# Episode 73 - GenX Speaks Series: Kelly Manno

- Podcast: GenX Adulting Podcast
- Published: 2026-07-30T00:00:00.000Z
- Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/19572926-episode-73-genx-speaks-series-kelly-manno.mp3
- Page: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/transcripts/podcasts/genx-adulting-podcast/episodes/episode-73
- Source: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/episodes/genxadultingpodcastepisode73.html
- People: Brian Barker (host), Nicole Barker (host), Kelly Manno (guest)
- Topics: GenX Speaks

## Summary

In Episode 73 of the GenX Adulting Podcast, host Kelly Manno shares her experiences growing up in Granite City, Illinois, and her journey through motherhood, comedy, and social media fame. The conversation touches on her childhood, family dynamics, and the challenges she faced as a young mother, particularly with her son's traumatic birth and subsequent health issues.

## Key takeaways

- Kelly Manno was born in 1978 and identifies as a baby GenX.
- She grew up in Granite City, Illinois, a blue-collar town near St. Louis.
- Kelly had a traumatic birth experience with her first child, who suffered a stroke shortly after birth.
- She emphasizes the importance of trusting one's instincts in parenting and healthcare.
- Kelly has a strong sense of humor and uses it as a coping mechanism for life's challenges.
- She has a passion for helping animals and is interested in fostering children in the future.
- Kelly's experiences in radio and social media have shaped her career and personal identity.

## FAQ

### What was Kelly Manno's childhood like?

Kelly Manno grew up in Granite City, Illinois, where she describes her upbringing as typical for a blue-collar town, filled with a mix of love and challenges.

### What challenges did Kelly face as a new mother?

Kelly faced significant challenges when her first child, Rocky, was born with health complications, including a stroke, which led to a traumatic NICU experience.

### How did Kelly Manno get into comedy and social media?

Kelly transitioned into comedy and social media after her experiences in radio, finding her voice and audience through her unique storytelling and humor.

### What does Kelly think about the education system?

Kelly believes the education system is outdated and does not cater to the diverse needs of students, often failing to prepare them for real-world challenges.

### What are Kelly's views on parenting?

Kelly emphasizes the importance of trusting one's instincts as a parent and advocates for a more compassionate and understanding approach to childcare and education.


## Referenced links

- [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgXyhJy1dH4)
- [Listen on Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-73-genx-speaks-series-kelly-manno/id1764838823?i=1000779018635)
- [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qV6fUeGKOKm9FTROYRYWI)
- [Listen on Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/19572926-episode-73-genx-speaks-series-kelly-manno)

## Transcript

GenX Adulting Podcast: Welcome to Gen X Adulting. And today we have social media star, content creator, and stand up comedian Kelly Mana with us. Welcome, Kelly.
Kelly Manno: I am nowhere near an adult. So I just just warning you
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah,
Kelly Manno: in advance, if we're talking about adulting today, I'm I'm the worst one there is.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, that's the irony of the title of our podcast, Gen X Adulting, because we don't adult really, right? We're still we were thirty when we were ten and we're thirty when we're in our fifties. It's just we're perpetually trying to figure it out. So actually the title of our podcast is not literal. It's almost a play on words. So you're in the right place. So our first
Kelly Manno: Good, good, good.
GenX Adulting Podcast: question is always what year were you born?
Kelly Manno: nineteen seventy eight.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, so you're a baby GenX
Kelly Manno: I am and I'm I'm December twenty first, so I'm right at the very end of the year. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: I am like a year and a h I'm like a year and a month away from being a millennial.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well no, because if you're seventy eight millennials, Gen X goes all the way to eighty. So
Kelly Manno: Okay, so I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: you're in. Yeah, that would be a year and a month. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. yeah,
Kelly Manno: Yeah. I I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: no, eighty eighty one. Eighty one is the first millennial. Eighties 'cause you know who's an eighty? Is Nick.
Kelly Manno: I know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: He's an eighty and so he's the last. So you're seventy eight, then seventy nine then eighty.
Kelly Manno: Yeah. No, John is younger than me too. But like everyone assumes I'm the youngest. It's because the boys have those big gray beards. And like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: it I guess it makes them look older, but I get accused of not being Gen X all the time. I'm over it. Like people can look up my my information online and see when my birthday is because yeah, like everything is just under my my whole name. Had I known. you know, all those years ago that I was going to have millions and millions of followers, I would never have used my whole fucking name, but I did. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: it's too late for that. So if anybody wants to see when I was born, they can just look it up. It's not hard.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, not anything. You're definitely Gen X. I think that's so strange people would accuse you of not being Gen X, because even the elder millennials that are like Xennials have more of a Gen X experience than a millennial experience. But you're definitely in there. It's because you have such a fun spirit that they're like, She's
Kelly Manno: I guess.
GenX Adulting Podcast: not beaten down, so she can't be Gen X. Yeah, right.
Kelly Manno: Like I guess I'm just not crabby enough for them. I don't like sorry.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's what it is. You're too bright of a light for us. so where were you born?
Kelly Manno: I guess. I was born and raised my whole life in Grand City, Illinois.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, so is that for people who don't know Illinois at all, is that southern, northern, west, east?
Kelly Manno: Yes. So I'm pretty close to St. Louis, like twenty minutes or less, but Granite City is a little blue collar steel town with not a whole lot going on in it. And that's where I I literally was born and raised there and I lived at my parents' house until the day I got married. So born and raised in Granite City, Illinois, and now I just live about forty minutes across the river in St. Charles, Missouri. So Midwest, Midwest, born and bred.
GenX Adulting Podcast: And how many people are in that town? Is it considered a small town?
Kelly Manno: like twenty five thousand, I think. So it's not tiny, but it's not b like we only have one high school. That's how I consider it a small town. Is
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: if you only have one high school then and everyone goes to the same place, then everyone knows everyone.
GenX Adulting Podcast: How big was your graduating class?
Kelly Manno: It was a couple hundred. I wanna say like three or four hundred. So it w
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's kinda like yours. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, his town's about the same size. So we had three high schools, but one was Votec, one was a Catholic school and then the public school. Your public school was like two or three hundred. So now as far as the town, who do you know in your family why you ended up there? Was it your grandparents, your great grandparents? Do you know the history there?
Kelly Manno: So I know my dad was born there and then my mom was born nearby. And I don't know my family history because under my fucking dead body would I send my DNA to the government and let them tell me where I'm from because I know I'm not doing that. And also like my lineage like ends like in the boot heel of Missouri. I'm from hillbillies and rednecks and there's no interesting lineage there at all. So I don't
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I don't know why or how we ended up in Granite City, Illinois. you know, but that's where we that's where that's where my mom and brother still live and all my family still is. So yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Probably the steel mill. Yeah, this yeah, that probably brought them brought them. Do you know
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: what your background is at all? Like if you're Irish, English, any of that?
Kelly Manno: Pretty much hillbilly. I think my mom claims that she's like Irish, kinda. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: I think my dad was dur I don't know. None of that stuff really matters to me.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're a a mix just a mix up of like like most of us are. And I think everyone has Irish in them. Yeah, everyone claims to it, like yeah.
Kelly Manno: Get I don't know. I'm a mutt. I don't claim one thing or the other, but yes, I grew up in a steel town. We had a giant steel plant in the middle of the city. It smelled like a robot was being burned alive every day. Like we had recessed next to smokestacks.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's also.
Kelly Manno: Like tough ass little blue-collar steel town. Like you, yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: All right, do you know how your parents met?
Kelly Manno: They met at a hospital. They were they were both working, I think, in the cafeteria of the hospital. And they met when they were young. My mom was like eighteen and my dad was about six years older than her. So yeah, they met working at the hospital and the only story I know is that some guy liked my mom. And so my dad told that guy that he heard that she was gay. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: That I mean that's a form of having game, I guess.
Kelly Manno: It it worked. He got her he got her to marry him, so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Small town, you can't do that shit. So you just start a rumor and and that'll shut that shit down. So do you know how long they dated until they got married?
Kelly Manno: No, not very long, 'cause I was born nine months and four days after their wedding. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: I think they moved pretty quickly. And so I'm my my mom was like eighteen or nineteen when she had me.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, and do you have siblings?
Kelly Manno: I do. I have one little brother. we're like Irish twins because I was like eight weeks old when my mom got pregnant and she was like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: shit. so I like to remind him all the time that he was a mistake. and
GenX Adulting Podcast: I don't even think you're c you're cleared by then. At least nowadays you're not cleared at eight weeks. They maybe then.
Kelly Manno: No, no, you're the husbands are supposed to stay away. That's our time to get away from you. We just had a baby. Leave us alone.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Yes.
Kelly Manno: my brother and I, he's like my best friend. We are total polar opposites. I come from like a long line of very quiet people. my brother is he has devoted his entire life to special education. so he has been a special education teacher. For over 20 years, he teaches life skills to special needs kids. and he he's just a great person. He's really nerdy. Like he loves Star Trek and plants and gardens. And like growing up, we didn't like any of the same stuff. He was always watching like Monty Python or
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: something. And I'm always watching like the real world and like stuff like that. But he's fantastic and he does. really great things and he has permanently given me the title of Black Sheep in the Family because I will never like he's always in the news because he like raised money for a kid to get a wheelchair or, you know, something like that. And then I'm in the news the next week 'cause I sent shit in the mail to Stan Cronky, like when he took the RAM. So my mom has two very different children, but we get along
GenX Adulting Podcast: Amazing. I love that. You know, I always say, I have two sisters who are disabled and I've always said that it that people who are special education educators are angel angels on earth. They are
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: special type of person and I thank God for them, honestly, because every time I meet somebody who works in special ed, there's just something about them.
Kelly Manno: They have a patience that I will never understand. You
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: know? Like you have to be given. You that's a kind of patience that like can't be taught, you know?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. I agree. I agree. So is it just the two of you then?
Kelly Manno: Just the two of us that I know of, but again, I've I've never done I've never done twenty three and me, so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Now well I'm sure after that your mom was like, Yeah, we're done. Like eight weeks. She's like
Kelly Manno: She did. She got her tubes tied.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, she's like, Okay, I'm not taking that chance again. Now, did you grow up in the same house the whole time in your town?
Kelly Manno: So we started in a house that was haunted because a guy was murdered there before we moved in and we had to move out because he wouldn't quit haunting us. So then we moved across town.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Do do you have a memory of the hauntings?
Kelly Manno: I do. So I used to see him all the time. so it's like I have not told the story forever. I can't believe you guys are already getting this out me. so basically my dad was a mailman, and this man was killed on his route where he delivers mail. And he and then the house went up for sale. And he told my mom, he's like, my god, this house is in an amazing neighborhood. And nobody's buying it because this guy died here and we can afford it and give this a better life for our kids. And my mom was like, absolutely not. But at the time, the story was so his name was Steve. And the story was that he and his wife were practicing intruder drills. Like, what would happen if somebody came in the house? And it was an accidental shooting. And so at the time when we moved into the house. It was an accidental shooting. It was a horrible accident. She was this grieving widow on the front page of all the newspapers, because again, it's a small town. But what happened was it as soon as we moved in, I started seeing him. I was very young. I was like three or four years old. and stuff started happening, and my parents were like, Man, this is we really feel like there's a ghost in this house. And then it came out that she had murdered him. And there was this like big trial. And all this stuff happened. and that's when we had to move. And so we knew it was him because when I was about three years old, four years old, I was up with an earache with my parents. And I was like, Who is that man sitting in in dad's chair? And my mom and dad are Kelly, there's no man in that chair. And I'm like, No, there's a guy right there in the chair. And they started asking me questions about him and what he looked like. And I said, I said he's got blonde hair and he's got on a red plaid shirt and he's got on jeans and he's got on yellow boots. And my parents questioned like the yellow boots, and I'm like, well, he says that he he just got home from work. He works in construction. So I guess they were like, work boots, something. And I they got me to go back to sleep, and a couple days later, my dad was outside and saw the neighbor outside. and he's like, Hey, just just By chance, what did what did Steve look like? Like w what kind of guy was he? And turned out that neighbor was the one who found him dead. He was home when she came running out of the house screaming, my god, I shot my husband, I shot my husband. And he told my dad, he's like, I'll never forget it. He had on a red plaid shirt and jeans. He had just gotten home from work. He hadn't even taken his work boots off yet. And like my dad was like, shit. That like we are moving.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: We are moving.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Wow. Crazy. It is.
Kelly Manno: and it and the way that my par we moved when I was like in fifth grade. So I was a little young. I don't have memories of seeing him. They would just tell me about it. Like I'd go in the corner of the room and put my hands up and ask somebody to pick me up who wasn't there.
GenX Adulting Podcast: my
Kelly Manno: I do remember we could never have babysitters. Like our babysitters would be fucking terrified. I remember like our babysitter sitting on the couch and having like me and my brother sitting like crisscrossed applesauce, like holding our hands.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mike.
Kelly Manno: So if we were getting babysat, we had to go to someone else's house. And the way that my dad put it, who that man never exaggerated today in his life, he's like, you know how sometimes you freak yourself out and you're like, I think I hear footsteps. Is that foot? It was like, I hear footsteps. I like you could hear everything. we would have to replace our light bulbs all the time because they would like explain, they would like just short circuit. They would like blow. So that's so we lived in the haunted house until
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's great. Now
Kelly Manno: I was. In fifth grade and then we moved just to another
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well that's a long time to hang in there. If you first started seeing him three or four, fifth
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: grade is like what, ten, eleven? Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: Yeah. Yeah. No, we were there like five or six years easily because we loved the neighborhood and it was right down the street from our elementary school. And my parents didn't want to move because they didn't want to have us to switch schools because that's hard for kids, you know? So they're
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now
Kelly Manno: like, Okay, we'll deal with the ghost.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Would they would they see and hear these things too, or just you?
Kelly Manno: they would hear things like one time after we had moved in for like a year, my mom was going through this closet and found a self-portrait that he had drawn of himself that she's like, I know this wasn't here when we moved in. I would have seen it. And like weird things, like my dad would lose his wallet and he looked and looked and looked all over for it, and then one day he found it like on the floor, like at the threshold of like their bedroom in in the hallway. And he's like, I know I would have seen that, you know. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Living living with a ghost is weird because you set things down and they pick up and then they're gone and then your light bulbs are going out all the time and
GenX Adulting Podcast: What a trip. Did you ever feel like somebody's watching you? Was it that const constant feeling?
Kelly Manno: No, not really. And I don't ever remember being scared of him. It was never it was never a fear thing. It was always like I have a memory of of like a man like standing in my doorway. and there was a lot of times where I'd go sleep with my parents because it would like freak me out if I could see him. But that's really my only memory of it because I was so young. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: then actually what happened was he quit haunting us whenever. So towards the end of us living there, his wife got found guilty. And once she was found guilty and that was solved, he stopped haunting us. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Away.
Kelly Manno: and we went and we we we went trick-or-treating to that house a couple of years, actually it was several years after we had moved out. And we said, Did you guys ever have any haunting experiences? Or and they're like, No, not at all.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Wow, it's like a movie. It's like when the person comes back and until it's solved and then they can go away peacefully. It's literally like
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: that. What a trip. Now they do say young children can see, right? But
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. Yep.
GenX Adulting Podcast: if you were there until you were ten or eleven, I feel like that'd be getting a little older. Like at some point did he stop appearing to you because you were getting older? Do you know?
Kelly Manno: You know, I I was so young, I don't I just don't remember it. I don't know if it's that or maybe it was maybe maybe his wife was finally found guilty when I was in third grade. I I I don't remember the exact timeline. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.
Kelly Manno: so many of the stories have been told to me that my brain thinks I remember them, but I don't I don't
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: have any like solid memories of it. But I can tell you that as an adult, I can walk in any house and tell you if it's haunted immediately. Immediately, immediately. It fe
GenX Adulting Podcast: You can you can feel it, like feel the energy.
Kelly Manno: it feels like my old house. Like it just it's so bizarre. and I can't explain it. And I'm not I'm not psychic. I don't see ghosts, but my body will know immediately if I'm somewhere that's haunted.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Now, have you gone into houses and you felt it?
Kelly Manno: yes. and I've been in places and I felt it. We have like a like a theater in town that I hate going to and I just felt it recently somewhere really weird and I can't it was on the train. Like I walked, I was, I was taking an Amtrak train and I was like going from like one caboose to the other and I felt it. And it's always really quick and I just brush it away. I'm like, I'm not interested in your ghost bullshit. Leave me alone. I'm not like I know you think you can communicate with me, but I'm not, I'm not doing it. Find somebody else.
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're like, I'm not a vessel. I'm not the channel, yeah. I got a nice going on. Yeah. Now
Kelly Manno: I'm not I'm not I'm not her
GenX Adulting Podcast: did your brother also see and c do you guys relate on this or was it really just you?
Kelly Manno: My brother saw him a little bit, not quite as descriptive as I did and how I was able to explain him like head to toe, but my brother definitely experienced it too. So it was it was yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Wow, what a trip. And you must have freaked your parents out. could you imagine? The little Kelly sees the ghost. We gotta get the hell out of here. Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: And she explains exactly what he's wearing on the day that he died and you know, so stuff like that you you could never make up, you know, and
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. Now, when you moved into your next house, I assume you didn't have to change schools, right? 'Cause that was a priority for them or did you?
Kelly Manno: W well, I was going into middle s or junior high then and my my mom's only rule was she was moving into a new house. She would never ever again live in a house that somebody else had been in because she was so scared she was gonna get stuck in another haunted house. Because it was so it was so it was such a pain in the butt. It was like life, you know, like I said, we couldn't get babysitters because
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: everyone in town knew that that guy was killed in the house, and then when it came out it was a murder, then it was even a bigger deal. And so everyone else knew too. So even like my babysitters knew, like, hey, a guy was murdered right here inside this door. Like he died right here. Like we knew everything about it. We just happened to live in the house. It's very, very weird.
GenX Adulting Podcast: and did your friends ever like say anything like you live in the murder house? Like were you bullied for it?
Kelly Manno: No, because I was so young, kids didn't know. We didn't have social media. So they'd
GenX Adulting Podcast: True. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: you know, third, fourth graders aren't reading the the local newspaper. So nobody
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: knew except my really close friends. because they would figure it out and yeah, it was a lot of me sleeping over other people's houses. Nobody ever wanted to stay at my house.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Now, did your mom work or was she a stay at home mom?
Kelly Manno: So my parents both worked, and they worked like split so that we didn't have to go to daycare. My mom did not want us in daycare, you know, or any kind of child care. So my dad worked as a mailman during the day. And then when he came home from work, my mom she worked at Kmart for a long time. and then she became a preschool teacher a and taught like a daycare, like in our house, which was crazy.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay. Okay.
Kelly Manno: Which was crazy because every day I would come home from school and there's like eleven toddlers in my house. And like I our houses were tiny. Like I grew up broke. And so like we're talking like nine hundred square feet houses and like a yeah, like eleven toddlers and two teenagers. And so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: my yeah, my dad worked during the day and then my mom worked at night. So somebody was always home with us.
GenX Adulting Podcast: So you didn't really have that Gen X latchkey kid experience, would you say?
Kelly Manno: I I really didn't. I mean, and I'm always honest about that. Like I did have it because, you know, there were times we weren't home and then I could go to like my Aunt Jamie's house and it was like Gen X latch key heaven over there. And I still experienced a lot of the same things. But for most Gen Xers, I definitely had a way more involved mom than most did, you know? And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right. Right. Right.
Kelly Manno: so, like I said, I still have a lot of the Gen X experience, but my mom really wanted to be home. You know, with us as much as possible.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Did you ever have those experiences where you, like a lot of us, where you just would go out with your friends and have to be home by the time the lights the street lights came on, or did your mom did she have a certain time you needed to be home?
Kelly Manno: So my mom was pretty like hovering, but I had friends, my aunt's like a like I said, my Aunt Jamie's house was like a free-for-all of like Gen X paradise. We'd get on our bikes and take off, and you wouldn't see us until nighttime. And, you know, being a younger Gen X, I was coming of age around the time that kids started getting kidnapped. So that that was right
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: when, you know, when you're born in like the early 70s, none of that was happening. So I was being raised at a time where there were these little kidnappings happening here and there, you know, and you know, my mom is a worry wart anyway. Like that's just her nature. And so, you know, she didn't let us super far out of her sight, but like I said, I had the experience with friends and and cousins and and all that good stuff.
GenX Adulting Podcast: She was like the OG helicopter mom, probably. Is it her is it her age that is why we saw it on the milk carton? Yeah, because we we were drinking cereal, you guys were getting taken. Yeah, because we would see you guys see kids on milk cartons, you know. I don't know, those kids look like they were close to our age, but that was more in the late seven maybe early eighties. Like when cartons gave everybody ideas. Yeah, I don't know. But do you remember
Kelly Manno: It's just s so screwed up that we would have to like eat lunch and like be staring at kids that look just like us missing, like, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Just drinking our milk and then go have a good time. Like, that's too bad for that kid. But that just goes with the whole like things happen and we
Kelly Manno: But yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: just kept going forward. No one talked about anything.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, but I I had a mom who was paranoid of everything and so she was always like, What do you do if you get kidnapped? And don't ever let take you to the second location. And what like she it was like every day was like, Pop quiz, how do you get out of this situation?
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god. You were probably the most prepared Gen X ever. Like you you were just like, I got this. Every scenario will turn through.
Kelly Manno: There is, I mean, not only with the way that my mom raised me, but just like I was born with this gene in my brain of like, like, how hard can it be? Like, there's not anything that I can't do half-ass well if I wanted to. Well, you know, and I am the least responsible person I know, but the most resourceful person I know. Like, I always get it done. I like I'll cross the finish line upside down and on fire, but. I always get shit done, always.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Have you always been like that from as early as you can remember?
Kelly Manno: Yeah, 'cause I'm oldest daughter, I'm oldest granddaughter, I'm Sagittarius for people who like that stuff.
GenX Adulting Podcast: huh.
Kelly Manno: which just all says I'm very bossy and mean, and that's pretty much
GenX Adulting Podcast: Are one of your parents like that, or grandmother or aunts or something?
Kelly Manno: No, I come from very quiet people. Well, on my dad's side, my mom's side, they're all batshit crazy. Like I come from long lines of crazy women. And that's where I get my craziness from. And even though my mom's a a little more quiet than me, she crazy too. We're all a little crazy here.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It comes from somewhere. So when you were in elementary school, were
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: you in interested in any in sports or clubs or theater or music? Did you have any cer at that early age have any certain interests?
Kelly Manno: I did everything. Like my mom just put me in everything. But the things I were the best at were soccer. and then I also really wanted to be a hockey player, but my mom would not let me play hockey. So she put me in figure skating. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: those were the two things that I did the most. But I loved hockey. Even today I have all three of my kids play hockey, my son and both daughters.
GenX Adulting Podcast: back then, would if hockey have been co ed for you or would it have been Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I would have been the only girl on the boys team. I mean, even now my girls have to play against boys. because like I said, we grew up broke, but I had a friend who had season tickets to the St. Louis Blues hockey game. And one night they invited me to go. They're like, You want to come to a hockey game? I had never been in my life. We get to the hockey game, and that night there was a fight in the stands and there was a fight on the ice. And I'm like, this is the greatest fucking thing I've ever seen in my life.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: Like, how do I get more? How do I come back to more of these? And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: so I loved it and I just absorbed it. And I would constantly bother my parents to play hockey. They they knew nothing. They still don't know anything about hockey. My my mom comes to her grandkids' games and it takes her half the game to figure out which one is her grandkids. Like so
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's funny.
Kelly Manno: I did, I did, I did a lot of figure skating. I did soccer and I was on the dance team at high school, the
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: palm squad.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: so lots of sports. I played softball. I was on the dive team for diving.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Is this all through middle school and high school? You just were constantly doing every all the activities?
Kelly Manno: Just yeah, everything. And then in high school it really shifted just kind of to dance, figure skating and soccer.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's still a lot. Although back then was there travel? You're young you're a little younger than us, so I feel like travel was s maybe starting for you or no, 'cause now it's crazy.
Kelly Manno: So back then it was like select soccer had started. So I was on a select soccer team and then also like a regular soccer team. And that was considered crazy, like to be on two teams. the figure skating was A, very expensive, and B a lot of travel. I was very talented in it, but was restricted by what my family could do and afford and where we lived. because we didn't have a year-long rink even in my town.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: so I could have I could have done some cool things with figure skating, but it just wasn't w my family did the best that they could with what they had and what they were given. And not every family is willing to dump out their four one K so their kid can be a superstar athlete like people do nowadays. And thank God they didn't because I couldn't I mean I couldn't imagine my mom just giving up everything and leaving my brother with my dad to take me to go train and you know, it it's When I was in high school, I did go train in California and I trained with Michelle Kwan, who everyone knows is a famous skater. And when I saw her life, well, two things happened. When I went out to train in California and I was like 12 or 13 years old, I realized number one, I'm not as as good at this as I thought I was. Like, okay, I was a really good figure skater for the Midwest. But when you you know, and then I realized number two, my family does not have the money for this shit, you know, because In Michelle's case, like her family uprooted everything so that she could train, including her sister. And I I looked at that and thought, that's not my this is not gonna go where I think it's gonna go. I'm just
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: gonna keep skating for fun.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. That's it's interesting you say that because our youngest plays travel lacrosse and
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: and he got it we're in Florida and he got as high on the the best team in Florida, right? And so he, you know, we're all feeling great. And then we go to the Northeast, the birthplace of lacrosse, and our team gets their asses handed to them. And it was right then, Brian are like, cause you you are the the thousands of dollars. I mean, it is
Kelly Manno: yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: thousands. And we looked at each other, we're like, okay. And then people are talking about, well, when are you gonna send your kid to prep school? 'Cause they gotta go to prep school and they gotta be reclassed and we're like, This is not our jam. We've never sent kids away. It's not happening. But to your point, it people do it now. People sacrifice everything.
Kelly Manno: But I have I have faith in Gen Z. I have faith that Gen Z is gonna reverse the youth sports that we fucked up. I really think they will. And it it's the younger Gen Z, younger Gen X that did it and the Millennials that fucked up youth sports. And Gen Z has paid the price for it. And I've watched it. and I've watched it through other kids, and they give up their entire lives and their families' financial stability for this one sport. on the off chance that their kid is gonna make it. And I think that these Gen Z kids are gonna grow up and go, my God, I did not have a childhood. I like I I'm manifesting it. I'm seeing it come back. Gen Z is gonna fix youth sports. I I have I have faith in them.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I hope so. I hope so. Is that Phil? Gen Z's the young all three of our kids are Gen Z, but he's the youngest, Gen Z. And our son's the oldest and then our daughter's in the middle. But I would like
Kelly Manno: So how old are they?
GenX Adulting Podcast: twenty nine, twenty five, sixteen.
Kelly Manno: Okay, so I'm twenty one, eighteen, sixteen. So in the same ballpark.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay. I'll just say yeah, yeah. But w what what's completely been destroyed through this is rec sports. Because you can't even be a kid who's kind of into lacrosse and then expect to get any playing time on the rec game because all the travel kids are doing that on their off time. And so they're they're starting and taking up all the time away from the rec sports is out the window now. At least in Florida. At least in Florida.
Kelly Manno: Everywhere. I was a I was a soccer coach for like four years. And the amount of grown men that I cussed out because they would come in our rec league with their team and their 17 different matching uniforms and bags and water bottles and literally use our team as like practice. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: we were just punishment. I mean, like, and I would get so mad because like the league we were in was called a CYC league. It was literally the Catholic Youth League. It was as wreck as you could get. And these men with dicks the size of this lip gloss would
GenX Adulting Podcast: What?
Kelly Manno: bring their fucking soccer teams in and smear my kids. And I I had it. As a matter of fact, there was a short time in my life that I was a substitute teacher and there was a kid in my class and they raised their hand and they said, You know my dad. And I said, I do. D does he follow me on social media? And they're like, No, you cussed him out at the soccer field and we still talk about it. And I'm like, Your dad
GenX Adulting Podcast: No,
Kelly Manno: probably deserved it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: somebody has to bring levity. Like parents, some somewhere there has to be a shift. Like we're pretty much out of it now, right? Like he's not doing travel like that anymore. He only plays for high school and it's wonderful. It's beautiful. So
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: we survived, but I hope you're right. We got our summers back. Yeah, and we got our summers back. But I I hope you're right. I hope that there's a shift.
Kelly Manno: Got one more left. I've got my youngest daughter is still a hockey player. She's got two more years of it. So it's very manageable with just one. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes.
Kelly Manno: in the long term, I cannot wait to be done. As much as I have loved watching them and how much joy it's brought to my life, like looking back the amount of like family time that we let youth sports rob us of in the name of thinking that it was that it was family time, but it really wasn't, you know?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm. No.
Kelly Manno: It just you know, hindsight's twenty twenty.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, you're right. And also, the stress. I don't know about for hockey, but the stress of of just push you you get caught up in the whole vibe of you gotta do better, you gotta work harder, you gotta train, you gotta do private lessons. Like it
Kelly Manno: Yes. And then
GenX Adulting Podcast: it's stressful on the whole family. Hockey's just as intense as anything. Or if not more, absolutely.
Kelly Manno: Hockey, yeah, hockey is very, very intense. It's a it's a hard sport to play. A lot of people give up on it. and again, I've had very average hockey players, so none of my kids are playing like the real expensive leagues. But even just watching them get treated unfairly, I'm a pretty, I'm a pretty harsh critic of my own kids because I was an athlete growing up. So I like I'm very aware of my kids' athletic abilities. And there were times where it was like, yeah, okay, I can see why they didn't make that team or whatever. But then there was other times where you just watch your kid get totally fucked over for no goddamn reason. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: my my daughter went through it with cheer in in high school. And like I just remember thinking, like, I I'll stop there. I'm just saying I'm so glad I'm done with youth sports.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, did you Yeah, yeah. Did you ever have and then we'll switch topics, but did you ever have we in encountered it's just like hockey, lacrosse is very expensive. So you it was a very affluent sport and you would have parents paying for the coaches' dinners and drinks and hotels and stuff. And it it skewed things, you know, it you could just you knew that that was in play. And
Kelly Manno: Always
GenX Adulting Podcast: Nothing that we ever participated in, but you just knew and that's that also when we realized all that was going on, it was like this isn't this isn't it.
Kelly Manno: Mm-mm. No, and I'm not I have a great respect for coaches. My kids have had so many amazing coaches, and some average coaches and a couple of terrible ones. So I was never the parent that complained about playing time or anything like that. Cause I'm a very competitive person. I want to win the game more than I want my kid to play. but then there's there's some coaches that are just like I would not piss on them if they were on fire. Like I there's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Relatable.
Kelly Manno: I'm gonna write a book one day and I'm I'm Dedicating the opening, like you know, people like write like to my lovely kids. I'm like, to these motherfuckers I should have hit with my car. And one of them is gonna be my son's high school hockey coach because
GenX Adulting Podcast: I have a question on hockey as a kid. Did you play in the winter or like on ponds? Is that a thing where you grew up?
Kelly Manno: w not so we're that's more like a Minnesota, like a northern thing.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: But we we have a pond in the back of our house that w that our kids play at in the winter. So we didn't do it a ton 'cause again, growing up where I did in like that little steel town, it wasn't a big hockey town. Nobody owned hockey skates, but here in the St. Louis area, kids will do it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, cool. You mentioned that your family was poor. Was that
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. Wait, we were broke, not poor. I think there's a difference. I've always
GenX Adulting Podcast: Broke. Okay. You were broke. Okay.
Kelly Manno: I've always thought that like I would we were broke because we didn't have money, but I wasn't poor because I had love and I had family and I had f food to eat, even if it was mac and cheese, and I had a roof over my head and and a car to drive and clothes to wear. So I like to say I was broke.
GenX Adulting Podcast: A great distinction, I think. I love that. I do too. No, that's that's
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: that's I'm taking that one. That's that is great.
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's a good that's a good outlook. Was that pretty much the demographic of the entire town or was there a divide between the haves and have nots?
Kelly Manno: No, and that was what I think a lot of my upbringing had to do with being raised in Granite City. There were no rich people there. Like there really just wasn't. I mean, there were kids who were better off and could afford nicer clothes, but like it was pretty much an even playing field in when you're from Granite City, Illinois. Nobody is better than anybody else. And even the kids who were better than us and had nicer things, like the regular kids just weren't fucking impressed by that. Like, so there was no There was no there w wasn't really a hierarchy in Granite City. It was like everyone is on the same playing field and, you know, be a good person or get your ass kicked. You know, we
GenX Adulting Podcast: I was gonna say is on that is the level the leveling fighting? Is there what
Kelly Manno: God, we fought so much. my God, we fought so much. As a matter of fact, I didn't even realize that. So my son was a senior in high school and saw his first fight, and he was so traumatized that he had to call me from school to come and pick him up. He's like, Mom, I saw a fight in the bathroom and there's blood and my stomach hurts and I feel really, really dizzy. Like I had to go get him and bring him home and put on the wiggles to recalibrate his brain. And he was like 18 years old. And the whole time that we are driving home from school, I'm like, you've never seen a fight. Like, neh, it never crossed my mind that my kids weren't seeing fist fights in school because where I grew up, we had like the featherweight bout was like in the morning, like before lunch. We had like the girl fight was after lunch. And then the heavyweight shit we did was across the street at this Chinese restaurant called Lamb's Garden. And that is where all the Big fights were. Like I saw a kid get hit in the head with a brick there. Like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: I know. And then the funny thing is, I picture, I don't know the Lamb family of Lamb's Garden, but I picture them as this like Chinese immigrant family who's like, we are gonna move to America. And they have all of this joy in their heart of like hope and future and freedom. And they pick the Midwest because it's like the heart of the country. And some real estate agent was like, You want you want the Midwest? So I have a fucking deal for you because there's this little town in the middle of nowhere. And they thought they were coming for opportunity and freedom. And they basically run like a white trash fight club in their parking lot every day. And they're still open today. Lamb's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Awesome.
Kelly Manno: Garden in Granite City. Go see
GenX Adulting Podcast: Go see if you're near there. Go see There's a plug. I pictured looking out the window light.
Kelly Manno: I don't know. I I really did try to avoid fights because I don't know if any of you guys have been in a fight. They suck. They're really they suck your energy out. It's it's not
GenX Adulting Podcast: I've never been in a fight. No, but I you've been in a couple, but it's How many fights
Kelly Manno: Mm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: were you in?
Kelly Manno: Like two and a half. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay. And what's the reasoning? Why is everyone fighting?
Kelly Manno: my first fight was over shotgun in the car because I called shotgun and this bitch sat down and I was like, I said shotgun, and I pulled her out of the car and threw her on the ground, and then I went to get in and she grabbed me by the hair and pulled me out, and then we fought and I got shotgunned, so I won.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Nice job. So that was just kind of like the normal reaction to co conflict resolution for you guys, which just were just
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: physical conflict resolution.
Kelly Manno: I grew up with so much physical violence that like today I can't even handle it. Like I cannot handle seeing like hearing somebody get punched, like the sound of like a fist on skin, like stuff like that. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: really, really try my hardest. I am a grown-up now. So I don't do that kind of stuff. And I I take precautions in my life so that I don't. For example, I'm a hockey mom. We are batshit fucking crazy. So I stand at the end of the ice rink. by myself where I cannot hear the other parents. I did almost get in a fist fight about a year ago. And I mouthed off to this woman's husband. And well, I asked him how little his dick was, and she didn't
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: like that question. So her and like two of her friends wanted to fight me right away. And I was like, okay, I'm in a snuggy. Like I am in a like a a one of those wraparound blankets that you put over your head and goes to the floor. And I'm like I started backing up 'cause I'm like, I I cannot get in a fight in a Snuggie. I can't this is too heavy. I can't like So that that one may have ended badly if I wasn't wearing a Snuggie, if I was more prepared.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. I don't know. You still maybe could have taken them, Kelly. I mean they I I
Kelly Manno: To this day, the funny thing is like you will not catch me dead in flip-flops or shoes that I can't run or fight in. Because it is programmed in my brain. When people go on a when people go on an airplane and like Birkenstocks, I'm like, bro, what if you have to get in fight? Like, what if you have to run off this like I you'll never catch me in flip-flops. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: You see? Yeah, no, he does the same thing. If like he feels that there might be a gre there you even here, she's ready to go. She's ready to go. He'll be like, I gotta I gotta put my seat here on Yeah, yeah. He's like for
Kelly Manno: Bro, shoes on. Shoes on. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: fighting. He has to put his speakers on. yeah, you gotta have good tennis shoes. Gotta be able to square up and have grip.
Kelly Manno: One dude, 100%. You don't want to be, I don't wear jewelry and stuff like that, because you don't want to be taking shit off and kicking off your shoes. Like, you got, but I my my real brain knows I'm not going to get into a fight as an adult. But how I was raised was like, you're always ready. Like, don't wear a dress to school. You might have to fight somebody. You know, like so.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Love it. You're always don't fuck with Kelly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: Don't
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. But it's so it's hardwired in your subconscious. Like it's there. It's it's part
Kelly Manno: Yes and
GenX Adulting Podcast: so you can you can tell if there's houses are haunted. That's hardwired. And you're ready to fuck some shit up.
Kelly Manno: Yes. I'm right. And I just want to be honest, I'm not even that tough. I'm just not scared to lose a fight. Like I'm not. I I you know, I've done
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. That's tough.
Kelly Manno: it before, I'll do it again. Like I I'm not I'm not backing down if that's the only repercussion is that I might lose a fight. I but I yeah, I'm not as as tough as people think I am, probably.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I don't know though. I think Yeah, but attitude goes a long way. Yeah, for sure. And people can feel that energy. Like they're not gonna I doubt people fuck with you very often because it's just an energy.
Kelly Manno: No. Yeah, the only thing that gets that that tricks people is that my face is way too nice for what comes out of my mouth. Like my like God made me
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: like I'm only five foot one. God made me like little and smiley and round, but then like gave
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'm
Kelly Manno: me the mouth of a psychopath. So you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Not a bad combo. Yeah. It's it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So okay, so the whole energy
Kelly Manno: Y right. Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: was fr it sounds like at your school, everyone was on the same page. So if a
Kelly Manno: Everyone.
GenX Adulting Podcast: new kid came in, were they haze? Like how did they learn like this is how we do shit here?
Kelly Manno: Think we were mean to new kids really. I think they the a lot of people just stayed quiet and like kept to themselves if they were new. But not very many people were moving to Granite City, Illinois, so we didn't have a lot of new kids.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's what I was thinking. That's true. It was like there was a big influx every year of trans transients. Okay, so
Kelly Manno: No, not at all. No.
GenX Adulting Podcast: as you were going to school and up till graduation, was it kind of always assumed you would go to college? Was that discussed in your house that you just were like that's the next step, or were there other options?
Kelly Manno: No one in my family had ever gone to college, and I was a terrible student. school felt like prison for me. It really did. I mean, to make me sit down in one spot and learn about something I don't want to learn, and looking back now, I know why, but like school was miserable. And I knew what I wanted to do for a living. And so once I got older and got like, okay, so I'll explain it this way. My grades were so bad. I did graduate high school, but I couldn't get into any colleges. So I went to community college for a year, got good grades, and then went away to college to the biggest party school in Illinois. And and then I I I thrived because I was studying radio, which is what I'd wanted to do for a living. And once I got into college, I was on the dean's list and like you couldn't stop me. I was so good at it. I was so focused and driven and what I wanted to do, but No, I yeah. I sucked at school. My parent my poor mom, she would buy me the cliff notes, she would read books for me, she would make me flashcards. I mean, I probably only graduated high school because of her.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Were you undiagnosed ADHD?
Kelly Manno: I was diagnosed, but it was so early that my my mom did not want to medicate me. And I don't blame her.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: so it was like my fifth grade teacher and then my tenth grade algebra teacher. And back then it was just kind of new, and I had such a fun, sparkly, vibrant personality that my biggest problem was I was always talking too much, or the teachers would move my desk in the hallway. and it was never that I was dumb. It was just that I didn't care. And the in it was weird having ADHD in the 80s because I spent way too long of my life thinking I was stupid and I wasn't. I just was not using my tools or gifts like where they were needed. It would be, it would be the same thing as like take the nerdiest kid in in school, this academic savant genius, and go make him do PE and speech class for five hours a day. And he'd be miserable. And it's the same thing for kids like me who have other strengths, but not sitting and memorizing and learning stuff. And I knew I was too smart for my own good. I knew back then I wasn't going to use any of that shit. I'm like, this is so damn stupid. Even now, when I was a substitute teacher just a couple of years ago, I was teaching this class called like ancient world civilization. And these poor kids, the shit. That they had to learn. I'm like, do we really need to know what the Mayans traded for fucking wool? It is 2026. Can
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: we teach a kid how to change a fucking tire? Like, we are still, our school system is so broke. And it is only pointed towards the very structured disciplined kids. But the thing is, this world is made up of all kinds of people. And so I always tell kids, and I told my kids, your grades do not define you. Your high school grades do not determine what is going to happen the rest of your life. You have to give a shit and you have to be nice to your teacher and you have to try. Other than that, C's get degrees.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, you're right. You're right. And also it doesn't matter what your GPA was in college either. No one in a job interview asked that. No one.
Kelly Manno: No one has ever asked me jack shit. And honestly, like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: the funny thing is, is just your character, I think, speaks more than your education because I could not have a college degree and I would be just as successful as I am right now because I have a work ethic that's hard to match. But take that kid with that big creative brain and stick them in social studies class, and the teacher just thinks they're an idiot. Who doesn't try? And it's just, I our school systems are just so, so, so broken. We are wait, we are, we are wasting our kids' times so bad. Like my kids, their school starts so early. It starts at 7:15 in the morning. They got to leave every day at 6:30 and they got to sit there and learn dumb shit all day. You know, and my kids, especially my girls, so my son, he got my brain. So he's not very good at school either. But my girls, Are like straight A students, National Honor Society, college prep classes. And I'm like, what are you doing all this shit for? And they're like, well, they said if we don't take this class, then we're not gonna get into this class, and then we're not gonna get into this class. And I'm like, dude, I'm like, you realize when you graduate high school, you are gonna have the exact same diploma as your brother, who like got who got C's like I did. And I'm like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's all preparation. It's all preparation.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, and they're like, Well, I'm getting a college class out of the way. I'm like, Well, college is gonna want your money all four years anyway. So I don't know what you're t and then like, Why? Why are we doing this to our kids? And like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. You're not wrong. I think you're spot on. They show up, they do stupid shit all day, and there is an element of pressure. And
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: that pressure's very real for the kids.
Kelly Manno: And then whenever they grow up and they don't know, like I always hated whenever I wouldn't know something that was common sense. They're like, Well, what do you mean you can't find England on a map? I'm like, I don't know. I was too fucking busy learning the periodic table of elements that I'm not gonna use, or what the
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: fuckin' Mayans traded for wool. I got so much shit in here I don't need fuck you that I don't know what the Indian Ocean is.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's so true. It's so true on a fucking map. And they took away a fr in most schools now, home ec, wood shop. Like
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. Yep.
GenX Adulting Podcast: where you can those kids those kids where they learn through touching and and doing, they took it all away and that like you alluded to, boxed everyone in. And I mean, they don't did our kids ever square dates or learn how to play the record. Well, maybe the recorder, but Did you have shop and home ec and all that shit or did they pull it by
Kelly Manno: Well, yeah, we had exactly had shop or home ec. It's like, do you want to burn yourself or chop off a finger? Those are your only options to learn. And I had to take square dancing to graduate. It was required. So we
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god. You can't.
Kelly Manno: had a senior dance class. We had to waltz, foxtrot, and square dance. And that was required. Everybody. It was
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Everybody? Just the girls? Okay. At least it wasn't sexist. We had it in middle school. I don't remember it in high school. But not a requirement. no. We had
Kelly Manno: Ours
GenX Adulting Podcast: to take it in middle school. It was a requirement. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Senior dance was a requirement to graduate. It was like English, math, and square dancing.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Balance. I don't know. I think there's something to be said to that as as opposed to everything now is these college level classes. And you're right. Our our older two have already gone to college and graduated. Then they did all
Kelly Manno: Mm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: the college level classes. And they could have graduated early, because that's what they sell you. Your kids will graduate early,
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: save money. Guess what? Our kids want to stay for four years. So we're still spending four years worth of tuition, but they just now have a two degrees or a minor. It's still the same. It all evens out in the end. Like there's no bullets
Kelly Manno: Yep. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: for pushing.
Kelly Manno: we end up with a whole generation of kids who don't know what they want to be when they grow up because they have had zero experience in occupational fields. Instead, they're learning dumb shit, like Mayans and and chemistry charts. And it's like and there's a pocket for for those kids. There are kids that are blessed in academics and they want to be pushed and they do need those classes. But our school system today only caters to those kids. And they're like 20% of the the school. And then we wonder why all these other countries are so much smarter than us.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: And it's like, you know, we've been doing this, like everything in life has evolved. Technology, telephones, cars, houses, not schools. We still
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're right.
Kelly Manno: sit in hard desks seven hours a day. We are still teaching them the same crap we had to learn. And it is so not reflective. I know so many kids in high school that were straight A students and they were fantastic. Fantastic students. They were like the sample students and they are pushing around papers in a beige office 40 hours a week and they are miserable.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause there's a whole aspect of their personalities that isn't getting tapped into. But to your point,
Kelly Manno: One hundred percent.
GenX Adulting Podcast: there's no interest being shown in it. It's been beaten down. Yeah, it's been beaten down. But you know, when you went to community college, that would have required you to focus and commit. So you must have at some point shifted and been like, I just gotta do this.
Kelly Manno: I wanted to get out of of my town because I I realized that after all my friends graduated, they were able to go off to college. And I was one of the only ones who didn't. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: I was like, okay, this is what my mom's been warning me about this whole time. So I better get my shit together. and college was way easier because I only had five classes a week. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: so I would only I would only have to pay attention for two or three hours and then I would have a break. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: the way our schools are structured right now, I'm not exaggerating when I say it is like prison. For a lot of kids. And and even
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No it's true.
Kelly Manno: like the cafeterias that we make them go. Have you been in a high school cafeteria? It is chaos. The
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: level of noise and people and throwing shit like my god. Like no
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: wonder they're so overstimulated. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, I agree one hundred percent.
Kelly Manno: we just haven't changed anything. Nothing.
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, we it you're right. And I think it here in Florida, I don't know if it's like this where you are, but the kids can sit outside too if they want. But what happens
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: is it gets so hot here they all want to be inside. So they're squishing the whole school's squishing into this cafeteria that wasn't made to hold the whole school because we
Kelly Manno: Right.
GenX Adulting Podcast: live in Florida and they're expected like a fucking half of them outside. Or if it rains, it's like like ants, like they run 'cause they they don't none of them it's just a whole so
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Lunch and also it's staggered. Like there's two lunches and it's only a certain amount of time. I don't know. It's all it's something
Kelly Manno: That's crazy, but we had to go on something called heat schedule growing up because our schools didn't have air conditioning. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: so if it was gonna be really hot that day, we had to start school at like 5 45 AM so we could be done by like 1230 so that we didn't have to be in those concrete buildings in like the thick of the heat of the day of one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock. So when when
GenX Adulting Podcast: My God.
Kelly Manno: when you're broke, when you look grew up in a broke town and you don't have air conditioning in your schools, you gotta do heat schedule. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: That would have been probably what, like May and September ish when it was really hot for you guys? Yeah, that
Kelly Manno: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: makes sense. Wow, I never heard of that before. So when you when you got to college,
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: did you start as a sophomore then?
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: And did you live in the dorm?
Kelly Manno: I did I ended up living in the dorm all three years because I loved it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Really? Where did you go?
Kelly Manno: I went to SIU Carbondale. So it that is like the the famous college where John Belushi went that he like he was it John Belushi or Jim Belushi that made Animal House? I should know this.
GenX Adulting Podcast: John Belusion. John, yeah.
Kelly Manno: John Belus okay, so I had it right. like the the the sweatshirt that he wears in Animal House, it just says college across it. He got that at Carbondale. He had it like whenever he went there.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: So I picked my college because that's where Jenny McCarthy went to college. I swear to God. I was like
GenX Adulting Podcast: No way. Is it is it an artist college? Like 'cause there's two actors you just mentioned. Is it
Kelly Manno: I mean, I I studied mass communications there. They had a great radio television program, which is what I was going in. But, you know, they're listing all these things about the college. And then when they're like, well, and Jenny McCarthy is an alumni, I'm like, my God, I'm there. Like, just sign me up.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's good.
Kelly Manno: I loved her. So I I I went to college as a sophomore and I I lived in the dorm all three years because I just could not imagine like having an apartment and like having to like function and pay bills and stuff. Like the dorm was good and there was always a cafeteria and
GenX Adulting Podcast: It worked.
Kelly Manno: My parents were fine with it too. And it was fun because like I could just walk out of my room at any time of day or night and somebody's awake.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's always something going on. So was it a party school? Did you did you do the traditional party at college time?
Kelly Manno: It was a huge party school. I was a little lost when I first got there because I'd had the same friends my whole life. I stayed in the same town my whole life and then I went away. And I I make friends really easily. I tried to join a sorority. That went horribly. I ended up quitting and sending the president like a picture of me wiping my ass with my Delta Zeta certificate because like these girls. I don't know. I was popular in high school, so I just thought that that's what you did. Like you popular
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: girls like went on to do sorties. And I knew like day two that this was not fucking for me. These girls were so fake and so obnoxious. And I remember the moment that I snapped. We were walking across this open field to a party, and there was a girl in my sortie that everybody called Gibler. Because She looked like or acted Kimmy Gibler from Full House. And that was like her nickname. I didn't even know what her real name was. And I was saying something, and I was like, well, Gibler, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, I'm sorry. You're a pledge. You don't call her Gibbler. You call her by her name. And the minute that little bitch, like, I don't deal with authority well. So the minute she was like, I'm sorry, you're you are a peasant. You are a pledge. You don't get to call her by her nickname. I was like, you know what? Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. I quit. And they're like, well, if you quit, you have to have it in writing. And we need to, you know, bubble, but we need your contract back. And so I literally went back and tore it in half and I took a picture, wiping my ass with it. Like literally, then took the film to one hour Walgreens to get the picture back and s turned that all in to the fucking source.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That is amazing. I love that. That is amazing. Okay, so
Kelly Manno: I am a very dramatic person. I'm a very like, I don't do anything on a small scale ever. So I guess go big or go home. So sorry,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Let's say
Kelly Manno: Delta Zeta. I'm sure you're an amazing organization. It just
GenX Adulting Podcast: They're lucky you didn't just kick their ass right there. Right. That would have been your moment. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Thought about it, but I was outnumbered and I was in a field and you kind of learn like some fighting rules growing up. Like you don't want to get in a fight where you can't get to somewhere where you need help, like a business or something if you really need it. So I was yeah. Nope.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right, right. Listen, you did that on behalf of all the girls that were treated like shit by sororities.
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: You look you covered it for everyone because that there's so many sororities that need that moment. So I think that's awesome. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Well, just they made us do this initiation where we all had to wear all white and hold these candles and like walk in this room and say this stuff. And I started laughing because one of the girls was wearing a white bathrobe and they're like, What are you laughing at? I'm like, This is fucking ridiculous. What are we doing in here? It's like a seance. Like, why is she in her bathrobe? Like you had to wear all white, but some girls didn't have all white. So yeah,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right, right.
Kelly Manno: it It and I never even got thank God. I I wouldn't have made it, but the hazing and all that, I never even made it to all that stuff. I I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: was only in it like four days.
GenX Adulting Podcast: So then did you how did you make your create your circle in college? How did you meet your people there?
Kelly Manno: it was I just found a bunch of weirdos, if I'm being honest. I went from being like a really popular kid to just hanging out with the kids on my floor, and they were so awesome and they were so much fun. And my first year there was like fantastic. and I had a great roommate that I still loved, and then my second year there, I got a stupid boyfriend.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: And then, like, I don't know. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: So was it just the two of you? Like did w was it that typical where all your time was spent with him?
Kelly Manno: Yeah, and like I don't know. I was just really impressed by him because he came from a family with money. He was in the aviation program. He was gonna grow up and be like a pilot and all of these things. And when I went to his house, like everything was clean and his parents got along and like I was like, wow, this is like really like normal. But at the same time, I think that they saw me as like God, who did you bring home? Like we, like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: it was always like, okay, you are the sweetest little girl, but we just really hope our son doesn't marry. Like, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: and so he just he was a very boring person, like, as like in a in and of itself. And looking back, like he didn't find the quirky weird things about me charming. It was like everything that I did that was weird annoyed him. And so instead of being like screw you and leaving, I just stuck around and changed like who I was. And my friends were making fun of me. They were calling me khaki spice because I came home from college wearing a pair of khakis. They're like, what are you wearing, Kelly? and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Thank you.
Kelly Manno: he just he wasn't a great person. he that was the biggest heartbreak of my life. Cause like I thought we were gonna get married. We had been together for two years. And I had just graduated and come home. I was like a year ahead of him. And he called me one day and he's like, Yeah, this is not gonna work because God came to me in a vision and told me to break up with you.
GenX Adulting Podcast: my God. my God. Yeah. No,
Kelly Manno: Can you imagine?
GenX Adulting Podcast: no. But the heartbreak for you, that young you, had to have been devastating. Cause you had been working so hard to fit this mold to work with him, to change yourself, as we have all done. We have all done that in relationships. Women have. So then to have him dump that on you and that say God told him. No. No.
Kelly Manno: I still don't like him. I still like because I n I never really got to tell him like, hey Kevin, fuck you. Like I I like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I never got to maybe I'll send him this podcast.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: But like I don't I think forgiveness is so overrated. I think you absolutely don't have to forgive people. Like you can just pretend they're dead. And it's way easier to do. Because he was so mean to me when we broke up. The amount of pain I just remember like. Literally like writhing in pain from the things that came out of his mouth and for the way he treated me in the end. And it's not that I haven't forgiven him because it's like something in my heart. It's it's truly that I never got to get him back. I never got to cuss him out or do something mean to him. It was like we just broke up. I mean, we're still friends on Facebook, but you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well there's there's your opportunity. Is you could friends to this day? On Facebook? Yeah. Okay, well I think that
Kelly Manno: Well on Facebook but I don't fucking like him at all and
GenX Adulting Podcast: But the closure is your success. You know that. Or we make a short. Well, I might make a short. Post it and tag I might make a short and send it to Kelly to send to him.
Kelly Manno: You know what? I almost did a whole post on him because while we were on tour, Edwin McCain came and joined us on stage one day with the Gen X Takeover. And when I was dating that kid in h in college, our song was that Edwin McCain song I'll be. And for
GenX Adulting Podcast: man.
Kelly Manno: years that song was ruined for me. Because when I heard it, it wasn't like, I thought about my ex-boyfriend. I wanted to be with him. It just reminded me of the one person in my life who treated me worse than anybody else. that that just got away with it. And so that song was like ruined for me. And just last year, I was on stage at a sold-out show with Edwin McCain five feet from me singing I'll be on one side. And then I look on the other side and I see my amazing boyfriend who's all star security guard. And it's like that song just took on a whole new meaning and it changed everything. And so I do still like his family, his parents and his sister they've never done anything unkind to me. So I don't a lot of the the a lot of it is that I don't drag him through the mud 'cause it's I don't know. I don't wanna I don't wanna embarrass them. It's not their fault, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right. You know, I think that's amazing though you were able to reclaim that song. Like you had that moment and you were able to reclaim it.
Kelly Manno: It was crazy. And I I wrote this big story about it and I was gonna like publish it as like a a TikTok or something. And I'm like, if I do that, then he's gonna see it. He's gonna reach out to me. Then I have to talk to him. And and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I don't care to do that now, but like I just feel sorry for younger me. I wish I could go back to that that girl 20 years ago. I did steal his dog. I drove up to college and Climbed in his window and stuff. It was my dog. It was just in his name.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: but I'm big on revenge. Like I don't like, I don't, I don't like letting people get away with shitty things. And he is like the one person in my life that I never got to really get back. But you know, I just figure he, you know, Karma's a bigger bitch than I'll ever have to be.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Absolutely. And I think you just kinda nailed it right there. It's more you wanting to honor and stick up for the twenty year old you than anything else. That's more it. Yeah, 'cause you're
Kelly Manno: One hundred percent, one hundred percent. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: fine now. It's just more if you could just go back and like Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Yes. I'm gonna go back and be like, why are you crying over this Bart Simpson forehead having motherfucker? Like emotion protective and flower. Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: But we all we all have though. We all have that guy. We're like, what were we think we're just so fucked up in the head in that moment.
Kelly Manno: He didn't deserve me. I was way too sparkly for him. Like he
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes, yes.
Kelly Manno: didn't appreciate who I was. And he's lucky he had me for two years.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Absolutely, that he had access to you and he tried to shish you and dim your light and all so I mean it was it's all for the best and you know that, but with with
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: but because of where you're coming from, I totally get that. But again, I think the closure and the you know, fuck you is your success. I mean, there's there's no better closure, right?
Kelly Manno: I agree. I would still like to punch him in the face, but I agree.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I love that you love revenge. I love that you don't like the injustice of shitty events because so many people accept it. I love that you don't.
Kelly Manno: no.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's fucking awesome.
Kelly Manno: I'm the meanest person I know. and I'm and I because of where I grew up, where it was like everybody's even, nobody's better than anybody else, I am fearless when it comes to anyone. I don't I don't care who you are. So perfect example. and I'm glad I'm finally telling this story somewhere in a conducive beginning, middle, and end. Cause so many people know this story, but don't know it. Nobody has ever been mean to me and gotten away with it. Ever. I will always get you back. You may not know it, but I did. and one of the people that I got back was Dr. Phil. Because when I was about 20 years old, I was working for a morning radio show here in St. Louis called the Stephen DC Morning Show. And I was the assistant producer of this nationally syndicated radio show because I was a hard-ass worker and I knew my shit and I was good. And we had an event with Dr. Phil. And this was when he was relatively new. He had his own show, but it was he had just come out of Oprah's armpit, you know? And we were putting on this event that our that my radio, my bosses, were hosting. And we get to the event, and Dr. Phil had been an asshole to deal with the whole time. But the day of the sh the show, he was a real asshole. And there was a back and forth about something he wanted the host, Stephen DC, to do that they didn't want to do. And because I was the assistant producer, I had to go back and forth and I had to go to to Dr. Phil and be like, hey, they're not gonna do that. They don't want to. We're gonna do this instead. And Dr. Phil said to me, in a room full of people, in a room full of people, he said, I need to talk to someone more important than you. And I thought, motherfucker, I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: Wow.
Kelly Manno: the producer of this show. Who do you think you're gonna talk to? And I knew in that moment that Dr. Phil would pay for that. And I had no idea how. I I But it's like I just have this list in my head of like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: people I owe shit to. And so it was like a year and a half later, I was like, man, I never got Dr. Phil back. And I saw a commercial for a show. And it was like, are you in a love triangle with a cousin? If so, write the show and tell us about it. And I was like, I'm gonna get on a show. I'm like, there's no way he'll remember me. Like this was so long ago. So whatever they were looking for, I was writing it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: If they're like, you know, do you have a long lost twin? I'm Yep, sure do. And sure enough, one day, ring ring. Hi, this is the producer from Dr. Phil. We want to fly you out to be a guest on the show. And I was like, they're like, and I'm like, and I'm thinking, what story? Like, what? And they're like, you know, you've got a friend that's ruining your engagement, and you're gonna call off your wedding because, you know, your fiance doesn't like it. And I'm like, yeah, that one. Okay. so I called my friend Honky and I was like, hey. Cause he's like me, he's just down for hoad rat shit all the time. I was like, hey, I wrote in a fake story to Dr. Phil, and I need you to come on the show with me and pretend to do all this. And he's like, okay. So 20-year-old Kelly gets flown to LA with honky, and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Amazing. With Monkey.
Kelly Manno: we do the whole show. I sign
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: all of these contracts saying I'm who I say I am, and all of it, like I'm just signing away because Kelly doesn't think about consequences. And I'm on that stage and the lights are like, and like the cameras are like sweeping around on like the boom like thing. And I'm like, shit, I really did this. So I give this huge fake story, right? We fly home, and then the day the show is gonna air, I get on the radio because I'm in morning radio. And I'm like, hey, listeners, now keep in mind, we were we were a national show. So we were in like 17 states. So it wasn't like some little radio show. I got on a big radio show and I said, Hey. Everybody watched Dr. Phil today. Wait until you see. And so it aired. All of our listeners watched it. And then the next day I got on the air and I was like, that dumb ass motherfucker isn't even smart enough to, you know, Google his guests or like figure out who's coming in. Like, and then it was like in the newspaper, it was like student suckers, Dr. Phil, like all of this stuff. And then the next day. I got called down to the front desk at the radio station. They're like, Kelly, you gotta come to the front desk and I'm like, Okay. And I go down there and I was served with papers. It was a lawsuit from Paramount Pictures.
GenX Adulting Podcast: wow. No. no.
Kelly Manno: Because I lied about who I was. And so then I had to go home and tell my parents, like, hey, you know that Dr. Phil thing I did. so I'm being we're being sued, but they ended up having to drop the lawsuit because they could not prove that the radio station put it up to me. So Dr. Phil was trying to sue MS Communications. But when it was broken down to like, no, Dr. Phil, you have to s sue this twenty-year-old white trash girl from Granite City, Illinois. Who has nothing to her name but a broke ass three-door Saturn. Like, so they decided to drop the lawsuit, but I had to go under this contingency that it would never be talked about again, that the show would never air again. But to this day, the promos are on YouTube. If you Google like Kelly
GenX Adulting Podcast: No way.
Kelly Manno: Mano Dr. Phil, you can see my promo. and then the whole show is on a VHS tape in my basement. So that
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, so
Kelly Manno: that is my longest long game revenge. I mean, not my longest, but that was my most proud one. Cause like, how do you get back, Dr. Phil? How do you get back?
GenX Adulting Podcast: that's amazing. That is I
Kelly Manno: And then
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'm in awe of you. That's phenomenal, honestly.
Kelly Manno: And then my another like here's the thing. I'm not a huge fan of like rich white men, right? Like who is? So that always makes it extra fun. And we had a football team here, the St. Louis Rams, and this rich owner guy, Stan Kroenke decided to move our team to LA. And when he did it, he also like said a bunch of trashy shit about St. Louis and all this stuff, and the whole city was mad. And I thought, how can we get him back? And I found out that there's a company. That will send poop in the mail as like a gag gift. It was called ipoopyou.com. And you could pick animal shit to send to somebody and they they seal it in like a little container or whatever. I did a GoFundMe with the people in St. Louis and was able to raise like hundreds of dollars. So I sent 26 pounds of Ram shit to Stan Kroenke's home address, like delivered by FedEx to his home front door. And then I got a call from Stan Kroenke lawyers, but You it turns out it is not illegal to send shit
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: in the mail.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Especially animal shit, I would assume. Yeah, right. Probably my
Kelly Manno: Nope. And it was properly packaged. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: God. Amazing. Amazing.
Kelly Manno: And there's there's one more revenge story that I love to tell on stage, and that is I went to a wedding about 10 years after high school, and I woke up that day and I had the worst strep throat of my life. Went to Walgreens Take Care Clinic and they're like, Yeah, 102 degree fever, my tonsils are swollen, they're full of pus. But this was before COVID, so we all just went everywhere sick, nobody cared. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: I still went I still went to the wedding and I was sitting at the ceremony and I was like, God. I hate that I'm sick on this wedding day. Like this was gonna be a fun day. Like, why do I have to be so sick and have strep throat on this fun day? And then we got to the reception and I saw where I was seated, seated. I saw I saw where I was seated. And at the table next to me was this motherfucker who had it coming from me for about 10 years because he was the biggest bully in our high school. And he wasn't just mean to kids on his level. He was mean to like defenseless kids. And I didn't have the balls to stand up to him when I was in high school, but I did now. And so I was like, thank you, God. This is why I have strep throat. And when he got up from his table to go get his dinner at the wedding, I walked over to his place setting and I picked up his glass of water and I took a big drink out of it. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: then I gargled it and I spit it back in his cup.
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: And then I went and I sat at my table and I watched him drink it with so much joy in my heart. Like I went home and slept like a baby. I don't,
GenX Adulting Podcast: my gosh.
Kelly Manno: it's like God was like, I'm gonna make her a complete psychopath, but he didn't finish it. He like stopped it short to where I can do these really crazy mean things if it's vigilante justice. And that, yeah, revenge, revenge is
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's amazing. Well
Kelly Manno: an issue.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I think your brother's getting you into heaven or getting you out of hell, so you're good. He's got recovery.
Kelly Manno: Well, that and I'm I'm also like a savior to animals. Like I save animals all the time and I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah. There you go, there you go.
Kelly Manno: I have never in my entire life bullied anyone. I've never been the asshole first. I have no problem being social media famous or whatever because everything I am is who I am. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I don't I don't have any secret racist tapes of me. I don't have people
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: that are gonna say I I I bullied them in in grade school.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: Like it didn't happen. I I've always known who I was, and I've always been the same person. I just did a show in my hometown as a benefit. And that's just what I heard over and over again. It was like, Kelly, you've not changed at all. So I can tell stories about me being mean, knowing that every time they deserved it. And,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's almost like a superpower. you're like you called a vigilante justice, but everything you've done, you're almost have done it representing the greater good. Like all the people that that guy bullied, you know, you got back at him for that. So it your intent is is you have to be positive. You have to be a local hero amongst Rams fans. 'Cause that's local.
Kelly Manno: My God, I was in Maxim magazine. I was in Sports Illustrated. Like that
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: story went nationwide. And I'm like.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's amazing. That's amazing. Now, when you were at the radio station at twenty, were you still in college?
Kelly Manno: No, because I'm really I was really young for my age. I was like really smart when I was younger. and so they also pushed the date back. So I graduated wait. Okay, so I turned twenty one my senior year of high school. Or my senior year of college. So I had to have been twenty one when I did the Doctor Phil thing, not twenty.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, so was that your first job out of college? And is
Kelly Manno: Yeah. So morning radio.
GenX Adulting Podcast: is that what you got your degree in?
Kelly Manno: I went to school for like radio television and I always wanted to do morning radio. Like that's where I belong today. This social media thing is just a a hard right term because what happened was radio turned into this big conglomerate business where, you know, one company owns half the stations in St. Louis and one owns the other. Everything is voice tracked now. The same DJ does seven different stations. Radio
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: is not what it was when I was growing up and wanted to be in it. And so you know, I I belong doing morning radio. I just there's the market for it is not what it used to be. Everything is syndicated and I don't ever want to move or leave like St. Louis or the Midwest. So like it would just be too much work to just start on my own. So social media happened and I had a podcast for a long time from like twenty fifteen to like twenty twenty. I had a podcast and then COVID came and you know, my whole life gear changed changed.
GenX Adulting Podcast: When you were talking about that you were producer of the show,
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I was and you're you were twenty one, I was picturing the character Winona played in Reality Bites. That yeah,
Kelly Manno: Yes, yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: when she was when the movie first started and she was in charge, she was like a producer, the one she got fired from.
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: But that's what I was picturing you were doing, is you're like r you're kind of in charge of everything.
Kelly Manno: That's what I do. I've and I've always worked in more male dominated fields. and that's usually kind of like a like a a man's job, or at least it used to always be. so I don't know if Dr. Phil just wasn't used to seeing young kids in that position, but I was a college graduate, you know, and I was damn good at my job. So he just wanted wanted to make me look stupid. Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. How long did you did you do for sure. There's no question about that. How long did you work there?
Kelly Manno: for C B D C I think three or four years, we got fired a lot. because they would say stuff on the air and we would get fired. And so then I started working for other radio stations, just doing on air, you know, talking in between the music. And then I started having babies and I was like, I need a job that pays more than McDonald's because radio doesn't pay shit. That
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: was the other problem, was you can't it's so hard to make a living in radio anymore.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, so you met, I assume, the father of your children. What what when did you meet him?
Kelly Manno: I met so Jimmy was my husband for 20 years and I met him because he was the other producer of Steven DC. I started as an intern and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: then became the assistant producer with him. So we we met in morning radio.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, and how long did you guys date before you got married?
Kelly Manno: I think like two years, two and a half years. I I really wanted kids. So I was like, excuse me, shit or get off the pot. Because I wanna I wanna be a mom. I I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. No that's Well you were seeming pretty young too though. Yeah, you were you in your twelve?
Kelly Manno: was so I was so young, but I didn't think so. Cause my mom had me at 19. Like I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: thought I was gonna marry my college boyfriend and I would have babies at 21, but he left me because God told him to. So so I met.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. So now you're like, okay, let's go, Jimmy. We're not I'm not changing this one.
Kelly Manno: Yeah. So I'm at Yeah. I'm like, hey, what are your thoughts on God and how often does he talk to you? 'Cause
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: this is this is kind of important.
GenX Adulting Podcast: did you have all your kids in your twenties?
Kelly Manno: Yes, I had all my kids in my twenties, so we I had three kids in like five and a half years. That was crazy.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay. Okay. Yeah. So you just you went boom boom boom. What are they like
Kelly Manno: Yeah, I
GenX Adulting Podcast: two years apart?
Kelly Manno: yeah, they're all about two to three years apart. I would have had more, it just wasn't in the cards. so I had lost a couple pregnancies, and then after the third one, I just wasn't
GenX Adulting Podcast: those are in
Kelly Manno: getting pregnant, and I was like, well, I guess I'm just supposed to only have three kids. And I always thought that I would adopt. because I always said that I wanted like 10 kids. I like kids more than adults, like genuinely. It like in my heart of hearts, I would rather hang out with kids all day than adults. So I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: wanted more than three kids, and I always thought. that I would adopt and then I realized that the adoption system's just very difficult to navigate and very expensive. And I haven't completely ruled out fostering. once my kids get a little bit older, I would love to foster teenagers, stuff like that. Kids are awesome.
GenX Adulting Podcast: did it change your life when they handed you your first baby when you became a mother?
Kelly Manno: Well, I I got thrown into motherhood in a very strange way because so I had a very healthy pregnancy with my son. and but then when he was born, he had a very traumatic birth. I won't go into too many details. The ladies will know what I'm talking about when I say I had a fourth degree tear and a psiotomy. It was i it was the hardest birth ever and he ended up He had a stroke when he was three days old. he had a blood clot in his brain. He was having seizures. He went straight to the NICU. so I was 23 years old and a NICU mom, and I had had this completely healthy pregnancy. And now they had my my newborn in a medically induced coma. And they gave him a 50% chance of survival. And when the when shit really went down, I watched them do CPR on him and I just I remember in that moment thinking, like, God, if you get me out of this, I'll never stress about anything again. Like there, there's nothing worse than this. I they just wheeled my son out, who is three days old doing CPR on him. And he was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, was able to come home, attached to a bunch of monitors for a couple of months, and then they finally cleared him of of all health issues around like 18 months old.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: And so it was just this crazy, like unexpected. So I I remember them handing me that baby and just being terrified. Like I remember sitting at home and he was like in the swing and I was on the couch and I'm like, nobody's coming to get him. Like I'm not babysitting. Like nobody's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: coming to get him. And my husband will be like, call me. He's like, How are you doing? I'm like, I'm scared. He's like, of what? I'm like, the baby. I'm like, it's Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That I mean, because that's a normal mother reaction of like shit, I'm the mom. Like I'm the mom.
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'm the adult and I'm the mom. But you had just gone through this traumatic like
Kelly Manno: Aha.
GenX Adulting Podcast: literally the most traumatic experience a
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: woman can go through is is and probably a father too. I'm not not saying guys,
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: is potentially losing your child, right? If not losing your child would
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: be the the next step in that. So from the start, you were traumatized. And then now you you're home with him. So you probably it was twofold. It's like I'm a new mom, but also
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: is he okay? Like there probably took you a while to accept that he's okay, right?
Kelly Manno: I would sit up at night, just stay- I would fall asleep with my hand on his crib like this, just trying to watch him to make sure he was still breathing.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I mean, I was so scared that we were gonna lose him. And yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Do you know why, like what happened there? Like the
Kelly Manno: We do it it's not that interesting of a story, other than I had had a breast reduction when I was 22. And when I had the breast reduction, it was my doctor told me, like when you have babies, you need to start by supplementing with bottles because your milk ducts may not line back up after the surgery. So when I had my baby a year later, I said, Hey, my plastic surgeon said That I should supplement with bottles, but the freaking boob Nazi in the in the in the the baby hospital was like, you are you, there's no reason to give him a bottle, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: and like they, I remember her grabbing my boob and squeezing out milk and going, see, you're fine. Don't give this baby a bottle. And then I also noticed in the hospital where I had had him, I'm like, I said, I haven't changed any diapers. Is he peeing? Because I like his diaper's always clean. And the nurses were like, It's just because they change him for you in the the nursery before they bring him and this and that. So I was asking all the right the right questions. And then the next day they said he's extremely jaundiced. he has to come back tomorrow for a for a blood test. So they let us go home with him for 24 hours and he was miserable. I was trying to feed him over and over and over again. and I thought I was feeding him, but nothing was coming out. And So we had an 8 a.m. blood test the next day. Took him in, they just poked his heel and sent us home. We were walking in the door because cell phones weren't a thing then. Like we were walking in the door and our home phone was already ringing. And it was the pediatrician. And they said, Do you live within 20 minutes of a children's hospital? And I'm like, Well, yeah, why? And they're like, Well, because if if not, we're gonna send an ambulance for you because your son is like brain damage levels of jaundice. So basically he was born and starved for like 48 hours because while the boob Nazi would squeeze my boob and a little bit of milk came out, nothing was being produced. Because once he was in the NICU and they made me go pump, nothing was coming out. It would be like three or four drips and then nothing. And I I tried endlessly and so many doctors and nurses yeah, I looked back again at young Kelly who was like, Hey, why don't I have any wet diapers? Why do like I was
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Right.
Kelly Manno: asking, like, hey, my plastic surgeon told me to supplement with bottles. But then I just let other people tell me what to do and didn't go with my own gut instinct. And that was probably the last time I ever did that. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, and that's how it was back then too. Like they would never walk up and grab a woman's boob now and just squeeze it like that. Like you just can't do that now. The the way we were treated as as mothers
Kelly Manno: it's horrible.
GenX Adulting Podcast: is horrible. And we weren't raised to question doctors, question nurses, or just like to shush and then yeah, yeah, I'm sure that
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Totally changed for you after that. You were like never again. And you're now what about with your daughter? No. The hospital didn't burn down mysteriously or
Kelly Manno: No, but I did try to fight a nurse and I knocked her
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: lunch out of her hand. And whenever we because there were some things that went wrong at the hospital too. So we had to have a a meeting afterwards with all the parties. And they're like, we're gonna ask that that Mrs. Manno does not attend because the nurse is scared of her. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's awesome.
Kelly Manno: this was a nurse that I told her, like, I'm like, I think my my baby's having seizures. And she's like, You're a new mom. You don't know what you're looking at. Babies startle easy. They make weird you know, movements, all this stuff. so I was failed by a lot of people and I just I look back at young Kelly and I'm like, No, t tell them to fuck off and that you know what you're talking about. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: But they were gaslighting you, you know, and we just we didn't know. We weren't empowered. You wouldn't have been empowered. Now, when you had your daughters, was
Kelly Manno: Mm mm. Mm hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it different?
Kelly Manno: Yeah, they were both C sections. So, yeah, they were both born healthy and and no issues at all. And so and Rocky is a healthy pain in the ass today. and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Thank God.
Kelly Manno: he has no he has no repercussions. but yeah, I mean he he went through hell. So we went through hell. Me and his dad went through a lot of hell. That was
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. That's traumatic. Yeah, that's rough. When you had your kids, re did you become a stay at home mom or did you keep working?
Kelly Manno: Well, you know, I always thought I was gonna like just work my whole life. I'm like, I'm gonna be this famous radio host and do all these things. And then when I had Rocky, you know, when they sent him home, he was still on seizure medications and he was still having seizures and stuff. And I thought, I can't put this baby in a daycare. Like I cannot trust somebody else to make sure that they're walk because I was just staring at him twenty-four hours a day, so scared he was gonna have another seizure because he wasn't breathing when he was having his seizures and that's Why they thought he had brain damage and all this other stuff piled on top of it. So I went from wanting to like rule the world to like being an instant stay-at-home mom. And we went from two incomes to one, which was really, really hard to do. So I started doing photography on the side and it like blew up. And I was a really successful wedding photographer for like 13 years, which allowed me to stay home with my kids during the week and then do photo shoots on the weekend. It
GenX Adulting Podcast: Wow.
Kelly Manno: was, it was a great blessing. Like I've I've always figured it out. I don't do corporate jobs. I don't do desk jobs. I've always done something with my own two hands or with my own brain. And so yeah, photography was a great it was a perfect job for me whenever the kids were little.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Was that something you were always interested in or was that a new talent that you discovered?
Kelly Manno: new talent, but I just think I I've always been a very creative person. So it came naturally to me. Like I like it just once I knew the settings, like I I could figure anything out.
GenX Adulting Podcast: So then you said you did that for thirteen years, then what did you do after that?
Kelly Manno: So then I started I started doing my podcast. I did
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay. And that would have been new, right? Like what year was that when you did that?
Kelly Manno: Podcasts there was no video back then for podcasts.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: It was just on Apple iTunes. It's still up, the Kelly Manno show. You go back and listen to it. so it was like twenty sixteen to twenty twenty.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, so yeah, that's you were right there at the beginning of all that. What what
Kelly Manno: yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: motivated you to want to do that?
Kelly Manno: Because I wanted to be in radio and radio did not exist in a way that was fundamentally accessible for me to work in anymore because it didn't pay crap and everything is syndicated from other cities and I wasn't gonna move. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: I'm like, I can do this in my office. So I started a podcast and it was really popular and really fun and then got shut down in 2020. Because if you remember before 2020, there was not zooming. We weren't doing these meet and like all of my all of my guests were in studio. And nobody could leave their house. So I was like, well, I don't have a job anymore. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: So
Kelly Manno: then I was just poor again.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well so so you did that basically until the lockdown? Broke. Broke, yeah. Broke. But up until the lockdown. Okay. Were you still marrying?
Kelly Manno: Yeah, broke. Not poor, broke. And then lockdown happened. And yes, I was still married just until like two years ago. So 2020 was when you know, I always did whatever my kids did. And so like they were on TikTok and that was this new thing to do. And I was like, I want to be on TikTok. That looks like so much fun. Like I would steal my kids' phone and like make TikToks and then One night we sat down and my daughter's like, Here, mom, I'll make you a TikTok. She's like, but don't use your name because we don't want kids at school to know our mom has a TikTok. And I'm like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Why would kids at your school ever see my TikTok? Like, are you stupid? Like, and then 2020 happened and I went from no followers to a million followers in six months on TikTok in twenty twenty.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Insane. Insane. So what was your strategy? Like what was your first video? What what did you start doing on it just as a person?
Kelly Manno: I had no strategy other than the world was really scary because it was 2020 and all the adults were freaking out and everyone on Facebook was fighting all the time. And I only know how to deal with things through humor. So I was making videos like crawling around in the toilet paper aisles of Walmart singing like all by myself. Cause like there's no toilet paper left, right? So the the only way that I knew how to handle such a hard situation was through comedy. And so I was just doing stupid, stupid shit. And it was a lot of it was making fun of COVID and like not knowing how to handle it. And then I would try to share that like on Facebook and it would go over like a lead balloon. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: all all of the good adults were like, This isn't funny. You're the problem. Like, everybody hated me. And I was like, I'm just gonna hang out right here with the kids then.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Not the key table.
Kelly Manno: And I literally spent all I spent all of COVID doing stupid dances with my kids and like making up characters. And I came up with this concept of like a homegirl hotline where like if you need some hood shit handled, you call a home girl and they show up and do it, which is like based on my true life because that's how I lived it. You know, like I I would
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right, right.
Kelly Manno: have called myself and been like, hey, this person did a bad thing. I was just doing dumb shit. And I You know, I certainly wasn't doing Gen X stuff. I mean, Gen X was part of my personality because I am Gen X, but like, you know, that that was not what it revolved around. It was just and still my content today is not all Gen X. It's just everyday bullshit.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, I well I think especially at that time, again, you brought for the those of us that were adults, I well, we weren't even on yet. I think I got on mid COVID, but a lot of adults weren't on there. I was arguing on Facebook. Yeah, you Yeah. I was that
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: guy, yeah. Yeah. But I you brought humor to a situation for others. That's probably what it was, was you were the balance,
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: the balance of the heaviness that was going on in the world.
Kelly Manno: My content, now that I can look back on it, has always been easy to digest. So it doesn't matter what kind of day you're having, you're not gonna come on my page and see me throw you a a right hand turn where suddenly I'm like, let's talk about life and get deep and all of these, let's talk about my trauma. No.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right. Right. Right.
Kelly Manno: Shut the fuck up and do a TikTok
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: dance. Like I'm just it's not that deep. I'm not a very deep person. Like I just and
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're the you you bring that balance though, 'cause that p you need that. It can't all be serious
Kelly Manno: Well,
GenX Adulting Podcast: all the time.
Kelly Manno: no, and what really pissed me off was that the people who were being mean on Facebook, I was not doing anything wrong. I was staying home, I was wearing my mask, I was doing everything the other adults were doing. I just wasn't freaking the fuck out about it. Like because I didn't I don't see how that helps anything. I don't see how that's like conducive to any environment of let's just freak out.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, your your mental health was probably a thousand times better than everyone else that was freaking out over the whole thing. Remember, we're in Florida, so COVID lasts like two months. You know, Yeah, it wasn't
Kelly Manno: Yeah. God. Ours was
GenX Adulting Podcast: a big deal. It was a big deal, but it wasn't, right? Like things were shut down for I think two months and then people started. The issue for us was shortages of toilet paper and napkins.
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: The bullshit you need, right? But our lives the liquor stores were open and then they started delivering, so it was all good. Everyone was an alcoholic. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Having a blast. See, I don't even drink. So I was, I was like, I'm gonna turn my stairs into a slide. And I got a bunch of cardboard and like duct taped it. So me and the kids would just slide down. And like I thrived during COVID because there was no structure and I'm a night owl. And my husband at the time, he would like hear all this ruckus at like one in the morning and he'd get up, he's like, What are you guys doing? And I'm like, whatever the fuck we want. We have nothing to do for the next month. We're we're like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: we're building a cardboard slide. Lee, like, let us live. I thrived during COVID 'cause I got to do anything I wanted all day long and I didn't have to leave the house and deal with adults. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: There's a lot to be said for. There are days where I think, it'd just be nice to have a month of COVID, just to not have to it'd be amazing.
Kelly Manno: we should do a two week COVID break every year between Christmas and New Year's because that's when everyone is sick and everyone is tired. We
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Kelly Manno: need to we need to do a stay home for two weeks every year, Christmas to New Year's.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Like a natural hall. I love that. It's it's announced here first. I love that.
Kelly Manno: Like, pretend it's COVID for the next ten days. Go.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. I th yeah, perfect. Now so you said in six months you hit a million. What was what
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: was that like?
Kelly Manno: It was it was crazy because like my social media had always been popular. Like I knew that I was funny. Everything I did on Facebook always got a ton of comments. And I had been like a mommy blogger for a while. That was even a thing. We're like a blogging about
GenX Adulting Podcast: What?
Kelly Manno: my kids, like potty training and stuff. So I'd always been a good writer. I'd always been creative. I was good on the radio. So transitioning that creativity just to videos was like, okay, well, this is fun. Like I get it, that I'm funny. But like I didn't get the hype. Like I I still don't get my hype. I have the worst imposter syndrome of anybody on the planet. That's why I didn't want to do this podcast today because I'm like, I'm horrible to be interviewed. I over talk, I interrupt, I ramble on. Like I I I don't get it. I've never gotten it. And you know, it was crazy because then you we all started coming out of our houses in like the summer, and all of a sudden everybody knew who I was. Because when I st when we went
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: into hiding, I had no followers and now I had a million. And it was crazy. But it was it was fun and my kids were both horrified and really proud of me. They still carry that type of balance today, but
GenX Adulting Podcast: Did you do anything to mark the occasion that you were?
Kelly Manno: Yes. I went skydiving on TikTok live. So TikTok live was like like a newer thing and like I planned it and I invited other people and I jumped out of an airplane in a cow costume. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: it was in November of 2020 that I went skydiving. I I hit a million in the summer, but we needed time to get it together. And jumping out of that plane that day was like my favorite day on the planet. I would jump out of a plane every single day if I could. It was
GenX Adulting Podcast: Was that your first time skydiving?
Kelly Manno: It was my second time. I'd done it once whenever I was younger, but like I'm an adrenaline junkie and I go back and watch that video and when I'm in my cow costume, like in the airplane, getting ready to jump out of the airplane, like I'm just smiling so big. I was so happy.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's awesome. And that it takes a special person to be down for that stuff. I'm telling you, because that freaks me out. And I think it freaks most people out. And then there's that small percentage of people like you that are like, This is my jam. That gives me anxiety of just thinking about it. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, well, it's really fun to push your body past something that your brain tells you no, because it is not normal to jump out of a door of an airplane. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay.
Kelly Manno: and and when you get up there and when they open that door, you're like, shit, I've never been in an airplane with the door open before, you know,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: and it the wind is like and it's like everything in your brain is like, do not do this. And just to be able to push your body through it and do it anyway is the best feeling in the world.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Did you have a hesitation at all?
Kelly Manno: No, no, not at
GenX Adulting Podcast: What
Kelly Manno: all.
GenX Adulting Podcast: what other have you done any other type of adrenaline?
Kelly Manno: I do all kinds of I mean like now that I'm a mom, I have to like chill out, but like I don't really have any regard for my personal safety or I'm not like I'm not ever scared of getting hurt. I got voted like class daredevil in high school. Even today when we go to shows, I'm like climbing shit. I wanted to jump off the stratosphere in Vegas, like
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: Like, I don't go skydiving every week because I feel like at some point your luck may run out. And I'm like, I am a mom. I need to like not be completely crazy. But I'm just an adrenaline junkie trying to function in a boring world every single day. And it is very hard. It makes my boyfriend insane because he's like very by the book. He's like former law enforcement. He follows rules. He, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, so do you not have anxiety?
Kelly Manno: Yeah, I do, but I have like completely irrational anxiety. I don't have anxiety about real things. I have intrusive thoughts. So I am like with my ADHD, the main culprit of all of that is like intrusive thoughts. So like when I'm at a red light, my brain is like slam on the gas, you know, but like I know not to do that, but my brain still says to do it. And so Yeah, it it's hard. It's very hard to have impulse issues. And so like my anxiety comes from crazy things. Like when I had my breast reduction, I don't like doing things I'm not in control of. So surgery is not real fun for me. And when I was going into my consultation to have my breast reduction, like my back was fracturing, insurance was paying for it. Like it was medically necessary. And I was trying to cancel my appointment. I was at the pre-op thing and I'm bawling. 20 years old, 21, I don't know. And the doctor's like, what are you so scared of? Say it out loud so we can walk through it. Are you scared of the pain? Are you scared of the anesthesia? What are you scared of? And I looked that man straight in the face and I said, I'm scared in the middle of my surgery, there's gonna be an earthquake. And it's gonna the ceiling's gonna cave in and it's gonna kill all of you. And I'm gonna stay alive and then I'm gonna come out of anesthesia and be cut open and I'm gonna die that way. And he's like, have you ever seen a psychiatrist?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Ha ha ha.
Kelly Manno: And I'm like, no. You know, and then, you know, same thing, like, just and and people don't talk about this stuff out loud, which is like why I talk about it. Like, I remember changing my son's diaper one time and I was taking the cap off of the cream and it like bounced and it like hit him on the cheek and like fell down. And I was like, I almost just killed my baby. So then I had this irrational fear that I had to have all diaper cream with attached lids because that almost went in his mouth and he would have choked and died on it. Like just irrational, not normal fears. I'm not scared of anything normal. I'm only scared of weird shit. And so
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's like catastrophe anxiety. It's like it's it's like
Kelly Manno: Yeah, it's things I can't control.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it's the although what's interesting is that you really can't control skydiving, right? Once you jump out, you're not but you still it's enough you feel in control. You must still feel in control when you're drop.
Kelly Manno: I feel like I'm you know, I'm just a resourceful person. I'm like if my parachute doesn't open, I'll figure it out before I hit the ground.
GenX Adulting Podcast: figure it out. Yeah. So it's something that it's it's something that you couldn't figure out. That's what is your fear. Yeah. Right.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, like I'll I'll bet on myself every time to get myself out of a situation, but I can't I can't get myself out of anesthesia if there's an earthquake or you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right, right. So then the imposter syndrome, did that just show up when you became quote unquote famous or did you have that growth?
Kelly Manno: No, it's it's always been there. Like I like even when I was like doing photography and I was like one of the top photographers in St. Louis, I was being hired by like the St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Cardinals and like every shoot I would go on, I'm like, this is the one where they're gonna figure out that I'm actually not good. Like this is the one where they're gonna be like, my God, she's terrible. And and even, you know, once TikTok started or with the stand up I do now, like that impulse in my brain goes, this is this is the one where they're gonna figure out you're not funny. This is it. This is gonna be your last one. They're gonna they're gonna figure out you've been faking it the whole time, you know. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: And s is it at the same intensity that it's always been or has it ever lessened?
Kelly Manno: So I'm medicated now. So I'm way better at telling it to like shut up now. So that's that's where the medication came into play. And I never I didn't ever get on any type of medicine really until I was like in my thirties.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: And it just changed my whole entire life. And I was like, like we sat around at Thanksgiving and we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. And I said Prozac.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Well, does it help with the impulse impulse what's the word? Impulsivity?
Kelly Manno: 100 Yes. And I am I am very lucky that that the first medication we tried worked. There's a lot of people who have to go through several different medications. but the first one worked and that's what I'm still on today. And I don't want to know a life without Prozac. I'm good being on it. Thanks.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, no, that's that's awesome. Go ahead. Does that give you the edge though? It's so it's part of the imposter syndrome, the anxiety. Does that let you prepare more? Or do you still just wing it?
Kelly Manno: No, I do prepare. I do prepare and I do I very much care because I'm a very competitive person and I want to be good. So if I woke up tomorrow and was gonna be a garbage man, I would want to be the best garbage man. I would want the whole town talking about how good of a garbage man I was. So I will always, you know, there's times before the show where, you know, some of us, like, especially Nick is like, I'm not nervous. I'm not never nervous. I'm fine. I just go up there and it's like, no, I want to be good. And I wanna I wanna I wanna do this right and I wanna be funny and I wanna keep pushing myself and I wanna keep writing more and I wanna keep cause it it fuels me. It gives me something to do. I wanna be funnier than the last time I was out here and I always wanna do better. And so yeah, I just keep pushing through it basically.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, so that brings us so to Gen X takeover. So so COVID ends, you continue doing social media, right? And you continue growing on social media as a single act, right? You're you're just you, not just, but
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: you. When did it meld in with Sherri and Nick and Dad Bod? I mean, were you
Kelly Manno: So just a
GenX Adulting Podcast: were you doing social media up until melding with them pretty much?
Kelly Manno: Yeah. And we were all very popular like Gen X content creators on our own.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: And, you know, a lot of people in social media, I don't want to say they take themselves too seriously, but it's like once they become a social media like star, like that's their whole personality. And that's all they do. And every day from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. I'm doing an interview. You guys can't come in. sorry. So a lot
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, you're fine. You're fine.
Kelly Manno: There yeah, I what are you guys why are you dressed like nuns? Come back.
GenX Adulting Podcast: we can't see that.
Kelly Manno: Abby! Come back! That one of these isn't even my kid. Would you guys like to say hi? This is my neighbor Abby. We got blankets. This is my daughter Libby. your trash can. I have kids
GenX Adulting Podcast: I love it. Hi.
Kelly Manno: at my house all the time and like sometimes a kid'll come out of my basement. I'm like, does your mom know you're here? Yeah. you're showing me your blankets. Yeah, I got the unicorn one I was showing you yesterday. You got
GenX Adulting Podcast: Are those tacos or hot dogs? Those are hot dogs, right?
Kelly Manno: a hot dog blanket. I thought you guys were trying to pretend to be nuns. No, no.
GenX Adulting Podcast: What's the other blanket?
Kelly Manno: It's a hot dog and a unicorn blanket. Who's dad? Abby said.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Nice, nice.
Kelly Manno: I'm doing a podcast interview. a podcast? Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Right now.
Kelly Manno: I owed Abby seven brew. So we went to seven brew. you got distracted and went to Circle K, Target, Ross, and Pet Smart. Okay. Did anyone feed the kittens? I could go do it now. Well, just make sure they have water. Okay. Okay. Your blankets are beautiful. Yes, that's yeah. I forgot you're doing this. It's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Very beautiful.
Kelly Manno: my posse. I just literally hang out with kids all the time because I hate grown ups so much.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Listen, having kids hang out at your house is a good sign. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: My house is the kid house. Well, it always, it always has been. because again, I let kids be kids. I let them be weird, I let them shotgun Mountain Dew. I let like they can bounce off the walls, and I don't own anything real nice. So they can they can act crazy here. I I live on an acre. but what I was not prepared for, and and this happened with all three of my kids, is that this was. the really fun house to hang out in because I was always home and I was always down for whatever. If they wanted to go to like the grocery store in funny costumes at midnight, I'm like, let's go. You know, I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: was always the parent that was there. But then we reached a point where the kids started wanting to do things that I wouldn't allow. They wanted to drink. They wanted to have sex with boys. They wanted to vape. They wanted to, and they knew they couldn't do that at my house because I would never allow it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: Because while I might be the cool parent in a sense of like personality-wise, I'm certainly not a cool parent in that sense at all. And so my kids would like lose a lot of friends right around like their sophomore year of high school because they realized, well, Kelly's always home. And Kelly knows what's going on. Kelly's plugged into what what's going on in the kids' lives to where these other parents hibernate in their bedroom
GenX Adulting Podcast: You have to be a parent. Still the right to say a parent. Like even you
Kelly Manno: It is.
GenX Adulting Podcast: know, 'cause our house has been like that too, where you know, we have a snack
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: door and all that, but there is that line where it's a s it's a safety thing too, right?
Kelly Manno: And I just I always wonder like, did their parents not care? Were they like, yeah, well now you're hanging out in this dude's basement and it's fine? Cause it just, you know, I
GenX Adulting Podcast: You you'd be amazed at how many parents are fine. They just don't care. We have a lot.
Kelly Manno: L don't give a shit.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. In our town there's a lot of parents like that. A lot.
Kelly Manno: And it's the parents that act like their shit don't stink on social media. They act like their fucking life is at perfect. They are it they are at at church every Sunday and they've got prestigious jobs in the community and they're buying their kids 12 packs when they're 15 years old. And I'm like, when I realized
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I was the responsible parent, I was like. What?
GenX Adulting Podcast: What happened? Talk about imposter syndrome. Wait a minute. Yes.
Kelly Manno: Anytime I'm the voice of reason, we are fucked. Like what is wrong with you people? So, and and that's why I just live my life. I don't care if people judge me because I know what their kids are doing behind closed doors. They may not. And it's not even that
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right. Right.
Kelly Manno: I wanna know. Like my it's just that like I'm an observant person. And yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well if you're close with your kids, which I I know you are, you know and
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: hear all the shit and it's for good or bad. Like some we're the same, but sometimes you know too much. I don't want to know it all.
Kelly Manno: I have to tell my kids, like, I you don't have to tell me everything, I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right. Yes.
Kelly Manno: don't need to know everything. And I established a rule with myself early on with my kids' friends because they they would come home and be like, so and so is doing this, I'm scared for them, or this or that. And like, my rule was that I never told the parents unless it was something that could change their life. So if I find out that your kid was vaping in the in the bathroom in seventh grade, I'm not running to tell their parents. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: if I find out your kid's doing heroin, I'm I'm gonna tell your parents. You know, if I find out a kid is that's kind of just how I balanced it was like if it was something that could completely change the trajectory of their life, then I would do it. But I mean there are parents who like are recovering alcoholics just buying their kids booze. And I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. And it's crazy because the liability alone, if something happens that they can come and take your house. Yeah. Like it's it you're on the y people get sued for this stuff. So it it is crazy.
Kelly Manno: Right. And my kids, my kids are older now, and I am more relaxed when they get to a point where they're either out of high school or
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: if it's like a special situation, like it's a it's a graduation or something, or whatever. And if they are gonna have like a couple seltzers or something, I own a breathalyzer. So nobody leaves my house without blowing a zero. Yes, it was literally like 40,
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's smart. That is smart.
Kelly Manno: it was 40 bucks on Amazon. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: No way.
Kelly Manno: Yeah. So like people have to know that if their kid comes to my house, they're safe. I'm I am looking out for your kid like they're mine, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Do you take keys, put in like a a jar or something, or set as
Kelly Manno: Yeah, well, I also just park my ass in the kitchen. So they can't physically leave my house without me seeing them. And I'm like, come here, blow.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. I love that. You just motivated me. I'm getting one. That's so smart. Although
Kelly Manno: Yeah. It is so smart. And even my son, my son is twenty one now. Him and his girlfriend went one night for the for their anniversary. Like it's like a painting in wine class or whatever. He
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: took it with him so that after the wine class he could blow in it and make sure that he was under the legal limit. Yeah. I'm telling you, I'm the most I am the most resourceful person on the planet. There's nothing I can't figure out. So Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I love that. my God. That's that's a Christmas gift idea for the kids. That's so smart. You are. I love that I've learned I've learned about that. Okay, so but so you were you're doing social media. and so were you working too, or was social media just became your career?
Kelly Manno: Social media, it was so hit and miss. It was starting to pay me. It was so weird. I'll never forget my first offer was this water bottle company. And they're like, We'll pay you $400 to hold this water bottle in this in your one of your videos. And I'm like, What?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Ha ha.
Kelly Manno: Is this a scam? So, like, I would make money in social media, but then I wouldn't. And it was very much like the wild, wild west. It still is. There's no like we were all figuring out as we went. There were times I got scammed. There were times I made great money from big companies like American Girl Doll or Famous Footwear. And then it was just, it was like a wild, wild roller coaster because it was not steady income. And then you know, social media was really cool. Like TikTok was amazing in 2020, but it very quickly became clicky. And all these people wanted to like hang out with each other, and they were having these online relationships and then these online fights and these online. This online drama with other creators, I'm like, do you people not have any real life fucking friends?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Ha ha ha.
Kelly Manno: Like, I I love talking with y'all on social media, but I don't need any more friends. I'm good. I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: locked and loaded here in my hometown. I don't, I don't need to go to award shows. I don't need to go to get togethers. I don't even want to meet any of you people. Like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: the only thing that I did was I did a video about vanilla ice and he invited me to a concert. So I went and did that. But when When Nick and Sherri saw each other at some award show and they were like, we should all get together and hang out. I was like, that's weird. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: I said, okay, but like I said, number one, I'm not getting on an airplane. And number two, I have to be able to like drive wherever it is. And then I I thought we were going to like rent a house and play board games and have a bonfire and like hang out. Like I'm not interested in going away for a weekend and making content. That's my job. I like I want like I'd I just want to meet you guys and have fun. And then those assholes tricked me. They're like, Hey, this place wants us to do stand up. And I'm like, Well, that's fucking hilarious because none of us do stand up. Like and it like slowly turned into like, okay, we're doing a stand up show in Nashville. Okay, it sold out. So now we're gonna do a second one. And I'm like, you motherfuckers. And then
GenX Adulting Podcast: Had you ever done stand up before or was that your first time on stage?
Kelly Manno: No, I had never done stand up. I I had only been on a plane like four times in my whole adult life until I joined this shit show.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's what I'm gonna ask you. Did you fly to Nashville or did you drive?
Kelly Manno: I drove and to this day I drive everywhere I can. Me and my boyfriend, we will take we I rent RVs like 12 hours, like freaking Griswold or cousin Eddie.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: I hate airplanes. I just recently tried Amtrak for the first time. It wasn't bad, but a crack hood had swole my luggage and so that was an issue. But I just really would like to stay home all the time.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. I'm with you. Yeah, that's that's you We drive. We're we're going to Charleston, West Virginia. We're driving. Yeah, next week. Yeah,
Kelly Manno: Are you?
GenX Adulting Podcast: yeah. We'll drive we like to road trip. I I also like to be able to bring what I want to bring, food, drinks, like my stuff and and I have all my stuff. It's here. Yeah. Yes.
Kelly Manno: I need my stuff. I need my comfort items. And I I hate traveling. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: hate it. I hate it so much.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Even in the R V, you don't like it in the R V?
Kelly Manno: do but I just really I love my house and I love my kids
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: and I love my neighbors and I just love everything I have here and I'm really happy here. And sometimes people and I'm not talking about GenX takeover now, but there's just people out there that I think travel as much as they can because they're not happy at home.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: And it you know and it's like I've never enjoyed traveling. Like I remember taking my kids on one. You I grew up broke, so we never went on vacations. And when my kids were little, I'm like, okay, we're gonna try a vacation. And we went on a vacation to Florida, and I'm like, this is fucking awful. It's just my kids fighting, but they're in front of a palm tree now. And it cost me $3,000. Like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: this is miserable. Everybody's like, we love vacation. Nobody knows where they want to eat, nobody knows where they're going. Everyone's hungry at different times. Everyone wants to do different shit.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay, but so the Gen X takeover has bla like just blossomed and grown and taken off. Where you are this year, I think alone are traveling a significant amount. Could you guys keep adding tour dates? So
Kelly Manno: we're already booked through 2027. This is not slowing down anytime soon. I I
GenX Adulting Podcast: I believe it. No.
Kelly Manno: but I I am doing it with a smile on my face. for
GenX Adulting Podcast: Really?
Kelly Manno: a couple of reasons. Number one, because I have no interest in being like any more famous or making any more money than it takes to just pay my bills. I am thrilled if if long as I have enough money to pay my bills and put a little bit in savings and take my kids to a baseball game or not stress out about groceries, I'm so happy. Like money. is not important to me at all.
GenX Adulting Podcast: How are you coping with the travel? Like that that's your that's your reality now.
Kelly Manno: So I cope with it because I know that I'm not naive enough to think that this doesn't have a shelf life, right? Like the the blue collar comedy tour didn't last 30 years. Like the when something is this hot, it is going to steam steamroll for a couple of years. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: then what's gonna happen is everyone's gonna start ripping it off, which is already happening. And by the time they've figured out the equation, And are even mildly successful at it, we're gonna be done and on to the next thing. Because the Gen X takeover, we're already planning things in the future that are not comedy shows. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: What?
Kelly Manno: so I know that this has a shelf life. I know that it does. And if I don't do it now, I never will. And then number two, I owe a lot to the people who have supported me all of these years. And I think about the person in the audience who has followed me since 2020. Who has a parent dying of a terminal disease, or has a kid being bullied at school, or they just got fired from their job. And it's like we all just need a fucking night to laugh. And if I can provide that, that is where that is what I get back from it. I don't get, I don't get excited about the fame. The big audiences are great. They're they're fun and I feed off of them. But I'm always thinking about the person who just for those couple hours didn't have to think about. all of the other shit going on in their life. So I am honored to do it because of them. But it will not be forever. So like I like this is, you know, I have a I have a a retirement plan.
GenX Adulting Podcast: You know it's finite. And and you're almost viewing it as your serving, right? I mean, you're
Kelly Manno: One hundred percent.
GenX Adulting Podcast: yeah. And I think that intention probably helps significantly with just the mental health of the whole thing because that's a lot of energy to accept from people. And you guys do meet and greet. So it's not just
Kelly Manno: We do.
GenX Adulting Podcast: performing, but then these people are coming at you that it's probably like one of their bucket list things. It's just to meet you and it's it's all positive, but it you still have to.
Kelly Manno: It is.
GenX Adulting Podcast: absorb that energy and that's it could be very exhausting I would imagine.
Kelly Manno: Yes, and the it's a lot of trauma dumping. It's a lot of, you know, I mean, people have looked me and Sherri like s square in the face, this one lady and said, I would have blown my head off if it wasn't for you guys. Like this, you know, and and they're dead serious. And I know what they mean. And I'm not I don't take myself seriously, like, I'm out here saving lives. But it's just that little glimmer of like, okay, maybe life can be normal again one day. Like when my dad was dying of cancer, there was this one radio show that I'd listen to every day. And f like every day I would turn it on, I'm like, okay. Please be funny, please be funny, please be funny. And the show would be hilarious. And I'd be like, okay, for that hour, I didn't have to think about my dad dying. So if they can come to our show for a couple of hours, I can bitch and complain all I want about the plane ride there and the hotels that we stay in and the long car rides. But I, it is absolutely serving my heart 100%. In return, I am making a great income doing it. And You know, everyone is happy. My kids don't like me being gone. I don't like being gone. I'm a single mom. so like I'm the only one out of the four of us who when we when we travel leaves kids at home without a mom. Because even Sherri cheats because she's a lesbian. They have two moms. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: You know, the the dads are dads and they they can do whatever. But and when Sherri goes, she has Christa So I'm the only one who leaves my kids at home by their self every time I travel. And it is very hard. And I know some people might think, but your kids are older now. This is when they need me the most. Are you kidding
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes, yes.
Kelly Manno: me? They're getting their license, they're driving in cars, they're making decisions about about drugs and alcohol and friends and sex and all this is when I need to be here. This isn't when I
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're not wrong.
Kelly Manno: kick back. Are you kidding me? Like so it's it is been very taxing on my family, but the Gen X takeover and especially our tour manager have been really good listening to like my concerns. And there have been times when I've said no to shows because it it didn't fit in my schedule or I knew it was gonna be too much for me. And they're great. And they they've said, Okay, well we'll either do it without you or we'll move the date or you know, it is all a lot of compromise in in that group and it It works because of it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, it's amazing. I'm sure it's a lot everyone has their own boundaries and their own limits. And so it's just those moving pieces and but still figuring it out where you guys can serve your fans and because it isn't just
Kelly Manno: Yeah. Because
GenX Adulting Podcast: people were that have these extreme situations where you are literally changing their lives, but Gen X as a whole, right? Like we went through it and we didn't know
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: we were all going through the same thing. So we all thought we were the only ones. It was a very isolated experience for those of us. And and and trauma's up and down, right? There's people
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: that were their their parents beat the shit out of them.
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: To people p kids who just like had a very extreme latchkey experience and were very lonely. But it so the trauma, whatever you experience, it's on different levels, but We didn't know we were all having our thing, whatever it was. And so then to hit midlife and have social media where we're like, my God, you too, you too, you too. It wasn't just me. It's a shared experience. And then to go to one of your shows and ha and it's just like being seen. Like you feel seen and everyone is like nodding their heads, like, yeah, yes, yes, and feel understood. And for a lot of Gen X, that's the first time in their lives they're feeling that way. And so
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're giving a reprieve to these extreme situations, but also just to regular Gen Xers who are like, my God, there's a space for us that you guys have created, which is so important. But the only way you guys can continue to have the energy to produce that is if there's boundaries within your own personal lives or you're someone's gonna burn out.
Kelly Manno: 100%. And we we talk about that a lot because there's some of us in the group who sorry, my hair's making me crazy. I mean, some of us in in the group would travel as much as possible and do as many shows as possible. And then there's people like me that's like, hey, I'm not leaving my kids more than twice a month. So you got me two times a month, tell me where I'm going. I'll show up and be funny. But I'm not, you know, I'm not
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: interested in. I don't know. I'm just not interested in some of the same. Things that they are in a sense that like a lot of them, they grew up like in normal families. Kinda. Well, they're all more traveled than I am. So they're like, Well, we want to do this gig. it doesn't pay well, but it's a such and such, and that's a legendary building. And and I'm like, I don't give a shit. They're not paying us right. I don't give a sh. But they wanna they want that clout of like, well, we played this or we sold out this or we, you know. So I have to kind of like play along and be like, okay. Like, I don't care, but I'll come, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right. So do you think growing up, the way you did and and qu like you had said, your family was broke and so there wasn't a lot of traveling, is that
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. None.
GenX Adulting Podcast: that is the root cause of probably how why it's uncomfortable for you?
Kelly Manno: One hundred percent. I would do stand-up shows. I would do a hundred stand-up shows in a row if I was at home. But I don't like the traveling and I don't like depending on like the venues and stuff, a lot of times like they'll provide like the hotels and stuff. And so like we stay in a lot of like five star hotels and I'm miserable because the people are so weird. Like the guy at the front desk, like I don't know. Like there's customer service and then there's like psycho-ness of like, Miss Manno if you need anything during your stay, like a unicorn with roller skates, just call me. And you know, I I was in San Antonio recently. There was a fucking Peloton in my hotel room.
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: And I'm like, we rich rich. And then
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: like rich people do weird stuff. Like at
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: five-star hotels, they think it's rude to just hand you the keys across the desk. So they walk around the corner and hand it to you. I thought he wanted a hug because
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: why else would you be walking around the corner like this? And so I'm like, here you go. And then These five star hotels,
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: this is fucking criminal. They don't have vending machines. They do.
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, they don't. They may not have ice machines either, right? You gotta call no. Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: No, that's the only the only fun part about staying in hotel is the fucking snacks in the vending machine. And I get to this hotel and there's no vending machine. I made the mistake of calling the front desk. I'm like, hey, there's no vending machine. Where's the vending machine? And they're like, We don't have a vending machine, but we have a bodega upon your request. And before I could even ask, like, what the fuck is a bodega? It's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: like knock, knock, knock at my door, and it's a guy with like assorted waters, and he's like, Would you like sparkling or still? And I'm like, whatever poor people drink, just fucking like, they're
GenX Adulting Podcast: Ha ha.
Kelly Manno: like, we can get you any snacks you want. Do you want a charticerie board? I'm like, no, I want to stand in front of a fucking vending machine at one in the morning and pick out Doritos without you fucking bothering me. So I've had to like put the kibosh on some of these hotels and shit and be like, stop making me stay in these fucking places where I'm uncomfortable. The
GenX Adulting Podcast: I want a Motel six. Yeah, yeah, or Super Eight or Yeah.
Kelly Manno: You know what? Here's the thing. I like a good holiday in. Like that's a good, like middle of the road. I don't feel weird. I go
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yes, yes, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: to these five star hotels. I'm so out of place. I'm in my Beavis and Butthead pajamas with no bra on. I like I just I don't
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: know how to act around people with money and I never will. So like quit making me hang out with them.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Even though now you're kind of the person with money too. But it's just how's you Yeah.
Kelly Manno: But my life, you know,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I I will say that I'm I'm making more money now than I ever have before. And absolutely nothing in my life has changed. Absolutely nothing. I I swapped out one used car for another used car. That's it. I didn't move houses, I don't own designer purses. This is an expensive sweatshirt, but I got it on Black Friday, like two years ago, and it's really comfortable, and I wear the shit out of it. But like My daughters are not walking around in Lululemon pants with Stanley Cups and like all of this bullshit. Like, I am unimpressed by all brand names. Like I walk in Lululemon and I start to like choke on my own vomit. I'm like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: get me the fuck out of here. So like I like, yeah, I'm making great money, but what I'm really do is making up for all of the years that I was not able to save and not able to, you know, because once I I lived paycheck to paycheck my whole entire life. My whole entire life was like, my God, am I gonna make it to the next paycheck? And for the first time in my whole life, I am at a point where I know I can pay my bills, I know I can put money in savings, and I know I can take my kids out to dinner or go to a baseball game or or something, you know, small. And it is the biggest blessing on the planet. I almost carry guilt with it because I think of all the people that don't have. you know, what I've been given. And sometimes I'm like, where did this even come from? Like I'm just making stupid videos on the internet. Like there's people out there like putting roofs on and digging ditches that deserve this money. Not fucking me. And so I just nothing in my life I could win the lotto tomorrow. And I'm not getting a new house. I'm not I did refinish my basement and I did it in cash. so like I just don't need I don't need material things. I don't need you know what The one time Puff Daddy was right was when he said, More money, more problems. Because
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's true. That's true.
Kelly Manno: now I'm dealing with taxes and shit.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yes. But you know what? You you're you are w you're rich because of what the decisions you're making, because it's
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it's real. It's not funny money, it's not debt. It's what
Kelly Manno: No.
GenX Adulting Podcast: you're doing is real and it's secure and it's and it's also gonna secure your future. And that's truly rich. That's truly 'cause it's
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it's the real deal. And you earn it 'cause that you're you are your it's your talent and you're using it again with good intention. You're you're you're making people happy. You a hundred percent deserve it, you know.
Kelly Manno: I try, I'm I'm just so grateful and I'm so scared of being poor again, like or broke. Like honest to God, like it's my biggest fear and it's my biggest motivation is like, God, what if I have to go back to that? And that's why I will not create any more bills for myself. Because I if this all went away tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to go get a a job as a bus driver in the school district and pay my bills. So I will be in this house and drive used cars and shop for my clothes at Kohl's and Walmart until the day I die because I don't want to make more bills. And then, you know, I don't know. I see a lot of content creators who have success and then it's like, boom, new house, boom, new wardrobe, boom, look at my designer closet, you know. And and it's just I'm so scared of being broke again that I will not let myself really splurge on anything except for like. Dumb shit like a Snoop Dogg hoodie. You know, like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. No, Have you let yourself enjoy where you're at though? Have you kind of taken inventory of like, Man, I'm so I you just said it, you are you feel real blessed, right? But have you kind of or
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. I bought
GenX Adulting Podcast: just sat back and like, Man, this is amazing.
Kelly Manno: I do because number one, when I got, when I swapped out my used cars, the the car that I bought is a pink Barbie Jeep and it's just it's
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: got it's got eyelashes and it's it's the greatest thing ever. and
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's awesome. That's awesome.
Kelly Manno: then it is also like taught me last weekend I took my daughter for her very first orientation for college and we took the Amtrak down there. And I put my luggage in the luggage rack when you get on Amtrak, like you put it on this like luggage cart when you come in. And while we were on the train, there was this lady that was like strung out on drugs, like total crackhead, walking up and down the aisles, bothering passengers. She was like bothering everybody. And it turns out when she got off her stop in Bloomington, she stole my suitcase. Because when I when we
GenX Adulting Podcast: Crazy.
Kelly Manno: got to Chicago and it was time to go to my daughter's orientation, I went to go get my suitcase and it was gone. And I asked the people sitting there. Because there's people right there. I was
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: like, did I said, did anybody move? There was like a bright purple suitcase right here. And the fr the ladies in front were like, my God, yeah, that drugged out lady took it. And I was like, no. I'm like, so she got all my makeup, like all my hair stuff, all of my clothes, my new death row pajamas. Speaking of Snoop Dogg, it
GenX Adulting Podcast: my god.
Kelly Manno: like you know how long it takes a girl to build her makeup?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes.
Kelly Manno: So now I'm this was just last weekend. I'm in Chicago with my daughter. Her college orientation is tomorrow. And her mom is in her pajamas that she wore on the train. And one of the passengers on the train was like, like, why aren't you freaking out? Why aren't you? And I'm like, because this is the first time in my life that I have the money to replace those things. So is it hard? Yeah. Does it suck? they took all my medication. All my medication was gone. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: my goodness.
Kelly Manno: I had a seven-day travel thing. So this lady got, I have Xanax. she got Adderall. Like, she hit the mother load. I'm like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: man.
Kelly Manno: yeah. And so she stole everything from me. And when we got to the hotel, I had to walk to a Target and buy clothes to wear the next day to my daughter's orientation. And like now that I'm home, I'm like, man, this really sucks that the crackhead took my my cause I I didn't even have a suitcase. I had to fly home with my shit in Target bags. Or, you know, but it's
GenX Adulting Podcast: my gosh. my gosh.
Kelly Manno: like. But that is that is how I enjoy where I'm at because the rest of my life, if that would have happened, it would have been catastrophic. And there's not a thing in that bag that I couldn't afford to replace if I wanted to. It's Kohl's, you know, makeup from the grocery store and clothes from Kohl's. It was a really nice fucking suitcase. It was a Samsonite because I I realized when I started traveling and I bought my first suitcase from like Walmart, it fell apart. So I got a really good Samsonite one and it was cute and was purple. And if anybody sees a crackhead in Bloomington, Illinois, with
GenX Adulting Podcast: Ha ha ha.
Kelly Manno: a purple suitcase and death row pajamas, and she's selling Xanax as mine.
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, but you but to your point, I mean that is taking stock, right? You have the security to replace it. You have that security.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, and then yeah, I I took my daughter on a on her senior trip. I took her and four other girls to New York City for their big senior trip. And we were supposed to be there three nights and four days. And I checked the forecast on the very last day we were gonna be there. It forecasted a light wintry mix. But that was the day we were flying out. And I'm like, we're gonna be fine. I get there, day two, New York gets hit with a bomb cyclone. We had nineteen inches of snow outside of our hotel. And me, Midwestern mama, who fucking hates traveling, was stuck in New York City for seven days. I was out of clothes, I was out of medicine, there were no flights anywhere. Like I would take a shower and put on dirty clothes. And I would ask the hotel lady, I'm like, Is there can I is there any laundry service here? And they're like, Well, two blocks that way. I'm like, There's nineteen inches of snow and like Every day I was just laughing so hard at the whole thing. And everybody's like, How are you not freaking out? And I'm like, God has blessed me. Like, I'm not missing a a job that I have to get home to. Like, I can
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes, yeah.
Kelly Manno: make dumbass videos in this hotel. Like, and if I like, I don't know. I just I hate complainers anyway. And it's like, I see people complain about the the dumbest shit. And I'm like. I watched my kid get CPR performed on him. I was broke my whole entire life. I watched my dad die. Like I've been through all these things and we all have. But it's like, are you gonna sit around and cry about it or are you gonna just keep going and moving forward? And that's all I've ever known how to do. So that is how I sit in it and enjoy it, is that just taking away the stress of not worrying about money. And don't get me wrong, I'm not like sliding around on my millions like Scourge McDuck. Okay.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: It's not it's not like that. At all, at
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: all. Tick TikTok it pays like Chuck E. Cheese. It's like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'm here.
Kelly Manno: you got 20 million views. Here's a spider ring. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: so I don't want anyone to think that I'm like, yeah, that we're like rolling in money, but it for for where I grew up and like what I have now, if you would have shown me the house that I live in now, which is the poorest house in the whole subdivision, I would have been like, I am rich. I live in a two-story, what? Like that, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. It's all relative. Well, and speaking of taking stock, have you done a show in your hometown?
Kelly Manno: I did. I did. So we that was our first big sellout crowd was in St. Louis, cause St. Louis is like 20 minutes from my hometown. And you know, we we all did our our hometown shows, but I gotta say that St. Louis was really special. And it was special because so many people showed up for me. And again, I got imposter syndrome. I still have it now. When we booked the St. Louis show, I was like, my God, my friends are not gonna wanna come and do this. Like, this is gonna stress them out. Like I felt bad. asking them to come to my show. But I'm like, please come, please come. Cause if nobody shows up, I'm gonna feel like a big loser. but my community turned out like in forces, like 2,300 people sold out, screaming. And I'm used to doing shows because we started this on the road. I don't know anybody anywhere. Like when we travel, they know please people everywhere. I don't know anybody but people who live here. I'm used to doing shows where I don't know a single person in the audience. And suddenly I'm on stage and there's my high school teacher. And, you know, like there's my neighbor and there's there's my my my kid's best friend's mom. And it was just a trip and like they yelled so loud for me. It was like deafening. and it yeah, and and I'm we're coming back in November. So we're coming back to St. Louis and then then we probably won't do St. Louis again because we have to get to other cities. We're not a normal tour, like we don't. You know, like the big comedians, they'll go on one big three month tour and they're gone for like three months. But between the four of us, we have 14 kids. And none of us want that schedule. None of us do. And so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: what we do is we just do a couple shows here, a couple of shows there. You know, it's it's not conventional, but nothing we've done is conventional. So I'm fine with that.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, no, and it sounds like it again, it works for you guys as well. Plus you have a crew and you you know, you have
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: other people too. But I think that's so cool. Have your kids seen your show?
Kelly Manno: So they, my son Rocky, hang on. I'm a lip gloss junkie. So my son Rocky came to my first show in Nashville. He drove down there with his girlfriend and he watched me. but then I'd been on this big tour and like my kids had never seen me do stand-up until they saw me in a theater with 2,300 people. Like, and my mom and like my brother and my aunts, and you know, I come out and the crowd is just going crazy. And like I went backstage after the show, and my son, who's 21, is like Balling. He's like, I am so proud of you. And like my girls are just like beaming, and it's really special. They also got to see me perform on our cruise. So they've seen me twice now. and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Awesome.
Kelly Manno: they're really, really proud of me. And it like, and it like I I need their permission to do this. Like, like they like they don't have to share me with the world. They could be horrible kids. And like be doing terrible things at home that force me to stay home and and watch everything that they do. But it's like, you know, I always tell people, like, if you see my kids, just tell them thank you. Thank you for sharing your mom with us. Because if my kids say don't go, I wouldn't go. I'd stay home. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: they they're the ones that encourage me to like go do it and push my dreams and like, you know, I won't miss any of their big things. If there's homecoming, prom graduation, shows come second. But sometimes there'll be like a show on something small, like, you've got a big hockey tournament this weekend and you know, I'm like, seriously, tell me, do you want me to come to this? I'm like, Don't tell me, no, mom, it's fine, and then sit in therapy in twenty years and throw my ass under the bus 'cause I asked you.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah. But you know you're but you're you're giving your kids such a great example, right? If you think about the examples we had, we didn't really grow up thinking, when I turned forty five, fifty, fifty-five, sixty, I can completely reinvent myself. I can actually go for
Kelly Manno: Right.
GenX Adulting Podcast: we didn't grow up thinking that you're giving that example to your kids. You're showing them it's not finite. Like you can do this for a while, but look at you can totally switch it up and The mom did you know
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: like mom did and look what happened. Like I went for it. So what a gift to give your children too.
Kelly Manno: Have career ADD. Like every couple of years, I'll pivot and do something else. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, it's
Kelly Manno: you know, because I just get bored, I have to be challenged in whatever I'm doing for a living. So, you know, five years from now, if this doesn't challenge me anymore, I'll I'll probably move on to something else. Or, you know, like we're seeing, like everyone and their brother's gonna start like a social media, like comedy tour, you know. So they can they can have it. Like we'll we'll be done
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. You know what though?
Kelly Manno: and moved on.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I think also it goes to why one of the reasons you guys are so successful too with our generation is you're mo you are a great example for us too, for all of us. You're saying, look, look what we did. Like you guys, whatever you're thinking you want to do, do it. And so just to have cause we grew up like being told don't be too big for your britches, you know, da da da.
Kelly Manno: Mm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: And so to see our peers being too big for their britches and going for and being successful. It's like, okay, we could do something different. We could go for it. So I think that also
Kelly Manno: End.
GenX Adulting Podcast: is part of why you guys are resonating.
Kelly Manno: And I love when my audience is like ultra proud of me because they followed me first. Like they feel like they saw a band before it was cool. They're like, I you know, and they're like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I knew she was funny before everybody did. And I'm like, Yes, like you're my people. Thank you.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Now you said you were a single mom. when did did you go through the divorce while the gen X takeover was growing?
Kelly Manno: No, it was before. So my husband and I split in twenty twenty, I'm getting it all confused. No, twenty twenty-three. We had been married for twenty years and we were coming up on our twenty year anniversary. And we're like, hey, how about for our twenty year anniversary we get divorced instead?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Was it was it mutual like that?
Kelly Manno: it really was. I make a I make a joke on stage. I'm like, look, we would have in in in full disclosure, in case anybody really wants to like call me out of my shit. We are still legally married for medical reasons because he doesn't want to deal with me unmedicated. and the the the
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: health insurance the health insurance like like world is so fucked up in the United States that,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: you know, he and I have both moved on. We haven't lived together in years. We both have other significant others, and we both 100% plan to file and get this divorce done when in about a year and a half, because our youngest We needed to stay together until our youngest got to like her senior year of high school. So they didn't make her switch high schools or you know, because
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: I I'm I'm probably gonna have to sell this house and all this stuff. And when we split, so we're still legally married. but it's literally just for insurance and just for our kids. Like our life insurance are still in each other's name. Because like I say that I'm a single mom because I take care of everything in this house by myself every day. but their dad lives five minutes away and they see him all the time. So He is still in you know, involved in their lives heavily. So I don't I don't say single mom to make people feel sorry for me. I say single mom and like I'm the only one who takes out the trash, does the dishes, makes their dentist appointments, all this other shit, but they've got a great dad. So mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, that's that's awesome that you guys were able to have such a great co parenting relationship for and for your kids too and and work that
Kelly Manno: We could
GenX Adulting Podcast: out.
Kelly Manno: we could probably write a book on it, like if I'm being honest, because it was, you know, without going too much into like my husband or I's personal upbringing, we both have experience with living in houses with adults who hate each other. I'll just say that. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: if you've ever grown up in a home with parents who dislike each other, it it's like living in a war zone. And it's it's horrible. And We had gotten to a point in our marriage where we had fallen out of love. We had tried therapy like years before. and it was reaching the point where we were just so sick of each other. And we weren't even fighting anymore. Like that's how kind of out of love we were. Is that there wasn't even any fighting anymore? It was just general, just bickering and just like. I would hate when he came home from work because like, like now he's here. I gotta listen to him breathe in and out and in and out. You know, it and it it went both ways. He felt the same about me. I was like the crazy bitch that he was stuck with and all of this shit. And you know, we knew things were pretty rough for for a couple of years there, but we did what a lot of people did was you just stay together for the kids because you think it's gonna ruin them. Like it's gonna like ruin their life. And then he was taking He gets a so my ex-husband is like white collar, not white trash. Like he's like really successful, right? He's really good at his job and he's good at everything he does. And his work sends him on trips every year. And there was a trip coming up to Mexico, and I was supposed to go with him because it's a trip for for two people. And everyone in his company was bringing a spouse. And there were two things at play. Number one, I didn't want our kids at home with both parents in another country. And number
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: two, I didn't want to spend seven days with him. And he probably didn't want to spend seven days with me. Like, you know, and so it was just decided like, I'm gonna stay home with the kids. You go to Mexico. He took his friend, Brad, like it was hilarious. He was the only one without a wife or whatever. and that that was the that was when I knew I wanted a divorce. Most people know they want a divorce. When they have a big fight or they have a big blow up or something else. But I remember Jimmy being in Mexico and opening my phone on Facebook and seeing a picture of him. And he's standing on the beach and he was smiling so big. And he was holding like a coconut, like with a straw in it. And he looked so happy. And I just like thought in that exact moment, I'm like, he deserves such a better wife than me, than me. And it and it wasn't even like a self-deprecating thing. It was like, it reminded me of who he was before we were miserable. And I thought about his mom, who has since passed. And I thought about my son growing up. And I thought about like he was a really big mama's boy, right? He was the youngest of nine, like an Italian family. And I I remember thinking like his mom would be so upset if she knew how unhappy he was. And I just looked at this picture of him and he looked really handsome and he looked really happy and he's on this like successful business trip and he's doing all of these great things and we just didn't fit in each other's lives anymore. And I'm like, I'm holding him back from so much happiness. And that was when I knew like I wanted him to get back. I didn't want him to just be smiling when he was away from me, like in Mexico.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: I thought, God, I want that for him again. And then neither one of us are are okay. I am a vindictive person, like in a revenge sense, but but but I'm not a vindictive person. Like j you know, nobody cheated. There was no big fight. There was no nothing like that. He had not done anything wrong. We had we had equally, you know, I would say if anything, he threw himself into work too much, I threw myself into the kids too much. Very standard raising teenagers were stressed. And I just thought,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: what if? We could split up, but stay friends. Like, what would that look like? And I pitched it to him one night. And it was the hardest conversation I ever had because we were kind of raised of like, you stay married no matter what, stay married no matter what. And we weren't even sleeping in the same bedroom anymore or anything. And I said, We can't keep doing this. And he's like, I know. And I said, What if we just say we're separated for the next six months and see how it feels? And and if it feels right, then we'll move forward and we'll tell the kids, we'll do this and we'll do that. and we even like came up with rules. Like, do you remember when George Bush, like whenever they weren't letting gay people in the military that they came up with that like don't ask, don't tell thing or whatever?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes, yes, yes.
Kelly Manno: I was like, okay, I said, I have an idea. I said, How about if either one of us are dating someone, we don't ask, don't tell? I said, because I don't I don't think I'm gonna be jealous of you dating anyone else, but I also don't I don't want to know about anyone if you're not serious about them. Like, don't waste my time. Like, don't try to make me jealous. Don't try to make me know that you're out late one night. Ooh, what is he? Like, and
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: when he started dating first, and I was fine. Like, I kind of was testing the waters. Like, am I gonna be okay with this? I was fine. He started dating immediately. I lived in this bedroom and made Taylor Swift bracelets and ate cookie dough in bed and hung out with my kids and I've never been happier. I didn't want anything to do with another fucking man again. Because because I honest to God, Jimmy works so much because he's like a workaholic that when he moved out, the only thing that changed was I have to take out the trash. Like so like it wasn't like this like I was like, this is fun. There's no boys here. Like and you know and I I secretly don't like no no offense to you, Brian, just your muffs, but like I don't I'm not a huge fan of men in general. So yeah, to get so the first thing I did was I I turned my bedroom into like a turquoise in a hot pink paradise. And, you
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: know, and it it it took a lot of maturity where we didn't talk about we both just functioned as co-parents. We did not talk about who we were dating or what we were doing. We didn't try to make each other jealous. every year on Christmas, including this last Christmas. He spends the night at the house and sleeps on the couch. Our kids are teenagers, but they wake up every Christmas morning to vote their parents. And as long as they live in this house together, that's what's gonna happen. And whenever we just took my daughter to college to visit that thing, me and my ex-husband and her, all three of us went together. You know, like
GenX Adulting Podcast: To make
Kelly Manno: it and so I will say this: that it the it really worked because we both wanted the same thing. If one person wants to make it work and one person wants to leave, then there's gonna be jealousy. Then there's gonna be a conflict. And I'm not saying it was all smooth sailing. It was, it was rough at first, but we navigated it privately and together. And even when we told the kids that we were like separating, we're like, hey, dad's not moving out for a couple of months because we're not in a hurry. Like, neither one of us, like he was dating girls, but like very sporadically and nothing serious. And I was nowhere near being ready to be near another stinky boy. So We were like, as long as dad and I are not in relationships and we can sleep in separate rooms, like we got along better than ever. He came home, he came home from work one day and I had gone to the grocery store and I saw those gross ass circus peanuts and I was like, he likes those. I'll grab them for him. And I came, he came home and they were on the table. He's like, my god, being divorced is awesome. Like I like I liked him again. Like I was nice to him again. Like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: because we didn't have to pretend. That we are still like in love and sexually attracted to each other. And could just be and and even now, I like I love him as a person. I think of him as like a family member, like a cousin that I've known my whole life, or something like that. Like if anyone hurts him, I will kill them. Like I will defend him to the death. But we just weren't, it wasn't a good marriage. And to people out there who are in a marriage like that and they just think like, my God, there's no way out, like there is. There really isn't. And what I'll say is this. Is that kids would rather like be from a broken home than live in one. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm.
Kelly Manno: my kids are so much healthier today because you know parents always say we just want our kids to be happy. Our kids are the same way. They just want their parents to be happy. And while yeah, this was really hard on my kids the first couple of months, and I don't think they really bought what we were saying when we're like, look, not a lot is gonna change. Like on Thanksgiving, I still go to his family's Thanksgiving. Like
GenX Adulting Podcast: Wow.
Kelly Manno: He comes to mind. My boyfriend comes and he we just met. He he has settled down with a really, really sweet girl that we we recently met and we all really, really like. And funny enough, the the the guy that I've been dating for two years, they went to high school together. Like they were just acquaintances, they weren't like good friends.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, you know.
Kelly Manno: But when you both want the same things, it can work. But you have to be mature. If you are in the back of your mind going, I'm gonna make him so jealous and wait till he sees how hot I look and wait till he sees how much money I make, then it's not gonna work. But if you're like, hey, can we go back to just being like best friends again? You know, because even now he knows me better than anyone else probably on the planet besides maybe my mom.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: and so to people out there, it's it's a hard discussion to have, but God, we're both so much happier.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's such it's
Kelly Manno: So much heavier.
GenX Adulting Podcast: such a beautiful everything you just said is such a beautiful thing. It really is because you guys did elevate to the love you feel for each other and wanted each
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: other your each other's happiness was more important than anything. Like it it really isn't unconditional love. It's what it is. Yeah. And i it it's
Kelly Manno: You're right, because that
GenX Adulting Podcast: amazing.
Kelly Manno: yeah, like you know, he just I could not fulfill the things that he wanted. He wanted like a very lovey, dovey, affectionate, like all these things that that I didn't feel anymore. And and then he began to feel the same way. And again, most people say, I knew I wanted to be divorced when that motherfucker came home drunk for the tenth time. But for me, it was like seeing him again through his mother's eyes of like, if this were my son, I would want him to be happy like this all the time. And I'm holding him back. And in in return, he was also holding me back. We were it one hundred percent equal. Fifty fifty, we're both at fault.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: I was just the one who had the balls to say it. So and say, Hey, this is, you know, not working and I didn't date for a long time. I didn't date for almost a year.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It sounds like you guys both broke a cycle, but you also brought a tremendous amount of maturity to the
Kelly Manno: We absolutely I never even thought of it like that.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, you broke a cycle based on what you were saying. You broke a generational cycle. Yeah. What a gift
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: to your kids. Which which takes and yourself. Yeah, and really. Yeah. Be again, another great example for your kids, you broke a generational cycle, which takes a a significant amount of maturity and effort and courage and courage.
Kelly Manno: A lot of effort. And a lot of for a lot of forgiveness. Like we both messed up. Like I don't know. We just we both wanted the best for each other and we neither one of us wanted to be out of each other's lives. We just didn't want to be married anymore, you know,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: and and I know so many people who are in these marriages and they're miserable and they fight all the time. And all your kids want is like I remember like praying my parents would get a divorce, like whenever I was little, so I didn't have to deal with this anymore. And parents who fight in front of their kids. They don't understand how hard that is on your kids. Because imagine watching people you love more than anything in the world say the most hateful things in the world to each other. It it is heartbreaking. And if you're doing that, you may not intentionally do it, but it is child abuse. Like it's one thing to bicker in front of your kids. Someone left socks out, someone didn't do the dishes. So like that's all fine and dandy.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: But if you're having blowout knockdown drag outs in front of your kids, they may not act like it's bothering them. They are in their beds crying at night. They are cowering in their closets and they are, you're terrifying. Anytime a kid is watching parents be out of control, it's absolutely terrifying. And to this day, I have a no yelling house. Like I I've never had to scream at my kids. Never. It's just it doesn't happen. And and, you know, just Yeah, I never thought about it as breaking a cycle, so that that's kinda cool. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Well, and I think you're right, you're dead on in that it is it is emotional mental abuse to argue to that degree and to terrify your children. And
Kelly Manno: It's hell.
GenX Adulting Podcast: yeah, and so but so many of us grew up that way. And it's almost I think there's a group of us that broke the cycle and there's
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: a group that are continuing. And but I think the difference here is we're all a lot of us are talking about it. You know, where it's never really
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: been discussed before. So I think the more we talk about these things, that's also part of breaking the cycle. Because if one person hears it, then they may break the cycle where they wouldn't have before, knowing you're not alone. Like you you
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: can do this, you know, where I don't think it's ever I mean, we didn't have social media, right? No one no generation has
Kelly Manno: Mm mm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: social media. So for us Nobody talks about shit like this. And nobody talks about it either. But I think
Kelly Manno: Mm-mm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I think Gen X though, we're the first ones that are talking about menopause, perimenopause. You know, breaking generational cycles, what happened to some of us? our
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: our healing journeys. There's and then sometimes we'll get like boomers on saying, like, we went through it, and it's like, that's fine. you you went through it, but we're choosing to talk about it so the generations coming after us don't have to or come into it not ignorant, because we went into things blind. So at least we're gonna be
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: a resource for the younger generations. So by sharing our stories. It's going to help others, you know. So you
Kelly Manno: And I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: know.
Kelly Manno: I'm convinced that boomers just want to be miserable. Because like you can
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well
Kelly Manno: you can tell a boomer like here's what you can do to fix your problems, but then they wouldn't have anything to complain about. So they're like, you
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. It's true. Yeah, it's dead on.
Kelly Manno: know, any anyone who's like, well, I stayed married because I took a vow that said that I would love them till death and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Fuck off. I don't, I don't care. I don't care what you did or what you said, or just
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: because you had it hard and because you were miserable your whole life doesn't mean I have to be.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Absolutely. And it doesn't negate your our own experiences. one one thing I
Kelly Manno: Mm-mm. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: go ahead, I'm sorry.
Kelly Manno: no, I was just gonna say, like, like I d it does feel cool that that because I'm in social media and because so many people knew Jimmy and I as a married couple, like people have a prototype now where they're like, okay, it can be done. Look, they did it. Look, they did it. They're they're they're separated, they're they're split up, but they're still friends. So I'm not saying it'll work for everyone, but but if anything we're showing people that can be done.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Has that been part of your content at all? Like
Kelly Manno: yeah. so we made yeah, well, it's not so much a part of my content because content opens it up to millions, right? And I don't need millions of people's opinion on
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Jimmy or my boyfriend or my personal life, but it's definitely made its way into the stage show because I joke about it all the time. I'm like, we would have gotten divorced a lot earlier, but neither one of us would have custody of the kids. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: we had, you know, and like there's plenty of jokes to be made and We have great friends who supported us. Like when we told them, like, hey, you don't have to pick sides. You can still just come to our Fourth of July party. Like we don't, we're gonna, we're still gonna have it together, even though he doesn't live here. So it's not conventional,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Amazing. I love it.
Kelly Manno: but it it it works. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: You rewrote the Yeah, y you guys did it. I mean kudos to both of you. You really
Kelly Manno: We could write a book and be like famous or something.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I think I think that might be on the future for you. Like put that in your back pocket. It's is maybe the next thing when you get bored. What I was
Kelly Manno: Right. 'Cause there were things we navigated like, don't ask, don't tell. Like we we made up the rules as we went, 'cause we're like, I don't know anyone who's done this before, you know. Yeah. Uh-huh.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That could be a chapter. Don't ask, don't tell. That could be a chapter. But doing through the social media, you obviously have influence, right? and that's a heavy responsibility. Has that ever backfired on you? Or have you ended up in situations where you're like, Okay, that that's not good influence, or this I wish this hadn't happened this way. But you're you where you realize, wow, my reach is far. I need to be careful here.
Kelly Manno: Yes. And this story is going to disappoint a lot of people because they're not I I'm not as tough as I pretend to be. I actually do have a soul and like and like a conscience. And several years ago, back in like 2022, 2023, I started making a lot of reaction videos. Like everyone does them now. That's like all people do. but when I would see something online, I would react to it. and it happened to be a couple Gen X things and one of my most famous videos. was a video that I did with a guy who is now only known as Beanie Boy. And you'll have to pull up the clip and like play it in your show because everybody will recognize it right away. And it's this guy named Andrew in New York. And he happens to be a very good looking millennial and he's like shirtless in a beanie. He's like already dressed like a douchebag, right? And he's like, I have a question for Gen X. He's like, when y'all say you Drink out of the hose? Was the sink not an option? Like he was being snarky and funny.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, I know who you're talking about. Yes. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: So I was the first person that ever replied to him and was like, no, motherfucker, we weren't allowed in the house. Like, did that not cross your mind? Well, that particular video exploded into its own galaxy on Instagram alone by itself. On just Instagram, I got 42 million views. And when you combine it with all of the other platforms, we are talking at over a hundred million views. All right. And this guy. Was very recognizable. He's got a really sharp jawline. He's got long hair. He's really, really tall. and people started number one, recognizing him in New York. And number two, my commenters were fucking brutal. And I mean, like going after the jugular. And then everybody was reposting it. And it started to spin out of control, where it was like, Everyone was talking about my smack down on Beanie Boy or or whatever his name was. And I started thinking like this isn't really funny anymore. Like the like it and he said something stupid. He made a snarky dumb video. So did he deserve for me to like clap back at him and put him in his place? Yes. But did he deserve the entire internet to hate him? Probably not. And I I reached out to him and I was like, hey, I'm Kelly. I'm on the other end of that video. And I said, I just wanted to check on you and make sure you're okay. Because I made that just being funny. I didn't know what would happen. And like he was honest. He's like, I was not prepared for that. He said, one day I was just a normal guy on the internet. The next day, Everybody hated me. He's like, and I can't get away from it. He's like, my friends tag me in it 500 times a day. I go in the grocery store and people are like, he's like, I don't even wear the beanie anymore or threw it away. and I started getting to know him a little bit more. And I I was explaining to him, I'm like, I can't put this genie back in the bottle. Like I can't, I can't undo what I did. And I I only did what he did, which was just make a funny video. I just I didn't realize the weight. Of what I was doing. And in my defense, I had no idea that it was gonna take off that big. And I started learning about him. And his name is Andrew, and he's really smart, and he's a writer, and he lives in New York. And then I found out his mom died when he was younger, and I was like, send me to the electric chair. Just send me now. I'm going straight to hell. I was like, because I am like being a mom is the most important thing in the world to me. And when I found out that he had lost his mom to cancer, and I was like, and then I put him through this, like I hate myself. Like I was so upset. And like, and and then he was the one comforting me. He's like, I'm okay. And I ended up interviewing him on my YouTube channel on my podcast a couple years ago. And we we told the whole story and we told everything about what happened. And with great like influence does come responsibility. I know people want to think that it doesn't, but you know, it's really unfair that you. Take a person's video and you clip a little chunk out of it and then you react to it. You have to at least stop and think for one second, what is that person going through in their life right now? Like, what are they in a good mental place to handle this? Are they, you know, like there was a girl that I I did a a little stitch duet with where she's like, Gen X, are you okay? And I was like, No, we're not okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the people in the comments, because it was a girl, were just brutal on her looks. They were picking apart her nose, her eyes, her hair, her forehead, calling her ugly. And I am deleting the comments as fast as I can and they're just popping up, popping up, popping up, popping up. And, you know, there's some people on the internet that definitely deserve it because they get on there and they're they're just douchebags. But there's also people who just made a dumb video one time and now everybody wants to use that content as their own.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: And it's like, write your own shit. Like come up with something. Like that, like that's the easy way to do it. Like I've probably done reaction videos, maybe five in my whole career, and they're gigantic. They go over huge. But I'm not laying my my head on my pillow at night, knowing that somebody's already on the verge of like losing their damn mind. And I'm the one who pushed them over it. And so as tough as I seem online, and I do still make, you know, some reaction videos once in a while, and I'm funny about it, you know. I will reach out, even the dancing videos, because I do a lot of videos about kids these days make like these new, like weird dances to like our old songs. And I'm like, you're not doing it right. And then I show them how to do the video. I reach out to those kids. Like I'll post it first and I'll be like, Hey, my name is Kelly. I just posted this video of you guys. I'm like, just so you know, it's all in fun. And if you can't handle it, let me know. Because if that were my kid and And and they just made a dancing video online and somebody with five million followers
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: shoved them into the spotlight for people to make fun of them?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: Like, d have a heart. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, peep people
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, yeah.
Kelly Manno: just get caught up in well, if they put it out on the internet, it's their fault. Well, have you ever done anything stupid that you regret? Have you ever done anything you wish you couldn't do? Cause we grew up in a time where we could do and say dumb shit and nobody held us accountable for it. And now we're all being a bunch of fucking bullies. just making
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: fun of everybody. And it's not always their fault. They're the ones who have to live their whole life online. And so, Beanie Boy, Andrew, I I mean we follow each other, we comment on each other's stuff all the time. It ended up being a great relationship, but it was it was just a learning lesson of you just have to remember that, yeah, people act stupid and they deserve to be like clapped back at, but there's still a person on the other end of that video. And maybe their mom died. Maybe they're going to a divorce. Maybe they found out a week ago that they have terminal cancer. Like, that doesn't have to be the forefront of your mind, but it should be back there somewhere of like, I'm just gonna check this person's page. I'm gonna check if they seem to be a stable person. Do they have a support system? Do they have family in their pictures? You know, like things like that. I just
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: I I think it's the mom in me. Like when I found out he
GenX Adulting Podcast: I think that's I I find that so remarkable that you do that. I really do. It's super impressive because and I think that's the comedic. as you get in if you look I I'm a big fan of com comedic comedians and they all have so much depth. You can't do comedian comedy without depth and you're you're really you've got that. I mean, kudos to you for checking in on people and and and following up to make sure you didn't just completely fuck their life up.
Kelly Manno: Thanks, because I feel like a giant pussy. I feel like like I'm a fraud. Like, like, I talk so tough, but then I'm like, hey, just like
GenX Adulting Podcast: it's so great.
Kelly Manno: I I just did a really funny video of a guy who had lost a bunch of weight and he was doing push-ups and his belly skin hanging down looked like a saggy vagina. And the and then I was like, I have to make a a a video about this, being like, Are you making fun of old lady vaginas? Because I talk about having an old vagina all the time on stage. But before I did that, I went to his page and I looked at everything and I saw that he makes fun of his belly. He's saving up for skin surgery. He calls it his like bellosi or something. Like he knows what it looks like and he thinks it's funny. So therefore, I was very comfortable making that video and going forward. And I did reach out to him and I was like, I made this video. I'm like, it looked like you make fun of this. That's why I made fun of it. But if if it's if it's hurtful on a deep like I'm not worried about hurting people's feelings, but I am worried about hurting people's heart, like deeply.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: and he was like, No, I thought it was hilarious. And so then I went on, I'm like, Hey, this is his this is his handle. Everybody go follow him. He's lost a shit ton of weight, you know. it's not
GenX Adulting Podcast: And that's what's great is that you expose like if they're okay with it,
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: you're you're sending people their way. It helps them. You know.
Kelly Manno: Always.
GenX Adulting Podcast: And so that that's where the next step in not just being responsible and making sure, you know, you're not destroying someone's
Kelly Manno: Like and
GenX Adulting Podcast: life, but you're also helping them by sending views their way.
Kelly Manno: In some of these videos, it's like other people's stupidity or poverty based on where they were grown up is not our entertainment always. Because
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: as somebody who grew up, Less fortunate than others. There are lots of things in life that I didn't know or didn't know was normal. And luckily I have the confidence to not give a fuck if somebody makes fun of me because I hugged the hotel worker at the five-star. You know, like I I have a lot of confidence in myself and it doesn't bother me. But not everyone is built that way. So if somebody else on the internet is saying something really stupid, like maybe just check into their background just to just just a little bit, you know, and just
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. I love that advice for others. I'll see videos where you can tell, you know, that that their background th they're not exposed necessarily to a lot of the stuff that a lot of other people are. And I always feel bad because it's like I can tell they're proudly putting this up or they're proudly sharing
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: this moment in their life. And then you got people are like, I ran to the comments and then they're saying stuff and I'm like, You guys,
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: like it like what a what a jump scare for them to to maybe in that moment realize, this isn't normal or you know And that that's the risk, right? Of of social media. That's the the the negative side, I think.
Kelly Manno: Personally, as somebody, like it's just kind of lazy content. It's like it's so easy. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. It's like, let me find this really stupid person and then react to them about how much better I am than them or why I know this about the world and they don't, or I want to push myself to be organically funny, you know, and then I will jump in and do a reaction video when it's something. That fits my niece perfectly, like the guy with the belly that like the vagina. I'm like, right up my alley, I'm doing this. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right, right. That's your niche. I love it. Yeah, and
Kelly Manno: And
GenX Adulting Podcast: I the belly that looks like a pussy. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: You like literally I do this whole bit on stage where it's like, my God, like boomer women did not prepare us for aging and like our bodies and what happens to You know, and it's like, I mean, shit is
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's so true.
Kelly Manno: sagging that did not used to sag. And like, I just wish at one point like a boomer like, Hey, after you have kids and you reach the age of forty, just don't look at your vagina in the mirror anymore. Just don't. Just don't, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: But this is why I'm like, we gotta talk about these things. So we're helping the millennials and the Gen Z women, so they're not gonna be jump scared by everything that happens to their bodies. Because so much of it's perimenopause, which would no one
Kelly Manno: Yeah, yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: talked to us about. No one. No.
Kelly Manno: Even did we make that word up? Is perimenopause a new word?
GenX Adulting Podcast: No, it's an ex it's a word that is. I'm with you. It's like where the fuck did that come from? I went through my whole forties and it was all perimenopause, had no idea. I thought I was going crazy. And then I finally learned and I'm like, I just had fucking perimenopause. If somebody would have maybe talked to me about that, I wouldn't have thought
Kelly Manno: Right.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it was fucking crazy for ten years. So that's one of the reasons I'm always trying to bring it up 'cause I'm like I I want to get that message down to them, like, you're not crazy, you're not crazy. So
Kelly Manno: No, you're not. And like, yeah, like perimenopauses and avocados. I swear those things did not exact exist in the nineties. Like we just invented them. Nobody had avocados or perimenopause in the nineties. And it's all new to me. And I can't, my body cannot decide if it's in menopause or not. I'm 47 and like my uterus, like my period will go away for a couple months, and I'm like, this is it. It's coming. It's coming. And then that period comes back, I'm like, okay, my uterus was just on a fucking smoke break. Like, what are we doing? Like, go or sp
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're still in perim perimenopause. It's perimetopause.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, I don't I mean, I don't have like the crazy mood swings or anything. I feel like I have normal mood swings that I've always had. So I don't think I'm in menopause yet. I'm still having my period. But again, we
GenX Adulting Podcast: No.
Kelly Manno: don't know because nobody told us.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Nobody told us, but all right. So before Well no, as a man, for me to hear I don't have crazy mood swings beyond my normal mood swing. It's like
Kelly Manno: Yeah, yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: what do we do with that? Yeah. Yes.
Kelly Manno: You know what? Just stay out of the way. Listen, a key to a happy marriage is separate bedrooms. I'm telling you that right now. My boyfriend, who I just love and adore and I plan on spending the rest of my life with, he knows the minute that we live together, separate bedrooms. Okay. Because women have mood swings because men are annoying and you breathe loud and you hockloogies in the shower and you fart and you burp and you make noise every time you get up and down and All of us adults are so sleep deprived that if we just slept in separate rooms and got a solid good night of sleep every night, we'd all be so much nicer to each other. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: You're so right.
Kelly Manno: like you you can have separate bedrooms and still have a sex life.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I think men are gross too, so I men are gross. But also you could then paint your bedroom these beautiful colors and we have colorful bedrooms instead of, you know
Kelly Manno: Yes, and I can throw my shit on the floor and nobody's gonna tell me to pick it up because it's my shit and it's my room. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Yes.
Kelly Manno: I will never share a bathroom with a boy again. my Lord. No
GenX Adulting Podcast: sounds that sounds like a dream, honestly. Like the idea of having your own bedroom again, like when you were a kid, and it's just yours.
Kelly Manno: Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. Start with like your own office and then move a bed in there and be like,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're on to it. I do I do have my own office 'cause when our daughter
Kelly Manno: Okay.
GenX Adulting Podcast: moved out I made that and there's a futon in there, but if I'm really gonna do this, I want a bed back. No, she's gonna put my ass in there.
Kelly Manno: You need a bed. Yep. Yep. And then be like, oops, I accidentally fell asleep in my office again. And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: then, and then before you know it, you have separate spaces, right? Your shit's not each other's business. You can't hear each other breathe. And you get a good night of sleep. And then you're nicer to each other all day. Like the fact
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's true. It's true.
Kelly Manno: that we share an entire room with another human is insane. Because some are night people, some are early people. You know, I have to sleep with the TV on. Some people want it. I am a grown ass woman. I want to go to bed exactly how I want to go to bed with the TV on. I'm an idol doing shit. I don't like I'll never share a room with someone ever again. And I'm telling you guys, consider separate bedrooms. It would save marriages forever.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It may be something on in the future. What you're talking about. I've seen there's a trend happening there. Yeah, where people are saying it's the way to go. Maybe when our youngest goes goes off to college because right now
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: his closet is in my office. But yeah.
Kelly Manno: Could you imagine like waking up from a full night of sleep and a nice empty bed? And you get up and you get to kind of shuffle around your room for a little bit, and then you go into your kitchen and you see your spouse and you're like, hey, good morning. Rather
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: than like, why are you snoring so much and quit taking the blanket? What the fuck is wrong with you? What? yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Or getting up to go to the bathroom at two in the morning and our and the door slides and you're 'cause mothers have when we're sleeping, we hear noises. So any noise,
Kelly Manno: Yeah. We can hear. Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'm like, you know, so it is and he does try to be quiet, but I'm like I I You should sleep in the office. Yeah, no, I'll not worry about That'll be you. That'll be you. Okay.
Kelly Manno: Yep. Listen, get a bomb ass bed and mattress. Get the nicest mattress ever, right? And
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: like I I have my own window unit air conditioner up here because I need to sleep at the temperature of Alaska. And I'm telling you, you will have a better marriage if you and the if you have the only p reason people don't do it is because it's so like faux pas and like people are gonna think we're unhappy. Everyone's fucking unhappy. Nobody who's been married this long is like sunshine and rainbows. Quit faking it. You know? Or
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's awesome.
Kelly Manno: maybe, you know, and I'm not saying that when Bronny moves in that he'll never sleep in my bed, you know,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Right.
Kelly Manno: like maybe he sleeps in my bed on the weekends. Maybe he sleeps there two nights in a row and then doesn't sleep there for two weeks in a row. I don't know. It's my room and it's our life and we're adults and we'll figure it out as we go.
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's an option. Then at least you know, it's like it's not cemented in this is how it is. He has the option to s have a sleepover with you, but then he has a place to go you can send him back to. So I don't know if she's on to something. I like that.
Kelly Manno: My bed is pink and fluffy and smells like cupcakes. It is not meant for boys.
GenX Adulting Podcast: amazing and it there's color that's what I love there's color that's a l
Kelly Manno: Everything and look, I only cleaned this part of my room where the camera is. So if you pan this way, it's a disaster.
GenX Adulting Podcast: There you go. but look at all the colors. Is your bathroom pink? my god.
Kelly Manno: But look, let me show you my bathroom. This is amazing. This is the Pink Pony Club bathroom. Pink Pony Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: I love that. Yes. my god. Wow. Look at look at all the colors. No kidding. I like the uneven lids. That's amazing. Did you do that?
Kelly Manno: Yeah. Yeah, it yeah. So it's like literally as soon as my ex-husband moved out, I'm like, my god, I can do anything I want with this house. My whole downstairs is like all colorful. I'm getting ready to redo my downstairs bathroom, and instead of a regular light, I'm gonna do a disco ball. Like a like
GenX Adulting Podcast: That is amazing.
Kelly Manno: a like a fully functioning disco ball when you turn on the bathroom light, it spins. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: I love this. I l I I hope you post the video. Yeah. I might be putting a disco ball in my office.
Kelly Manno: I know. But and think about you too, Brian. Like if there's things you like, musicians or or sports teams or something like Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'm there. I'm with you.
Kelly Manno: It was so fun to decorate something again just for me. Like I love Tupac and Snoop Dogg and Taylor Swift and Post
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Malone. And it's like, yeah, I have a personality again. I'm a whole person. So I'm yep.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yes. Yes. I love this. I love this. This is gonna be a whole chapter of the podcast is separate bedrooms and claiming your own bedroom space again. 'Cause you think about
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it, we haven't had that since we were kids or since like at least before we got married. We
Kelly Manno: Yeah. It
GenX Adulting Podcast: got married as kids, so
Kelly Manno: it feels like I'm a kid again. Like when I go to bed, I'm giddy because I'm like, yay, my door is shut and murder shows are on and I got snacks and and like it's so fun. It's so fun. And then
GenX Adulting Podcast: You ever have like a girls' night where your daughters come in and you guys all hop in bed and watch a movie and
Kelly Manno: all the time. This cause my son is he's 21 and he's got a girlfriend, so he's gone a lot. But
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: my girls, I mean, the three of us together, it is just a girl party. Like this is a girl house. Like my my downstairs wallpaper is all glitter. Like everything is just exactly how I want it. Sorry, I got my little low power mode thing just popped up. but yeah, no, this house is a girls' house. It is so fun. It's like Gilmore girls here every day. And me and my girls
GenX Adulting Podcast: Amazing.
Kelly Manno: love all the same TV and It's just you find yourself again and it's been so fun and I just I wish everybody would do it.
GenX Adulting Podcast: So awesome. And I I talked earlier about how, you know, you're inspiring our generation with what you're doing with your career. But I don't know. What we just talked about might be more inspiring than what you do with your career. So thank you for sharing that, you know. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Which is crazy because I feel like it's common sense. Like I feel like I'm I I'm not breaking any molds. I'm just doing what makes sense, which is giving people their own space and a good night of sleep. And then we're
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: gonna be nicer to each other. Hell, I might even wanna have sex with you if we're if you're not up my ass twenty four hours a day.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Facts, facts. I mean, it's normalizing this though. Again, here's something we should be talking about. Let's normalize. The more you talk about things, the more normalize, the more they become normal.
Kelly Manno: Yep. And the people who are like, I could never do that. Okay, have fun in your miserable marriage because
GenX Adulting Podcast: I
Kelly Manno: if you've been married over twenty years and you're still sharing a room, it ain't fun for nobody.
GenX Adulting Podcast: So more sp your own space, a good night's sleep, equal sex. Well there
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: you go. That's all you had to say. Was it equal sex? All right, we gotta
Kelly Manno: Like no, because you'll start liking
GenX Adulting Podcast: go.
Kelly Manno: like and I like I we don't wanna hear you take a shit and we don't wanna smell it. Like and if you have your own bathroom, like you can go back to being like like yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Cake man. Yeah, yeah. Go embrace your natural tendencies. All right, before I ask my last question, do you have any questions? I do. It's awesome. No. No, are you kidding? No, you're not. This has been amazing. You
Kelly Manno: I feel like I've talked so much, you guys. I'm sorry. And I I go in circles. I'm the worst person to interview ever. So, okay.
GenX Adulting Podcast: don't even know. You have been so great to have on. And we are all about tangents. Like we love going
Kelly Manno: Okay.
GenX Adulting Podcast: on tangents. It's one of my favorite. What what we do here and hopefully you felt comfortable is we go down a timeline, but the tangents are the funnest part of the whole thing. So
Kelly Manno: Can't believe I've sat here this long. Like I don't I don't even make it through the Gen X meetings this long. So it is. I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well that is a huge compliment. So I'm taking it. I'm taking it. I'm taking it.
Kelly Manno: hope you guys can come on the cruise with us. You should look into it and see if it because we might even be able to do like a a little discount or something. It's not bad. The
GenX Adulting Podcast: It's this guy.
Kelly Manno: look, the boats are so big. No, you don't have to do a conga line. Listen, on the Gen X cruise, you do whatever the fuck you want. You want to go to bed at 9 p.m., nobody is judging you. And the best part is that we bought the whole ship. And we're probably, here's a little secret, we don't really plan on selling it to 100% capacity. It's already sold very, very well. it's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah,
Kelly Manno: been a great, but we're probably gonna stop around that 80 to 85% booking rate because we want space. We don't want it to be asses and elbows up in there. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: you should consider it because are you scared of like drowning or crashing or what?
GenX Adulting Podcast: I don't like people. He doesn't want to make friends. He doesn't want to s have to have dinner with the same people and make friends. I'm not that bad. I can socialize, I promise. I'm not totally fucking all but he doesn't want like Frank sitting with him at the pool for the next seven days 'cause now they're buddies. You know what I
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: mean? I have a feeling you and I are somewhat kindred spirits in certain areas here, so Yeah.
Kelly Manno: telling you you can do it and also there especially because everyone on the boat is gonna be our age so we all are gonna get up and you're gonna have a balcony room where you can just sit on your own balcony and stare out at the ocean you don't have to go down and have dinner with Frank you know and I when I was on the cruise I did room service every single night because I was sick of people so I would order the food to my room and it was
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. I love from service.
Kelly Manno: yeah and it it's cool because it was like you could go out and be social when you wanted Go back to your room anytime you wanted. Cause it's not No I
GenX Adulting Podcast: Or I'll work on him. I'll work on him. I don't know, but
Kelly Manno: promise if you come on our cruise, no Ponga lines, I will ban them.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I'll keep you posted. I will keep I will try. I will try to work on him for
Kelly Manno: But we have we have a lot of introverts that come on our our cruise or come to our shows. My boyfriend is a giant introvert. you know, so you'll be you would be fantastic.
GenX Adulting Podcast: So he could be weird and no one would judge him. I'm
Kelly Manno: No, we're all weird.
GenX Adulting Podcast: not weird. No.
Kelly Manno: We're even doing it we're doing a dad bot Olympics. You could go in that and then like kids would be so proud of you. Like it's fun because it's all people our age. So if you're
GenX Adulting Podcast: Did Nick did Nick did they tell you how when they were came down to Fort Lauderdale for the last cruise, there was like a swingers cruise and they were all in the same hotel? That was pretty funny.
Kelly Manno: Yes. yeah. No, I like, yeah, no, I heard all about it. Like, thank God we didn't end up on the wrong cruise. That could have been could have been harmful, but but the Gen X cruise is so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: cool because it's all people our age. And I will say it is getting close to that 85% booking rate. Like I think we're gonna be sold out in the next couple months. So if anybody wants to go, gen x takeover.com, get your spot.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, definitely push that. Yeah, because you I I know it's gonna be awesome. I've been I follow the I follow all of the stuff you guys have going on. I get emails
Kelly Manno: Mm-hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: with updates and you keep adding new personality. We had Gen X Gina on, we had
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Pennet Peach on. you're you have such great people that you know your your guys are inviting to help entertain. So I know it's gonna be a huge success. If I can convince this one to go, we'll we will do it. But I have to do it. Maybe.
Kelly Manno: Or maybe you go without him, maybe you do a girls trip.
GenX Adulting Podcast: There
Kelly Manno: Brain.
GenX Adulting Podcast: you go. There's the space that we're starting.
Kelly Manno: There you go.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Got the new mattress, the new disco ball. I get a balcony.
Kelly Manno: There you go.
GenX Adulting Podcast: All right, what's your what's your question before I ask my question? All I don't want to go down too far of a tangent, but jumping out of a plane is an adrenaline rush for you. Is is it the same adrenaline when you hit the stage and you're in front of all those people?
Kelly Manno: It's not a I mean, it definitely is. It's an adrenaline dump because there's like the nerves and then you ride the high and then you're done. So it is it's the shows are exhausting. And it's not because of the physical effort, it's the emotional, you know, toll of it all. And so yes, it is a huge adrenaline rush. I don't get super nervous because I'm pretty confident my material, but I do still get nerves. Like, and I think that that's good. I think if you don't have nerves, you don't love what you're doing. So but yes,
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Yep.
Kelly Manno: it's an adrenaline rush and that that gets my fix for now.
GenX Adulting Podcast: What what I noticed the show we went to in Fort Lauderdale is people are hanging on every word. They're so
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: engaged and you know, somebody may something you may something say something. They're like, Yep, uhhuh, uhhuh. Or they'll chime in. There's a lot of interaction, it seems like. And it was kind
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: of it was kinda cool to see just to sit back 'cause it was new to us, but there's everyone's and that that was a very intimate setting. Yeah. That was that small nightclub and yeah.
Kelly Manno: Yeah, that was a small one. So you you guys need to come to one of our big shows for sure. we'll get
GenX Adulting Podcast: I want to. I really do. I want you guys
Kelly Manno: yeah, we'll put you guys on the guest list anytime. Like just tell us if there's
GenX Adulting Podcast: Thank you.
Kelly Manno: a show you can make it to because I don't know if we'll do Florida, but I mean we're coming to like Mississippi, like we're coming down in that chunk of the world, you know.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Okay. Yeah, I knew I saw you guys were coming to Mississippi. I'll go check out your days. I know we love Mississippi. It's a long state and we're at the southern tip of it. We're we're like
Kelly Manno: you're down at the bottom?
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, we're like forty north of Miami. So we're we're yeah, we're waiting. Takes us a while just to get out of our state. And we drive. We drive.
Kelly Manno: So you'll have a it Yeah. Yeah. No
GenX Adulting Podcast: You know a great city is Savannah. If you
Kelly Manno: I bet. Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Savannah's a wonderful town. And they have great venues. Yeah, they do. Did you have any other questions? No, I I do. I all right, I got one last one. Going back in time, you were when you were at the radio show and you guys kept getting f fired. That's comp, right? Like Opie and Anthony would get fired and move on and stuff.
Kelly Manno: Just like that.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, so what's the deal there? Does do the producers come down? They're like, Hey, the FCC's bothering us or how's that happened?
Kelly Manno: Well, for us, like there was one day where like we just did a show on a Friday and then after the show they took Stephen DC, the hosts in the one room and the staff in the other room, and they said that was your last show.
GenX Adulting Podcast: wow.
Kelly Manno: and so there were times where we got fired for like real reasons, like they did something wrong, but there was other stuff that we did that was gosh. I don't know if I I can't get into all this without my phone dying because it's less than twenty
GenX Adulting Podcast: Are you yeah? Are you
Kelly Manno: it's just Yeah, like sometimes we did like we did a lot of like public stunts. Like we were where we'd go out in public and do stuff and sometimes that would cause a little bit of a ruckus and we'd get backlash from the city or or something like that. And so yeah, we definitely got fired quite a bit and that's when I like, I need a I need a real job now. So but Stephen
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: do you say you're still going? They've got a show, I think, in Alabama, so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Well, anything else? All right, last question. my could you picture now with technology changing, could you picture getting into maybe doing your own like live show, like on YouTube? It's it wouldn't be radio per se, but it'd be like internet radio.
Kelly Manno: Think that is my next move, to be honest with you. Like I I've already
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: kind of got like a five-year plan of of like because I love to just talk and have radio is great because you can talk and people can't talk back.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kelly Manno: and so I, you know, I'm definitely not gonna be touring in in five years. I'm gonna be retired from like this social media stuff, but I'm gonna moved to more long form content. I think that's where I belong, storytelling, interviewing people, stuff like that. So I would love to do a live show. Right now I don't have the discipline to do it because it's like, well, I should do the show at two o'clock, but I've got enough money in my bank account that I don't have to. So I'm like, you know, I'll keep making
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah.
Kelly Manno: fart videos on the internet. So but I I would need a team. I would need a producer. I would need someone to shoot it and, you know, but that that you secretly told everybody my next plan.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Sorry. Well that brings me to my question. my last question is always, where do you see yourself in five years? And I think you might have answered it, but yeah.
Kelly Manno: So yeah, but okay, in five years, I'm gonna retire from all social media, all stand-up shit. I'm gonna get, I'm buying at least five acres with my boyfriend. we're gonna call it the D's nuts compound. And I'm
GenX Adulting Podcast: Ha ha ha.
Kelly Manno: gonna let all of my family move on my compound. I'll be like, you want half an acre? Here you go, build a house. And I am gonna have a wildlife rescue where I take care of like possums and skunks and and raccoons because I I love animals so much. And I am going to get a regular job like driving a school bus because I love kids. Like being a school bus driver seems like the greatest job ever because you don't have to dress fancy. You can listen to a podcast and you don't have to deal with parents. You just deal with kids. And so I see myself being a school bus driver or like an over-the-road truck driver and not doing social media at all. And I see myself going back to a flip phone because I think cell phones are important for emergencies, but I don't need this 24-hour access bullshit. I hate it all. Like in my soul, I am a simple, simple person, and that's what I want to get back to.
GenX Adulting Podcast: I think that's awesome. That sounds beautiful. And the family compound, that's a dream of mine. I think if you if if you will do it and that is
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: that is an ultimate dream, is to be able to have a family compound. Yeah.
Kelly Manno: Just gonna, yeah, I'm just gonna be like, hey, we bought 10 acres, we bought, we built one house, and we got all this other space. If you want half an acre, come out and build your own house, you know. and we'll and
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's awesome. That is absolutely awesome.
Kelly Manno: you know what I wouldn't be surprised if my freaking ex-husband moves on to the compound and we all live there together, you know, like.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. Again, I that's a it's amazing, but I think I I think that is rich, right? That is rich. That is rich. And so
Kelly Manno: Yes, that is rich. Yes, because I when I think about my next house, I think smaller, not bigger. I don't I don't you know, I want smaller. I want to downsize. So yep.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah. But having the space to provide for your children, that that's amaz that's absolutely amazing. Well, again,
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Kelly, we can't thank you enough for how much time you spent with us. I know your fans
Kelly Manno: Of course.
GenX Adulting Podcast: are gonna love this and love this long form access to you. But also for listeners who maybe haven't even heard of you before, if it's hard to imagine, so much of what you shared I know will resonate with a lot of people and help them feel seen and and then also help. them discover you and discover the joy that you bring to people's lives and the happiness and the laughter. So thank you for being so candid with us and so open. because I know it will help people. If someone out there is going to hear this and it's going to help them. So we really appreciate it.
Kelly Manno: I am thrilled that you wanted me to sit and talk for this long because I don't like yeah. I mean, like I'm I'm thrilled that people care enough about my life that that they're gonna listen. when I told my kids I was doing this podcast today, my daughter goes, Who's gonna listen to a podcast that long? Like my kids humble me constantly. I'm like, I don't know, maybe nobody will watch this. I don't know. We'll find out. But I'm so glad you guys had me. And this is only the second podcast I've ever done. So
GenX Adulting Podcast: We are so honored. And and again, one of the awesome parts of you doing this is your children will have this and their children, their
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: children, and their children. And you just pretty much documented so much of your life for your future generations. And that's like an extra promise of doing this. So we always
Kelly Manno: It's true. Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: are excited for that aspect of it. Is they your children actually will be the ones that will eventually listen to this someday.
Kelly Manno: They will, they will. And also, like you said, my fans, like they don't typically get this kind of access to me, so
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, no, it's very special and we're very honored that you came and sat with us. And to all of our listeners, if you don't know where to find Kelly, it will be in all of the show notes where you can find her. if you have any
Kelly Manno: It's just at Kellymano. It's just my name on everything because
GenX Adulting Podcast: There you go.
Kelly Manno: I didn't know I was gonna be TikTok famous or I would have used a fake name.
GenX Adulting Podcast: That's r although if you want with Instagram and Meta, you
Kelly Manno: Hmm.
GenX Adulting Podcast: have to give your government name to just get verified the blue check mark because we
Kelly Manno: yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: we tried to get away with that and they're like now if you need your full name. Yeah, because it was whole full name. So
Kelly Manno: my gosh. Well, on the tour they all have these cool names like the dad bod and the professor and the real slim Sherri It's like Kelly Manno I'm like, just me, didn't plan on being famous. Hey.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Yeah, but all of your color and all of your personality is what what builds
Kelly Manno: Yeah.
GenX Adulting Podcast: it up. So and also that you bring up a good point. for those who know of Slim Sherri the real Slim Sherri Dad Bod Veteran and the Sherri Dindal and Jon Wellington and then
Kelly Manno: Wellington.
GenX Adulting Podcast: Nick Harrison, the professor, they have come on our podcast. Their stories are on our podcast. So check them out too, because we got the last one here with Kelly. And so you can save the best for last. Best for last. And you can learn.
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: out everyone on the Gen X Takeover Tour. Go see them. Go check out their dates. Check out the Gen X cruise before it sells out. They have
Kelly Manno: Yes.
GenX Adulting Podcast: so many cool things going on and check them out on all social media. And again, thank you, Kelly, so much for your time. We we had a blast. This was awesome.
Kelly Manno: You're so welcome. I had fun too. Thank you guys.
GenX Adulting Podcast: And listeners, thank you for listening. Please leave us any comments or questions. We love to hear from you. And we will see you next time. Bye.