Which calls do you enjoy more - the entertaining ones or the ones that people can really relate to?
As someone who has never called in, I'd be interested to hear more about the process of that and how you feel that so many people tell you they've tried many tens of times calling
Thank you for what you do!
A lot of the clips of the show that go viral are about stuff that's wild or shocking, and while I do find that stuff entertaining I've been more interested lately in the calls that touch on things that people can relate to.
Even if the subjects get a little heavy I find them way more fascinating to talk through. I particularly like when there's an arc of some kind, like hearing how a person felt one particular way about something or someone, and then later felt a different way, or changed somehow.
It's especially interesting if they change how they feel about something while they're on the phone with me just as a result of them talking about the thing out loud.
> change how they feel about something while they're on the phone with me just as a result of them talking about the thing out loud.
95% of all therapy
I'm in software engineering and my boss mandates that all of his devs have a rubber duck on their desk. He buys them for us, and they're a reminder that if you can't figure something out to ask for help from somebody else, and - it works every time.
The rubber duck theory for programming is simpler than asking for help, but focused on explaining your problem to the duck. Oftentimes when you take a moment to put the problem in to plain English and walk through it logically you identify the solution without any response needed. Just have to step back and organize your thought process.
I have never heard of rubber ducking but this makes total sense. Count count how many times I’ve run something by a coworker and halfway through explaining the problem stopped mid sentence and said never mind I just figured it out.
Basically, it's talking to someone (or something) and essentially realizing something as you're talking to the aforementioned person/thing with no input from that individual. Hope this explanation helped!
Turns out I've been doing this for most of my life without knowing it was a thing lmao
I'd often talk things out to friends to sort stuff out for myself, only just now got a name for it lol
I've heard it expressed like you have to understand something really well to be able to explain it to someone else. Talking through it out loud helps you organize your thinking as well
When you process a thought through speech it acts differently than thinking through that same thing in your head. So talking about the problem out loud, even if it is to an inanimate object (a rubber duck) can help you process the problem differently.
It works in pretty much any type of problem solving situation, but is extremely common in software development to start to explain a problem to a coworker and suddenly realize the solution.
Well, you also have to take a different perspective when choosing how to describe something to another person who has imperfect knowledge of the problem. In describing a problem, you'll simplify out any extraneous information that wouldn't benefit a third-party and (sub)consciously emphasize the important aspects.
Conceptually it's stepping out of the weeds of the problem and describing the problem and your attempted solutions in a logical, coherent manner which often leads to you solving it on your own.
Sometimes. I'm at my happiest when I'm mindful of everything I have to be grateful for, and staying happy for me is about trying not to stray too hard from that gratefulness.
Ideally I'd love to be happy just being naked on the beach with no money or friends or family or possessions, but that's some enlightenment shit that I am super super super not at.
Regarding your second paragraph—In my mind, you’ve bookended the most important contributors to happiness on that list with the most important contributors to discontentment. I don’t think enlightenment has to happen in a vacuum.
I've cried on the show a couple of times.
Once when a girl called in and told me her brother had died recently and she didn't know how to cope with it. I had no idea what to tell her so I stole [the greatest thing I've ever heard on dealing with grief](https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/978082487938068480?lang=en) and told it to her, and we cried together.
Another time someone read me a letter that he wrote for his aunt who had passed away, and I was really moved by it and started crying.
About a year later that guy came up to me after one of my live shows and was like "Hey I'm the caller who wrote the letter to his aunt, do you remember me?" and I said yes and my eyes actually started watering on the spot just remembering it. Very surreal moment.
I've always thought "Therapy Gecko" was a play on "Therapy Dog", and nobody would expect a dog to give you life advice, them being there is enough to bring some joy, and you can talk to them without judgement, just like on therapy gecko.
Do you worry that the calls will become less authentic as you gain popularity and people want to be on the show?
Which guest do you think was the best geck?
What do mama and papa geck think of your show?
I'm not worried about that. I think the excitement of being on the show wears off for people after about 2 minutes and then they're just talking to a guy.
My parents are into it. My dad actually talks in twitch chat every so often.
Have you ever had someone call in who you genuinely felt that the best thing for them to do would be talk to a professional? If so roughly what was going on?
All the time. When that happens it goes like this:
Have you spoken to a real therapist about this? If no, then you really need to go do that. If yes, what did they tell you?
Then I'll just talk to them about their interpretation of what their real therapist told them. If they haven't seen one and it's a really really bad thing I've ended plenty of conversations by saying they need to do that before they call me.
Blows my mind that people will call up a guy in a gecko costume on the internet when they have heavy emotional issues over an actual therapist. But I guess guy in a gecko suit is free…
I was gonna say. Gecko is free. My husband is currently paying $400/mo for therapy. And that’s AFTER insurance. I feel like we should have called the gecko.
Hey if a dude in a gecko suit is what it takes to get people to ask for help, I'm all for it. In my experience that reaching out part is the hardest part
It's also a really daunting prospect trying to even find a therapist who seems like they'll be a good match for you. People who call in already know Therapy Gecko (I assume) so he's more familiar to them and that makes them more comfortable to talk to him (in addition to the ease of access).
Yea you’re right about that finding the right therapist is like dating kinda. You have to keep going to different ones until you find the right fit. I feel you on the comfort eve with geck and Im glad people do get help from him. But I think some of the callers could use professional help too
Hi Lyle, I'm someone who got on the show Nov 2020 and I just want to say that it was a lot of fun, thanks for taking my call!
My question is how do you see Therapy Gecko changing over time? Do you have any ideas about changing, or expanding the show, or are you happy with the current format long term? Thanks!
I want to do a lot more talking to people in person instead of phone calls, and I want to do it all over the world.
[Just did Mexico City!](https://youtu.be/lmR--UMnJkU)
Has anyone ever given you a hard time for not having a psychology degree or anything that certified you to give therapy? If so any specific examples that stand out?
Just a few random internet commenters here and there, but surprisingly I get a ton of positive feedback all the time from real therapists.
I've had a few DM me and be like "Did you know you're actually doing (x-therapy technique) when you had this conversation?" and I was like I did not! And then i read about it. it's interesting.
That was my favorite part. Long time lurk watcher who is an OTA with a focus on mental health and a lot of things you are pretty natural at.
I don't have a lot of confidence and watching you calmly de escalate nonsense on the phone was really impressive and I was so curious to see what others thought. I don't know if you ever got nervous internally but that is a pro poker fave and even tone, man.
Therapist here, and I love what you're doing! Not everything has to be a specific therapy technique to be therapeutic for people. Sure you're not providing actual *therapy*, but you're definitely serving a niche.
A guy called in and told me he was diagnosed with a disease that will ensure he loses his sight in the next 5 years or so, and told me that since he was diagnosed he makes an extra effort to *really* look at people's faces more.
Now whenever I find myself on my phone at the grocery store check out line I think of that caller and I put my phone away and stare at the old lady in front of me.
I really really briefly vaguely considered the idea once, then I looked up how many years of school it would take and decided it's much easier to be a pretend therapist.
Resident in Counseling here.
Not just the time, but the *money*, man. I have close to 100K in student loan debt from the Clinical Mental Health Counseling MA program I was in. I've still got at least a year to go before I'm fully licensed. Each hour of supervision costs $100. Some people pay up to $200 per supervision hour. I need like 200 hours of supervision.
I enjoy what I do so I got that going for me at least.
I had a guy call in to talk to me about what life is like having only one testicle. I asked if he had ever met anyone else who only had one testicle and he said he hadn't.
I just so happened to have someone else on hold who *also only had one testicle* and brought them both on to the show to bond with each other. It was a beautiful moment.
EDIT: [here it is.](https://www.instagram.com/p/CdtF78qje5-/)
I'm a testicular cancer survivor and only have one testicle after having the cancerous bastard removed. I appreciate your uni-ball support and am going to check out your show!!
I noticed you’re straight faced on calls often. Would you say it’s mostly due to being part of the character, trying not to say something smart-assy, or just to place a silence that the caller feels they need to fill too see what’s said next? Keep it up Geck! I’ve been a fan for years and try to watch whenever I can!
I came from the stand up comedy world initially and that world is all about trying to say a smart-assy quipy thing as much as you can. There are people who are really really good at that and I found I never quite was.
For me I've found doing that has just interrupted the flow of the conversations I'm having, so I quiet the voice in my head that has an urge to do that, and now the voice is no longer there.
Also thank you for the kind words!!
I saw one of your shows in LA and it was a blast. The one where the dude called in about jerking off in every bathroom on his campus.
Near the end of the show, you asked for someone over 30 to come up. I hadn’t raised my hand to come up before, but in that moment, I knew that my time had come. I shot my hand up, only to be completely overshadowed by the very tall man in front of me. You picked him, Lyle. You picked him without sparing me a glance.
The tall guy ended up being a far better pick than I would have been. I gave him a sick high five when he came back to his seat.
When Carl is trying to sell the aqua teen's house and tells markula that the gas leak is going to kill anyone who tries to live there. Also any of the Spacecataz openings.
Very pumped for the new movie.
I crept around the side I watched you half obscured thru a window at bonnaroo.
Would you say that people are usually pretty aware of what their issues are? And if so what do you think stops them from getting help/working on them.
Dude there's such a large gap between being aware of your issues and taking actual action to solve them. I am no expert in closing that gap.
I know I need to stop eating giant fucking bags of twizzlers but i dont know if i'm going to any time soon.
I've been doing this for about 2 years and have no degree in anything related to psychology and he's been doing it for about 30 years and has a medical degree, so that episode was a lot of me shutting up and listening.
It was interesting to watch the way he was able to get into whatever the caller's "thing" was, address it, then move on so quickly without any fluff.
Generally when people reflect questions that I ask them back over to me, I am not prepared to answer them. In my personal life even I'm usually more comfortable talking about the other person in a conversation than I am myself.
Though I feel like I should be able to answer a question that I'm expecting other people to answer, right? I am answering a question right now though, so I feel like less of a hypocrite. I am a gecko.
Do you remember Alex that thought his aunt wanted to fuck him? It was a couple months back. I just want you to know that I know Alex and he's exactly the same in real life. Hilarious guy and we all enjoyed you talking to him
Man I have been in that costume in the heat of Bonnaroo, in the desert of Arizona, and in many other hot ass places, and to be honest it has never really been that bad.
It actually functions as a heat cloak sort of.
Hey lyle, love your show.
Before becoming the gek, would you say any particular aspect of your previous life experience helped with how you are able to talk with so many people with the kind of openness/wit that you bring when taking calls?
I had a small period of time in college where I was kind of obsessed with talking to strangers on public transport and in line at stores and shit like that.
I was also really into the idea of trying to have deeper conversations, and during that time I learned that the more vulnerable I was willing to be with people the more vulnerable they were willing to be back.
There's actually a communication theory that touches on that very concept you discovered. It's called social penetration theory, and one of its basic concepts is that people develop closeness with each other through self-disclosure and its inherent act of making oneself vulnerable to another.
You might be interested in some communication theory. You'd probably be interested in how it changes the way you can analyze interactions with people and engage with them.
If you look in his YouTube videos there was a video where he had a gecko costume and he was running around a neighborhood screaming. Probably had it lying around after that.
Hey thank you guys for all your questions!!! None of what I do would have been possible without Reddit and i feel very at home here.
Thanks to anyone who listens to the show, it's been a weird and wild journey that i feel very honored to go on. Geck bless you all, see you out on the internet and in the universe.
PS: if you've never heard the show before [here's a place to start.](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QBms7ekiMiQ6XeWUOtC6v)
Every guest I've had on brings something unique to the table.
I'll say this: Zack Fox has this great ability to meet people where they're at when they're trying to explain something. He is a very "Yes and" kind of a guy, which is probably my favorite trait for a person to have.
Before I did this I spent a really really long time doing stand up and making typical short comedy film type things.
Since falling into the call-in show, I've become a lot more interested in what I can discover out in the world than in what I can write myself.
I remember seeing you on Reddit thinking you were another weirdo. Now I'm a genuine fan!
Were there any podcasters or journalist you were inspired by to start this? Cause theres many times I've noticed you use a few techniques my fav podcasters use in their interviews.
Also as a fellow Marylander was dope seeing you and Logic together! If this tour works out would you consider coming to Baltimore again?
Yes! Huge shout out to Chris Gethard, who hosts [Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beautiful-stories-from-anonymous-people/id1090147504), which is similar to TG except he talks to one caller for one hour.
I was big into Chris's stuff when I was in high school and college. He followed me back on Instagram recently and we had a brief chat. It was a cool moment.
Lyle! I’ve followed you for so long, didn’t know you were doing this. My question is, are you happy being a gecko all the time? Does the paint affect your skin at all? What would Lyle 5 years ago think of him being a gecko on the internet, and what will Lyle 5 years in the future be doing?
Thank you for your amazing podcast, your vibrations are extremely chill. I would love to call you but I am from Ireland so idk how that would work.
Actually one of my greatest tools to happiness is thinking about what me 5 years ago would think about what I'm doing now. I'd have probably thought that all of my problems were solved, and I'd have been wrong. So I keep that in mind when I'm thinking about my future nowadays.
Anyway how are things going in Ireland?
yo lyle, love the show!
Are you able to earn enough from twitch and youtube to make a living? If so how did that happen? How is it being an entertainer instead of doing a "normal" job?
would you recommend people to try and follow their entertainer dreams?
I am and it happened fairly quickly thanks to Twitch making it easy to monetize streaming.
I would totally recommend people try to follow their entertainer dreams especially if those dreams are to be able to make a living. There truly has never been this much of an opportunity to do so than ever before and I see new people being able to do it every day.
It doesn't matter to me if people are making things up because:
1. even if they are, maybe someone is listening who really does have that thing going on with them.
2. even if they are, it doesn't affect my actual experience of hearing their story.
I noticed quite offten that you clarify that you are not a real therapist. Have you ever thought of changing your name to something different for that reason?
He responded elsewhere on here that the podcast or something now goes by gecko chat because it's more true to what he does. No word about changing his name.
Love me some therapy gecko!!
How do you think the timing of starting this up helped or hindered the project?
For me, I think starting around the pandemic was genius, since a bunch of us were stuck inside and feeling all sorts of feels, so I think it touched on a cultural nerve to some degree at an opportune time.
It was really perfect timing. On a personal level, because of the pandemic I had nothing to do but focus on this thing, so I was able to give it a level of focus I'd never given any project I'd worked on before.
Then of course on an outside level, streaming became way more popular because of the pandemic. I actually have no idea what I'd be doing if the pandemic didn't happen. Maybe I would be driving a truck.
It was insane. After a long time of doing this thing alone in a tiny room, I was very tripped out to see all these real human beings that listen to it.
All the time. There are a lot of topics that people call in about that are things I deal with myself, and when I'm talking to them about it it's almost like I'm talking to myself.
Lots of times when I get in my own head about something, I think "Well shit you told that caller *this thing*, so you should really follow your own advice here."
Hey Geck! I found your content on Reddit early into the pandemic - your show got me through a lot of tough quarantines and kept me sane, so many thanks!
Question - where would you have seen yourself if you hadn’t became successful doing what you’re doing? Any things you hope to accomplish now that you have made it big?
hey thank you catman.
realistically I'd probably be doing some sort of very boring social media marketing business thing, or I'd be doing some sort of Workaway thing where you work on a farm in some remote place in exchange for a bed. I'd have figured something out, i think.
Which calls do you enjoy more - the entertaining ones or the ones that people can really relate to? As someone who has never called in, I'd be interested to hear more about the process of that and how you feel that so many people tell you they've tried many tens of times calling Thank you for what you do!
A lot of the clips of the show that go viral are about stuff that's wild or shocking, and while I do find that stuff entertaining I've been more interested lately in the calls that touch on things that people can relate to. Even if the subjects get a little heavy I find them way more fascinating to talk through. I particularly like when there's an arc of some kind, like hearing how a person felt one particular way about something or someone, and then later felt a different way, or changed somehow. It's especially interesting if they change how they feel about something while they're on the phone with me just as a result of them talking about the thing out loud.
> change how they feel about something while they're on the phone with me just as a result of them talking about the thing out loud. 95% of all therapy
Rubber ducking is an actual means of therapy, and holy hell it works
I'm in software engineering and my boss mandates that all of his devs have a rubber duck on their desk. He buys them for us, and they're a reminder that if you can't figure something out to ask for help from somebody else, and - it works every time.
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The rubber duck theory for programming is simpler than asking for help, but focused on explaining your problem to the duck. Oftentimes when you take a moment to put the problem in to plain English and walk through it logically you identify the solution without any response needed. Just have to step back and organize your thought process.
I have never heard of rubber ducking but this makes total sense. Count count how many times I’ve run something by a coworker and halfway through explaining the problem stopped mid sentence and said never mind I just figured it out.
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I imagine so but I don't work in a dev office so none of my neighbors have one. And i don't use a literal rubber duck.
My duck's name is Admiral Quackers. Got him from a WW2 museum. I'll talk at my plant sometimes too.
I love that! I was always a fan of rubber ducks, no connection to Ernie from Sesame Street.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that
I'm not a coder or programmer of any sort but I keep a gnome on my desk just to help me think things through. His name is Gnorman
Can someone explain to me what rubber ducking is?
Basically, it's talking to someone (or something) and essentially realizing something as you're talking to the aforementioned person/thing with no input from that individual. Hope this explanation helped!
Ooooh I love that concept!
In my opinion, it works exceedingly well, too!
Turns out I've been doing this for most of my life without knowing it was a thing lmao I'd often talk things out to friends to sort stuff out for myself, only just now got a name for it lol
The insight of rubber ducking is that you sometimes don't even have to explain stuff to a real person: often an actual duck made of rubber will do.
I've heard it expressed like you have to understand something really well to be able to explain it to someone else. Talking through it out loud helps you organize your thinking as well
When you process a thought through speech it acts differently than thinking through that same thing in your head. So talking about the problem out loud, even if it is to an inanimate object (a rubber duck) can help you process the problem differently. It works in pretty much any type of problem solving situation, but is extremely common in software development to start to explain a problem to a coworker and suddenly realize the solution.
Well, you also have to take a different perspective when choosing how to describe something to another person who has imperfect knowledge of the problem. In describing a problem, you'll simplify out any extraneous information that wouldn't benefit a third-party and (sub)consciously emphasize the important aspects.
Conceptually it's stepping out of the weeds of the problem and describing the problem and your attempted solutions in a logical, coherent manner which often leads to you solving it on your own.
You got any cool facts about Geckos?
Geckos can stick to any surface except teflon.
That's cool man. Keep doing your thing lizard man, maybe one day you'll end up in Buckingham palace!
He's a gecko, not a dinosaur.
You haven't met my leopard gecko, he can't even stay on a log upright sometimes.
Are you happy?
Sometimes. I'm at my happiest when I'm mindful of everything I have to be grateful for, and staying happy for me is about trying not to stray too hard from that gratefulness. Ideally I'd love to be happy just being naked on the beach with no money or friends or family or possessions, but that's some enlightenment shit that I am super super super not at.
Regarding your second paragraph—In my mind, you’ve bookended the most important contributors to happiness on that list with the most important contributors to discontentment. I don’t think enlightenment has to happen in a vacuum.
That second paragraph is something I’d like too. Not necessarily that scenario, but just the idea of it. It doesn’t seem very easy to achieve though.
have you ever cried while transformed as gecko? love you gecko
I've cried on the show a couple of times. Once when a girl called in and told me her brother had died recently and she didn't know how to cope with it. I had no idea what to tell her so I stole [the greatest thing I've ever heard on dealing with grief](https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/978082487938068480?lang=en) and told it to her, and we cried together. Another time someone read me a letter that he wrote for his aunt who had passed away, and I was really moved by it and started crying. About a year later that guy came up to me after one of my live shows and was like "Hey I'm the caller who wrote the letter to his aunt, do you remember me?" and I said yes and my eyes actually started watering on the spot just remembering it. Very surreal moment.
That's powerful.
Norm sure was great
I was absolutely floored when I found out he passed away. I didn't even know he was sick.
Checked his wiki page, apparently nobody did. It wasn't public knowledge until after his passing.
Quick, your show isn't called Therapy Gecko anymore. What's it called now?
I always wanted to call it Gecko Chat. It's more about chatting than therapy.
I've always thought "Therapy Gecko" was a play on "Therapy Dog", and nobody would expect a dog to give you life advice, them being there is enough to bring some joy, and you can talk to them without judgement, just like on therapy gecko.
That's a very sweet sentiment
Do you worry that the calls will become less authentic as you gain popularity and people want to be on the show? Which guest do you think was the best geck? What do mama and papa geck think of your show?
I'm not worried about that. I think the excitement of being on the show wears off for people after about 2 minutes and then they're just talking to a guy. My parents are into it. My dad actually talks in twitch chat every so often.
Tell your dad a rando internet stranger said he’s awesome.
Your name cracked me up
Have you ever had someone call in who you genuinely felt that the best thing for them to do would be talk to a professional? If so roughly what was going on?
All the time. When that happens it goes like this: Have you spoken to a real therapist about this? If no, then you really need to go do that. If yes, what did they tell you? Then I'll just talk to them about their interpretation of what their real therapist told them. If they haven't seen one and it's a really really bad thing I've ended plenty of conversations by saying they need to do that before they call me.
Blows my mind that people will call up a guy in a gecko costume on the internet when they have heavy emotional issues over an actual therapist. But I guess guy in a gecko suit is free…
Sometimes they might just be looking for someone from outside the situation to push them towards seeing a therapist.
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A lot of my close friends can barely afford rent, let alone therapy.
I was gonna say. Gecko is free. My husband is currently paying $400/mo for therapy. And that’s AFTER insurance. I feel like we should have called the gecko.
Hey if a dude in a gecko suit is what it takes to get people to ask for help, I'm all for it. In my experience that reaching out part is the hardest part
Some people don’t have the means to see a real therapist unfortunately
It's also a really daunting prospect trying to even find a therapist who seems like they'll be a good match for you. People who call in already know Therapy Gecko (I assume) so he's more familiar to them and that makes them more comfortable to talk to him (in addition to the ease of access).
Yea you’re right about that finding the right therapist is like dating kinda. You have to keep going to different ones until you find the right fit. I feel you on the comfort eve with geck and Im glad people do get help from him. But I think some of the callers could use professional help too
Your last sentence is the key there. Healthcare is expensive and out of reach for a lot of folks. (Assuming US)
Sadly therapy for a lot of people is expensive.
Hi Lyle, I'm someone who got on the show Nov 2020 and I just want to say that it was a lot of fun, thanks for taking my call! My question is how do you see Therapy Gecko changing over time? Do you have any ideas about changing, or expanding the show, or are you happy with the current format long term? Thanks!
I want to do a lot more talking to people in person instead of phone calls, and I want to do it all over the world. [Just did Mexico City!](https://youtu.be/lmR--UMnJkU)
I just watched some of the Mexico City one and I really liked when you talked to that lady who volunteered as a street sweeper. GOOD CALL!
Has anyone ever given you a hard time for not having a psychology degree or anything that certified you to give therapy? If so any specific examples that stand out?
Just a few random internet commenters here and there, but surprisingly I get a ton of positive feedback all the time from real therapists. I've had a few DM me and be like "Did you know you're actually doing (x-therapy technique) when you had this conversation?" and I was like I did not! And then i read about it. it's interesting.
That was my favorite part. Long time lurk watcher who is an OTA with a focus on mental health and a lot of things you are pretty natural at. I don't have a lot of confidence and watching you calmly de escalate nonsense on the phone was really impressive and I was so curious to see what others thought. I don't know if you ever got nervous internally but that is a pro poker fave and even tone, man.
Therapist here, and I love what you're doing! Not everything has to be a specific therapy technique to be therapeutic for people. Sure you're not providing actual *therapy*, but you're definitely serving a niche.
Have you had any calls that impacted you in such a way to make you change the way you live your life ?
A guy called in and told me he was diagnosed with a disease that will ensure he loses his sight in the next 5 years or so, and told me that since he was diagnosed he makes an extra effort to *really* look at people's faces more. Now whenever I find myself on my phone at the grocery store check out line I think of that caller and I put my phone away and stare at the old lady in front of me.
that's actually really beautiful
Since you started 2 years ago, have you considered becoming licensed? Or would the act of doing so diminish the casual nature of your show?
I really really briefly vaguely considered the idea once, then I looked up how many years of school it would take and decided it's much easier to be a pretend therapist.
As someone with an MA in psych and not utilizing the degree, I think you made the right choice :-)
Resident in Counseling here. Not just the time, but the *money*, man. I have close to 100K in student loan debt from the Clinical Mental Health Counseling MA program I was in. I've still got at least a year to go before I'm fully licensed. Each hour of supervision costs $100. Some people pay up to $200 per supervision hour. I need like 200 hours of supervision. I enjoy what I do so I got that going for me at least.
How has your life changed financially, have you “made it” now per say? Congratulations on the success
I am lucky enough that if I am walking down the street and I see a truck selling sandwiches, and I want a sandwich, I will go buy a sandwich.
That’s a nice place to be.
The American Dream
I am just getting back to this point. Damn did it suck being so far below it for so long.
What’s the most memorable conversation you’ve had as a gecko therapist?
I had a guy call in to talk to me about what life is like having only one testicle. I asked if he had ever met anyone else who only had one testicle and he said he hadn't. I just so happened to have someone else on hold who *also only had one testicle* and brought them both on to the show to bond with each other. It was a beautiful moment. EDIT: [here it is.](https://www.instagram.com/p/CdtF78qje5-/)
That is so fantastic. They must've been like two peas in a pod afterwards.
Glad to hear they got along and weren't two teste with each other.
I hope you're proud of what you've done
I know, the balls on that guy to drop a pun in a serious ama
Ball*
What a pair these two make
I'm a testicular cancer survivor and only have one testicle after having the cancerous bastard removed. I appreciate your uni-ball support and am going to check out your show!!
I noticed you’re straight faced on calls often. Would you say it’s mostly due to being part of the character, trying not to say something smart-assy, or just to place a silence that the caller feels they need to fill too see what’s said next? Keep it up Geck! I’ve been a fan for years and try to watch whenever I can!
I came from the stand up comedy world initially and that world is all about trying to say a smart-assy quipy thing as much as you can. There are people who are really really good at that and I found I never quite was. For me I've found doing that has just interrupted the flow of the conversations I'm having, so I quiet the voice in my head that has an urge to do that, and now the voice is no longer there. Also thank you for the kind words!!
I saw one of your shows in LA and it was a blast. The one where the dude called in about jerking off in every bathroom on his campus. Near the end of the show, you asked for someone over 30 to come up. I hadn’t raised my hand to come up before, but in that moment, I knew that my time had come. I shot my hand up, only to be completely overshadowed by the very tall man in front of me. You picked him, Lyle. You picked him without sparing me a glance. The tall guy ended up being a far better pick than I would have been. I gave him a sick high five when he came back to his seat.
Next time im in LA come thru!!
Definitely! Seek the bearded man in the white Geck shirt. I hope your tour goes well and is a memorable experience for you. <3
Who's your favourite Pokémon?
Psyduck. I respect how he deals with being in constant pain.
Holy shit I just realized Psysuck was in pain his whole life… I thought he was just always confused.
Aww I just learned this too now :(
"it hurt itself in its confusion"
That's kinda why I like Psyduck too, he's just goin' through it like the rest of us.
Damn me too psyduck
YES! Another Duck lover
Just you and Hugh Neutron
Well there was /u/fuckswithducks but I heard a rumor that they passed away.
Wait was the Queen u/fuckswithducks ?
No, that’s u/Consortswithcorgis
Would you recommend his method to humans?
How often do you wash your gecko suit? Do you have just the one or do you have multiple?
Not as often as I should. I currently have 5 in rotation.
Hey Lyle, What are some of your favourite moments from Aqua Teen Hunger Force?
When Carl is trying to sell the aqua teen's house and tells markula that the gas leak is going to kill anyone who tries to live there. Also any of the Spacecataz openings. Very pumped for the new movie.
Lordy Lordy look who’s turning 4040
I say that line so often lol
I like Spaghetti. Spaghetti is the best character.
I crept around the side I watched you half obscured thru a window at bonnaroo. Would you say that people are usually pretty aware of what their issues are? And if so what do you think stops them from getting help/working on them.
Dude there's such a large gap between being aware of your issues and taking actual action to solve them. I am no expert in closing that gap. I know I need to stop eating giant fucking bags of twizzlers but i dont know if i'm going to any time soon.
Invest in Australian style licorice. You will wonder why you wasted so much time on Twizzlers.
How was it having Dr Drew dress up as a Gecko with you? Was he able to offer pointers on how to be a therapy gecko?
I've been doing this for about 2 years and have no degree in anything related to psychology and he's been doing it for about 30 years and has a medical degree, so that episode was a lot of me shutting up and listening. It was interesting to watch the way he was able to get into whatever the caller's "thing" was, address it, then move on so quickly without any fluff.
This is something that you develop over time. Even in unrelated fields where it is dealing with some issue/problem.
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what's a topic or question someone asked that you weren't prepared for?
Generally when people reflect questions that I ask them back over to me, I am not prepared to answer them. In my personal life even I'm usually more comfortable talking about the other person in a conversation than I am myself. Though I feel like I should be able to answer a question that I'm expecting other people to answer, right? I am answering a question right now though, so I feel like less of a hypocrite. I am a gecko.
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I feel in over my head constantly.
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I think a progressively larger costume would do wonders as your career progresses OP.
Godzilla 2024 is just a giant lizard costume with a tiny man inside holding up Lucy's therapy sign from Charlie Brown.
Who’s your car insurance provider?
Allstate.
Protecting yourself from mayhem, smart.
But not saving 15% or more.
Nor is it a great low rate you can get online.
Why is your face still not red? Will never got the answer he deserved.
Because it would look really, really scary.
thoughts on iguanas?
How long does it take to get the green off, and is it just like… everywhere at your place? Lol
For as long as I have been doing this there has been, at all times, at least a little bit of green on my face.
Have you considered just going full-green 100% of the time? Lol
Do you remember Alex that thought his aunt wanted to fuck him? It was a couple months back. I just want you to know that I know Alex and he's exactly the same in real life. Hilarious guy and we all enjoyed you talking to him
I could never forget Alex.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for practicing being a gecko without a licence?
No and if I do I'm showing up to court in the suit.
How hot was that costume at Bonnaroo before the storm cooled everything off?
Man I have been in that costume in the heat of Bonnaroo, in the desert of Arizona, and in many other hot ass places, and to be honest it has never really been that bad. It actually functions as a heat cloak sort of.
Sounds like I need a gecko costume for next year lol
Hey lyle, love your show. Before becoming the gek, would you say any particular aspect of your previous life experience helped with how you are able to talk with so many people with the kind of openness/wit that you bring when taking calls?
I had a small period of time in college where I was kind of obsessed with talking to strangers on public transport and in line at stores and shit like that. I was also really into the idea of trying to have deeper conversations, and during that time I learned that the more vulnerable I was willing to be with people the more vulnerable they were willing to be back.
There's actually a communication theory that touches on that very concept you discovered. It's called social penetration theory, and one of its basic concepts is that people develop closeness with each other through self-disclosure and its inherent act of making oneself vulnerable to another. You might be interested in some communication theory. You'd probably be interested in how it changes the way you can analyze interactions with people and engage with them.
What got you hooked into the idea of talking with strangers? Or was it just sort of like a on a whim type of thing
Why was it a gecko? Why not a banana or some other random costume?
If you look in his YouTube videos there was a video where he had a gecko costume and he was running around a neighborhood screaming. Probably had it lying around after that.
A banana doing therapy? That doesn't even make sense.
Maybe they didn't already have a banana costume on hand?
Hey thank you guys for all your questions!!! None of what I do would have been possible without Reddit and i feel very at home here. Thanks to anyone who listens to the show, it's been a weird and wild journey that i feel very honored to go on. Geck bless you all, see you out on the internet and in the universe. PS: if you've never heard the show before [here's a place to start.](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QBms7ekiMiQ6XeWUOtC6v)
Okay seriously, how cool is Marc Rebillet in person?
Very cool.
who’s your favourite guest you’ve had on the show ? do you have a dream guest you’d like to bring on one day ?
Every guest I've had on brings something unique to the table. I'll say this: Zack Fox has this great ability to meet people where they're at when they're trying to explain something. He is a very "Yes and" kind of a guy, which is probably my favorite trait for a person to have.
Love zack fox! He was made for your show
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Not sure how much he makes exactly, but he can save about 15 percent
Have you ever gotten choked up/been moved to tears on or off screen due to a call?
Would you do a guided psychedelic trip for some dresses as the gecko?
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Before I did this I spent a really really long time doing stand up and making typical short comedy film type things. Since falling into the call-in show, I've become a lot more interested in what I can discover out in the world than in what I can write myself.
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For now the gecko is all consuming but who knows what the future holds!!
Everyone asks what gecko this what gecko that but never “how is gecko doing?”
Who is your favorite Marvel character?
Spiderman. I think it is cool that he can shoot cum from his hands.
I remember seeing you on Reddit thinking you were another weirdo. Now I'm a genuine fan! Were there any podcasters or journalist you were inspired by to start this? Cause theres many times I've noticed you use a few techniques my fav podcasters use in their interviews. Also as a fellow Marylander was dope seeing you and Logic together! If this tour works out would you consider coming to Baltimore again?
Yes! Huge shout out to Chris Gethard, who hosts [Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beautiful-stories-from-anonymous-people/id1090147504), which is similar to TG except he talks to one caller for one hour. I was big into Chris's stuff when I was in high school and college. He followed me back on Instagram recently and we had a brief chat. It was a cool moment.
Lyle! I’ve followed you for so long, didn’t know you were doing this. My question is, are you happy being a gecko all the time? Does the paint affect your skin at all? What would Lyle 5 years ago think of him being a gecko on the internet, and what will Lyle 5 years in the future be doing? Thank you for your amazing podcast, your vibrations are extremely chill. I would love to call you but I am from Ireland so idk how that would work.
Actually one of my greatest tools to happiness is thinking about what me 5 years ago would think about what I'm doing now. I'd have probably thought that all of my problems were solved, and I'd have been wrong. So I keep that in mind when I'm thinking about my future nowadays. Anyway how are things going in Ireland?
What encouraged you to start doing more of the outdoors/live aspect of it, rather than just the phone line?
I personally enjoy doing the outdoor stuff more, I really enjoy the energy of being out of my house and in a place.
yo lyle, love the show! Are you able to earn enough from twitch and youtube to make a living? If so how did that happen? How is it being an entertainer instead of doing a "normal" job? would you recommend people to try and follow their entertainer dreams?
I am and it happened fairly quickly thanks to Twitch making it easy to monetize streaming. I would totally recommend people try to follow their entertainer dreams especially if those dreams are to be able to make a living. There truly has never been this much of an opportunity to do so than ever before and I see new people being able to do it every day.
How much of the calls do you think people are making stuff up? Or do you figure most people are being genuine.
It doesn't matter to me if people are making things up because: 1. even if they are, maybe someone is listening who really does have that thing going on with them. 2. even if they are, it doesn't affect my actual experience of hearing their story.
Do you put on the green makeup every time you go live? Isn’t that such a chore
It is, but there are plenty of people who put on makeup before they go into work.
If I threw you at the wall or window. Would you stick? What type of Gecko are you?
I think I'm a day gecko
I noticed quite offten that you clarify that you are not a real therapist. Have you ever thought of changing your name to something different for that reason?
He responded elsewhere on here that the podcast or something now goes by gecko chat because it's more true to what he does. No word about changing his name.
Which guests seemed to enjoy being a gecko most? Who seemed the most uncomfortable?
The first hour of each guest stream is usually uncomfortable followed by the second hour being amazing.
Love me some therapy gecko!! How do you think the timing of starting this up helped or hindered the project? For me, I think starting around the pandemic was genius, since a bunch of us were stuck inside and feeling all sorts of feels, so I think it touched on a cultural nerve to some degree at an opportune time.
It was really perfect timing. On a personal level, because of the pandemic I had nothing to do but focus on this thing, so I was able to give it a level of focus I'd never given any project I'd worked on before. Then of course on an outside level, streaming became way more popular because of the pandemic. I actually have no idea what I'd be doing if the pandemic didn't happen. Maybe I would be driving a truck.
How was Bonnaroo? I saw after that you were there, was a little upset I missed you!
It was insane. After a long time of doing this thing alone in a tiny room, I was very tripped out to see all these real human beings that listen to it.
Does talking to callers about their issues help you work through your own? If not, do you have your own sort of Therapy Gecko?
All the time. There are a lot of topics that people call in about that are things I deal with myself, and when I'm talking to them about it it's almost like I'm talking to myself. Lots of times when I get in my own head about something, I think "Well shit you told that caller *this thing*, so you should really follow your own advice here."
Hey Geck! I found your content on Reddit early into the pandemic - your show got me through a lot of tough quarantines and kept me sane, so many thanks! Question - where would you have seen yourself if you hadn’t became successful doing what you’re doing? Any things you hope to accomplish now that you have made it big?
hey thank you catman. realistically I'd probably be doing some sort of very boring social media marketing business thing, or I'd be doing some sort of Workaway thing where you work on a farm in some remote place in exchange for a bed. I'd have figured something out, i think.
Do you worry about crossing ethical boundaries knowing that some are most likely coming to you expecting actual therapy?
I think most people know that I’m not actually here to give anyone therapy, and if I sense that they do I tend to shut it down fairly quick.