Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ron Funches on comedy, losing 140 pounds, his love of wrestling, Joe Rogan

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Ron Funches is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor known for his work on Trolls, Curb Your Enthusiasm, New Girl, Undateable, Transparent, and numerous other TV shows and films. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Los Angeles to talk about how he broke into comedy, getting his first big break in the business, performing on Conan O'Brien, his voice acting work, how he was able to lose 140 pounds, his experience attending wrestling school, his podcast called "Gettin' Better with Ron Funches" and much more!  Support the show by supporting our sponsors! Get your energy back, sleep better, and block out the unhealthy effects of blue light with BLUblox. Get free shipping worldwide and 15% off by going to https://blublox.com/CVV or enter code CVV15 at checkout. If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, y'all? It's Druski, and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a hilarious new basketball podcast called The Do Zone with Drusky. Learn the backstories of your favorite ballers and celebrities like Jamal Murray. Did you have like a favorite team? Was it the Raptors at the time or no? Was the Raptors even started around that time? Come on, bro. I ain't that old, fam.

You're talking like I was 50. Taylor, Rokes, Asian Wilson, and many more. You won't want to miss this. Listen to the Doozon with Drusky on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to the show. Good to see you. I'm Chris Van Vleet. If you happen to be a regular listener of Ron Funches podcast, getting better with Ron Funcess, and this happens to be your first time here, thank you so much for joining us. I'm an Emmy Award winning TV host, and I'm fascinated with finding out how people are wired to achieve greatness.

On each episode, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, comedians, you name it. If they're the best at what they do, I want to get their insight so we can all apply it to our own life. And it's hard not to love Ron Funches. I mean, he's one of the funniest people on the face of the planet. And then you realize how big of a wrestling fan he is, which makes you love him even more. And I know you won't be able to see it here

because this is the podcast version, but we talk about it. Don't worry. He's wearing a Brian Pilman t-shirt. Ah, what's not to love? He also talks about how he went to wrestling school as part of his fitness journey. And on that fitness journey, he's lost 140 pounds. Most importantly, he's kept the weight off. So if you or someone close to you is on your own weight loss journey, this is going to be incredibly inspiring for you. Ron is at Ron Funch's on Twitter. He's at Ron

Funch on Instagram. So take a screenshot, tag him. Hey, tag me too. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And while you're doing things on your phone there, make sure to subscribe and follow this podcast, whatever platform you're listening on. Although if that platform happens to be Apple Podcasts, it'd be great. If you could leave a review like this one from Beau Stewart in Australia, all the way down under, Chris needs a finisher named after him. Oh, wow. What is this?

Hmm, what does this review are going to be about? I love this podcast. I'm only a new fan, but I find my. daily driving to work, listening to Chris, talk about whatever he feels like. Not his guests, but his good friends. Relaxed and real conversations, one of the best in the business, especially with the way he ends podcast sharing gratitudes with his guests. Thanks, Chris, keep up the good work. Beau Stewart in Melbourne, Australia, or as you guys say, Melbourne, right? Well, thank you so much. I don't know what a Chris Van Fleet finisher would be.

Oh my God, he hit him with the Van Fleet. he's setting up for the van fleet what that even i don't know kind of went off on a little tangent there but thank you thank you beau maybe it'd be like some sort of high-flying splash my god it's the van fleet oh my guest today will make you laugh he will make you smile and he will inspire the heck out of you please welcome my friend ron funches this has been a long time coming so i'm glad we're finally making this happen. Yeah, me too. Yeah. You know, so many mutual acquaintances and friends and I always, I mean, I watched some of your videos and I'm well aware of you. So yeah, been a long time coming. Well, I'm very aware of. We both have championship belts in our world.

Oh, wow. Very nice. No. Is that the winged eagle? It's based off the Ron Simmons WCW title and he won it. It's my at midnight championship. Oh, I've seen that. You went into a full on wrestling character with that. I did at some points, yes. I'm a subscriber to your podcast. You do such great work on getting better. So congratulations on that.

Congratulations on everything you have going on. Oh, thank you very much. I'm sometimes unaware that people will listen to what I do. So I appreciate that. I was genuinely surprised by that. That's the funny thing about podcasts, right? is you kind of just throw it out into the abyss and you just hope that people find it. Yeah, absolutely.

I guess I could look at numbers and things. There are people who do know those, but I just don't because I think I would get to like, oh, what do we do this week? What do we do this week? And so I just kind of like, oh, I'll just keep, I just put them out. Are these shoes that are strewn about behind you here? Probably. The other way.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Those are my new ultra booth. They glow in the dark, so I'm happy about that. You know, one of the things about a podcast is it's difficult to come up with a name. And I just renamed my show. It was the Chris Van Fleet show for a while,

but I was like, it's not really about me. That name doesn't make a ton of sense. So now it's insight with Chris Van Fleet. That's fun. Yeah, sure. That's exactly what we get in these conversations. We get, you know, a lot of insight. What went into the name getting better?

It was just, I wanted to make a podcast. I wanted to have a home for people to come find me because I do a lot of guest stuff. I'm always like guests in other people's homes and projects and people tend to enjoy what I do, but then I didn't have a place where they could kind of follow what I was doing and what I was about. So I wanted, I knew I wanted to make a podcast to start with. And then I wanted to do something that I like talking about, which is in my general life. Like a lot of my affirmations that I do in my podcast just came from what I was doing at home with my son. You know, we start our day.

I would just be like, before you go to school, I'd be like, you're smart, you're kind, you're strong, and I would send them out. And so I wanted, if I want to do a podcast, I was like, well, it's every week. It's something consistent that I had to know I want to do. And so I was like, I want to talk about kind of like a comedic version of self-help of not taking things too serious. because I like self-help. I read a lot of these different books, like The Secret or one of my, they're all the secret, basically.

But they've read them in different ways. Like, do you by Russell Simmons or Emily V. Gordon's books, the Super You, I think is what it's called. And so these are things I was always interested in. And I just noticed in my life, just from being on Twitter, that there has been a shift in how I communicate with people in the short term.

It's funny that when you start to put those messages out to the world, because you and I are speaking the same language here with that type of stuff, people start to then view you as, oh, Ron's like the positive guy. I like this. Yeah, which I just like, I'm just a regular person. I'm a fool person and I try to focus on the positive and I try to push the positive to fight that negative.

So, but, oh, I have. forgot what I was going to say. Is this who you always were? Were you always a positive person? No, not always. Not completely for sure. I just grew up in like a lot of rough circumstances. And my mom was in an abusive relationship from most of my childhood.

I just grew up in the south side of Chicago, which is not the rough. I mean, at the easiest area. And we didn't have much money. And my mom was a single parent. So just dealing with a lot of, stuff like that. And I had my son very young when I was 20 and then my son was diagnosed with

autism a couple of years later. So there was just a lot of traumas and a lot of things I went through that kind of didn't just shape who I was. Where I was like more of those things where it's like, well, it seems like a lot of things are out of my control. And all I can control is my attitude and my positivity. And for a while, no, I wasn't like that at all. But I could see how, what they was getting to me. I remember when I was in a job I hated and I was overeating and over smoking and like really, you know, put on a lot of weight and in a bad relationship. And I was just like, well, this isn't going anywhere. So maybe we could try something else. I think a big thing to key in on here is it's so easy to focus on all those things that aren't going right in your life. But you made

the conscious effort to go, even though there might not be a lot of positivity shining in here, I'd rather focus on that stuff. Yeah. No. Yeah. Absolutely. Some places are like lighthouses in the ocean, you know, like what are you going to focus on the fact that you're stuck out at sea or the fact that you can see a White House, which lets you think maybe I can get out of this. So that's kind of how I looked at and that's how when I even when I started comedy, that was my focus. I was like, oh, a lot of my comedy was a reaction to what I was seeing, which was a lot of negativity and comedy, a lot of like, oh, I hate this. And I was like, well, if I'm going to get up there every night, multiple times a night,

I don't want to carry that. I don't want to be like, this sucks, that sucks, everything sucks. I want to go, I love this. I love my son. I love this game. I love regrets. I love this because then I can talk about that every night. And that makes me feel better.

So I didn't guess, oh, now I got back to what I wanted to say. I love how that happens. So I wanted to take that life that I was living in my comedy and push it more in the podcast. So why I wanted to call it getting better was that I felt like it was a when I started to get a little bit of success. I was freaking on TV show. A lot of the positive stuff that I was saying online before that I was still tweet out and things. People weren't taking the same anymore. People were like, oh, yeah, of course, you say that.

You got money. You're on a TV show. You did a da, da, da. And I was noticing there's like a divide between what certain people say is like, oh, I'm struggling or I've made it. But just from life, just from the people I've been around, just from the experience I've had, I was like, oh, there is everybody's focusing on getting better. Even there's people I know who have $100 million and they're still trying to get better. They're still trying to push their art or whatever their thing is. And so that kind of was my focus on naming the show that was just like, oh, it's not about making it.

It's not about this end point. It's about getting better. And that's what my life was about, whether it's financially or my health or anything that is like, oh, because that was a big thing with my losing way is like I thought like once I reached this goal weight that I'd be done. And I was like, oh, no, I got to keep doing this. Or I blowing back up. So I guess forever I'm just focusing on getting better. And it's getting better mentally, but it's also getting better in every aspect of your life. Have you read the book Atomic Habits?

No, I haven't. Oh, this would be a great book for you because it's all about the idea of like if you get just 1% better every single day that compounds on itself. When, you know, the reverse is happening, 1% worse every single day. Think of how different that would be, how juxtapose those two worlds would be. And I just love that it's about getting better mentally. It's what you're saying. but it's about getting better, like looking at where you're at now and being in a better place than you were six months ago, a year ago, five years ago.

Yeah, absolutely. And everything. That's the feeling I always love, again, going back to my comedy. It's like, I loved it when I could go back and listen to a set six months ago and be like, oh, you know, like, oh, I'm so much better now. I'm, I've changed that into something different. I love progress. I love what real work is, as opposed.

to like what you said, which is, it's so easy to just kind of coast and do the same thing every day and not notice that you're not getting in better. You're decaying. Yeah. So you've been such a huge inspiration with the weight loss that you've had. And I think that the question you probably get asked all the time is how did you do it? But I'm actually curious what made you do it? Because I'm sure that you looked at yourself and went, I definitely have a bunch of weight to lose. But what made you actually start to take those first steps to losing the weight and then keeping it off. It's a combination of things. Rwana, I was just noticing that I, like, my knees were hurting.

My, I was having these things. I was get on flights. And I remember one night in particular I was on a flight and a lady just woke me up. And she was like, I'm worried about you. It sounds like you have sleep apnea. And she's like, I'm a nurse. And I'm like, she's like, you sound like you weren't breathing. And I was just like, oh, it's trained.

I bristled up. I was like, I'm fine, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. But later on, I was like, oh, a stranger just woke me up to concern about my breathing. And I also there was a Thanksgiving where my mom came to visit me and she wanted to buy me some clothes and she went and bought me clothes and she just came home and she was like, it hurts me. It doesn't make me feel good to buy you clothes this size. It makes me worried about you. And those two events kind of pushed me. And then the fact that. that I just started working on a show where the character was supposed to be like a big guy and like, shy and all these things. And which show is this? It's called Undatable. It was on NBC for three seasons. Yeah. And just Bill Lawrence is amazing. He's the $100 million guy I was talking about.

He also created the show Ted Lassel that's amazing. Yeah. And Scrubs, a lot of things. Clone Hot. He does the wonderful things. but he just one day he was like hey he's like i've seen you in the gym a couple of times and then not for a long time and i just want to let you know like this we like you you're funny that uh if you don't want to be this way if you want to i'm happy to it's not a thing we don't need the fat guy

and so um he just kind of introduced me to his trainer yorg and damee who's been my trainer for a long time and I just kind of was like, let's get to it and was just a lot of walking and and throwing up for a few months. And then, no, I'm still, I saw him before I saw you today, working out with Yorg and he's in, he's in the Netherlands right now with his family and he FaceTime me and we got a nice leg workout in and it really just because before it was like, I just shut off my mind. I follow the rules because my health is in danger. And then it became a thing of like, oh, I'm fine now.

I can go back to eating cookies. And then now it's more like, well, I want to do. I have a big focus. I'm like about to be 38 in a month. And I'm like, I want to be in the best shape of my life when I turn 40. Like I was not in the best shape of my life when I turned 30. And I would like to see what the best shape of my life is I turn 40 because naturally it's going to be a fight after that.

We're on the exact same page. You turn 38 in a month. I turn 38 in three months. And I have the same goal. I'm looking ahead to 40 going, number one, 40. How are we going to be 40? I know. I remember being in my 20s looking at my wife's,

my ex-wife's dad's birthday cake, and it said 46. And I was like, God damn. I remember going to my father's 40th birthday. party. We had a surprise birthday party for him. The cake was a hill and it was like, you're over the hill. He had a shirt that said 40's not old. If you're a tree. And I'm like, you don't feel that old. And now here I am, here you are, two years away from it. I feel young. We feel great. I feel the best I've ever felt to tell you the truth. And you look great too. Thank you. What were you at your heaviest? 360. My goodness. And you've lost like a whole person since then.

Yeah, I'm back back right now. I'm at two. I mean, I know because I'm back in the new focus thing. I'm at 224. That's amazing. Congratulations to you. Thank you. What was the first step? Like it was getting the trainer and everything, but then it's actually having to put one foot in front of the other and make this thing happen. Yeah. It was mostly walking, a lot of walking and learning. I think that's a had the desire. I wasn't like, I just want to be my heaviest. I love sweating when I'm just standing here. But it was like I don't have the tools. I never grew up like that. Like even when I was a kid, we would try.

And our thing would be like, we're going on, we're going to the park. We're going to go for a jog. And then we're going to Burger King and getting a whopper and a shake. And so it was never this thing of like, oh, you also have to take care of your diet and how many things are tied to that health-wise of how many things you can just, if you're ahead of the curve,

you don't have to worry about all these pills and it's diabetes and all these things that could creep up on you. And I never, it took a lot of like learning about that. My wife has been a big help in that. And but mostly, I mean, it took while, if I could say two things, walking in water. That was it.

If anyone is also feeling, if you're feeling a tinge in yourself while you listen to this and you're like, it seems so difficult. I could tell you that if I can give you just one simple advice, the first step I did was find something I could cut out. Find one of these vices I knew that was bothering me. And for me, the quickest one I could do, I've done a lot of them since then. I didn't know it was going to be a whole, oh, you're all going to die. But the very first one was soda. Just being like, I don't drink soda anymore. I drink water. I don't drink juice.

I just drink water. Occasionally I'll drink these stevia sodas. Just because I miss the bubbles, I'll drink a pellegrino. But for the most part, it's like we don't drink soda anymore. We don't drink water and make a rule. And then I follow that rule. I need to point out your shirt because I'm very good friends with his son. I'm just glad you know this isn't Kurt Cobain.

Everybody usually wears this shirt. They're like, great Kurt Cobain shirt. And you're like, yeah. sure. I can see the similarity. Yeah, I mean, neither of them are alive still, but that's about it. I am very good friends with Brian Pilman Jr., but that's such a, he wears that shirt all the time, actually. It's a great shirt. I love it. I found it and then I burned a hole in it. And so I got another one, because I'm a big fan of Brian Pilman. I also, I'm not like big friends, friends with Brian Pilman Jr. But we chat it. We'll make that happen.

We will change that. But he seems like a great guy. I know he just got a new house. So I'm happy for him. Yeah, he's just crushing. I'm so happy for him. So in your weight loss journey, you actually went to wrestling school. Yeah, for three months.

I went to the Santino Brothers Academy in the Bell Gardens in California. And it was just a big part. My friend had passed away suddenly at like 34. And it was just one of the things like, oh, I could die. Like, I've always wanted to do a few things. Comedy is one of them. And wrestling had been another. So let me go, try.

And so I had never done team sports, high school, anything like that. And it was a great experience. It was also, I think it was nice to try something and not be good at it. You know, it was just like, oh. Like when I even, you know, as egotistical may sound, when I try comedy for the first time, even though I was by no means good, I was like, oh, I feel like I can do this. I feel natural at it. I love the feel of the microphone in my hand.

I like being on stage. I like it. When I was doing roles, when I was taking bumps, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't get it. I don't understand it. But I love it. So I want to keep trying. And that was a big lesson for me until I then was like, I'm wasting mine in other people's

time so I got to quit. Did you go in with the goal that you wanted to be fully trained and work a match one day? I didn't want to work one match. I did want to do that. I thought that would be a great goal. But I also have a full comedy career. And so I would go for, you know, it was three days a week. So I'd go every all those times.

And then I'd have to go. I get a thing like, oh, well, now you're going to be out of town for. a week or you're shooting something for two weeks. And then I realized, like, I wasn't just hurting myself that, like, I'm locked up with someone. And if I'm not there, they are missing their partner. They have to switch things around. They have to do things. When I come back, I'm behind. So they're trying to keep me up with them. And I just didn't feel like it was, like, fair for people who were actually trying to become pro wrestlers. And I was at a fantasy camp. I, too, trained for about the same length of time that you trained.

And I stopped for the exact same reason. Like, I'm the type of person that I want to put my all into everything, which sounds like you are too. And that's why you've been so successful. But when I looked at this crossroads where I'm like, do I continue going to college because I was in college at the time? Or do I continue going to wrestling schools at school school or a wrestling school? And I can't like half ass either one. So it's just like, all right, wrestling will always be there. And thankfully for both you and I, we can have our foot firmly planted in our career.

And then, you know, just kind of dabble. Just play with it. Just play with. Especially it seemed like such a harsh mistress to be your main, to be your main lady. I don't know if I could deal with that. So, yeah, I think I made the right, right decision to focus. I just, and like, it's just the same thing I feel with comedy. Like, if you come in and you respect it and you love it, even if you're not here to full time,

I'm well welcome to it. But if you feel like you're gumming up the words, you can get out of the way. And that's how I felt with the, with the wrestling. But I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything. I take a lot of lessons I learn from it into what I do in business now, just being confident when I come in, introducing myself to everyone, shaking everyone's hand. I guess, you know, in the past.

Now I don't take anyone's hand. But just a level of confidence, a level of team that I had never been a part of before. And a lot of the people that were there, I'm still friends with Tyler Bateman, Brody King, Heather Monroe, you know, I still root for Jake Atlas, even though he was very mean to me in class. No, he was the bitch.

He was the drill sergeant. He even was like, you're too sweaty. Go put on a new shirt. And he was right. He could have said it nicer. I feel like there's a lot of parallels between coming up in the comedy world and coming up in the wrestling world.

Like you're paying your dues, you're often like driving for hours on end to either make $0 or like $20. I feel like there's so many parallels there. Yeah, absolutely. And that's absolutely. That was the moment where I decided that I probably wasn't going to do it

was we were in class and they were like, well, we have a show this weekend. If any of you guys can come help us, you can learn how to build the ring and do things like that. Also, just to let you know, if you're serious about this, you might want to get a part-time job, put your real job. You might want to, you know, you just might want to be available to travel around.

You might have to sleep in your car. You might have did it. And I was like, oh, I already did this. I'm not doing it again. I did this. I did this for comedy. I'm not doing it again for wrestling. Were you always funny?

Like growing up, were you like, you know, the guy that was always making everybody laugh in class? Yeah, but in like a shy way. wasn't like a class clown. I was the guy who would make fun of the class clown. Like I was like in people's ear being like, look at that idiot, you know. So that was my deal like it. I didn't even really know that people thought I was funny until I graduated high school and I was voted class. I was voted funniest person class clown. And I was like, oh, I was just talking trash. I did it. This might I might be on to something here. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, it was always good. It's just thinking what grew up again with my mom in an unstable household thing.

You learn a lot to like use humid or diffuse situations. And so that's who I always was in the family. I remember like going to Thanksgiving where the whole family would get together. And they'd always be like, yeah, oh, that boy's funny. He's funny. He's funny. And but I'd ever thought it was a real job. It took a lot of like bouncing around and, you know, my son being born and my son.

and my son can diagnose with autism for me to be like, I need to pick a career. So how did you decide that you were going to give your all the comedy? Because just like wrestling, that is a tough road. Yeah, yeah. Basically, I was working at a bank call center. And not a real bank deal. I mean your money.

But let me hear the phones. And my son was born. And so that was like my focus. I need a job with a 401. and you don't do this. I don't have, I have, I dropped out of community college after three weeks. So if this job is paying double digits, you know, to start, that's great. Because they have my only other options are subway or something.

So I was focused on that. And then I was just not good. I'm not good in a corporate structure as one would imagine. And the only thing that would save me is that I was good to talking with people. Like, no matter whatever job I had, I worked at a grocery. store and people would go to my line as opposed to taking an open cashier because they wanted to talk to me. And then on the bank, that was my thing is that I would take less call.

Like you're supposed to take 150 calls a day. I'd take 50 max. Sometimes I'd end up at 30 something calls. But when they would do the reviews of people, you know, when they're like feedback, I'd always get five, five, five, five. This guy's great. He helped me out a lot. And that's the only thing that kept me going.

And so they put me on this committee to kind of get other people to be more personable and more easygoing. And they're like, come up with a project to try to get, there's a lot of stress on this job. You're telling basically the whole job was like, ooh, you overdrew your account. And I know it's our fault, but I'm going to convince you it's your fault. And that's the whole job. And so people were stressed out, right? And so they want to like, hey, come up with a video of how to do. deal with this. And so I spent like three weeks working with someone else on this video and where I didn't have to work on the phones.

I didn't have to do any of that. And I made it and they liked it so much. They were like, we're going to show this company wide at this thing. And they did. And I'm just like in the back of this auditorium, nervous because I'm like, I think it sucks. It's super corporatey. It's all about a bank and stuff. And I could just hear them laughing and just laughing. And I got that first rush that you. get with, you know, I assume that people get in wrestling when they get their first pop. And I was just like, oh, oh, I like that. And oh, if they like this, what if I talked about stuff I actually gave a crap about? Yeah.

And then they tried to put me back on the phones. And it was like, no. I can't even imagine how pleasant it would be to call a call center and have you. You answer the phone. It would be just so pleasant. It was, oh, you were definitely making the right. You were lucky if you got me because I was happy to give you money back. I was on your side completely, unless you were a complete jerk or you were asking for something that I'll be on my scope. Then I would lie to you and say to call me tomorrow and then I just would not show back up to work the next day. So if I'm calling into a call center, give me some advice for how I can get what I'm looking for.

Oh, if you're calling in, I mean, basically keep calling. And you could tell by the person's voice when you get them. If it's a nice voice when you hear them, if they sound calm, they sound relaxed, go. If they sound, they're like, hello, as soon as you get them, you're dead. Hang up. Hang up. Try again. Wait till you get that nice voice on there.

And then you come in pleasant and nice as well. Go like, hey, there's an issue here. bring up how long you've been there as a customer and just never like yell at that person. Just always keep it somewhat calm and explain it because you are usually right. I mean, things have changed a little bit, but back in my day, there was a big thing of the available balance, real balance bullshit that was going on. I'm sorry, I don't know if I could curse on here. That's fine.

It's internet. And so they would always be like, yeah, you know your balance was this, but you're actually. tool available balance was $20 left. So then I just remember a guy calling me. He's like, you guys gave me $90 in fees. And I overdrew my account by a dollar. And I was like, and I'm supposed to be like, well, you're available. And I just be like, and he's like, no, look at it.

Look at it. And he was just logical. Like, look at it. One dollar. I overdrew my account. You think it's okay to ding me three times and give me three fees. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to get like, I didn't care about that job.

That's another thing to remember. Most of the people don't care about that job. I was like, I'm going to get you back. So I went back and I gave them back that $9 in fees. And then I went back and I found fees from years prior. And I threw in another $150 because I was like, I don't, we're screwing with people over. Are there people that think that this isn't your real voice? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And you're just like, what do you say? Like, yeah, no, this is it. This is it. This is me. I mean, it's got a lot of range if I'm not excited or if I'm like just chilling. I can, you know, I can get down here. He's hang out here if you want. How difficult was it for you to get the get hard character was, you sound completely different. Completely different from this.

Yeah, I didn't like that. Was that, was your original audition in that voice? Yeah, probably because he had to be tough. But, you know, it was a comedy. So I in Cameron Hart, Will Ferrell. So I was like, yeah, I'll try any role that you want. My original was even tougher. I was auditioning for the role that T.I. got.

So they were like, no, but we want you to be in one of the gang members that has lines. And I was like, cool, it'll be great. But I don't play that well. And I even remember that you, it's funny that you bring that up because we shot in New Orleans. And I remember going in the first day and I was talking with the wardrobe lady. And I was talking for like two minutes. And she just goes, baby, don't take this personal, but I don't see you as a gang member. And I was like, oh, I will try my best to act and do it.

But that was also a big part in my career because I was like, after that, I kept getting auditioned requests for like actual drama gang member roles. And I was like, well, that's different. This is like I wanted to be funny. And also, I think that was near the time that. that crazy rich Asians was coming out. And I was like, oh, representation is very important. And I'm not that at all. And I think what I am is not represented a lot.

And I would much rather. And I just told my manager, I was like, we don't do gang members anymore. If they want to do something else, is they want something like me? If they want, I mean, I'll act. I'll try other things, but no more gang members ever. And so that's just been, like since then,

I've been a scientist, I've been other things. So I just try to focus on that. Not that I'm, like, embarrassed about that role, but I, the fact that you bring it up, I was like, yeah, it's not the best fit for me, but I still think it worked because it was a comedy and my wife loves it. But those are her favorite roles. Anytime I've got to, like, get, like, somewhat gangster or if I hold a gun, she's like, she's excited. Well, I mean, you have a line there.

I'm just going to paraphrase, but you're like, I love murder. I'm obsessed with murder. Murder is my favorite. Yeah. It's my favorite. Yeah. I mean, that's not what a real gang member would say. So I think it's okay to play that role. Yeah, exactly. That's what made it really fun. And I think like still memorable and definitely profitable. They still play that movie on T&T all the time. You must be getting all kinds of residuals.

I'm good. I look. I get a random jacket. I'm like, whoa, this is how awful? Now I see it. I'm like, yeah, keep replaying that movie. So if we take this back, you get the first laugh when they play that video. Then do you go, all right. I don't want to be back on the phones now. I want to start to figure out a way to make that thing where I get laughs, my job. Yeah, basically, because I knew since I was five years old, I loved stand-up. I knew that I wanted to work in entertainment. I just didn't think it was a real job. And doing that thing with the bank and the fact that my son was diagnosed with autism,

it really just kind of triggered this thing in me where I was like, oh, he's different. And that's okay. And for his whole life, I'm going to have to. let him know that that's okay. And I'm going to defend his differences. And I need to be able to defend, I'm different. And that's okay. I don't fit in in this bank.

I don't work here. I'm from the get-go. I was like, banks are stealing people's money. And then I worked at one. And I'm like, oh, yeah, for sure. And so I was like, it's okay to try and do what you want. And I was just young enough. You know, it's still just like 22, 23 when I started.

So it was just like, well, now or never really. because I'm going to be broke no matter what for a little bit. So I might as well try something that I can, I need a career. I need something. My biggest goal at that time is because I remember a week or two after my son was diagnosed, we went to this park with my ex-wife, and we saw a group of disabled adults with their caretakers,

and they were just not treating them well. They were very, very aggressive with them, yelling at them a lot. It seemed more like a prison than, And like someplace you would want your, your, your child, your special person to be taken care of by. So it was literally that moment where I was like, I need a lot of money. I need to make a lot of money. And I need to have a career.

I need to, if he can never work and something never, I don't maybe hopefully he can't. But if he can't, I need to know that he is taking care of after I'm gone, that someone either, cares enough about him or is paid well enough to care enough about him that they're not treating him like this. And that was pretty pretty I was like, you know what I'll do that? Stand up comedy. So how long after that did you go up to your first open mic? I would say probably that was the summer. So, and I started in October. A couple. I love this. You were a man of action. Well, it still was a little bit of back and forth for sure.

Yeah, even I remember a friend of mine who I still talk with today. Mike, he helps me a lot with my Twitch. He was one of the first people who was like, you're funny. You should try stand up. And I'd be like, shut up. Do you remember? I remember that. I don't remember what the punchline of staff was about,

but I remember I did a five minutes set about having man boots. That's what I remember. So this is a five-minute open mic said? Mm-hmm. And did you crush? I did well. I also remember this was also a weird time where I was like, I need to research everything about my jokes.

So I started research in history of men's moves and things of that nature. And I found this thing where people would come, like kind of like spanks, I guess pre-spanks, where they would take panty hose and cut off the crotch and stick their head through the crotch, their arms through the legs and use that to like as a control top and so I did so I talked about five minutes and then I take off my shirt and I'm wearing that thing and that's got like a big the hackiest joke of all time but it killed and it gave me like I still there remember like I can

just take me back to like the biggest high I ever had where I was like I found it I found what I'm doing this is my life this is my job I found what I'm doing and And it carried me through a lot of bombing and failures since then. And how long after that first open mic, did you actually start making money from comedy? I'd say five years after that. Five years later. What were you doing for work in the meantime? I worked as like I had to bounce around doing a lot of part-time work doing.

And also I'd say, I may age, if you're talking about living money, five years, If you're talking about any money, probably like two years where I would, I started different mics. I started different shows where I was like hustling. I was basically a panhandler out there like starting to show passing the collection. They're like, oh, we need to do it again. And so that was it for a while. We just lived very poorly. And another reason why I love my son so much is that, I mean, besides him being my son,

but why I feel like I owe him is that like, you know, because he has autism, because he's diagnosed he's had Social Security. So a lot of the times he was the breadwinner. He was paying rent. I was supplementing it. I was paying the electricity. He was paying rent. And so that was a lot of how I survived for that and part-time jobs.

I worked at Lady Liberty tax sign place, swirling a sign, which gave me a staff infection and almost killed me. What? Yeah, they didn't clean those outfits. And I had a cut and I got an infection and I let it go for a while. And I mean, as much as my ex-wife and I, you know, we didn't get along, I do appreciate the fact that she really pushed me. She's like, you need to go to the hospital. And then I went and I ended up in the ICU for like five days.

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right now, it's 10% off your first month. Just go to betterhelp.com slash insight. That's BetterHelphelp.com slash insight. So at what point in this journey did you realize, all right, I got to move to L.A. That's first stuff happens. Oh, good segue. That would be the divorce. That would be that. There we go. That's what I was like, I don't have a place to live anymore. I don't have a steady place. I can either stay here. And like a friend of mine was going through the same thing where he was getting divorced and he was moving from L.A. to where they live to try to kind of like co-parent. And I didn't feel like just the way me and my ex were interacting that that was going to be something that could work for us. So I thought it was better for me, move away,

try to go set up and be able to be a better parent that way. And that's, actually, you know, I've had a couple years of living in comedy, flop houses, and just grinding and going to auditions on an empty tank of gas, which is very dangerous. I do not recommend it because you do not want to run out of gas on the freeway in Los Angeles. It is terrifying, which has happened to me a couple of times. No. Yeah, well, I was playing roulette. I would like, we can make it back. You'd get in your car.

You would know it's on empty. The gas light is on. And you're like, got to get to that audition anyway. Yeah. Yes. And we and and I guess, I mean, I never booked any of those auditions. So it didn't matter. But at least luckily, I made it to all of those auditions.

I never, I sometimes I didn't make it back home. But I made it to the auditions. And so if you're stuck on the side of the 101 or the 405, how do you get home? I was lucky that my dad still had AAA. I could call them and they would come bring me gasoline. And so that was it. But that would cost my dad a lot of money, I think. So, but that's what we had to do some.

So what was the first real break that you got? The first real break I got was first time I did Conan O'Brien. That was a huge break. Yeah, absolutely. It was like I got on Conan and also got asked to do the Montreal Comedy Festival. new faces, which is like the biggest deal for like people who are coming up. Is that a yuck yucks? I'm from Canada.

I think my actual, I've been a yuck yucks several times for sure. I've done sets at yuck yucks, but the actual, I think it was at this place called like the catacombs. So how do you get Conan O'Brien when you, you know, that's obviously the start of your momentum. How do you get Conan O'Brien? Well, the start of it is just auditioning and trying things out. Like I was trying out for, I was in Portland still and they had these, I was lucky that we were having these festivals, which gave me a little bit of momentum and people from other comedians seeing me across the country,

which then led to like people wanting me to open for them like Nick Pearl or John Malaney or Azizansari. Yeah. And that like taught me a lot about. I learned a lot from John Mulanee, in particular about being professional in comedy and traveling. I learned a lot from all of those people. And so it was just a bit of grinding, and I was auditioning to be a new phase. And that's how my manager saw me, Melanie Trueitt, who is a wonderful person, a human being and married to the comedy game. She's married to Brian Pulsane, who is an excellent underrated comedian. And, you know, but she also is just a wonderful

manager whether she was not married to anyone at all. But she saw me on one of these auditions and she wanted to work with me and that led to me sending tapes to the producer of Conan J.P. Buck, who is now a dear friend of mine. And there's just a process of tape after tape

after tape of what they were responding to and what they didn't like. And eventually they were like, we think we got it. And it just happened to coincide at the same time of the Montreal Comedy Festival going I think we got it. So it was a nice double boost.

And then where did you take that momentum from there? To the open mics in Portland, Oregon. We're living in LA yet or you were just- No, I was not. I was still in Oregon during that both time. So that was near the end of right before I moved. But no, I just went back to Portland, went back and doing mics and that is actually a start

of where the getting better style came. style came because I was like, oh, when I get on Conan, when I get this Montreal, I did it. I done did it. We're fine. We're going to make it. We're fine. We've been struggling for so long, but I got on Conan. This is it. And then I had to go back and do open mics in Portland. And because I brought my wife and my son and made a big deal out of taking everyone to Conan, I actually spent more money than I made. So it was this thing of like, oh, there's always the next day. No matter what I accomplished, there's going to be another day. So I have to quit being like, well, this is it.

This is the thing. This is because it's very depressing to then go like, oh, okay, I just did Conan yesterday. Now I'm at this open mic and I'm going to anybody see the Conan. Nobody did, of course. Yeah. And I think there's a big, there's a big takeaway here of going like, for some people, going on Conan O'Brien could be the pinnacle and they could go, hey, remember that time I was on Conan? but you're going, no, that was a cool thing,

but I just want that to be one step along the way. Yeah, no, I think that's anything in a career, right? Like, you just, you learn to like consider these little trophies, little notches, and you're like, well, you can't take this away from me. When you try to knock me down, when you try to tell me up me, you know, all the time, people are like, you're not funny. You're the worst thing I ever seen. Comment something on a Joe Rogan post.

They're like, you're a who are you? I'm like, you don't, you don't know anything about me. And that's fine. The sun shines whether you're asleep or not. So it doesn't matter to me. But you can't take away what I've done. You can't take away that I've been on Conan, that I've been on Montreal, that people, that my heroes tell me I'm good, just because you don't think I'm good.

Yeah. Okay. What would you say most people recognize you from now? Most people now recognize me either from, I think I'm just weird in that, like, I'm from combo. Like, they're like, oh, I've seen you here, here, and here, you know. So I get a lot of people from like, oh, I loved you on that show at midnight when it was running. I get a lot of people still like, I loved Undatable. When's it coming back?

And I'm like, you have not been paying attention to the news. You've also done so much great. voice works, they might not recognize you, but they definitely know your voice. Like, yeah, trolls. Anyone listening to this that has kids, you're in trolls. Yeah. And they've seen trolls. Yeah, for sure, trolls, pussy boots, been in adventure time.

I don't know. I just, I think what I love about my career is that it's like, I'm just like, low key. And I do a lot. And the people who, who I just have a good reputation with people who love to work with me and that's all I care about. I don't need to be the most popular, but the fact that people like that I'm a type, that I know I'm a type, that I've seen breakdowns where they're like looking for a Ron Funches type. No. Like to me, that's amazing. Well, then there's no reason that this can't continue to just, you know, build on itself and to continue to snowball. That's what I think.

And that's what I thought when I saw that, I was like, I don't even know what Ron Func's type is yet. I haven't reached my final form yet. Who knows? I'm still growing. Who knows what Freezer I will be? When you did move to L.A., what was the first real thing that got you on everybody's radar?

The first real thing that I did. I would say probably the unda-able show as far as, like, the real world. But if you're talking like comedy people and that it was like I was a scroll show like when I was on that I was writing on that and also I did a couple memorable sketches on that that people liked. So that was probably the part where like people were like, oh, he's funny and he's a good writer.

And we can try to work with him and then I end up working on a sitcom and then Powerless, which was a fun sitcom. And since then I've been just trying to write my own projects and bounce around and do. different guest roles. I mean, I think I've been very fortunate. I always like, I'm like, oh, I didn't go to college, but I've gotten the best comedy career that you could, or education you could ask for. I've worked with just some of the best in the world and I've learned under their tree. And I just kind of take that and I wait for my time to strike. Who have been your comedy mentors? I'm except for John Miller. I mean, my three biggest influences, when I was a kid, even though I've never met, any of these people.

Oh, no, I have met one. Nice. Lucille Ball, Mitch Headberg, and then Dave Chappelle, who I did end up opening for in Montreal, which is one of my biggest comedy accomplishments because they did not want me. And by the end of it, they loved me. And I truly, I was like, this is one of them like, oh, I'm powerful. Because they wanted Dave. Did you have a chance to talk with Dave backstage?

Absolutely. Yeah, I've been, I talked to him a couple times. It's been very nice to me. You know, it's not like he follows me around or it's like, what you've been up to. But whenever I've seen him, he's just, he like a lot of comedians just like see other comedians succeed. So he's very nice and very cool. He had his family with him. And so he could have been very much like, you know, but he was very like open and like, hey, come meet my wife, come meet my kids. You know, very nice guy. I feel like he's just absolutely crushing it. I don't know if anybody's better than him. He's better.

He's like the best at being like what I always say, a true comedian of like, you don't have to be right and everything you say. You can be outlandish. You can be wrong. You can tell yourself. You can say I'm wrong. And I think that he's still great at that,

which is always funny because people are like, oh, you can't say any more thing anymore. You guys like, no, you just have to be really good. Like you can say whatever you want. as you're good. And also, what are you trying to say? What are you more to say? If someone's starting off in comedy, I mean, it's a long path. But what are the first few steps in that journey? Writing, writing, writing, writing, all the time. And then going up, that's why I say right now is an excellent time because as much as like you can't go out and you are still open mics going on

in your town, I'm sure. And as well as there's Zoom open mic. So like, you know, I used to have to drive an hour, two hour, three hours, the bomb. And like now, like, Zoom shows aren't the funness because you can't feel the feedback. But at least, like, I go, like, oh, all right, I did it. I turned off my screen and I'm home. It's like, well, all right, cool. So I think it's a great time to start, just get into it, write a bunch, right? What makes you happy be specific about what your viewpoint is and just keep going up. It's not, you know, it's much like everything else. It's just repetition, getting better and having better.

Having something to say. Zoom shows must be so hard, though, because you're not hearing laughter. They're horrible. They're insane. They make you feel bad. Yeah, there's a few. No. No.

No. No, I don't think there are. What part of LA are you in? I'm in the valley. Me too. I'm in Studio City. Nice. I'm in Sherman Oaks.

Oh, we're neighbors. Yep. You know, you're John Morrison and Taya live in Sherman Oaks. Oh, really? Yeah, so you guys are literally neighbors. I love that. They're awesome. Go find them.

I'm sure he's somewhere around flipping off of something. That's what he does. Have you always loved wrestling? Yeah. Oh, yeah. What's your first memory of it? My uncle taking me to the Rosemont, her right. and still see Hope Hogan versus earthquake in a stretcher match.

And I remember just loving it, loving Hulk Hogan, loving the thing. Because also I grew up in the house, all ladies, just my mom, my sister, my cousin, my aunt. And so wrestling was like, oh, this is our guy thing we go do. And I loved it. And so, yeah, I was a big fan since then. So you were watching when Saturday night, you were watching Saturday night, you're watching Saturday main event. Then when Raw started,

yeah, watching it all watching WCW. I think I was very lucky because growing up in Chicago, nice in the middle of everything where I could watch ECW. I could watch WWE, watch WCW. I've been, my favorite favorite event I ever went to is I went to that spring stampede in 93 or 94. And now I go back and watch it and I'm like,

oh my God, I saw Ricky Steamboat live. I saw Dusted Rose. I saw Stonecoastie Austin. I saw the nasty boys versus Max Payne and Cactus Jack. That was a great night. That's a great event. I think it's one of the best favorite views of all time. And, you know, I fell out of it a little bit as a teenager, as one does,

when they're trying to fall in line and be like, well, what do you like? You don't like it? So I don't like it. I don't like it anymore. But once I realized that that wasn't a fruitful endeavor, I came right back to it from, thanks to Rob Van Dam and ECW and Tommy Dreamer and those boys. So I've been a fan ever since. There's been times where it's been difficult to be a fan, as I'm sure you know.

But right now, I feel like another go. I mean, I always say very much to comedy that comedy and wrestling were both kind of going through this golden age again at the same time. And then both affected by the pandemic, I think comedy even more so than pro. wrestling. Oh, yeah. I did an interview with Shane Helms recently, Hurricane Helms, and he put it perfectly. He said, having wrestling without an audience is like having comedy without an audience. And I'm like, oh, absolutely. You nailed it because so much of what you do on stage as a comedian is affected by, is the audience reacting to this? Oh, they're really thinking that's funny? I'll start to go down this a little bit more. Explore this a little bit more. And in wrestling, it's the exact same way.

like a match may change in the middle of it because the heel has way more heat than you expect it or, you know, something like. It's just like the reasons why basketball and football and those things can still work is that no matter what if there's fans or not, there's a score, there's a timer, work writing down to let you know that there's stakes. Wrestling and comedy, you're working for a reaction. So if there is no reaction, what are you working for? Yeah. to how much has your career shifted over this last year? Because you're on a damn role. A lot.

I think I was a little bit more well equipped to handle it than a lot of comedians just because, and it was a thing I was conflicted about where I was like, oh, I'm kind of like this jack of all trades. I do a lot of this and that. I go and host a thing or I do voiceovers. But, you know, and then I get competitive. because I'm like, oh, I see my peers.

They're getting these Netflix specials. Netflix didn't want to give me an hour special. So I have a Comedy Central. And so I, which I truly loved and enjoyed, and I think it was the best decision because it turned into something truly special and people who really enjoyed it. But I was like, oh, maybe I should just focus on stand-up

and prove that I'm one of the best. And then this pandemic hit, and I was like, oh, thank God I have these voiceovers. because there's no like stand-up to do. And if there is stand-up to do, you're getting, I mean, I was getting, like, I asked to go out and, like, do these same gigs that I had booked, but they're like, well, now, you know, we can only pay you half.

And, you know, and that's rough. And if I needed to do that, I'd do that. But luckily, I was like, you know what, that's okay. I doesn't feel safe, first of all. And I'd like to keep my value up if I can. So I will just go and do these voiceovers. I just shot a pilot. I've shot a couple of pilots this past couple months,

and I shot a little five-episode theme of a trial series that I hope comes out. And so I've just been trying to go with the flow. I did mushrooms one night, and it just told me to be nimble like a bunny. And that was my thing. So I was like, you know what? If it's leaning this way, I'll go this way. If it's leaning that way, I'll go that way. I'm not going to force anything because that's the little.

you know, it never works. So many people I've heard have had an experience with mushrooms that have changed their life. Yeah. All right. All right. Maybe I'll try it. I think you should try a little bit, at least under the guidance of someone who else who has also done. So just don't do too many.

Whose career do you look at in comedy and go? I would love to have something similar to that. I mean, I kind of like what I'm doing. I think I'm doing a good job. I never, it's been something my wife and I talk about often where we're like, we never go like, oh, I wish I was doing that or that.

No, not at all. No, I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. So I'll answer your question. But the people who I like emulate are like Pat and Oswald, because I think he does, nils it. You're like, oh, when I want acting the thing, it's great. And I'm a great actor.

And when I'm doing stand-up is great. And I'm a great stand-up. When I'm doing voiceover, I'm ratitude. So, like, to me, that's like exactly what I like to do. So he has been truly one of the biggest influences in how I do business and comedy since I was a teen. I don't think I even would have got started.

I was reading his blog about how to get started and how to etiquette at an open mic, how you act. He was a big influence long before I ever met him. And then he was also one of the people who took me out on the road with him. for a few times and then I'm very happy and I will say it because he has said it that he then very quickly decided that he should not take me on the road anymore because he did not want to follow me.

Damn, that's great. So we know that the physical goal here at 40 is to be in the best shape of your life. You have a career goal that you're aiming at for 40? I just like my show that I've been working on about my son and I to be on air. like it to be a hit. And I just like to keep getting better at my career. I just want to keep acting, keep doing voiceovers, but. Is this a scripted show about you and your son?

Yeah. And I just want to keep moving up in levels. I'm not impatient. I'm happy to keep working at things and keep proving myself. But as I put in, if you look at my bios on Instagram or Twitter or anything, And they all say leading man, leading man, because that's how I try to view myself and put myself is that I know it's not conventional, perhaps, but I view myself as like, I am doing something different. I am leading. I am a leading man.

And I want to do that. And like Billy Crystal is one of my biggest heroes in that regard. And, oh, Rick Moranis. So that's kind of where I try to aim my career now. It's like, oh, I want to be like one of Billy Chris, consider like a Billy Crystal Rick Moranist type of person. How much did being on Joe Rogan's podcast really helped to elevate things? It does a lot. It's the biggest platform in the world right now, I believe.

Yeah, it's a big podcast. I think it's absolutely, it definitely, I can go on five, ten late night shows and did not get the same reaction as going on Joe Rogan's podcast. That's for sure. And it's one of the things I mean, we're talking about respect. If we're talking about business respect, there we go. That's another person who I think it's just one of the smartest business minds you can come across. The fact that he still owns all his stuff, even though he's got this deal with Spotify. The fact that he saw this podcast landscape before a lot of people did, the fact that he used his love of MMA to also increase his platform.

which is another thing I do with wrestling. It's another reason where I'm like, oh, I want to be like a Joe Rogan of pro wrestling because that's what I love. I don't love him. And so I look at him for a lot of influence in that. It also is a double-ed sort of watching, like, how much influence he has.

We're like, I'll go on the show. I'll go on the show and people who are my fans will get mad because they're like, why would you go on his show? He has Alex Jones and people. like that on the show. And then if I express this other point of view, which is the reason why I go, that's why I'm on the show so that I can express my point of views. And then a lot of his fans are like, oh, who are you? Why are you, you're an idiot, you're a sheep. And I'm like, first of all, you guys are caping hard for a guy who doesn't give a shit about you, but will text me back in a

moment. So what don't act like you know Joe Rogan more than me you bitch. How could anyone get mad that you wanted to be a guest on the biggest podcast in the world? Ridiculous. Stan culture is basically it. People get ridiculous. Like you said, people get riddick. Like you said, people get over. They want you to just do what you, they want you to do and like the people that they want you to like and only be friends with them. And if you say, step out of that in one bit, then there's like this sand culture that goes, oh, no, why would you do that?

I've never worked with that. The easiest way to get me to do something you don't want me to do is tell me you don't want me to do it. I love that Joe Rogan is carrying the torch for if you love something, there was a way to make money from doing it. Comedy, MMA, hosting, podcasting, it's crushing it all. Yeah, absolutely. And he's a regular guy. And that's my whole thing about it is I like to me in the middle. I don't, the game with the getting better. It's like I don't like to deify any of these people. Joe Rogan is a regular freaking comedian, regular guy. He can crush. He's been doing it forever. He has the experience. But then you have these kind of people like, I remember listening to DDP being like, Joe Rogan is the voice of a generation. And I was like, okay, pump the brakes here. He's a regular guy. I'm not. Again, yes, not to deflate what he's done. Amazing. But then you get a lot of people who then just like, I just follow what he says. I just follow what he says.

And then at that point, you're kind of not following what he says. What he says is to be a free thinker. Think for yourself. I'm like, Joe, I disagree with what you said. This is like you're fucking, you sound like an idiot right now to me. And I will say that to him. And he has no problem with me saying that to him. But his fans do.

Man, I've loved this, Ron. I'm so glad we finally made this happen. We've been talking about this for like almost a year. Yeah, you got to come on getting better. I would love to. It'd be an honor to be on your podcast. Please. I'll have you.

Sure. And when the world is normal, we can do this in person. I love that too. I'll drive the seven minutes over to Sherman Oaks and we'll make this happen. You know, like you, like the idea of getting better and like, you know, always trying to be the best version of yourself. I start and end every day with gratitude. So I end up. every interview with it as well. So you see it here. Be great. Be grateful. What are three things that

you're grateful for in your life right now? Using money. Of course, my wife, she is amazing. We've been married for six months and it didn't even feel like that. So that feels good. She just, it feels like we've only been married for like a week and I don't know much about her. And also it feels like she's been in my life since the moment I've been born. So it's a weird thing. special. It very special. And that's why I noticed. Like she'll watch, she watches everything I do. The only other person who watches as much of the things I do is her as my mom. And I'm like, well, if you love me like that lady loves me, then I got it. I'm very grateful for my son and just how much of a kind man he's becoming as he gets, he's going to be 18 in a couple of months.

And he's just any one I talk to that deals with him is teachers. anyone they're always in love with him they they enjoy him so much and I just think you know with the things he has to deal with with you know things are a little loud for him things are a little weird for him he never complains he never has a bad attitude he's just like a really powerful strong person and I'm very grateful all the lessons that he has taught me I'm grateful for my home, just that I have a home that I self-made this home, that no one gave me this home, that my, and have a parent to give me a loan, not that I begrudge anyone. I would love to give my son alone. That, to me, is the goal. So I'm not begrudging that, but there's a pride that I have

in being self-made and knowing where I come from, knowing that I never thought I would be a homeowner and the fact that I am. And I mean, it helps me in my comedy. Like I can compartmentalize things. If I have a bad set now and go like, oh, well, my wife and my beautiful house are waiting for me. So you know what? I'll try again tomorrow.

As we end this, can you give us five affirmations we can take with us through this day? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I love your affirmations. I'll just do them, you know, just, you know, just, I hope. that you're feeling strong and that if you're not feeling strong i hope that you're okay with that i hope that you know that you are allowed to go through all things and one of my favorite things to think about is to not uh withhold feelings or mirein feelings but allow them to flow through you like water if you are sad be sad but allow that to pass you know um i i just feel that it

it's okay to be happy in this time period if you're looking over your shoulder and you're grateful for all the things that you have, but you see that the other people are struggling and you don't feel that it's okay to shine and feel grateful. I don't agree with that. I think you have to be mindful of other people's situation, but be grateful and be happy that you're being spared at this time from all the struggles that are going around.

I think that's important. And if you are struggling, if you feel oppressed at this time, I just think it's important to look at the other side that of the fact that since everything's kind of stripped away and you kind of have like, oh, there is no security. You can really kind of look and go, what's important to me? What do I want to focus on? How do I want to live my life?

Not how people have told me to live my life so that when I'm 60, I'll be fine and I'll have security because obviously we've been shown time and time again that the people who are supposed to be taking care of us don't know what they're doing. So enjoy your life now and try to take care of yourself now and take self-ownership in that is one of my biggest thing is like if you're sitting around complaining about like the government and complaining about how things are being treated, which you were rightful to do so that is, but that's not new. That's not new and that's not going to change. And what can change is how you respond to it and how you protect yourself and protect your family. Yeah. I like you have your hand over your heart while you were saying all that.

I didn't know. Intentional or not. No. This has been great. Ron, appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Chris, a pleasure talking with you. Can I have one of your Emmys? All right. What a guy. What a guy. Thanks to Ron. And thanks to you for being on this audio adventure with us.

And send us to someone who needs some inspiration in their life. I mean, I think that if you hear Ron's laugh, it would instantly turn your worst day, boom, into your best day. It's just so infectious. Ron's podcast is called Getting Better with Ron Funges. Subscribe to it wherever you're listening to this right now. And if you happen to not be a subscriber to my podcast, let's change that.

Let's change that right now. Smash that subscribe button. And I'll leave you with this from Thomas Henry Huxley. who said, the rung of the ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold your foot long enough to enable you to put the other somewhat higher. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do.

With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more. than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media

about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.