Hi, I'm Mayan Bialic. I'm Jonathan Cohen. And welcome to our breakdown. It is National Suicide Prevention Month this September. And in order to honor this month, we want to revisit our episode with a comedian and beloved 90s Nickelodeon star, Kel Mitchell. You probably know him from shows like all that, or Ken and Kel, or the movie Good Burger. We were really, really blown away. Kel opened up on our podcast about something very, very intimate, his suicide attempt a few years ago and his journey from that time in his life and how faith has guided him on a path towards mental wellness and his decision to become a youth pastor. We really, really love this conversation. We think it's so special and we hope that people will resonate with some of the insights that he draws on and it's just a really beautiful episode and we're so grateful we get to bring it to you. Before we do that, we want to remind you to follow us on Substack. Jonathan, tell the folks what they'll find over on Substack. It's a growing community of breakers, people listening to this podcast and reflecting on the ideas. We also share exclusive content there that you can't get anywhere else. Check out Mind Balox Breakdown on Substack. And now we hope you enjoy taking a look back at our episode with Cal Mitchell. Break it down. Welcome to Mind Balox Breakdown. It's so nice to meet you. It's so nice to meet you. How are you? It's a pleasure. We're good. This is very exciting because I know a lot about you. There's a lot to know. But here's the truth. When you started being famous on the television, I was in college. And I was like, I'm just enough older than you that I was not... I didn't have a TV. You weren't watching Nickelodeon? I was not watching Nickelodeon. However, I know that you're very, very famous. And one of the things that's amazing about you is like, you've done a million things. Like you've constantly been working. Yes. Like that's, I mean, well, I do. I have some questions. I started acting at 11. And then I kind of started regularly working from the time I was 14, but to like 19.

And then I took 12 years off.

But you didn't, you haven't taken 12 years off.

So tell us when you started kind of your child acting career.

You know, obviously you became well known as a teenager,

but tell us a little bit, you're from Chicago, correct?

Yes, I'm from Chicago. Southside of Chicago.

I was going to say, what part of Chicago? It's important. Yeah, and I got started in a business in theater. And it wasn't a thing of like, I grew up in the family where it was like, oh, you're going to be a star. And you get this star kid and we're going to get commercials and TV. No, it was I literally did it for a hobby.

It was a good hobby that was a positive hobby to do. Cause my parents tried everything cause I used to be in class like just doing stand up. And so I would get in trouble. And so they were like, we need to get this kid into something and then I had friends that were on the open up and then I had friends that weren't. And I was getting to that age where it's like,

okay, we gotta find them something.

So we tried everything, Kung Fu, guitar lesson, science classes, everything. And what really kicked off was acting. There was a community theater in my hometown. And I just fell in love with it. I remember I just took a summer course. I took the summer course because I got in trouble in summer school.

And so my parents were like, let's try this.

And so I did that and I was like, yo, this is it. Like I found what I really enjoyed doing. And it was a hobby. And I wasn't acting up as much in school anymore because I started doing plays like theater plays and stuff like that with adults. And so I was learning, you know, lines and stuff like that.

But when I, you know, what I got into that, I was like about,

I want to say like 13, 14.

So I was still a kid going to school and everything like that.

Just doing it, just doing better.

Yeah, so talk a little bit about sort of what you were like as a kid.

You know, maybe tell us what your folks did or like,

did you have siblings? And I mean, I know a little bit about your story. But, you know, tell us a little bit about sort of like, who was this kid who became funny in class? Like, what were you like? I was the kid that would do a cartwheel to throw away something in the garbage. I hated that kid. I hated that kid. Yes, you would have, yeah, just to get a laugh, you know what I mean? Um, I kept tabs on the teachers because I wanted to know them personally. So I could tell jokes about them in class, which is crazy. And I was getting trouble because they're like, how did you even know that? It was I will find information about the teachers. Uh, and it was crazy because my mom, she's a teacher

and she's retired now, but she was a teacher at the time. So she, I didn't go to her school, but her coming home and then she said, I'm dealing with crazy kids all day and then I have to come home and find out you're in trouble. And then my dad was a psychologist. So I had like two different spectrums and it was funny growing up because my mom would give me a spanking and then my dad

would be like, how do you feel?

...