The Croc Chronicles (w/ special visitor Doogie Lish Sandtiger)

Join us as we chat with the incredible Doogie Lish Sandtiger, the Guinness World Record holder for the largest Crocs collection and an all around amazing human being. In a simultaneously heartbreaking yet inspiring breath, Doogie shares how he turned life’s challenges into a joyful journey—one pair of Crocs at a time. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll come away with a fresh perspective on the meaning of resilience.

We talk about…
♥ The pressure of a public persona.
♥ Navigating the darkness of anger, fear, and survival.
♥ Living with unapologetic authenticity.
♥ Finding joy in every step of your journey.

For bonus content and episode info, visit: theconfettibar.com/podcast/episodes/s3e2-the-croc-chronicles

Follow Doogie on Instagram @doogielish

Brought to you by The Confetti Bar
Hosted by Jessica Serra Huizenga and Alexis Goddard
Produced and Edited by Cliff Huizenga
Graphic Design by Jessica Serra Huizenga

For bonus content and episode info, visit: https://www.theconfettibar.com/show
Join the Confetti Club at: https://www.theconfettibar.com/join

© 2023-2024 The Confetti Bar, LLC

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Teaser
• 1:16 Welcome, Doogie!
• 6:50 The Croc King Origins
• 19:35 Own Your Story: Overcoming the Dark Times
• 44:24 The Bucket List
• 55:02 Super Silly Segment
• 1:03:32 1, 2, 3…Confetti Pop!

Transcript

Like I said, I had to do what I had to do to survive.

And if that meant eating out of dumpsters or sleeping in bathrooms, like I had, it is what it is.

I survived when that news organization said that backstory was too sad.

I'm thinking about all the people that have gone through that, or are going through it, or will go through it in the future.

And maybe they heard one of my interviews and one of my stories, and maybe that was the one thread that they clung onto was that bad things happen, but you can still live and you can overcome it.

So, and I've had people tell me that, like, that my resilience has helped them become more resilient.

And I'm like, to me, that's worth it.

Greetings From Confetti Land, home of The Confetti Bar.

I'm Jessica, founder and confetti artist.

And I'm Alexis, head of happiness.

Join us here in this magical, colorful place where we have fun, feel feelings, and encourage you to embrace your unique version of happiness and all of its beautiful, messy pieces.

We are so excited to have you join us.

Hey, Confetti Land.

Today, we have a truly inspiring guest.

Doogie Lish Sandtiger, aka The Croc King, proud owner of the world's largest Crocs collection.

But more than just a collector, Doogie's story is one of incredible resilience.

From overcoming life-threatening challenges to building a life full of joy and humor, Doogie has made the choice to embrace every moment.

We'll dive into his inspiring bucket list, how he finds meaning in the small things, and what drives him to spread happiness to others.

Get ready to have some fun and help us welcome Doogie.

Thank you so, so much for joining us.

Yay.

Yay.

I have to say, this is the first time we have had a croc in Confetti Land.

But I think it fits.

Yes.

I'm happy to be the first croc in Confetti Land.

It just feels like a natural thing that crocs and confetti go together.

I haven't thought about it before, but I'm here for it now.

I'm thinking, I don't know, after this, maybe, maybe you guys got to make a Confetti Land Jibbitz.

Maybe.

Actually, yes.

I think it needs to happen.

It needs to be a thing.

I do.

OK, I do have a surprise.

I was going to save it for a little later, but we're going to dive right in.

I did a little craft project this morning.

OK, up until yesterday, I admit I have never owned a pair of Crocs in my life, but not only did I go out and buy a pair, but I did confetti them.

I know everyone at home can't see right now.

Yes.

I did make a custom pair of confetti Crocs just for the occasion.

Those are amazing, Jessica.

I approve this message.

As long as I got your approval.

Listen, it's been a while since I've owned a pair of Crocs, but I did go.

They're not as custom as Jessica's, but I'll show mine off as well.

I'm here for the tie dye sparkle sides.

Tie dye sparkles.

Okay.

Well, since we're all showing off our Crocs, I'm just wearing some pink Croc slides today.

I was going to ask.

Classic.

Pink is a classic in Confetti Land.

I'm about it.

Amazing.

Well, to kick off with some warm up questions, I would love to hear Doogie, what does confetti mean to you?

Wow.

Okay.

Let's do this.

Confetti means to me, it means party, it means fun, it means colors and joy and excitement.

I think, I don't know, when you think of confetti, you think of commemorating something, whether it's a birthday party or somebody's getting married or just some joyous occasion.

So just joy.

One word, joy.

I like that.

Couldn't agree more.

Okay.

Not to put you on the spot here, but what would you say currently makes up the confetti mix of your life?

This can be colors, it can be things, it could be sense, it could be feelings, anything you want to throw at us in your personal confetti mix.

So let's see.

Obviously, joy, we just established that.

But I'm also going to go with, I have four chihuahuas.

So those are big chunks of my confetti experience because they are the, other than Crocs, obviously, they are the greatest bringer of joy into my, oh, look, conveniently, my heart gibbet is right here.

I like that.

So obviously, Crocs, let's be real, the Crocs has to be on the list.

And then another important thing is my bucket list.

That is like my biggest pile of confetti right there.

If we're associating confetti with just joy bringers in our life, my bucket list is probably up there at the tippity tops.

Yes.

Can't wait to get more into that in a bit.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

This could be a little bit similar, but what are three things right now in your life that are making you happy?

Well, it's Sunday and everybody loves Sundays.

If you don't love Sundays, then I'm sorry, you're not doing life right.

So immediate happiness is today is Sunday.

I was again, so I'll bring up the Chihuahuas.

I was laying in bed with Chihuahuas all day.

It was great, cozy, awesomeness, lazy Sunday.

Then let's see, the third is I just ate a bunch of delicious Chinese food.

That made me happy.

Perfect.

What a perfect Sunday so far.

Have you heard Ben Rector's song Sunday?

I haven't.

I have not.

I don't even know who is that.

Should I know this person?

I mean, I only know because of Alexis.

Yeah, Jessica only knows him because of me.

But Ben Rector, give his song Sunday a listen after this.

I don't think that you'll be disappointed.

I think it will vibe with you.

Awesome.

That will be my homework to do list after this.

Maybe something to add to the list here.

So obviously, you are the Croc King as we've established, and we personally love how Crocs are like your own personal brand of wearable confetti.

So can you tell us the origin of Croc King?

Where did it come from?

How did it start?

All the things.

It actually started with people making fun of me, and they started using the Croc King title to troll me, like, oh, this guy's the Croc King.

He has so many Crocs.

Then me being the colorful, joyous person I am, I took that and wore it as a badge of honor.

Then I reverse trolled the trolls by accepting the title, and then I made it more of a caricature than anything, which that's the best way to take a negative situation and turn it around.

How it all started really, got my first pair of Crocs in the year 2007.

I was 16 years old, so I'm dating myself here.

I'm an old man now.

Just to give you guys the grand scope of everything.

Didn't know how to tie my shoes.

I grew up in foster care.

It was this whole situation.

There's a lot of things that people don't realize about kids in the foster care system is when you're bounced around from home to home or city to city, a lot of your regular activities of daily living get lost in between.

Someone will be like, how do you not know how to work a washer and dryer?

Well, you're not born with that innate knowledge.

You don't just wake up one day and be like, yup, that's how you do it.

Usually somebody teaches you or shows you, and same with tying the shoes.

I had never learned as a kid.

Then I got moving around left and right throughout my whole life.

By the time I was 16, I couldn't get away with wearing Velcro shoes anymore, or slip on light up shoes anymore.

I was getting made fun of and bullied.

I was like, man, I don't want to ask anyone for help, because at this point, I felt like I was too old.

It's like you ever meet somebody, whether it's at work or maybe you go to a gym and you see the same person over and over and over again, and you say hi to them all the time, and then months later you realize you've never asked them for their names, and then it's awkward because now I'm like, I don't want to ask them their name.

I've been saying hi to them for eight months now, nine months now.

It was like that.

We've all been in that situation before.

Unfortunately.

I didn't want to ask anyone how to tie, and so I was just like, what should I wear now?

I got to figure something out.

So I was walking around my, like literally that week, I was walking around my neighborhood.

There was this old lady that was gardening, and it's all thanks to her.

She was wearing a pair, I'll never forget it, a pair of lavender Crocs.

She could have been wearing Nike slides, and I could have been the Nike King, who knows?

She could have been wearing anything.

Well, I guess because they didn't have laces, that's kind of what made it.

But I was like, whoa, those are so cool.

Again, I like color, that's who I am.

So they were lavender, they stuck out to me.

I had no idea really what Crocs were at that point, because Crocs were very under the radar for a long time.

Back then, you either were an old person, or you were somebody who likes to go on boats, or you were a nurse.

Those were the only three people wearing Crocs, and I was none of those three.

You know what I mean?

So I went, I got my first pair, it was a plain black pair, and then the more like I wore them, the more I realized how amazing they are.

Like you can literally wear them with anything, anywhere, anytime.

And then, like as I got into like the customizing stuff, I'm like, I have a quirky personality, clearly.

And I like that you could just like dress them up and kind of turn them into art based on how you're feeling that day.

Like this is my personality today, so I'm going to put these gibbets on it, or this is how I'm feeling today.

So then one pair, I was like, well, now I need a red pair, because red is a cool color, and now I need a blue pair.

And so it didn't, I didn't wake up one day, I was like, okay, I need 10 million pairs, you know, it just kind of slowly, I started getting a few here and a few there.

And then the bucket list was born.

So really, the bucket list comes first, the Crocs came second to that, because on my bucket list, so this is all intertwined together.

So as this child in foster care, I needed, this is before the term bucket list was invented.

And I think I actually looked this up, I think it wasn't invented until 2007, when the movie The Bucket List came out.

But prior to that, I just had a journal and I just started writing like goals down.

Like, I mean, I was, again, a kid, I was like, okay, I want to graduate high school.

And this is like way before, like, you wouldn't think that people when they write these Bucket List or Goal List, they're like, I want to go skydiving.

I want to go to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower.

Little me was like, I just want to graduate high school, man.

I just, you know, I want to go to college.

Like, I had real attainable goals to help keep me motivated.

And then as I started writing more, then I started writing the cooler stuff, like jump out of a plane and go all over the world and do this, and do that.

And it just started, it started flourishing and building.

And so like I'd wake up in like these ridiculous group homes and DCF safe homes and shelters.

And what motivation did I really have to wake up and go to school?

And it's like, why do I care about learning about geometry or the nucleus of a cell and DNA when I literally don't know when my next meal is going to be or like when I'm going to get a new pair of clothes or when I'm going to shower, you know?

So I was always in survival mode.

So I didn't care about much.

So I just kept writing this bucket list down and it gave me like a sense of purpose, a sense of hope.

It helped me manufacture for myself a meaningful life worth living.

Cause at that point, again, I was so young and my future was just so bleak and I had nothing.

So one of the things I wrote on the bucket list kind of as a joke was at that point, I had like seven pairs of Crocs.

That's it.

I was like, I want 366 pairs.

One day for every single day of the year, including a leap year because can't be February 29th and I don't have anything to wear.

You know, so got to respect February 29th every four years.

So I honestly never like some of these bucket list things, other like pipe dreams, you know, I never really think they're going to materialize.

Like you put like these crazy ideas down.

You're like, well, you never know, never say never.

But as I kept collecting, I finally reached 366 pairs.

And then that was, I think, around maybe 2019.

So over the last like five or six years, the collection has really exploded.

But once I hit that goal of the 366 pairs, I was like, what do I just stop collecting?

Do I quit?

No, because then COVID happened.

And then we all know when COVID happened, what else is there to do but sit home and shop online.

And Crocs took advantage of that.

Crocs exploded during COVID because guess what?

Who's working right now?

Doctors, nurses, people in healthcare facilities, and what is the easiest thing to wear and to clean off is Crocs because of the foam, rubbery, cross-light material that they use.

You just slip them on, slip them off, spray them down.

And so from there, I was like, oh, all these new collaborations, these new things.

And I just kept collecting.

And then as I kept collecting and like some of my like, I would just innocently post photos of just like my Croc collection.

And then some of them would like randomly go viral.

I don't know why.

It's literally like, I put no time or effort or energy into like, like the thing with me is like, I'm not gonna like, I'm going to post it as I see it.

I don't add filters.

I don't add crazy lighting and camera work.

And I just take the Croc, take a picture.

Boom.

That's it.

So simple.

So simple.

And from there, that's when people started like making fun of me, calling me like the Croc VIP, the Croc man, Croc king, Croc hunter, this and that.

I was like, I'm going to take that on.

And I like that.

And here we are now.

3545 pairs.

I bought one more today.

So far, so far.

Today is still young.

This day is young.

You never know.

I know.

I just fed you guys a lot of information there.

No, I love it.

We need we need to set up with the backstory.

The backstory is important.

No, but I mean, I think first of all, you say like you don't put like a ton of like energy into like photos and stuff.

But I think like you you are your energy.

And I think the fact that you even like keep that list and you you are like so unapologetically yourself like that is the energy you put in and people naturally are drawn to that.

And I think it's something a lot of us do struggle with is how do you how do you really feel confident in being yourself and not be tempted to put the filter and you know filter everything not just the physical look of things but you know even what you kind of present out there.

And I admire that and I think you know that's initially what I was kind of drawn to as well is I am always in awe and somewhat jealous of people who are just like so themselves that you can't help but notice it and be like wow.

That's inspiring.

Very inspiring.

Thank you.

Honestly, seriously, those are great compliments.

And I think what I want people to take out of like my no filter attitude is like, you know how stressful it like everyone knows how stressful it is to try to keep up with like these personas.

And it's like, it's not who you are.

And this is what I always tell people.

I am the same person, same personality, whether I'm at home or whether I'm with friends, whether I'm with coworkers, whether it doesn't matter, I'm not going to change.

Because then if you keep adapting your personality to these different groups, you end up losing your identity and who you are.

It's like, who are you today?

Oh, well, I'm this person because I'm with this person.

If you have to change who you are to please or accommodate other people, you're not living for yourself.

You're living for an image, this characterized version of yourself.

Then eventually, how do you keep up with who you really are?

You can't and you don't.

It's the same.

I adopt that same attitude towards social media too.

It's like the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If you share only the good, you're creating this fake version of yourself.

It's not authentic, it's not real.

Then when bad things actually do happen, you're not going to know how to respond to it, or you're not going to know how to adapt.

That's the thing with human beings.

We are these adaptable, or we're supposed to be adaptable creatures.

We're supposed to be resilient.

But if you create this fictionalized version of yourself, how do you know how to be resilient if you don't even know who you are?

This is me, authentic, I'm silly, I like to laugh.

That's another one of my confetti things.

Going back to the beginning of the conversation is, I like to bring joy all the time.

I don't care.

For some people, it's a turn off because I will try to turn any situation silly or fun.

But to me, I just can't be serious.

Being serious is so boring.

That's why I could never have a normal nine to five job.

I just can't be serious.

I like having fun.

Laughing is fun.

Making other people laugh is fun to me.

If that's what it takes me to navigate this world and this life, then we're here for a short time, and you can either be here for a short time and be miserable or you can be here for a short time and make the most of it and the best of it.

And that's what I'm doing.

I'm trying.

Aren't we all?

The best we can do, right?

Let's try.

So in kind of that similar vein, I assume knowing you for a very short period of time, you know, obviously collecting the Crocs and stuff.

It is something that does genuinely bring you joy.

And it is who you are.

But do you ever feel like now that because you are a world record holder and you are known as this, do you ever feel the pressure of that?

Or do you think you would be okay if for whatever reason, one day you woke up and it just wasn't your thing anymore, you would be totally okay just moving on to the next?

Or do you feel some sort of pressure to keep collecting, keep going, and keep sharing?

So that is a fantastic question.

And it's very multi-layered because there's a yes and no portion to it.

There was a time where I did feel the pressure and it was like, I mean, this was years ago when I started, I first started going viral for all the things I was doing.

And then that's when I became not myself.

Now, I'm like, oh man, now I'm just, people only know me as the Croc King or the Croc Guy.

And it started getting really disheartening doing lots of these interviews I was doing.

So say I could do a new segment that took hours of preparation, hours of filming, and then they condense it down to like three to five minute video.

They cut down everything out of my life that would make me human, like the backstory and why I collect the Crocs and what Crocs means to me.

And then they just turned me into just, it's just the collection.

So it became less about me, the human and more just about the collection itself.

So that kind of, that brought me down.

I remember there was like a while, there was like a three month stretch like last year where I just didn't buy any Crocs because I was just like, I'm over, I'm over being the Croc man.

Like I still want to keep collecting, but I don't want to be the Croc man.

But then there was a lot of times where I would get reminded of, this has now transcended myself.

It's bigger than just me.

I would get messages from like strangers from around the world all the time.

Like, hey, your collection brings me joy and it brings me hope and we love your personality and like it would just, it was all this like reassurance that I'm not just doing it.

Obviously, I love Crocs, but to be able to reach these people in a positive way where they're like, you give me like the confidence to be myself.

Then I started realizing like there was more to it than just collecting for me.

I'm like, I do like making people happy.

For me, that was what helped me continue on.

Then I'm like, okay, I'm going to wear this Croc King persona as like a badge of honor.

As long as I never have to change who I am, then it'll never be not fun.

There was, I remember a major news organization that wanted to do a story on me.

This was in the summer of 23.

But they wanted to change my life story and change everything.

I was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing any of that at all.

It was weird.

They were like, oh, your back story is a little too sad.

We want to, I'm like, that's what the whole point of it is.

It's about resilience and overcoming and perseverance, and you're taking away this, what gives me heart.

You know what I mean?

From that moment on, I was like, I will never ever compromise who I am.

I don't care who it is.

I don't care what they ask me.

This media company, they were so appalled that I turned them down.

I don't think they've ever just been turned down before by regular Joe Schmo like me.

They were just so mad about it.

I was like, you know what?

That more motivation and I'm glad I didn't do the interview with them.

Then from there, I would do more interviews and I would preface them.

In the beginning with, I'm going to be me, I'm going to dress how I want, I'm going to say what I want, I'm going to do what I want.

If you don't want me, that's fine.

You came to me and you asked me to do your piece, but if I'm going to do it, we're not changing my story.

I'm going to be me and that's that.

Since then, 99.9 percent of places have been on board with it.

There's been two that were like, now we do it my way or no way.

I was like, then no way.

I don't care.

I can't get for you.

It still brings me the utmost great joy to do this, and it's still so much fun to answer your question.

There's no pressure anymore once I figured out my place in the world, so to speak, and once I figured out that this is also helping other people, which obviously I never started collecting Crocs thinking that one day I would be doing interviews all over the world, where people would then see these interviews, and then DM me, and tell me like how inspiring and how it helped them, and then they would share their collections with me, and I'm like, this random person from New Zealand is sharing this spark of joy that they had just by seeing the silly collection that started out kind of as a joke, if you really think about it, because I was mad at the trolls, so I just kept getting more and kept getting more.

I'm thinking, there's this one person in New Zealand, now there's this one person in wherever, like Canada, and I just all over the world, just started reaching out to me, and then it got to the point where someone would be like, I'm from Malta, and I'd have to Google it, because I've never even heard of that country before.

I'm like, okay, I'm reaching all these cool places, and I'm just going to keep, as long as I'm having fun with it, I don't see any reason to stop, as long as it's still bringing joy.

There's no pressure anymore.

In the beginning, yes, especially with viral comes a lot of hate too.

People don't realize that, and I think, going back to when I lost my love for doing this last year, was I was still trying to navigate being this recognized figure, and I would get so much hate mail, emails, DMs, just angry people.

I've gotten death threats before, and I don't care what people say.

They say, don't read it, and don't take any stock into it.

But I'm a human being, so if you tell me you hate me, it's going to sting a little even if I don't know you.

I'm a one-man team, right?

I don't have an assistant or a social media manager, so I have to go through all my messages one by one by one by one.

Because a lot of times, for example, me being here was born out of a DM on Instagram, and if I don't read through all these messages, I would never find these fun opportunities to do these things, and meet cool people like you, Jessica, and you, Alexis.

This is great that social media led us into this little confetti party.

Yeah.

It's the good and the bad.

We talk about that a lot here in Confetti Land.

Obviously, with confetti too, it's really easy for people to think it's very surface level, and it's just about pretending everything's great, and let's throw confetti and stuff like that.

But we always are very careful to talk about it's a symbol of confetti, and life is hard.

There's no denying that, and we never want to shy away from it, and we never want to pretend there aren't the bad parts of life that happen.

It's just the choice to choose confetti and joy and hope and all those things, despite all of the bad that does happen.

I appreciate you sharing that.

I'd love to hear a little bit about, so I know you gave us your history with foster care and being bullied.

I think I had even kind of saw that you went through some health issues.

How do you kind of navigate kind of the before and after?

And when you kind of go through hard things and still, you know, choose to be this happy person who loves to laugh, but as you just said, like, you know, you want to still own your story and not, you know, pretend it didn't happen.

But do you ever kind of struggle with, you know, being such a happy, upbeat person, but when you are kind of feeling those darker moments or, you know, something bad happens, feeling like a pressure to not live in those feelings because, you know, there is this kind of, suck it up and like, let's be happy.

So I'm going to, you know what, I love you guys so much already.

Like, I love you because these are like new questions that I've never gotten before.

So I'll share with you something I've never shared before, which will give perspective on all this.

So when I was 16, so back in 2000, a lot happened for me in 2007.

So Jessica, you being in Connecticut, we have the Department of Children and Families, and then Alexis, you're in Tennessee, I think you guys said.

Every state has its own version of that.

Some are like Department of Protective Services or whatever they call it.

Every state has its own child welfare system, et cetera.

So back when I was in the system, you could be 16 years old and emancipate yourself from the state, as long as you brought up a good case and a good reason.

So I did that.

So I emancipated myself at 16.

I didn't really have a plan.

I just didn't want to be controlled.

My whole childhood was robbed from me.

Think about that.

So I was taken away when I was five years old, and for good reason.

I'm not angry at the fact that that happened.

So five to 16, that's your whole life, right?

So from birth to five, I was living in such violent, deplorable conditions that the state deemed my family unworthy of being fit.

So think about that.

So from birth to five, I was in such horrible living conditions that I was taking away and put into the state for the rest of my childhood, essentially five to 16 now.

So from in that 11 year span, I'm bouncing around and like I could go on and on about the horrors that happened.

But like that's not what this is about.

It's about how I overcame that.

And you just have to think surface level when you're in a system like that, even if you know nothing about it, it couldn't have been good.

So from five to 16, I just went through more horror and that's why I decided at 16, I would rather with no plan, brave life, face the elements of life on my own as a teenager, then let these adults that have ruined my life continue to ruin my life further and continue.

Like I was tired of being controlled and dictated.

Like when you're in the system, you are told when you can shower, when you can eat.

It's prison.

It's prison for like abused, traumatized children.

And I didn't want that anymore.

And now the story that I've never shared is, so after 16, I didn't have anywhere to live.

Like I literally left the courthouse and I was like, wow, I didn't think this through that well because I have nowhere to go.

So I lived in park benches, playscapes, on the colder nights.

Like I had to break into apartment buildings and like sneak into the storage units in the basements.

And I would sleep in these creaky, wet, damp, molded, mildew and rat infested basements.

And I broke into people's like barns and sheds and garages on cold nights when I didn't want to.

Like it was either that or die.

It was survived to me was survival.

So at 16, I was doing this.

And meanwhile, I'm trying, I'm still going to high school, still trying to survive that.

Only because those six, seven hours a day, at least I had a meal, at least I had a bathroom.

We had a gym with showers so I could shower.

And you know what, I was like, okay, this is six hours subtracted out of a 24 hour day where I know I will be alive.

So now I have the, I don't know, I'm bad at math.

How many hours are left in the day?

18 or 17, 18, whatever.

So I had to focus now on those other 17, 18 hours on how to live.

And I did what any sensible person would do.

I got a job, but as a 16-year-old, you're very limited on where you can work and how many hours you can work and what you can do.

So I worked in fast food, making $6 an hour.

So it wasn't really much to survive.

But so like I didn't have a lot of money.

So now this is like, this will all connect to your question, I promise.

So I have no doubt.

There'd be like crazy cold winter nights.

Where like I had no food, no money.

I had pennies in my pocket.

So I had to go through dumpsters to find food.

And I knew that like restaurants at the end of the night, they would throw out like, like I love Dunkin Donuts.

I don't know if they have those in Tennessee, but I love Dunkin Donuts for the fact that at the end of the night, they would bag up all their bagels, all their donuts, all their croissants, all their pastries, everything, and just throw them in the dumpster.

So I knew like I could always dumpster dive at a Dunkin Donuts and there would always be food.

Same thing with like Subways.

They would throw out their bags of bread and cookies and like the stuff that they didn't sell, that they couldn't resell because it passed its time frame or whatever.

But I would, so I would do this.

And this is how I survived.

I ate out of dumpsters.

And so, to answer your question, how do I get out of the darkness?

I will never eat out of a dumpster again.

Like my life now is beautiful.

It's blessed.

Like I have a home.

I have four dogs.

I have a good job.

I have a good life now.

So, yes, I am a human being.

Do I still think about those moments?

And does it affect me?

Sure, but not in the same way it did living through it.

Like one of the worst nights of my life, senior picture day of high school, right?

So you're supposed to be at your best.

It's senior picture day.

You're going to remember this forever.

This is your last time taking photos with the group of people that you just spent the last four years with in high school, plus if you went to middle school, elementary school together.

So the night before senior picture day, I remember, I worked a shift at the sandwich shop that I worked at, and I was so brutally tired that I didn't even have the energy to find an apartment building and break into the basement.

It was so cold that day.

It was actually flirty.

So I was at one of the parks that I would sleep at, and I'm like, this is my first time encountering snow and freezing temperatures, like being outside, and I'm like, what do I do?

I'm going to die if I don't figure something out.

There was some sort of garage thing that they would have supplies in, but it was locked, and I was so mad.

I was like, damn, it's locked.

What do I do?

There was a porta potty off in the corner of the park, and I said, well, it's probably a few degrees warmer in there, and it's not snowing in there.

So this is what I got to do to survive.

So I ended up, I don't even call it sleep.

I ended up sleeping in there, but it was really, I was in fetal position trying to retain any bit of warmth that I could, because at that point I was turning blue, because that's how cold it was.

So I huddled together with my backpack and myself, and just rocked back and forth until it was morning.

And then at one point during the night, I slipped on the receptacle part, and one of my arms fell into the toilet part.

So now I'm covered in urine and feces, and now it's the next day, now it's the next morning.

I'm like, I don't have a change of clothes.

I ain't got nothing.

And I remember that walk of shame to school, like covered in poop, like it was like life could not get lower than that.

It could not.

And to this day, I think this is simultaneously one of the saddest pictures I've ever taken, but one of the most inspirational because I still have my high school yearbook.

And when I look through it, like every now and then, when you want to be melancholic and reflect on your life.

So when we took our class photo, we were in the gym on the bleachers.

And I smelled so bad from sleeping in a portable bathroom.

Like you can imagine it was the worst smell of ever.

That you could see me, I was in the corner of the bleachers.

And there was a huge gap between me and the next group of people.

They were all squished together because they didn't want to.

I mean, for good reason.

I mean, it smelled huge.

It was horrible because they didn't want to be near me.

And like if you look at everybody else in the photos, there's no space between anybody.

Everybody's all squished together.

And there's me in the corner with these gaps because I smelled so bad.

And that is how I remember my senior year of high school.

That was senior picture day.

And like I said, like, I like now thinking back on that, like I survived that, like there's nothing that will ever change that.

And in fact, where would my life be now if I didn't go through that?

Like I wouldn't I would not be the person I am.

It has given me so much gratitude, like to be able to survive that.

And I figured if I can survive that at 16 years old, 17 years old, I can survive anything.

So fast forward to present day, it's just like I'm going to go through some hard times.

I'm going to go through and navigate pains and life trials and tribulations.

But now to me, everything's a learning lesson.

Like I don't I don't get mad when things don't go my way anymore.

I just think about what I've learned from this.

And how I can improve my life and use that as motivation to do more things.

And that's part of the reason like even now as a grown adult, I still utilize my bucket list.

I still have the same bucket list I've had since I was a kid.

And I still have I'm still adding to it.

I'm still crossing things off all the time, all the time.

And these things give me great joy.

And these are the reasons like why I'll never be I will never be trapped in the darkness that was living in that porta potty and eating out of dumpsters.

Like it doesn't get any lower than that, I don't think.

So now where I am, like, come on.

I'm just having fun with life now.

Like that's all it is.

I'm making up for this entire childhood of lost time.

And like I said, my whole childhood was robbed from me.

So now I could be a 33-year-old man and dress in a Croc costume and not care.

And I don't, like judgment, I don't care.

I'm just going to be me at all times.

That's what it is.

I'm going to bring joy to people.

And obviously, first and foremost, I bring joy to myself because sometimes I'll be at home by myself listening to music, just dancing and doing whatever.

And I'm like, there's no eyes on me.

There's no cameras.

This is just who I am.

This is it.

This is it.

Oh my goodness, Doogie.

Listening to you, I don't know how you did it.

My heart broke and then was put back together in the same breath.

I can't even imagine.

Obviously, we all go through our stuff, but I can not even imagine.

I think people can go one of two ways, right?

With what you experience, you can choose to let it consume you or you can choose to fight against it and do the opposite.

I cannot even imagine going through all that and to be this bright, sunshiny, happy person that spreads joy after going through all of that.

I have no words.

I have no words.

Seriously, thank you for letting us enter your story and for sharing those things with us.

Like you've literally navigated things that nobody ever should have to.

And I was thinking the exact same thing as Jessica of like people can go one of two ways and it's just incredible that you are the joy-filled human being that you are today.

And yeah, wow.

And I do want to say it is okay to feel hurt and feel those because like I did as a kid, I was hurt for a long time.

And I tried to be joyful when I was younger, but when I was living through it, I was so young and so naive to the world.

Like I didn't know how to handle or process my emotions.

And I'm not perfect.

Nobody's perfect.

And back then, I was angry at the world.

Teenage angst and I felt like everyone had failed me and it affected how I formed relationships as I got older.

I was very distrusting of anybody, especially adults and especially child welfare people.

All I could associate them with was what I went through.

Obviously, not everyone is the same, but I was so hurt for so long.

One of the things people always ask me, do I have any regrets?

I think the only regret I would have when I was a kid just being so angry for so long because it definitely took away so much joy that I could have had if I had realized it sooner.

So many more memories I could have made, I didn't because I was just angry at the world all the time.

That's another part of me being who I am now and just unapologetically awesome in doing this stuff, is I'm also trying to make up for all this lost time, not just as a child, but after the after effects of my late teen years into my early to mid 20s, I was just so hurt and so angry trying to overcome all that for so long that people don't realize the domino effect that this causes.

It's just because once I hit my 18th birthday, now I'm a legal adult, it doesn't mean I know right and wrong, and I know the correct path forward.

It was always a learning curve, but the learning curve was like this.

It was crazy learning curve, trying to figure it out and navigate.

Like I said, I had to do what I had to do to survive, and if that meant eating out of dumpsters or sleeping in bathrooms, it is what it is.

I survived and now I try to live life the best that I can, knowing where I was and knowing where life can be, and part of me sharing this story.

People like when that news organization said that backstory was too sad, I'm thinking about all the people that have gone through that, or are going through it, or will go through it in the future.

Maybe they heard one of my interviews and one of my stories, and maybe that was the one thread that they clung onto was that, bad things happen, but you can still live, and you can overcome it.

I've had people tell me that my resilience has helped them become more resilient.

I'm like, to me, that's worth it.

I will share unapologetically all the time.

Thank you for sharing it here with us because I think it's become your superpower, and I think rightfully so, even if you were angry and had maybe some regret over feeling that way, I think now you have, you've doubled down and that's now what makes you so special.

So it's like you had to go through all of those emotions and all that experience to be as joyful and as kind of inspiring as you are today.

Okay, I really, really want to learn a little bit more about The Bucket List.

I know we've talked about it a bit, but I'm like trying to collect my thoughts here.

Okay, so we know you started it and it did come before The Crocs and you've had this for quite a long time.

How do you choose what makes the list?

What is something that is bucket list worthy versus just something in the everyday?

In the beginning, I'll admit it was a little more pretentious.

Again, I was a kid and I'm like, I want to jump out of a plane or I want to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower.

It's just like these things that everybody wants to do and thinks of.

But then as I started getting older and I started realizing that there's smaller moments in life too that are worth doing and worth achieving.

I think going back to the beginning of the list, like literally the first thing was graduate high school, which I thought was, I was like, I need more like authentic heartwarming stuff like that.

Like everything doesn't have to be this grandiose big melodrama.

You know what I mean?

So like as I can like some of them are insane.

Like, for example, one of the things on my bucket list for no reason was I want to fight an MMA fighter or a professional MMA fighter and I'm not a fighter.

I have no experience in fighting.

I just wanted to do it.

So this was back in 2015, right?

I had emailed like so many random like UFC fighters, Bellator fighters.

I was like, I want the major leagues.

I want somebody who's going to hurt me.

So I ended up through a through a friend, mutual friend meeting this guy who fought for Bellator, which a lot of people don't know Bellator.

It's it's kind of like how there's like WWE in wrestling, and then there's like AEW, there's like different companies.

So Bellator is like another professional MMA organization like the UFC.

So I ended up like I met this guy like the day before the fight, and he was just like giving me pointers.

So this dude had like 20 years of experience, me like one day.

And so like, I like, I went in with no none.

I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get beat up.

This is so crazy, but it's cool.

And I ended up lasting into the second round.

And did he go easier on me than he probably would have, a real opponent probably.

But if you watch the videos, this dude messed me up.

By the end of it, I was bleeding out of my nose.

I had a concussion, but I didn't care.

Like how many people can say they just randomly decided to fight a professional MMA fighter for no reason other than just the lore and the stories.

And now, like I look back on those pictures and videos and I'm like, I did that.

That is awesome.

And so yes, some bucket list items are as wild as that, but then some are simple.

Like I wanted to tip a thousand dollars on a bill, just like, you know, whatever, go out to dinner, tip a thousand bucks for no reason, other than to bring this person joy.

And so there's smaller things like that.

One time I was like, I want to eat dinner in reverse order.

So dessert, then the main course, then the appetizer.

Like I just like, this is something I want to do before I die.

That's the whole point of a bucket list.

It's what you want to do before you kick the bucket.

It could be anything.

I wanted to adopt a dog and I was like, hey, I like dogs.

I want to adopt a dog.

So what did I do?

I adopted a dog and now I have four.

You know what I mean?

So the bucket list is just born out of all these moments and all these memories.

Actually, I was just in Cleveland and I can tell you that was one of the most, I would say, like heartwarming and fun bucket list items that I've ever done.

So bucket list item number 515 is to go to a complete stranger's wedding and party and have a good time.

So basically, I wanted to crash a wedding, but with the permission of the bride and groom, I didn't want to actually ruin somebody.

Like that's supposed to be the best day of your life.

I didn't want to ruin a wedding.

So it was like around six months ago, I had put out an ad across all my social medias and actually put one out in the local newspaper, one of the newspapers in Connecticut.

I was like, all right, I need a complete stranger to invite me to their wedding.

Please, it'll be great.

I explained my bucket list and yada, yada, yada.

I ended up receiving close to 400 applications.

I was like, I'm so overwhelmed.

This is, I didn't realize this many people were interested.

So I went through them all one by one by one by one.

Then I did, I narrowed it down and conducted random interviews of what's going on, where is it, when is it, and it ended up being this couple that got married in Ohio last week.

This was six months ago.

The bride was like, all right, I'm not going to tell anybody.

This is a complete surprise.

She also happened to be a huge Crocs fan.

So that's what sold me.

She's like, if I wear Crocs to my wedding, which I'm going to, would that sell you?

Oh my God, yeah, of course.

Definitely.

What?

So they were planning their wedding and kept it a complete secret.

And I knew nobody.

So last week I flew out to Cleveland.

I showed up to their wedding and they even had me be their flower man.

So I got to do this whole dancing routine.

They provided me with flowers.

And I also, I wanted to spice it up a little.

So in the flower basket, I actually filled not only flowers, but gibets, gibets, a bunch of gibets.

So I'm throwing out flowers and gibets to the guests.

And then they actually, they one-upped me.

They had, they bought me a beer belt where I wore a beer belt, where I was throwing beers out to people too.

So I'm throwing out beers, I'm throwing out flowers, throwing out gibets.

I don't know anybody there.

I'm a complete stranger in a city I've never been to.

I've never been to Ohio.

I don't even know where Ohio is on a map.

I had to look it up.

I'm not good with geography or state-ology, if that's even a real word.

But let me tell you man, wow.

It's like the reception that I got, everyone thought it was so funny because they're like, of course, Cameron was her name.

Of course, Cameron would have the world record Crocs holder at her wedding.

They're like, that's something so Cameron.

I thought that was so funny that it became a verb like her name.

She did the Cameron thing.

Again, so these are these random things I just decide I want to do.

There's no rhyme or reason to most of them.

I just want to do these things.

I wanted to hike a mountain in Colorado because I like hiking and Colorado is known for their scenery.

That was a random thing I actually crossed off in September last month.

I went to Colorado and said, hey, I'm going to climb a mountain with one of my friends out there.

We did it.

It was awesome.

I just keep doing these fun.

It's all about, again, bringing joy.

Originally, it started out as a survival thing like graduate, tie shoes, do this, get a job.

I want to come little because I don't want to minimize the amount of time and energy.

You know how hard it is to graduate high school when you're a homeless teenager?

That was not easy.

Out of all the qualified kids in my class, I was bottom GPA wise last.

I don't know how I did it.

I don't know how I graduated, but I did.

I did it.

To me, these moments are so important.

Life is about living.

As I continue living, I continue thinking of new experiences.

I just recently added officiate a wedding.

I want to do that.

I don't know why.

Why not?

Just because.

I got to get my ordained minister license or something, which is so easy to get.

I just looked it up.

You just pay like 20 bucks and pass a test online and that's it.

I'm like, okay, I want to do that.

I want to officiate someone's wedding.

Why not?

Doing it.

These ideas is popping my head.

Listen, you got great response on crashing somebody's wedding.

I'm sure you're going to get even more applications to officiate it.

The funniest part about that too was that, sorry, they put me in their wedding program.

They had it like a newspaper style, which was really cool.

Then the one whole page of their wedding program was dedicated to me.

This is how I knew this was meant to be.

The picture they chose of me, so I have this iconic photo that went viral like five or six years ago.

I was completely naked but in a bathtub covered in Crocs, like bathing in Crocs.

That's the photo they used in their wedding program.

I was like, it's meant to be.

They're silly.

They're embracing how wild this is.

I love it.

I think we're kindred spirits.

I have a similar photo in a bathtub of Confetti.

There we go.

Okay.

I have to know how many items are currently on the bucket list.

It sounds like you continuously add to it, but as of right now, how many items are on the list?

I think it's over 500.

It's less than 650.

I think 550 something, 560 something.

But like I said, as something comes to my head, I just randomly added in there.

The whole point though is I never want it to end.

I mean, when it ends, that means I die.

But let's hope that's not for a long time.

I'm going to 600, 700, 800, 900.

Who knows where it ends up?

As long as I keep having fun.

Again, if you're having fun in life, just keep going.

Keep going.

Keep going.

That's the theme, isn't it?

Just keep going.

Wow.

What was her name?

Dory?

Was it Dory from Finding Nemo?

Just keep swimming, swimming.

Am I thinking of the wrong thing?

Was that her?

Okay.

No, you got it.

Same thing.

Just keep going, going, going.

That's what we do.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all this with us.

I knew, I knew you would be an amazing person to talk to, but I do appreciate being so open and kind of sharing some stuff maybe you haven't shared before.

So our super silly segment, If You Will Indulge Us is just for fun.

We ask you a few kind of more rapid fire, very random questions and the idea is to just give us your initial thoughts.

Don't think about it too much.

I think you'll be a pro at this.

Are you ready?

Ready.

Okay.

First question.

Is a taco a sandwich?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Wait, am I supposed to explain my thoughts or just like just answer straight out?

Your choice.

We usually get a lot of explanation, but it's your choice.

You just want to stick with it.

We'll take it.

We're going to stick with it.

I'm going to just like a hot dog is a sandwich too.

I don't care what anyone says.

It's a sandwich.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

Okay.

Would you rather fight one giant rubber duck or a hundred tiny inflatable alligators?

Oh, I'm going to go with the alligators because crocs win every time.

And I'm the croc man.

Okay.

We should have seen that one coming.

Yeah, we should have.

Okay.

If the moon were made of cheese, which cheese would it be?

I mean, I'm going to go with, I love so cheese is one of my favorite foods of all time.

It's so random.

It depends on what I'm eating and what I'm pairing it with because I do love me some Swiss.

But then again, I love provolone depending on what it's with.

You ever have brie cheese before?

Brie cheese is phenomenal.

Then Munster, classic Munster, I just eat by the block.

How about I take all those cheeses and melt it together?

It'd be like a five or six cheese blend for the moon.

I can get behind it.

Amazing.

Okay.

Would you trust a pizza delivery robot to pick out toppings for you?

Yeah, why not?

They're probably smarter than me.

They got like AI, right?

Maybe they'll pair together something amazing.

Hopefully, that robot listen to all the cheeses that you just listed.

Yeah, they're learning.

They now know your favorite cheese.

So, they'll be able to pick out something good.

Okay.

If you could high-five any inanimate object, what would it be?

High-five any inanimate object.

A massive human-sized croc, like me.

Like you right now.

They need to make one massive six-foot-tall croc.

I would high-five it a million times over.

Yes.

You could just see it sitting beside your door and as you leave every day, just to high-five.

That would be the dream.

Somebody listening, make this happen.

Put it on the bucket list.

Is a pineapple more proud to be a fruit, or is it more proud to be a symbol of hospitality?

I'm going to go with fruit.

It's definitely, there's a lot more hospitable items and things I could think of before a pineapple.

They're sweet, they're delicious.

I get tropical vibes from pineapples.

They're a fruit.

Fruit all day, baby.

Okay, a couple more.

Do fish have best friends?

Of course, but they never remember who they are because their memory span is literally like a split second.

So they have a new best friend like every second.

Oh, no, they're my best friend.

No, no, no.

I can't.

If you could only communicate through sound effects, which would be your go-to noise?

Fart noises all day.

That's it.

Keep it silly.

Keep it silly.

I'm immature, I know, but I love it.

It makes me who I am.

My daughter would appreciate that.

I was about to say, I feel like wouldn't Emmy Joy just be obsessed?

Oh, yeah.

My stepdad has the fart machine, the farting mugs and stuff, and our daughter is four and she just eats that up.

I love that for her.

Okay.

Last question that I chose, especially for you.

If nachos could have emotions, would they be more excited about the cheese or the toppings and why?

This one we need an explanation for.

Wow.

I don't know if you chose this because you know that I love nachos, but I actually that's like my favorite appetizer ever.

Yes.

God.

See, I love cheese.

So this is impossible to answer because I love cheese so much.

But to me, it's not the cheese that makes the nachos because you can't really screw up cheese.

It's not like you just sprinkle it on there.

But I'm going to have to go with the toppings then because what really makes these nachos great, when I'm doing this nacho tour across Connecticut, where I'm trying nachos everywhere, and every place just puts a little different spin on it with the toppings, and I always gravitate towards the places that are more exotic with their toppings.

I'm a sucker for barbecue pulled pork on nachos.

I don't know why, they're just fantastic.

The sweetness mixed with the savory and saltiness, and the crunch of the chips, and the all of it amalgamated together is heaven.

Heaven to me is a massive plate of nachos.

Jessica, I'm so glad that that was in there because I forgot that we needed to talk about nachos as well.

I remembered.

Have you had nachos in Wallingford yet?

No, I have not.

I'm pretty sure.

This is what I do is when I get an idea, I go crazy or hardcore about it.

When I decided that I love nachos, I was like, I had this whole ridiculous spreadsheet of I wanted to do the top 100 nacho spots in Connecticut.

I literally went through Google reviews and Yelp reviews, and I had 500 places that I narrowed it down.

I couldn't choose 100.

There was this 101, and then it ended up being because I just couldn't eliminate one.

It's 101, and I'm pretty sure there's, I obviously haven't memorized every single one, but there's got to be something Wallingford in there.

If you guys have good nachos, then you would have made it to the list.

But I haven't been anywhere yet.

I feel like there's got to be a place, but I think if you ever do come to Wallingford, hopefully we can get nachos together.

Yes.

Because I too am all about the toppings and the different things.

So I think that'll have to be our next adventure.

I need that to happen.

So I will go through my list and I'll see you.

Okay.

To date.

I love that.

I will say that if pulled pork is your favorite topping, you should probably make your way to Texas as well.

I'm a Texas girl living in Tennessee and barbecue, something that Texas does well.

Not saying that Connecticut doesn't, but I make it a 102 and pick a place in Texas too.

Guess what?

So one of the things on my bucket list is to try authentic barbecue in Texas.

That's actually on there.

So I'm crossing off.

I've never been to Texas, but it's on there.

Glad to hear it.

Alexis will give you that tour.

Oh my goodness.

Thank you so much for joining us.

This has been such an honor and such a blast.

A couple questions to close us out.

The first one is, many people face daily struggles, whether visible or not.

So what message or advice would you give to those currently fighting their own battles?

I would say, we're working through this together, so we're going to adopt the Dory mentality.

Just keep swimming, swimming, which sounds silly, but it's honestly, it's a true metaphor for life.

It's like, you have to keep going, you have to stay consistent.

And it's like, to me, now, this is going to be so cliche, but it has helped me move forward with so many, like when I thought I failed, or I thought I was stuck, or I thought something didn't work out.

There's no such thing as failure because if you don't obtain the desired outcome, okay, what did you do?

If you think you failed that first time, you learn something, you experience something.

That's where the win is, is the experience and how that's going to affect you moving forward.

And like, okay, someone going through a tough time, now you know how it feels.

There is no more important or greater human emotion than empathy.

Empathy is when you have that first-person perspective, you know how this situation made you feel.

You know what you needed to do to overcome that.

You know what you had to go through.

And with knowing and understanding empathy, you can truly live because now you can relate to others, and now you can move forward because you know how to navigate through this issue.

So that's why I was like, when people ask me how I still maintain a positive attitude, it's like, okay, so say that something bad happened, well guess what?

Now I know how to overcome that, and I know, okay, this situation didn't vibe with me.

So it's a learning experience.

There's no losses in life.

You either win or you learn, or both.

Well said.

Okay, last thing before we pop our confetti poppers, because we know everyone listening here in Confetti Land is going to want to connect with you.

So where and how can they do that?

Honestly, I'm so bad at technology and social media, but my Instagram is where I pay attention to the most.

It's because, think about Instagram, it's so simple.

You take a photo and you hit upload.

Boom, easy peasy.

That's why people are like, are you on TikTok?

I'm like, kinda, not really.

I can't figure it out.

It's too complicated.

And once, like I always say to people, like if you're doing something that requires way too much frustration and thought and energy, then you're not doing it for the right reasons.

And like, I would get frustrated trying to make a TikTok video, so I'm like, I don't even care.

So Instagram, at Doogie Lish, D-O-O-G-I-E-L-I-S-H, and people are like, well, why aren't you, why isn't your name The Croc King?

I'm like, well, it goes back to the, I'm a human being first, so I will always represent myself first and foremost, I am Doogie, that is me, and then everything else I do in life comes second to that.

So it's me first, everything else after, at Doogie Lish.

Love it.

Perfect explanation.

I agree with you.

That's why I have Alexis to do on my social media because I can't do it myself.

Okay.

Are we ready to pop some confetti poppers?

Oh, I'm ready.

First confetti pop of the season.

So do I just, how do I do it?

Okay.

All right.

So you take the lid off and then it's like a volleyball.

Yep.

Just take the top off first and then it's like a volleyball situation.

So you just like serve it.

I'll count us down and then it's like push up from the top.

Yep.

All right.

We're ready.

One, two, three, go.

Wow.

Yeah.

You guys are clearly pros at it.

Yours have the top.

Mine just like wax a daisily.

You guys are great.

See?

It's a learning lesson.

I learned how to do it correctly now.

You learned.

I didn't fail.

I learned something.

Exactly.

You never fail with Confetti.

All right.

Thank you so much again for joining us.

It was truly, truly an honor.

And I certainly hope this will not be your last visit to Confetti Land.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate you guys having me.

This was awesome.

For more fun, join us on the socials at The Confetti Bar.

To receive free inspiration delivered to your inbox, you can also join The Confetti Club at theconfettibar.com/join.

Thanks for visiting.