Lyle Drescher, Better Known As The Therapy Gecko, Shares The Origins Of His Stream And Why People Just Wanna Be Heard

t’s fairly common knowledge that people are in dire need of good listeners nowadays, especially online. In a world where people are often engaging in conversations, merely waiting for their turn to interject with a story of their own, an unlikely hero has emerged on the internet to help remedy this problem: and his name is Lyle Drescher, aka Therapy Gecko.

Last summer, Drescher came up with his unique spin on the call-in show format where people from all around the globe could call in to discuss life, work through their issues, share wild stories or simply talk about nothing at all. Since then, the Therapy Gecko has climbed his way out of the overcrowded space to make a bit of a name for himself, hosting a livestream on Reddit and Twitch three times a week, producing a podcast, traveling the country for a documentary and even putting on live shows in several cities around the U.S.

We sat down with the Geck himself recently to talk about how he got started on this peculiar path, the origins of the show, his presence in meme culture and what he’s planning next.

Q: Welcome, Lyle. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us. Start things off with a quick introduction to let everyone know who you are and what you do.

A: My name is Lyle. I am otherwise known as “Therapy Gecko.” I am a gecko and I take phone calls from people on the computer. I always give the spiel that I have no idea what I'm doing, and I didn't think I would get this far. People call me a “therapy gecko.” I picked the name early in my career, but I hate the name.

I don't give therapy, I have no idea what I'm doing. If you call me for advice and I give you bad advice, it is your fault, which is fine, because I like to set the expectations low. If you think of me as someone who gives good advice, then I give you bad advice, you'll be disappointed. But if you think of me as someone who gives bad advice, and I give you good advice, you will actually be doubly as satisfied.

Q: For those who may not know about it, would you explain what “Therapy Gecko” is all about?

A: Therapy Gecko is a livestream that I do where I talk to strangers on the internet over the phone. I don't screen any of the phone calls. And it's interesting, you would think that 90 percent of the phone calls are people farting into the phone or trolling or whatever, and that exists, but I talk to all kinds of people about all kinds of things. Sometimes we get a little bit serious, sometimes we get silly, sometimes people will reveal things to me that I don't even know if they expected to reveal, and it's a good time.

It's interesting to get peeks into all these different people's lives. I'm very grateful that people feel comfortable sharing their experiences with me. But yeah, that's pretty much what we do on the stream is we just chat it up with folks. We sometimes have a topic, but I don't like the topics that much because I look at topics as sort of guiding points. I don't want people to see them as “prisons” that we need to fully live our conversation within the bounds of.

Q: Why do you want them to be more kind of vague instead of like specific things that you're looking for a specific topic or to answer on?

A: The reason I pick the questions that I do is because I like questions that make anywhere from 40 to 60 percent sense. Not too much sense that it is a boring question with a very specific answer, but enough sense that someone could feasibly answer it. A question that I have on my stream often is, "Why?" Which is a great question because there are so many answers to it. People typically say, "Why what?" And I go, "That's a different question. You can't just answer my question with another question. You have to answer the question of why." So I like the open-ended questions because it allows people to creatively interpret the way that they would like to answer.

Q: Let’s go into your background a bit before going into the origins of Therapy Gecko. So, how’d you initially get into making content online? I know your YouTube channel is much older than the show and also has various skits and things.

A: I've been making stuff and putting it on the internet since I was in fifth grade. On that particular YouTube channel though [Lyle Forever], I started making movies. I was like 14 or 13 years old, and I started out with very serious films. Then in high school, I started making more sort of silly stuff. I used to do man-on-the-street interviews. And it's funny because what I do now, you would think it's similar to man-on-the-street interviews, but it's very different because the dynamic between this and man-on-the-street interviews is that you actually have to go up to people and get their attention and get them to exist in the context of your thing. That's an extra challenge to get someone to talk to you, and you have to summon an extra amount of gusto, but this is a lot easier because people call in to me, so they're already sort of prepared to talk and share.

Q: So in June last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, you launched the Therapy Gecko livestream show on the Reddit Public Access Network that went on to become the call-in show later on. Give us the full backstory of how you got the idea to start doing this and why.

A: So about a year ago, I made a short film called "Help, Help, Help, Help, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck" that is about a lizard who escapes from a young boy who was trying to have sex with him. And so I made that film and it wasn't very good, but I had the gecko suit lying around. That was sort of prong one. Then prong two was Reddit Public Access Network (RPAN) happened and I saw all these people doing all these interesting things on RPAN. I thought it would be an interesting place to stream, and I knew I wanted to stream there, but I didn't know what exactly I wanted to do. And so the two things sort of both combined to form Therapy Gecko.

Q: How’d you come up with the name “Therapy Gecko,” and what’s the story behind why you chose to be a gecko specifically?

A: The gecko kinda just came to me. I don't really have a reason why I chose the gecko, it all circles back to that short film that I made, and I already had the suit from that. I do though feel very connected to the animal of the gecko. I sort of do understand the concept of the spirit animal now because when I see geckos out in the wild or when I see them on the computer doing their little gecko thing, I definitely identify with them. But it's almost like the animal was picked for me and then I learned to form a greater attachment to it after the fact, as opposed to picking geckos specifically. But the therapy aspect — initially the idea was that we would do a therapy show, but also put gecko effects on the screen. So we would be talking about something serious and then a pop-up would come up that says something like, "Did you know that geckos can stick to any surface except Teflon." And I don't know why, but I just thought in my head, “that’s funny,” and we never ended up doing it. So that was sort of how Therapy Gecko came to be.

Q: How were the early days of becoming a streamer? Did you think it would be an instant success or did you doubt yourself initially?

A: I got very lucky because my stream started popping off relatively early, and it's all 100 percent thanks to Reddit and RPAN. RPAN is the most under-utilized social media network that exists right now because nobody uses it, and it's always on the front page of Reddit, which everyone uses. RPAN's cool because it's easier to get people into your stream, as opposed to Twitch where you can stream for 10 years and no one will ever come by your thing.

So the stream started, and I had a small following of people that were watching me and it was fun too. I was just having fun doing it, but there was a pandemic angle to it where I just was enjoying having this side project to work on. I'd been looking for a project to work on for a while, so yeah, that was basically what kept me going.

Q: As the show continued to evolve throughout the latter half of 2020, was there a particular moment when you started noticing that you were on to something with the stream and it was becoming successful?

A: Actually, I had a particular moment where I realized that the stream was getting bigger than I thought when my sister posted a TikTok of me behind the scenes doing one of my streams, and that went viral for some reason. I thought it went viral just cause it was “out of context” and like a funny thing that your brother is dressed up as a gecko, so I thought that nobody who was interacting with it knew who I was. Then I looked through the comments and all the comments were like, "Oh my God, that's Therapy Gecko," and I did not know that this many people who don't even follow me know who I am. So that was kind of a trip.

Q: What do you think made it click with people? What about Therapy Gecko draws people in and interests them?

A: Whatever you start, an internet thing needs a hook. I, obviously, have this gimmick that I am a gecko. People are scrolling down their feeds at the speed of light, and then they see something that makes them just stop and go, "Wait, what the fuck is this?" And then the clips that I post on social media, I edit them in a story-driven way. It’s like, alright, a person is scrolling through TikTok at the speed of light, they stop because they're like, "What the hell is this thing?" So the caller is like, "I'm having some issues with my roommates." So they go, "Hey, what the fuck is the green guy doing? Hey, what are the issues with the roommates?” “My roommate's trying to poison me." Then they go, "What?" And it just kind of keeps going on and on. So I've tried to be very intentional with that hook, line and sinker way of storytelling when I'm editing these clips.

Q: Seeing how big the show has become and how your following has grown, what did your family and friends make of it and your internet fame?

A: My dad loves it. My dad is in the chat interacting every once in a while. My mom thinks it's cool, and my sister was actually on the stream. My friends think it's cool too. It's funny though, 'cause I don't think my friends look at me as a guy that they wanna take advice from [laughs]. So it's funny because I have all these people on the internet who will call me for advice, but then I go into my personal life where no one really wants my advice on shit. So it's an interesting dynamic, but everyone's been super into it.

Q: Your sister has also appeared on the stream as your fellow gecko co-host, so how did she get involved with the stream and what does she think about it all?

A: My sister Chloe was on the stream, and I liked having her on, it was nice. It's always nice to have another person with me helping to field these phone calls. I thought it would be cool. When you start getting a social media following or whatever, and people just become interested in you, I think that there's a thing where people are interested in you. It's funny to me because I'm this weird thing where I'm both myself and I am a character. And some people are just like, “Oh, I like the character of Gecko.” Then if you're sitting on a Twitch stream for days and days, and you're watching me constantly, I feel like people start to be like, "Who actually is this guy? What's his life like? Does he have a family?" And so I feel like people were interested in hearing from Chloe because it sort of added on to the “gecko lore.”

Q: I always like to ask about people's families or friends because I find it really interesting how people from the outside view them. It's funny how they don't see you as that “advice person” as viewers do, but I think that's typical.

A: It's so funny 'cause I think everyone experiences this thing where you go out into the world on your own, leave your hometown, travel or embark on a career somewhere else, or you meet a new group of friends and develop your identity further outside of the family and friends that you grew up with — then you go back and you're still the same. You just end up being who you always were when you were with those people. I think everyone experiences that.

Q: Within your community, from Discord to the subreddit, your images or catchphrases have been used in memes occasionally, so can you tell us what your reaction to seeing your face in memes, fan art, etc. has been?

A: I know you guys are all about memes, but I always get nervous when people make memes about me because I hate catchphrases. I only have catchphrases because I can't think of something else to say. I never say anything because I want it to be a catchphrase. If people are like, “Hey, will you say ‘hookadee’ or ‘we're doing it up live,’” I say “no” because I don't like being asked to perform.

The fan art though is amazing and fucking rocks. That's actually one of my favorite things. I had a moment where I opened up mail on my stream and it was this crochet doll of myself. I remember genuinely thinking, “Whatever happens from this point forward with this thing, the fact that someone made this was enough,” if that makes sense — like I've succeeded in this. Everything further is a bonus. I was so happy that someone made that, and it was just the fucking coolest thing.

Q: Now that we’ve recently passed the one-year mark of your stream, and how do you keep it from becoming stale or a chore?

A: Well, it does get to that. Here's the problem. It does get kind of stale and does get to be kind of a chore. Streaming has a lot of ups and downs. The other night, on Monday, I streamed and hated it. It sucked. I did like a “whisper stream” at my hotel room 'cause I was on vacation, and I wanted to quit streaming forever. And then Wednesday, we had a great stream. Some guy called in to tell me about how someone had a hit out on his family, another guy called in to tell me about how he sold drugs, his house got raided by the feds and they took his parents and him to jail. It always depends, but typically one night a week, I'll have a great stream and then another night I'll have a fucking shitty stream. The other night is always up for debate, but it's hard because the main thing I do is that it's not really up to me who calls in, I'm not screening the calls.

But going forward, I'd like to do different types of streams. I'm filming this documentary over the summer that I'm really excited about. I mean, truth be told, I'm trying to find the bandwidth to do it 'cause right now I do everything. I edit the podcast, I make the clips. So it's hard after doing so many to stay creative, but I know I'm trying to.

Q: Since being a streamer is something so many people want to do, would you give us some insight into your experience as a full-time streamer. Is it as great as people imagine?

A: I think the most challenging aspect of it is that you never know what's next, you never know what's gonna happen, you never know how much longer you're gonna able to make money being an internet content douche [laughs]. So that's tough. It's a lot of work. I don't really have a job, but I probably work more than if I did. If I am not streaming, I am editing or planning something that has to do with this. So it's a lot of work.

My goal in life has always been to create my own world because I feel like people get wrapped up in this thing where they are constantly trying to get other people in other worlds to let them in and I didn't wanna get trapped in that, so I decided to sort of do my own thing. That's the best part is getting to do my own thing. But if you're a content creator, all you gotta do is use TikTok. TikTok is insane. I have friends who post a TikTok and it goes viral, and then they keep making more, and then they're like full-time content creators in a month. Even YouTube wasn't as wild as that.

Q: Do you have any favorite moments from streaming over the last year? Anything particularly weird, funny or wholesome that’s stuck out to you?

A: There was a kid who called me that was high on mushrooms. He told me that he wanted to be reincarnated as a bird, and I asked him about it. He also believed that in a past life, he was an ant or something like that. And so I was just talking with this kid about the cycle of life and how he wants to be a bird, and then after he's a bird, he'll be an astronaut. He was tripping out pretty intensely on mushrooms, and then his mom comes into the room and he tells me, “You should talk to my mom.” So I talked to his mom and I'm like, “Are you and your son tripping mushrooms together?” And she says, “No, I have no idea what you're talking about.” So I'm like, “Oh, I just told on this kid” [laughs]. That was weird.

I like the ones when people come to me with softball pitches. 'Cause if someone calls in with something really heavy and serious, like “I was abused” or anything like that, you gotta talk to a real therapist. But if someone has some sort of mid-grade relationship issues, those are things that I think are interesting to talk about. There are moments where I do feel like I was actually able to help someone, but I always look at that as a bonus 'cause I don't know everything.

Q: The majority of streamers out there have a unique persona or character they put on while streaming, so is that something you also do or are you just your normal self?

A: In terms of a persona, I think that every streamer or anyone who does any on-camera thing is playing a heightened version of who they actually are. So that's really what I'm doing. I'm taking certain aspects of my personality and buffing them up and toning them down as I see fit. So it is me, but obviously, the way that I talk to people on a stream is not the exact same way as when I talk to people not on a stream. You feel more like you are performing and when you have that in your head, you act differently, as opposed to if you're not performing. So it's an interesting thing.

It's weird, I actually feel better about being myself when I'm a gecko because if I got up there and I'm like, "I'm Lyle Drescher and this is the Lyle Drescher show." I'd be like, "Who is this fucking asshole?" Why am I telling people my name? Who cares who Lyle Drescher is? It's really just a heightened version of myself doing this thing. I like it though. It almost makes me feel better about being open myself. The gecko suit helps me be open more and also helps the callers be open more. I am putting my identity out there less because of this thing, and they're putting their identity out less because they're anonymous on the phone, so that sort of creates an interesting conversation to me.

Q: So, do you think that the gecko suit's kinda like mask work in theatre, or how people say when they're dressed for Halloween it makes them more confident?

A: Oh, absolutely! I feel much more confident in a gecko suit. I don't know why, but you feel like you're not yourself, and when you're not yourself, you almost don't have to take credit for anything that you do. So it's like when Jeff Dunham is talking with a puppet or whatever. I'll be in the gecko suit on stream talking about things from my life as Lyle. So it is very heavily blended, but I do feel very different when I'm in this suit. I don't know what it is, I can't describe it, but it definitely induced me with powerful gecko magic [laughs].

Q: Can you give us some insight into what your community is like? What are some of the biggest in-jokes or references, like the whole “Alaska is a city” thing?

A: "Alaska is a city, not a state" is … I don't know, I was doing my voicemail and I wanted to end it with something stupid. So I picked "Alaska is a city, not a state." And since then, the government of Alaska has recognized itself as a city and not a state as a result of that voicemail. No, I'm just kidding. That didn't happen at all.

But the community, they're good people. I like my community a lot because a lot of Twitch communities are kinda assholes and mine is actually nice people. They're supportive of the caller in the chat. I've sent Twitch raids to other streamers and they have commented on how my community is extra nice. I don't watch a lot of Twitch myself, but I do feel like we have an above-average community in terms of their lack of toxicity.

Q: In addition to your stream, you’re also working on the “Geck Across America” trip and documentary. Can you tell us more about this creative endeavor and how the idea came to you?

A: The main point of "Geck Across America" is to get out of the house. I sent out a form to have people submit for me to go to where they live and do a thing. And so that's pretty much what we are doing. I got 400 videos from people all around the country, Nebraska, LA, Minnesota and whatnot. And yeah, I'm going to their houses and doing random things. I'm getting the shit beaten out of me by a boxer, I'm practicing with a women's rugby team, I'm babysitting a child … I'm doing all sorts of stuff and we're gonna make a documentary about it. It'll be fun.

Q: Aside from that, you also have the podcast and live shows, so what do these entail for those unfamiliar? Any other creative endeavors in the works?

A: The live show is not a planned thing at all. I'm telling everyone this because really what it is is that I just wanted to try it. I've seen a lot of other podcasts where their whole thing is that they interview people, and I've seen them do it in live audience form, like Podcast But Outside or Chris Gethard's "Beautiful Anonymous." I really just wanted to try it out. I come from doing stand-up comedy and in stand-up comedy, you have your hour-long act of jokes that you've been telling for over a year and trying them out and everything's very air-tight. Then in improv, you have your scene outlines or whatever, but this is really just gonna be me doing my Twitch stream in front of an audience, taking calls. I'm excited to see how it goes. I didn't wanna wait until I had everything perfect because then I would just never do it. It should be exciting.

The podcast is Therapy Gecko on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It's just audio compilations of the streams. I take the best calls from each week of streams and compile them together into an audio format.

Q: Alright, so since this is Know Your Meme, can you give us an all-time favorite meme or current trend that you love/hate?

A: I can't tell how I feel about “Sheesh.” I don't know if I like it or if I don't like it because it doesn't matter how much I think I don't like it — when someone goes, "sheesh," I say it too. So I think that it's out of my control at this point. I don't know if this is a meme, but people do this thing on TikTok where they write, "Why is this comment pinned?" in the hopes that the creator sees it and pins it. I think that's really stupid. Just write a funny comment if you wanna be pinned. What else do I really like? Ugandan Knuckles is pretty funny.

I do like Rage Comics too. I used to be subscribed to Wholesome Memes [subreddit], but I had to unsubscribe because it was just getting a little too wholesome. I like Nyan Cat and Doge as well, any memes of dogs. You know what? Unpopular opinion, everyone hates on the “doggo” and “pupper” stuff, but I like that. I think it's cute and I like dogs [laughs].

Q: Before we wrap this up, there’s something we’ve seen frequently referenced by callers that we’d like to get your perspective on. Despite clearly denoting that you’re not a real therapist in any form, people consistently mention that your show is therapeutic. Why do you think people are looking to a gecko on the internet for this sort of thing?

A: So I've been thinking about this more lately, about my stream and the experience from the caller's perspective — 'cause I really only think about it from my perspective. What I've been doing is calling into other call-in shows and talking to these people. I actually do think there's a lot of value in just listening to people. I think people just want to be listened to because, it's kind of sad, but no one ever just fucking listens to each other. People really only just wait for each other to talk, they don't really interact, people are just saying things at each other. I'm not gonna say that I'm perfect 100 percent of the time. I reserve the right to not always be a good listener, but when I want to be and try to be, I believe I'm a good listener and I think people like that. 'Cause you know, you ever tell someone something and instead of asking a follow-up question or trying to go deeper into the thing that you say to them, they just redirect it back to themselves or to some other thing? I just never see it, and I think people find value in someone actually listening to them.

Q: Any final word, closing statement or additional info to add?

A: I am LyleForever on Twitch and Lyle4ever on Instagram. I am the Gecko. I have no idea what I'm doing, I did not think I would ever make it to the Know Your Meme office, and I'm excited to see how long this wave lasts, baby.

Watch our interview with Therapy Gecko for the video version of our discussion below.

Lyle Drescher is a Twitch streamer and podcaster known for his live call-in show Therapy Gecko where he talks to strangers on the internet. To keep up with Lyle, you can follow him on Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for more, or listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.