Ryan Sickler is used to asking the question that people are afraid to ask: “Is there anyone here who has ever actually died and come back and would be comfortable talking about it in front of all of us?”
It’s not your typical comedy show crowd work but it has profound results. During his special “Ryan Sickler: Live & Alive” released on YouTube in October, a woman in the audience talked about a near-death experience as a child where she rode her bicycle in front of a neighbor’s station wagon. But Sickler pointed out that this remarkable level of candor in the audience is something he continues to marvel about. In fact, he said they did two shows the night they taped his special and during the second show two people in the crowd said they had near-death experiences.
“When I ask the question, I know there’s someone in the crowd that’s like, ‘There’s nobody in here that’s died and come back,’” Sickler said. “So now they’re all very excited to listen too. Like, what happened to this lady, or what happened to this guy? You know, there’s been some wild ones, some real funny ones out there too.”
Given how many comedy specials are being released on various streaming platforms, he says that “we have lost the specialness of the special.” But Sickler said since coming so close to death and being able to talk about it with candor and relatability, he is still calling his latest self-produced YouTube special, special. It now has more than 1 million views on YouTube. Sickler has been on the comedy scene for more than 30 years and released his comedy special “Lefty’s Son” in 2023. He also hosts the “HoneyDew Podcast.” His comedy career has often incorporated his lived experience with a rare blood-clotting disease called Factor V Leiden that almost killed him.
But these days, he’s grateful to be alive, to have been able to wake up when it looked like he might not, to watch his daughter continue to grow up and the laughs along the way. Sickler has long been candid about his chronic health issues with his comedy but he has found particular meaning in doing crowd work when he performs, that talks about death and what it means to live.
The Times recently spoke with Sickler about his special and how he thinks about his sense of health, humor and mortality.
Ryan Sickler in the studio where he films the “HoneyDew Podcast.”
(Al Seib / For The Times)
What did you want to say this time around in your new special?
My first special was something that was a bit of a hybrid of stuff that had been out there and around, but I didn’t own it. It was out there on people’s platforms. They’re making the money off of it. And so I did a bit of, “Let me get this stuff on my channel where I can control it.” And then the other part of that special was becoming a new single dad, all those things this time, specifically, I really just wanted to talk about what had happened and the results after that. I follow these comedy accounts and in October, there were 31 stand-up specials that hit between Netflix, Hulu, YouTube. November was 30. This month was a little slow because the holidays, but it was still at 18 the last time I checked. So I don’t think there’s anything special about stand-up specials anymore. You’re in an environment now where there’s a stand-up special a day, people are doing that with podcasts. There’s so much content going on out there, and I feel like a lot of it is the same. So I this time wanted to just take something that happened very personal to me, this incident, and then tell the story, not only behind it, but what happened after and I was really proud of being able to just focus on that and make that into this special instead of just my observations on this or my thoughts on that. I’m a storyteller and I really think that’s what art is.
When did you realize you had the courage to write about this near–death experience?
I know I had the courage to write about it a long time ago. When I’m making people laugh at my father’s funeral and things like that, I knew I was comfortable being able to take on the material. But what I didn’t know was, could I make it funny? Could I make it relatable? Could I make this one thing that happened to this one person on this rock in outer space matter to anybody and make them care? Because it’s not like we all had this happen to us. This is just one thing that happened to this one dude. So that was really what I was more worried about, is like, can I get this message across and make it relatable, funny and entertaining at the same time? Which is why I threw in those really expensive light cues.
It can be very challenging to hear about these traumatic [near–death] experiences that people have had. How do you absorb that and not absorb it too much?
I’ve been doing this show for so long that it does start to wear on you a little bit hearing a lot of the trauma. So I created a new podcast a couple years ago called the Wayback, which is just fun, funny, nostalgia. So that also for me, was like, let’s not dig into the tears and let’s just laugh about growing up. So that was one way where I could still keep it in my lane and do my job, where I alleviate that a little bit. But the other thing, and I make fun of myself a little, is I’m like the paramedic at the party now. I’m the guy that’s like “You think that’s bad, wait until you hear this.” “This one guy …” “This one lady …” You know what I mean? So I’ve almost become sort of their voice, and I have absorbed it in a way that isn’t so negative, where I carry it home with me. I always forget the quote how it’s worded, but it’s something to the tune of, if we all stood in a circle and threw our problems in the middle, we’d all take our shit right back. It’s like you know what, that’s what you’re dealing with? I’m gonna go ahead and take mine.
How is hearing all these stories and connecting with the crowd and fans in this way [about near–death experiences] changed how you think about your own sense of mortality?
Even with my close call, like, that one angered me, because you start to think about things. You never know how you’re really going to go. You might have an idea if you’re getting older and cancer runs in your family, whatever, but the fact that you could go to a hospital for a simple surgery, they don’t listen to you, everything’s there in your paperwork. You’re your own advocate. You’re doing all the right stuff by yourself, and you’re among professionals, medical professionals, not Yahoos, and you can still have someone else make a mistake and your life is gone. That started me thinking a lot like, “Oh man, for no fault of my own, I could also be gone.” So I go day by day, and I try to be happy day by day. And I’m not going to lie, I also like to know I got a little something tomorrow too.
Do you think that incorporating death and near–death in your comedy helps people work through their own feelings about death and grief?
I only say yes to that because the amount of emails I get, the amount of feedback we get, the amount of guests that still continue to show up [to support] the Patreon. I’ve definitely found, I would say, a purpose in my people. If you’re someone saying you’re a jerk for laughing at this lady talking about cancer, we’re not laughing at her cancer. We’re laughing at something, some light that she found in the darkness of this and trying to have a moment here together, all about, “Hey, there’s some positive ways to look at things at your lowest.” So I know it’s helped people. I mean, we have, over the years, probably thousands of emails now. We have people telling us how much it’s helped. And I mean just through podcasting, I found out I have this blood disease. I was 42 at the time, and already been podcasting. There’s a lady I went to high school with. She’s like “Ryan, my son is 17. He started clotting.” I said, “Go ahead and check for this.” He listens to the podcast. This kid has it. I said, “Well, bad news. It’s genetic.” Now the whole family’s got to get tested. And if you have it from one parent, it’s not great, but having it from two is bad. The whole family gets tested. The parents have it. She’s got it from both her parents. So I can’t get over the fact that a woman I knew when we were children, 35 years later is like, “Hey, that thing you’re talking about on your podcast, my kids, my family, we all have it.” And then I’ve talked about another disease I also have, called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which is CMT. And from bringing that up, people hit me up on that like “I have it, no one ever talks about that.”
What have you found to be one of the positives — besides surviving — of your near–death experience?
Gosh, so many. I have a child, so getting to see her grow and really taking care of my health and things. Not that I wasn’t before, but just I dove in even deeper. I went and got what’s called a gallery test for prescreening for cancer. I started doing all these blood works and like, “Let’s go find out everything you know, because I didn’t find out that I had this blood disease until I was 42 when I clotted.” I’m living my whole life, not even knowing I have this thing and and if I don’t clot, there are plenty of people out there that live to 100 years old and have it. It’s really made me appreciate life and trying to take things day by day. I also was living in a little single-dad pad at the time. We had no central air. We had tandem parking. We were above dumpsters. Our laundry was outside in a room with quarters. And when I got home — I’m still on a walker — and I was like, “What are we doing? We’re going to die without central air? Are we going to die with a bucket of quarters on the fridge? No more.” And so I moved my home, I moved my studio, I did all these things that are, like, the biggest thing you can do in life. We’re going to roll the dice, scared money don’t win, and we’re just going to go for it. Also, as a comedian and anybody in entertainment will tell you, a lot of times you work scared, you hold that money and you wait until the next thing comes. And also, as a single parent, you know we got to budget. And I was like, no more. We’re not going to go out and buy 10 Porsches. We’re going to be responsible. But I was on point with let’s go get a living will and trust. Let’s make sure we have that life insurance policy. Let’s make sure we have all the proper paperwork and stuff done before we do anything like go on a vacation, you know, let’s get this done now and get it done proper.
What do those conversations look like, if you have them at all, about encouraging your male friends to go to the doctor or encouraging them to take care of themselves, physically and emotionally?
I would say the conversations go something like this. My younger brother is like, “Hey, man, I just went in for a test, and they’re telling me I got to have an old school triple bypass,” and then that’s what we all get tested. “Hey guys, I found I got a blood disease.” “Oh man, we all better look into it now.” That’s usually how it goes. I don’t know many men who are proactive. There are a few of us these days. But it’s usually something horrible happens and then we’ll be proactive about everything else.
Do you have male fans who also say “I [saw] your special … I went to your show, and it made me go [to the doctor]”?
Yeah, but I’m saying, though, it still took them to come see a professional clown to get them to go to the damn doctor. I actually have been very good about going, because everyone in my family died. So I’ve been proactive in the sense that I go get two physicals a year. I’ve been doing that since my 20s. I always tell my doctor, if I can go buy expensive sushi, if I go buy weed, if I go buy all these things, I can put money into myself here and come see you a second time and pay for all that. So I do two physicals a year, and I’ve been doing that forever. But I’ve never done any sort of like gallery test. And now we’re in our 50s, so we got to go get the prostate and all that. That’s when you start hearing about that stuff. There’s a lot of ignorance that goes into it as well. I just had a guest here on the “HoneyDew” and said he didn’t go to a doctor or anything for over 20 years because he was just scared of what they were going to tell him. He was scared to get the bad news. You can kind of get the bad news and you could turn that into good news. It doesn’t need to be deadly news.
How do you know when you’ve been too open?
It usually tends to be a personal thing where someone’s like, “I don’t really appreciate you bringing that up.” So I don’t anymore. I’m always cognizant of [saying] like, “Hey, would it be cool if I talked about this or whatever?” I feel like the question you’re asking me would have been great for me just before I started, like, the “HoneyDew” and stuff because this is what I really want to talk about. Everyone wants to talk about the best and bring their best and I just really do want to hear about, you know, the trauma bond. I want to hear about the worst times in your life. I want to know because, honestly, that tells me so much more about you than you verbally talking about you. You know who you were in those moments, how you reacted, how you behaved, how you’ve adjusted. Those things really end up defining who you are, and that’s more what I want to know about. I don’t want to know your best polished version of yourself.
I HAD been shrunk down to the size of Woody, Jessie and Buzz in Andy’s room – suddenly I wasn’t visiting an experience, I was a part of it.
The new Mundo Pixar Experience – the biggest of it’s kind in the world – has landed in the UK for the very first time at Wembley Park in London, after success in Madrid, Barcelona and Brussels.
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A new Pixar experience has opened in London, marking its first time in the UKCredit: Cyann FieldingInside, fans can explore 14 rooms with iconic Pixar charactersCredit: Mundo PixarThis includes Monsters Inc, Toy Story and UpCredit: Mundo Pixar
Spread across 14 rooms, visitors can step into their favourite Pixar stories and meet the characters of each film.
As a 25-year-old who still loves Pixar films, I felt like I could be a big kid again as I ventured into the Monsters Inc Factory and met Sully and Mike before opening the door to glimpse into the bedrooms to see where the ‘scarers’ go to work.
The experience features all the movies you would expect including Toy Story, Up, Cars and Inside Out.
However, there are still a few classics missing such as The Incredibles and Wall.E.
You can even step inside the diver’s goggles in Finding Nemo.
My only disappointment was to see that Anger in Inside Out was essentially a cardboard cutout and Bing Bong was nowhere to be seen.
All of the sets also have handy picture stickers on the floor too, to show you where the best photo moment is in the room.
There are lots of picture and video opportunities throughout the experience as wellCredit: Cyann FieldingAnd for adults they can have a walk down memory laneCredit: Mundo Pixar
And there is a crew member in each room to lend a hand in snapping the perfect shot.
A little bit of added fun for the kids and parents is to find Pixar’s iconic yellow and blue ball with a red star on it, in every room.
Trust me, it isn’t as easy as it seems…
The experience is open every day except Tuesday until June with sessions starting at 9am and 10am and running through until 7pm.
Each session approximately lasts 45 to 55 minutes, though if you can, I definitely would spend longer really exploring the sets.
And of course, taking lots of pictures and videos.
When you get to the end of the experience there is a large shop – which, be warned, you will want everything from.
More recent films such as Luca and Elemental feature as wellCredit: Cyann FieldingThe experience lasts around 45-55 minutesCredit: Cyann Fielding
Prices aren’t too bad either, with mugs costing £19.95 and t-shirts costing £29.95.
There are some really nice items as well such as the Adventure Book from Up and you can even own your own Pixar ball for £19.95.
Tickets are a little on the more expensive side considering the experience is mostly a picture and video opportunity, starting from around £20 per child and more for an adult.
Having said that though, it was heaps of fun and the more time you spend there, the more your imagination really immerses you in the sets.
Whilst obviously great for kids and families, as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed a walk down memory lane and allowing myself to be a child once again by running around Andy’s room and ‘swimming‘ with Nemo.
With half-term here and the rain not stopping, it is the perfect indoor escape to keep the kids (and big kids) entertained.
One traveller is urging others to complete a quick safety check before falling asleep in their accommodation after a horrifying experience.
Travel guide asks tourists to do a 10-second task before falling asleep in a hotel(Image: Getty)
If you’re someone who enjoys exploring foreign destinations, you’ll understand how draining travel can sometimes be, and after an action-packed day all you crave is climbing into a comfortable bed. Nevertheless, it’s absolutely vital as a tourist to inspect your hotel room before settling down for the night, as even a brief moment of precaution can help prevent potential issues.
Sue Ross, a travel expert and founder of Sue Where Why What, has revealed she was recently burgled whilst on holiday. She explained: “On my recent trip to St Lucia, I was robbed. I was staying alone in an apartment, and an intruder broke in while I was sleeping and stole from me. It was a sickening experience, but I was also very lucky. “
Sue is now determined to help fellow travellers remain safe and has disclosed that the single hotel safety measure she wishes she’d adhered to was ensuring the windows were shut.
As reported by the Express, she continued: “If there is one big thing I have changed it’s appreciating air conditioning, or using fans to get the air circulating. I will never open the windows at night again.
“Or, only if I’m sure that there is no way of this incident being repeated. If there isn’t any air conditioning or a fan, then again, the higher your room, the better for both safety reasons and access to a cooling breeze.”
Whilst it may appear straightforward, leaving windows open makes it easy for intruders to gain entry, and even occupying a higher floor isn’t without risk if there’s a balcony or fire escape close by.
Simply take a moment to ensure the windows and curtains are fully drawn as this helps keep you as protected whilst you’re sleeping.
You should also think about securing the door before retiring for the night with a rubber doorstop, a more sophisticated alarmed version or even positioning a chair against the door can be sufficient to frighten off intruders.
Burglars typically look for easy opportunities, and any obstruction can make them think the person they are robbing is on high alert so it is not worth the effort.
Taking the time to lock up is usually enough to get robbers to turn away from your room, and thereby keeping you safe while on holiday.
Most guests also avoid using the hotel safe in case they forget their valuables, but it’s a useful place to store your items so that they don’t get stolen.
If you’re worried you might leave behind valuables in the safe box when it’s time to check out, then there’s actually a straightforward method to prevent this.
Simply place your shoes on top of the safe box, as a reminder to check the safe before leaving your hotel room for the airport.
Laura Farnsworth Dogu is not, at first glance, your typical Trump appointee.
A career diplomat with postings under the Obama and Biden administrations, she represents a branch of government President Trump has cut back and long vilified.
Yet her selection for Trump’s top envoy to Venezuela signals a rare strategic choice, leveraging her experience with authoritarian regimes at a moment when Washington is recalibrating its approach to Caracas after the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro.
“There are not very many cases in this administration where they have relied on a career diplomat,” says Elliott Abrams, who served as Trump’s special representative for Venezuela in 2019. “This is actually an anomaly.”
Abrams suggests the appointment of Dogu — who met with the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, in Caracas on Monday — could reflect a desire for a seasoned expert to manage day-to-day diplomacy as the administration embarks on one of its most complex foreign policy undertakings.
“What he really needs is a professional to oversee the embassy and do the traditional diplomatic things while all policy is made in Washington,” Abrams said, referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Dogu, 62, arrived in Venezuela on Saturday to reopen the U.S. Embassy. She is recognized in Central America for her methodical, approachable style and deep understanding of Latin America’s political and cultural dynamics. However, her direct and outspoken approach has also led to controversy, with enraged officials in Honduras once wanting to declare her persona non grata.
Her new position as chargé d’affaires augments a career that includes senior roles in hostage recovery for the FBI and as ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras during periods characterized by social and political volatility.
Before taking on her new position, she served as the foreign policy advisor to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the leader of the operation that targeted Maduro. Her office did not respond to a request for interview.
Her experience navigating authoritarian governments and fragmented opposition movements makes her a pragmatic choice for a volatile post-Maduro transition. In a Senate hearing on Jan. 28, Rubio stressed the post’s importance for restoring a limited U.S. mission to gather intelligence and engage with Venezuelan stakeholders.
Dogu will be tasked with navigating Venezuela’s fractured opposition, which includes leaders inside the country, exiles abroad and figures struggling for influence in a potential transition. Abrams, the veteran diplomat, said engaging opposition actors, such as Maria Corina Machado, is a core diplomatic responsibility, particularly in a country the United States does not recognize as having a legitimate government. At the same time, maintaining relations with the turbulent, divided government will be her responsibility as well.
Abrams also cautioned that Washington priorities will define Dogu’s mission, and those priorities might not always align neatly with democratic objectives.
“The question is how the administration defines the interests of the United States,” Abrams said. “Does it include a free and democratic Venezuela? I don’t think we really know the answer yet.”
A family ethos of public service
A Texas resident and the daughter of a career Navy officer, Dogu often traces her commitment to public service to her upbringing in a military family. That ethos shaped her diplomatic career and has been a defining thread across generations, with both of her sons also serving in the military.
She has received multiple State Department honors, speaks Spanish, Turkish and Arabic and served in Mexico, El Salvador, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco.
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been suspended since 2019. She takes over from John McNamara, who had served as chargé d’affaires since February 2025 and traveled to Venezuela in January to discuss the potential reopening of the embassy.
According to a statement, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto, indicated that the two governments will hold discussions to establish a “roadmap on matters of bilateral interest” and resolve disagreements through mutual respect and diplomatic dialogue.
Dogu is no stranger to Venezuelan issues. During a 2024 news conference, while serving as ambassador to Honduras, she publicly criticized the participation of sanctioned Venezuelan officials in Honduran government events.
“It’s surprising for me to see [Honduran] government officials sitting with members of a cartel based in Venezuela,” Dogu said at the time, referring to a meeting between the government of President Xiomara Castro and Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López.
The United States has accused Padrino López of involvement in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and there is a $15-million reward for information resulting in his arrest or conviction.
Years earlier, Dogu had offered a blunt assessment of Venezuela’s economic collapse. Speaking in 2019 at Indiana University’s Latin American Studies program, she described Venezuela as “a very wealthy country, [with] huge oil supplies, but they’ve managed to drive their economy into the ground,” theIndiana Gazette reported.
Crisis and confrontations
Nominated by President Obama to serve as ambassador to Nicaragua in 2015, she said at her confirmation hearing that Obama had “rightly maintained” that “no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by another.” She added: “America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election.”
Dogu left her Nicaragua post in October 2018 amid nationwide protests and a severe government crackdown that resulted in at least 355 deaths, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. At the time, Dogu said she learned from authorities that paramilitary groups had targeted her for death.
In 2019, she linked the unrest in Nicaragua to the Cold War, citing an “unfortunate negative synergy” among Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. “We never left the Cold War in Latin America,” she said.
Nicaraguan opposition figures, many now exiled, remember Dogu as an accessible diplomat. Former presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro called her a “methodical and approachable official” who upheld State Department policy and democratic principles.
Lesther Alemán, then a student leader who frequently interacted with Dogu during the 2018 protests, described her as publicly blunt but privately empathetic. Alemán emphasized Dogu’s ability to engage “all sides of the coin,” making her effective with both the “authoritarian governments and with the opposition.”
Alemán said Dogu initially had a good relationship with the Nicaraguan government, including a personal friendship with then-first lady and current co-President Rosario Murillo. However, that relationship soured after Dogu publicly supported opposition groups during the political crisis.
Her experience in Honduras proved more contentious. After Dogu made her statements regarding Venezuela, Rasel Tomé, vice president of the National Congress and a senior figure in the governing Liberty and Refoundation Party, urged lawmakers to declare her “persona non grata.”
Tomé justified this request by accusing her of making “interventionist statements” directed at the government.
Criticism continued after Dogu’s departure from Honduras in 2025. An opinion column published by the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras argued that her relationship with the country had been marked by distrust.
“Although Ambassador Laura Dogu makes an effort to say goodbye amicably,” the piece read, “we all know that the relationship between her and Honduras was not sincere because it was disrespectful; it was not trustworthy because it was interventionist.”
This week, the U.S. Embassy posted online an upbeat video of showing Dogu entering the mission, meeting with Venezuelans and outlining plans for what she calls a “friendly, stable, prosperous and democratic” Venezuela. “Our presence marks a new chapter,” she says, “and I’m ready to get to work.”
Mojica Loaisiga is a special correspondent writing for The Times under the auspices of the International Center for Journalists.
STEP into your cowboy boots, grab a Stetson, and immerse yourself in the Wild West.
A new cowboy experience called Phantom Peak is launching this summer in a popular London location.
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Phantom Peak will open a new immersive Wild West experience at StratfordCredit: Phantom PeakThere will be three western areas – one will surround and indoor lakeCredit: Phantom Peak
The new Stratford location will be even bigger than the one at Canada Water as it will go across multiple levels.
It will have three distinct areas, each with its own atmosphere and characters – the first being the Old Town.
It’s the underground industrial mining town at the centre of Phantom Peak.
There’s also The Town Square which is a more modern area with a Town Hall and the in-world bar: the Thirsty Frontier Saloon.
Lakeside is set around an indoor lake and in the middle will be The Watermill with its water wheel.
The venue will be fully accessible too.
The experience will replace the one currently open at Canada WaterCredit: Phantom Peak
It will have upgraded technology so stepping into the Wild West will feel even more real.
There will also be a seven-day-a-week themed bar with speciality cocktails and food.
In the town visitors can explore an area with arcade and carnival games.
For VIPs, guests have their own entry which takes them into the experience on a train carriage.
The Canada Water experience has seen a whopping 16,000 visitors since it opened in August 2022 – and there’s been over 625 performances.
Some reviewers have even called it the “best experience in London”.
With another reviewer branding it “bonkers” and “fun”.
So if you can’t wait until the new experience opens, you can still book at Canada Water before it ends on February 28, 2026
Adult tickets cost £42, and children can enter for £27.
Phantom Peak has been named the best Immersive Experience globally by blooloop and won Tripadvisor Traveller’s Choice award in 2024 & 2025 consecutively.
Tickets for the new Stratford experience go on sale soon at phantompeak.com.
