, nice.
How do you like it over there?
I love it.
I've been there since 04.
Okay.
04, 05.
And what spurred the move over to there?
You know, it was kind of, I had a golf course in Canada where I grew up and it
was family
owned down half of it and I was just tired of, you know how family businesses
can go awesome
or they can go, hmm, not so good.
So it didn't go like really bad, but it wasn't like, I wasn't, I guess,
receiving what I was
promised I was gonna receive.
Okay.
So I was kind of like, instead of making a big deal about it, I'm just gonna
get out of the
business and instead of giving them a two-week notice, I gave them a nine-month
notice.
Okay.
Just so, you know, they could figure things out and stuff.
Oh yeah, like a baby.
Yeah, right?
I mean, it's plenty of time to figure stuff out.
Yeah.
I'm not just gonna leave them hanging.
So I literally sat at the kitchen table and I was like, if I could do anything
anywhere,
where would it be?
And it was photography and it would be in the Southwest.
Although I didn't know if I was gonna go Nevada, Cali, Utah, or Arizona.
You know, I think Arizona was the pull for some reason.
Probably because of Sedona.
Yeah, Sedona.
Even though, I mean, I'm only an hour and a half from Sedona.
A lot of seancers up there, a lot of wizards.
Yeah, a lot of crystals.
Yeah, a lot of crystals.
Oh, it's not crazy in Sedona to drive by a woman's house and see her charging
her crystals
out in the yard.
Right, right, right.
On the full moon.
Right.
She's wheel bearing them out there to charge up.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's probably my favorite place on the planet.
But the crystal stuff, it doesn't even freak me out.
It just makes me kind of go whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll talk about this, right?
I'm like, cool, right?
Whatever gets you through it.
Exactly.
It really is.
Because what works for me may not work for them.
Yeah.
Right.
It's kind of amazing how there's so many different, like, whether it be relics
or deities.
There's so many different avenues for people to find comfort.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, there is.
And then sometimes there, like, I used to do a lot more than I do now, but I
used to do
a lot of ritualistic things.
Maybe I shouldn't say ritualistic, but just stuff like I would always tie my
left shoe before
I would tie my right.
I would always put my left shoe on before my right shoe, like before a game or
just day
to day living.
And then I forced myself to break that.
I just said, I was like, I'm going to live wild on the edge.
I'm going to put my right shoe on first.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And I was like, oh, nothing happened today that was bad, so I'm good, you know?
I'm going to tell you, I'm going to put this side on my neck.
So you started, so was it hard to leave Canada when you left Canada?
Was it tough?
When I left the golf course?
When you left, yes.
Or when I left for school?
When you left the golf course, when you kind of like.
Yeah, it was.
It was.
Canada's awesome, man.
It's freaking awesome.
I love it.
I mean, you know, I grew up in Canada until I was 15, and then my senior year
of high school
went to Ohio for the sole purpose of, besides the obvious of graduating from
high school,
but to get exposure, to get a scholarship to a major American college.
Because it was easier if you were in the States.
Yeah, and then it just so happened that the high school I ended up going to was
in the
same town as where my brother was going to college at Kent State.
So he would become my legal guardian.
So like, we had to go to court and everything.
My parents had to sign off.
Wow.
And they got you a home down there?
No, I actually ended up living with my brother.
Wow.
On an off-campus apartment.
And were you guys, was that like kind of party central, or were you so focused
on that time
on football?
I was very focused, but there was, yeah, there was some partying.
Like, I mean, it was the first time I ever got drunk was, believe it or not, a
senior
high school.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of people, it will surprise a lot of people, right?
First time I ever dabbled in weed was for my senior high school.
Yeah.
So yeah, for some, that would almost seem a little bit late in the game.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What is your height and weight now?
What are you at now?
I'm 6'5", probably about 265, 270.
And what were you at when you were at your maximum beefed out, you know,
butcher box?
The heaviest I ever got, or the biggest I ever got was like, well, I was 6'6".
I was an inch taller, but the compression, gravity catches up.
Oh, yeah.
And God will pull you back down the side.
Right, right, right.
You know what I'm saying?
I'd be 4'1".
Yeah, yeah.
It's like one of those, I'm glad I didn't get what I really deserved, right?
Oh, totally, man.
But I was like 3'33", was the big, like off-season biggest I got.
And it was like just slinging weight around, heavy.
But playing weight, that was not a good playing weight.
It wasn't a good playing weight.
That's you right there.
Damn, bro.
K&AC shirt.
You were damn romantic.
Remember K&AC?
My God, if I was a shark and I saw you surfing, I'd bite you, bro.
No homo, bro.
You know, or yes homo.
I don't know what they're doing now.
Alphabet soup.
What is it like carrying, what was it like carrying that much body weight
around?
Was there anything that started to be different?
I've used steroids in myself growing up, you know, so I have some experience of
what it's
like to have a body that's different than like-
What'd you take?
I took testosterone and then some other things.
I don't even know what they were.
So, but you got like, did you gain like what?
20 pounds, 30 pounds?
Yeah, I probably gained 30 pounds.
Yeah.
So that's a significant amount of weight, right?
Of muscle, mostly muscle.
So you know that feeling, right?
Well, here's the thing.
In the off-season, I'd be like 333 and just to put muscle on, put size on.
It was almost like, I don't want to say it was like bodybuilding where they
have an
off-season and they're putting on weight so they can cut down for a show.
But I would try to do all my building and my bulking in the off-season, get all
my strength.
And then as the season got closer, and I mean like 16 weeks out, we'd start
running.
So, you know, as you're running, it makes sure it leans your muscles out and it's
harder
to keep like that big bulk.
Yeah.
But a good like playing weight for me was like 310.
Like at 310, like I can honestly tell you, at 310, I felt like I was 150.
Wow.
I could like run, like it was, I was like, I could stop on a dime and like,
that's what
I felt like.
Yeah.
And then, you know, and you step on a scale and you're 310, but I think it's
like everything
was so strong.
Like, you know, your core is strong just from heaving all that weight.
I mean, you don't even have to work your core.
Yeah.
At that point, if you're doing all the power cleans.
Yeah.
You've been down and pick up a hundred pound dumbbell.
It's, I mean, you're.
Well, on a light day, right?
A hundred pound dumbbell.
One fifties, one sixties, you know, right?
Fucking meathead.
Oh yeah.
I was jacked up.
I'm like, I never walked like that.
You're at home, you're curling your grandparents.
You're just like, this is getting crazy.
I'm like, you guys need to eat a sandwich.
Do you remember the first time that you, when did you first start?
And is it okay to talk about this kind of stuff?
Absolutely.
Okay, cool.
Thank you.
If you're comfortable with it.
I am, man.
I am.
Our audience, a lot of our audiences, I mean, I don't know what, I mean.
A lot of them, I think need help and, uh, but, but we all do.
And that's kind of where our audience all kind of meets each other is in that
space where
it's like, we're all imperfect creatures.
Um, do you remember, uh, so the first time you ever used steroids, take me
through a little
bit of that.
It was a senior, my senior year of high school in Kent, but it was, I shouldn't
say, but
that sounds like I'm making an excuse for it.
It was in April slash May.
So it was like the last two years or last two months of my senior year.
So I had already signed a scholarship with Michigan state.
So football was over.
You had already been doing really well at football.
Yeah.
And, and well enough.
See, I was lucky because our team, our high school team had like five, like,
like tier
one, um, recruits, right?
I mean, they like, you know, Ohio's like all these big schools were coming to
watch those
guys and the whole plan was, let's keep our fingers crossed and they noticed me
and they
did and they did.
So the move down to America, the move to Ohio, the living with your brother,
all that was
really, I mean, you