Ric Diez
Stand-up comedian born in Spain and raised in Belgium who tells short, dark one-liners deadpan, best known for winning a Kill Tony golden ticket in 2023 and battling Hans Kim for a regular spot.
Comedy · YouTube · Updated Oct 13, 2026
Ric Diez is a one-liner stand-up comedian, born in Spain and raised in Belgium, who performs as Sadman Ric. Kill Tony pulled his name from the bucket in August 2023 and gave him a golden ticket the same night, and he spent the next nine months in a two-round battle with Hans Kim for Kim’s spot as a regular, losing both rounds. He has come back to the show as a golden ticket winner since, most recently, in what we could confirm, at an April 2025 taping in Nashville. He tours clubs in the US and Europe and posts sets and his Diez Nuts podcast on YouTube, where he has about 43,000 subscribers.
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Questions people ask
Who is Ric Diez?
Ric Diez is a stand-up comedian who writes short, bleak one-liners and delivers them with a face that suggests he would rather be somewhere else, under the name Sadman Ric. A BK Magazine profile says he was born in Spain, raised in Belgium and started stand-up through a workshop and open mic run by Comedy Club Bangkok, and that he aims for about three jokes a minute. He became known in the US in August 2023, when Kill Tony pulled his name from the bucket on his first visit and gave him a golden ticket. He now headlines clubs in the US and Europe, with dates on ricdiez.com.
What happened to Ric Diez on Kill Tony?
He won a golden ticket on his first night, challenged the show’s opening regular, and lost twice. Kill Tony pulled his name from the bucket on #628 (recorded August 21, 2023), and Tony Hinchcliffe gave him a golden ticket on the spot. Over the next few weeks he used his interviews to say he wanted Hans Kim’s regular spot, and the show set up a golden ticket versus regular battle for its New Year’s Eve arena show. On #648 (recorded December 31, 2023) guests Shane Gillis and Matt McCusker picked Diez, the crowd vote went to Kim, and Diez was told he had lost his golden ticket. His answer on stage: “I feel like I won tonight either way.” A rematch with two-minute sets was taped at the Forum in Los Angeles on May 10, 2024 (#666). Kim won again on the judges and the decibel meter, and Hinchcliffe let Diez keep his golden ticket “as a sign of respect.”
Is Ric Diez still on Kill Tony?
He was never a regular, so there was no spot to leave. As a golden ticket winner he can come back as a guest performer, and he has: he did a new minute at the Austin arena show recorded December 30, 2024 (#704), where he was introduced as a former golden ticket holder, and on April 5, 2025 in Nashville (#725) he was one of four golden ticket winners competing for two spots at Madison Square Garden. His 103.7 on the decibel meter placed him third of four, so he did not get one. We could not confirm an appearance after that: the show’s episode notes do not list bucket pulls or golden ticket winners, and the later transcripts we checked do not mention him. We found no statement from him about whether he plans to go back.
Where is Ric Diez now?
On the road. His site lists US club dates in early October 2026, including Laughs Unlimited in Sacramento on October 1, then Oakland, Palm Springs, Boca Raton and Orlando, followed by a European run from Rome on November 4 through Prague, Vienna, Rotterdam, Ghent, Brussels and Amsterdam to Leuven on November 21. Its past-shows list also has spring dates in Spain, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Sweden. He does not list a home base.
Where is Ric Diez from?
Spain and Belgium. BK Magazine reported that he was born in Spain and raised in Belgium, and his own upload of the golden ticket set calls him a Spaniard. When he won the ticket in 2023 he was living in Brussels: Hinchcliffe told the audience on #630 that he had to get back there in a couple of weeks, and at the New Year’s Eve battle he was called the muscles from Brussels. His stand-up started in Bangkok, per the same BK profile.
Is Ric Diez the same person as Rick Diaz from Kill Tony?
Yes. Kill Tony transcripts and captions spell his name Rick Diaz, which is how most people first heard it. His YouTube channel lists him as “Ric Diez (not Rick Diaz),” and his site, Linktree and tour listings all use Ric Diez. Sadman Ric is his stage nickname and social handle.
How old is Ric Diez? What is his real name?
He has not published a birthdate and Famous Birthdays has no page for him, so we do not list an age. He performs as Ric Diez, the name BK Magazine used too, and no other name has been published by him or by major press.
What is Ric Diez’s podcast, Diez Nuts?
An interview show on his YouTube channel, 26 episodes, mostly with comedians from the Austin scene and people around Kill Tony, including band members Matt Muehling and Mike Gonzales, Grooveline Horns’ Carlos Sosa and the character act Timmy No Brakes. The newest episode went up around January 2026.
Where can I watch Ric Diez?
YouTube @SadManRic has his sets, including the 12-minute Alone in Public, a seven-minute set from Creek and the Cave in Austin and two London sets, plus Diez Nuts. He is on TikTok @sadmanric, Instagram @sadmanric and X @sadmanric. On the Kill Tony channel, his golden ticket night is #628, his weekly sets follow in #630 to #632, the Hans Kim battles are #648 and #666, and his returns are #704 and #725. Tour dates are on ricdiez.com.
What is Ric Diez’s net worth?
He does not publish a number and neither do we.
Who represents Ric Diez?
His site lists Fourth Wall Management for booking. Ames Create does not represent him; we cover him because people keep asking what happened after his golden ticket, and the answer is on the show’s own tapes. If that changes, this entry will say so.
Our read
Ames Create does not work with Ric Diez. This is our view, from a team that works on creator brands for a living.
The format. Three jokes a minute, by his own count to BK Magazine, each a short setup and a bleak turn, with long pauses doing part of the work. On Kill Tony, Hinchcliffe described him as a comedian who “literally seems like he doesn’t want to be here,” then added that his execution was incredible. The reluctance is the act, and it holds up in a single minute.
Why it travels. A one-liner has no setup to lose, so any joke can be cut into a short on its own. The Hans Kim battle gave Kill Tony fans a storyline to argue over, and his own clips keep it alive: the most watched video on his channel, a short of his on-air roast exchange with Kim Congdon, has about 8 million views. During Kim’s break before the rematch, [Casey Rocket](/who-is-casey-rocket) opened the show in Kim’s place, so the saga touched more of the cast than the two of them.
Brand fit. Live comedy is the fit: clubs, festivals, ticketing, and English-language comedy nights in European cities, where he routes much of his touring. The material is dark and often sexual, built on loneliness, rejection and death, so family and wellness brands are not a match. A comedy-friendly brand that wants Kill Tony fans in Europe is the realistic partner.
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Related creators
| Hans KimAustin stand-up comedian who writes dry one-liners, best known as a Kill Tony regular from 2021 and a member of the show’s Hall of Fame. | Comedy |
| Casey RocketChicago-based stand-up comedian who crab-walks onto the stage and improvises much of his set, best known as a Kill Tony regular in 2024. | Comedy |
| Kim CongdonStand-up comedian and comedy writer with a roast-sharp act, one of the first Kill Tony cast members and still a guest on the show. | Comedy |
| Khan AsadiPrank creator who films stunts and awkward conversations with strangers in stores, malls and campuses, and live streams the rest. | Comedy |
| Fred BeyerYouTube prankster, known as Derf, who films loud public stunts and trolls sports fans and athletes in long videos. | Comedy |
| Ross SmithComedy creator from Columbus, Ohio who has made videos with his grandmother, Granny, since the Vine days. | Comedy |
Sources: Ric Diez’s site, YouTube, TikTok and Linktree; BK Magazine profile; Kill Tony transcripts on Podscripts: #628, #630, #631, #632, #648, #653, #660, #666, #667, #704, #725; Kill Tony episode notes for recording dates, and DEATHSQUAD pages for #648 and #666; tour listings at Downtown Sacramento and The Comedy Pub, Vienna. Follower counts read from YouTube and TikTok, October 2026.
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