EXCLUSIVE: Comedian Ryan Sickler has locked in a premiere date for his new special, Live & Alive. It’ll make its debut on Sickler’s YouTube channel at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT on Wednesday, October 24.
The special is Sickler’s second ever, and the second he’s self-released, on the heels of 2023’s Lefty’s Son, which he also directed and produced. In the new hour, filmed at Comedy on State in Madison, Wisconsin, he offers a deeply personal look at surviving a near-death experience and the long road back — proof that the hardest hits in life can leave you standing stronger. Sam Vollen served as its director.
A Baltimore native who began performing stand-up in the early ’90s, Sickler first gained national recognition as co-host, alongside fellow comic Jay Larson, of the long-running storytelling podcast The CrabFeast, which ran from 2012 to 2018. Subsequently, he unveiled The HoneyDew, a podcast “highlighting the lowlights” of guests’ lives, and more recently, The Wayback, a pod in which he chats with guests about their younger years, which immediately claimed the #1 spot on the charts among comedy interview podcasts in the U.S., the UK, and Canada, upon its January 2024 debut.
As a stand-up, Sickler has appeared on Live at Gotham, Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening, Viceland’s Party Legends, and more. He’s also released multiple comedy albums, including 2018’s Get a Hold of Yourself, which hit #1 on Billboard charts as well as on iTunes. Beyond the stage and studio, he’s an award-winning writer, producer, and director whose credits span Fox, OWN, E! Entertainment, and Kevin Hart’s LOL Network. The comic is repped by Innovative Artists and Knol Hanly.