The Basement: Nerdrotic | From Folsom Prison to Millions of Subscribers

TL;DR

Gary 'Nerdrotic' Beekler recounts how childhood trauma, drug addiction, and a first-degree burglary conviction led to Folsom Prison before he built a YouTube empire.

Key Points

• 1.Gary was molested by his second-grade teacher, which shaped his lifelong distrust of authority. The abuse happened during a Disney movie screening; Gary was taken to the back of the class while other kids watched, and he never told anyone at the time.
• 2.Gary was adopted, and learning this around age six or seven fueled deep feelings of abandonment. He fantasized about his birth mother and carried unresolved anger he couldn't articulate as a child.
• 3.His birth father was a 17-year-old 7th Day Adventist who promised to stay but abandoned his mother. Gary has never met him, doesn't know what he looks like, and says he holds no anger toward him.
• 4.Gary started drinking at age 10–11 at a centennial event in Roscoe, South Dakota, and immediately loved the feeling. He quickly moved to marijuana and then crystal meth — called 'crank' at the time — in junior high, around age 13–14.
• 5.Meth initially gave Gary the focus he'd never had in school, which he likened to an ADHD diagnosis and Adderall. He had been labeled a hyperactive child and was otherwise a C-student at best before dropping out entirely.
• 6.Gary punched a teacher square in the mouth at Sunset High School after the teacher told him he'd never amount to anything. The teacher went down and didn't get back up; no charges were filed, and it ended Gary's school career entirely.
• 7.His father Arvin Beekler kicked Gary out of the house, which Gary now calls the greatest act of love his father ever showed him. The two later reconciled and became best friends after Gary got out of prison, before Arvin died of cancer in the early 2000s.
• 8.Gary's first serious arrest came when a cop who knew him pulled over his 1967 Oldsmobile because of Batman handcuffs on the rearview mirror. His friend Bobby had a scale and baggies in the back seat; Bobby fingered Gary, and Gary did a few weeks in San Diego County Jail.
• 9.To pay for the lawyer his father hired for that first arrest, Gary had to surrender his prized 1967 Oldsmobile with a spotless 350 engine and only 22,000 miles. He got the car from a neighbor of his grandmother.
• 10.Gary did a year in county jail and fire camp for stealing a glass water bottle full of pennies from a neighbor's house. He cut a hole in a chain-link fence to get in, underestimating how heavy the bottle would be, and left a clear trail of evidence.
• 11.The crime that sent Gary to Old Folsom State Prison — Johnny Cash's Folsom — was a first-degree burglary (hot prowl) at an ex-girlfriend's father's house. He was trying to steal a gun from the man's collection, hid under a Porsche in the garage when a small dog alerted the owner, and was found at gunpoint.
• 12.Gary received a four-year sentence and served two-thirds of it at Old Folsom, not New Folsom. A fellow inmate in county jail advised him to take the plea deal, warning that fighting it would result in far more time.
• 13.While in county before sentencing, an older inmate gave Gary a survival guide for prison covering rules around gambling, gang politics, and keeping his head down — advice Gary credits with helping him navigate Folsom.
• 14.Gary's cell at Folsom was shared with a double murderer, an experience he describes in his memoir with candid detail. The memoir also covers making and hiding 'pruno' — prison wine made from oranges, yeast, and fermented in trash bags hidden near toilets.
• 15.After prison Gary reconciled with his father, got sober, and eventually built a YouTube empire including the Nerdrotic channel, Friday Night Tights, and Forbidden Frontier. He noted that Hollywood studios now quietly track his channel's sentiment as a barometer for audience reception.