‘There’s Nothing Like Human Connection’: Tom Segura Says His Traumatic Injury Changed Him for the Better
According to Tom Segura, sometimes perspective costs an arm and a leg.
Back in December 2020, the star Netflix stand-up comic and popular podcaster suffered two severe injuries in one insanely stupid incident — Segura and his 2 Bears, 1 Cave co-host Bert Kreischer were engaged in a slam-dunk contest on a lowered basketball hoop when, in one swift motion, Segura ripped his left patella tendon, fell to the floor, and on his way down, reached his left arm out underneath his falling body, breaking the arm completely. Segura underwent a surgery and a lengthy recovery process in the aftermath, mining much of the pain for stand-up material.
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On Thursday’s episode of The Blocks Podcast w/ Neal Brennan, Segura talked about how the traumatic ordeal changed his outlook and forced him to reevaluate his attitude toward life, his loved ones and the human race, comparing the transformation to that of a near-death experience. Anyone looking for that level of ego death would be better off following another comedy podcaster’s example by simply doing DMT with Joe Rogan.
“There’s a shift in them where they’re so vulnerable,” Segura said of amateur dunkers like himself who experience such tragic injuries. “Because, when you have a severe orthopedic injury, you have no choice but to be vulnerable.” Segura recalled the terror and deep despair he felt as he was unable to do even the simplest tasks for himself, relying entirely on medical staff for his every need. “It’s humbling, it really strips you down.”
“People come out of that, sometimes, with a different point-of-view on the world,” Segura continued, adding, “That definitely happened to me. … That definitely contributed to my bandwidth expanding.” Segura said that the experience forced him to ask tough questions about how he was living his life, specifically in the way he related to the people closest to him: “You start calling people, and you start opening up, and you realize that it’s good to open up and talk to people and share things.”
Segura didn’t stop there either, recalling, “You have this capacity and almost this desire to connect with new people,” adding, “What you ultimately realize in those situations is that there’s nothing like human connection.”
“It really does start to bleed into every aspect of your life,” Segura said of the traumatic change. “(You start) wanting to expand your emotional bandwidth, wanting to change, realizing that you weren’t leading the life that you could be leading.”
Segura also offered a valuable piece of life advice to his host that he learned the hard way, saying, “If I was going to say something to you, I’d say something like, ‘Get hit by a car and see what changes.’”
