Rickey Smiley
American stand-up comedian, syndicated radio host and author of the memoir Sideshow
Rickey Smiley (American stand-up comedian, syndicated radio host and author of the memoir Sideshow) has appeared as a guest on 1 episode in TMT. Topics they speak about most include Fatherhood, Grief, Christianity.
In their words
Positions and remarks grouped by topic, each with the exact quote and where it was said.
Fatherhood
Smiley says he refuses to give children iPads as pacifiers, noting many kids can't give directions home.
“We're not taking an iPad. in the church as a pacifier, not going to have an iPad all the time in the car”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 9:14
Smiley contends modern society has inverted right and wrong, and the discipline his grandparents used still works.
“The problem in today's society, everything that's right is now wrong. And everything that's wrong is now right”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 5:59
Smiley argues parents should give children the upbringing they had rather than what they lacked.
“I think sometimes we, we get caught up in trying to give kids what we did not have as opposed to giving them what we had”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 8:20
Grief
Smiley says his grief hit hardest about a year later, after the funeral attention faded.
“like a year later, it really hit me. The only difference between when my son died a year later, you don't have no casket, no flowers”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 32:06
Smiley says he returned to his radio show three days after his son died as a form of therapy.
“my son died on the Sunday, Wednesday, I was back on the air because I don't want to lay in the bed thinking about that”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 25:52
Christianity
Smiley credits his Christian faith with getting him through his son's death.
“I never would have gotten through all of that. if it was not for my Christian foundation and my faith”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 19:49
Smiley recounts promising God to serve him for life if lifted out of a difficult period.
“I told God a long time ago, hey, if you get me out of this rut right here, I promise you I'll serve you to the day I die”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 12:24
Gratitude
Smiley describes responding to an entitled text by sending an itemized list of his help and blocking the sender to protect his peace.
“I sent them an itemized copy of everything that I'd done to help them and sent it to them and hit that block button”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 13:53
Smiley estimates that of twenty people one helps, only six or seven will return to say thank you.
“20, 20 people. I promise you six or seven going to come back and say, thank you”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 15:49
Cooking
Smiley says he would never open a restaurant because of how online critics treated celebrity restaurateurs.
“I would never open up to get publicly humiliated the way they did”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 46:50
Stand-up comedy craft
Smiley says his stand-up is the funniest it has ever been because of everything he has been through.
“my stand-up comedy right now is so rich. This is the funniest I've ever been. Because I've been through so much”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 41:06
College football
Smiley argues Alabama needs a coach who understands a different, more entitled generation of players.
“They got to find the right kind of coach to coach this generation. This is not the Nick Saban generation”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 36:21
Sideshow: Living with Loss and Moving Forward with Faith
Smiley explains the title comes from Blue Magic's song about a clown who is sad inside.
“So sideshow, the song is about a clown that's performing, but he's sad on the inside”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 43:15
Psychotherapy
Smiley says therapy revealed grief going back to his childhood, not only his son's death.
“when I went to therapy, I started opening it up, talking about this. It wasn't just that. This went all the way back to my childhood”
Mick Unplugged: How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 28:35
Appearances
How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey SmileyMick Unplugged · May 7, 2026 · 56 min
Mick Hunt talks with comedian and radio host Rickey Smiley about old-fashioned parenting, service, grieving his son Brandon, therapy, his memoir Sideshow, and cooking.
Often appears with
- Mick Hunt · 1 shared episode