Whoa, Dad!

This part one of a two part episode with the insanely funny comedian, Sandy Danto, saves the podcast. Sandy is the ultimate Bobby whisper. From topics like who my dad has played with to his regrets about choosing his career over his family,  Sandy gets my dad to open up about things I didn't think he would ever share.  In return, Bobby channels his Joe Rogan and asks Sandy all the comedy questions...

Bobby leads the charge on this one and this time I mean it. Consider yourself a fly on the wall during an average phone call between me and my dad when we aren't recording. He comes to the table with some facts that you can't get anywhere else like, how Nicorette can prevent Corona Virus, and make for a really good bouncy ball. He tries to cure my abandonment issues by getting me to read his horos...

I want to go on a spiritual journey and do drugs to “find myself”. My dad gives me advice on what kind of drugs I should and shouldn’t do. The best way to get your kid to never do drugs is to scare the s*** out of them. And my dads drug stories from the road will do just that. Between his friends overdosing to him getting tricked into eating weed brownies, making his so high they had to call in a...

Comedian Anthony Dayo is this months spotlight. Which is a dad who's had to face some tough situations and who's story we can learn from.  Similar to my dad and I, Dayo is a distant dad who lives in LA while his daughter lives in Philadelphia and he is doing a pretty good job at maintaining a close father daughter relationship from a far. Dayo shares what it was like having a daughter at 21, movin...

Don’t believe in ghosts or aliens? You might after this episode. My dad was a tough nut to crack this time round until we get into his favorite topics: aliens, ghosts, unexplained phenomena and Bob Lezar. When I was a baby, my mom and dad moved into a haunted house. They knew it was haunted when 1 year old me would talk to “the man”. My dad dives deep into his traumatic experiences of living with...

Five year old Alo and his mom Kate, join us on this weeks episode to see if I have made any progress trying to teach my dad how to talk to children. Bobby pulls out the big guns and tries to keep the kid engaged by getting him to sing a song, asking him to identify what he is pointing to and making up rhymes on the spot.  Alo, who is probably smarter than all of us, isn’t afraid to tell my dad whe...

My dad reads 'The Night Before Christmas' in the most Bobby way possible, with a groove, percussion and vocal breaks.  Since we won't see each other on Christmas, not like we ever did, I figure why not start a father-daughter tradition and read a Christmas story every year. My dad was surprisingly enthusiastic about the idea, especially when he discovered he could turn the classic holiday tale int...

We are continuing on from last weeks episode "Will you be my neighbor".  My dad and I reenact our painful phone conversations in hopes that I can give him a better understanding of different ways to try and bond with me. His biggest complaint about trying to establish a stronger father-daughter relationship is that I was impossible to talk to on the phone. This time round, I paint him a better pic...

This week I took a step back and let my dad take the reins on this weeks episode. And it was exactly what I expected. Bobby discusses all of his favourite things that you may have already heard about: bathroom problems, joke writing, how difficult I was to talk to as a kid, police brutality and of course, his favourite, Mr. Rogers. I try to get Bobby to role play and relive what it was like to tal...

I got engaged and going to tell my distant dad the big news over the podcast. This is normally an exciting announcement for a traditional father and daughter. But I had a feeling he wasn't going to have a classic father of the bride reaction. And I was right. Bobby jumps straight to the point and asks me a very important question..."did you hear the protests in Portland". Want to read the emails t...

Since Bobby left I've been feeling a little uneasy. I haven't heard from him and it seems that we have gone back to a distant relationship. It feels like the same father-daughter relationship we had before and my abandonment issues have hit a high. He hasn't called me or reached out very much since he left. And to top it all off, covid hit, I would hope that my dad would be in touch during a pande...

We have only a few hours left before we say our goodbyes and Bobby heads back home. So this is the last time I’ll be able to teach him how to be a dad, in person. Before we continue our podcast and distant relationship through zoom, Bobby drops the bomb that he thinks I play the victim and I’m manipulative. I confess, I am manipulative but I only play victim in a joking manner. Being a comedian wh...

Bobby comes from a long line of circus folk and Nikki is determined to learn about his side of the family. After Nikki teaches Bobby how to cook one of the most difficult dishes known to...Goldie Lox? The two get into his family history over a nice bowl of porridge, which Bobby has made for the first time ever. Very questionable. Bobby tells tails of his mom who rode in a headstand, on a motorcycl...

Bobby and I are starting to get a bit annoyed with each other (if you couldn’t tell) and we are coming to the end of our time together. I’m becoming more controlling and he’s making me that way! It all started with a confrontation over the microwave. On the plus side we’ve gotten close enough that we’re starting to call each other out… but is this really a good thing? How much progress are we real...

We are back for another attempt to teach Bobby how to be a dad. The operative word being attempt. Today we’re talking about the birds and the bees, and a few other awkward conversations that parents have with their children. It turns out I inherited Bobby’s messy gene. I’m over here trying to set a great example of how to clean up after yourself and I realize that I’m still acting like the parent...

Despite Bobby (aka the enigma man)  feeling “internal” today he’s made the very fatherly decision to join me anyway, and in this episode our big topic is how to communicate with your daughter as an absent father who’s trying to be less… well, absent. While I was waiting for my dad to call me, he was, as he puts it, "let be and let god". For me? Let be and let abandonment issues get worse and worse...

It’s time for Bobby to help me with some homework—we’re skipping math class this time and going straight for the adult stuff. I’ve got an audition and he’s going to help me prepare for it like he’s a dad helping his daughter with her homework. Let’s do this! Before we get to the good stuff, we’re starting out with some parenting practice because it’s time that someone learns how to be a dad. Bobby...

Bobby and I just went out for brunch where he spent the majority of the time doing anything but having a conversation with me. Because our father-daughter relationship is awkward at best, there was that weird reaching-for-the-wallet experience—I was too early on the draw and ended up paying the bill! Getting stories out of Bobby is impossible, which sucks because the man has truly lived. He’s play...

It’s time for Bobby and I do do our first father daughter activity: hiking. Last episode we went through a blog list of tips for how to be a great dad and while we didn’t love every suggestion (honestly, some of them were down right creepy) we decided a few of them might be worth trying out, you’re welcome. Bobby’s seemingly just figured out that he’s been an absent dad thus far and we don’t know...

Bobby has basically moved in. He’s got his AA and self help books spread around the kitchen, there’s Nicorette gum everywhere and his laptop that’s weirdly hooked up to an external hard drive is sitting on the table ALL THE TIME. So, I think it’s time we dig into everything that it takes to become a good dad. Bobby brings up a recent text conversation that caused him a lot of anxiety and tension....

Bobby has never had to censor himself in front of a child before, so there are a few things he doesn’t quite understand and this episode is FULL of them.  Welcome to the part of the podcast where my distant dad justifies calling me sexy because of my career (sadly, not a joke), quotes Kung Fu Panda, continues to chew Nicorette into the microphone and gets weirdly philosophical… again. But guys, I...

My dad has just arrived in L.A. and we're about to spend the most amount of time together we have in our life—one week. He's 65, I'm 33, and we haven't spent more than five days together. This could be a disaster.  See, Bobby wasn't around most of my life—he's a rock n'roll drummer (need I say more)—and for most of my life we’ve had an awkward, distant, pretty much non-existent relationship. He wa...

Whoa, Dad! trailer with Nikki Bon and her dad, retired drummer Bobby Economou.