0:01

This show is brought to you by ZocDoc. ZocDoc

0:03

is a free app where you can find amazing doctors

0:06

and book appointments online. We're talking

0:08

about booking appointments with thousands of

0:10

top-rated, patient-reviewed doctors and

0:13

specialists. You can filter specifically

0:15

for ones who take your insurance, are located

0:17

near you, and treat almost any condition

0:20

you're searching for.

0:21

Go to zocdoc.com slash elise

0:23

and download the ZocDoc app for free. Then

0:26

find and book a top-rated doctor today. That's

0:28

z-o-c-d-o-c dot com

0:31

slash elise. ZocDoc dot com

0:33

slash elise.

0:36

Check

0:58

out a free trial of Lemonada Premium

1:00

today in the Apple Podcast app by clicking

1:02

on our podcast logo and then the subscribe button.

1:08

Lemonada

1:27

Okay, actually, can you just pretend that you're listening

1:29

to a fully complete theme song here? I got

1:31

really in my head and I tried to make it perfect

1:34

and I couldn't. So this is going

1:36

to be the theme song right here.

1:44

Hello and welcome to another episode of Funny Cuz It's

1:46

True. I'm Elise Myers. Today I'm joined

1:48

by actor, writer, and comedian Ron Funches.

1:52

He's guest starred in a number of TV shows, performed

1:54

on multiple late night shows, and he has his

1:56

own podcast. We talked about the odd places

1:58

one can find comedic inspiration.

1:59

and how it's good to be just a little

2:02

bit delusional. Not a lot, but

2:04

a little bit really does help.

2:06

So two things that are funny because they're true. Number one,

2:09

Ron has a laugh that is so infectious.

2:11

It makes me feel way funnier than I actually

2:14

am. And number two, there was

2:16

a point in the interview where he was sharing so much wisdom

2:18

with me that I actually became speechless

2:21

and he kind of took over the interview for me, which

2:24

is amazing. Okay, let's get into it.

2:27

Ron, hello,

2:30

how are you doing today? I'm

2:32

doing pretty well today. It's been a good

2:35

day. It's early day, one of my

2:37

parenting days. So I've been up pretty

2:40

early.

2:40

You have a son, right? I have two

2:42

sons. Two sons, okay, how old are they? 20 years

2:46

old and 15 months. Oh my

2:48

gosh. Yeah. You're in it again.

2:50

You're like, I thought I was out. Nope, we're right back

2:52

in it, 15 months. Yeah, exactly. Is

2:55

he going through like a sleep regression right now?

2:57

No, he's just a lot of teething,

3:00

little crankiness,

3:02

little general whininess, but

3:04

very sweet boy. Well, I'm so

3:07

grateful you're here. I wanted to

3:09

open up because one of the

3:11

first clips I saw of you was when

3:13

you were talking from your special about the conspiracy

3:16

theory thing where you were like, I

3:18

understand you're not like a conspiracy theorist, but like,

3:20

you don't even believe one, like not one of

3:22

them. And I'm wondering if you

3:24

have any like favorite conspiracy

3:26

theories that you like to

3:28

dive into. I think the one

3:30

easiest and topical one right now is just

3:33

talking about aliens and stuff. The fact

3:35

that you're like, of course there's aliens.

3:38

Why wouldn't there be aliens and people will

3:40

always call you crazy and tell

3:42

you, and now we owe a lot of those people

3:44

apologies, I feel like, and

3:46

then it's still fun because you go and I

3:49

went and did a show the other day and I said like,

3:51

oh, that person's clearly an alien. I

3:53

was talking about the musician Bad Bunny because

3:56

he does everything and he looks like an alien

3:58

to me. That's not a person.

3:59

That's an alien. And then

4:02

they were like, they were just joking.

4:04

And I was like, no, like, do you forget

4:06

aliens are real? Like,

4:08

how do we get iPads and stuff?

4:11

So I know I asked him

4:13

about what his favorite conspiracy theory

4:15

is, but for some reason I was not prepared

4:17

to hear a conspiracy theory. Do

4:21

you oftentimes like to add things that

4:23

are kind of current and topical into

4:25

your sets as you kind of are doing crowd

4:27

work or is that kind of more of a rare thing?

4:29

I've been doing it more lately

4:32

to make clips, basically. I've been

4:34

trying just thinking about business

4:36

in my career with the strike going on

4:38

and stuff and just took it as an opportunity

4:41

to like refocus on what

4:43

I enjoy and stand up. What I loved

4:45

was that I was like, oh, I'm acting. I'm doing different things

4:48

so I can go and do stand up. And if the room's half

4:50

empty, doesn't matter. I'm going to go back

4:52

to work on Monday. And then it was like,

4:54

well, now I don't have that. And so I should focus

4:57

on trying to build my fan base,

4:59

build these rooms out

5:01

and like have, you know, hopefully

5:03

have full rooms. And I was like, the

5:05

best way that is going right now is that people constantly

5:07

putting out clips, a lot of crowd work clips

5:09

and things like that. And I don't like doing

5:12

crowd work. I don't really care about other people

5:14

while I'm on stage.

5:16

That's the most real

5:19

take on crowd work I've ever heard because

5:21

I know if I would

5:23

just like stress out so badly if I had to

5:25

do a bunch of crowd work because you just

5:27

never know. Right. You never know how someone's

5:29

going to respond in a moment or what a room is going to be like. Like,

5:32

have you ever had crowd work go badly?

5:34

Oh, of course. You get too mean

5:36

or you hit on something that's going

5:38

on or someone has a disease,

5:41

a terminal illness that you don't know about.

5:43

All right. Well, new fear unlocked.

5:46

You know, it can completely turn your show

5:49

around. Do you remember one of your first

5:51

bits or kind of jokes that like landed

5:53

really, really well where you were like, I

5:55

am killing

5:56

it.

5:59

I think just

6:02

the first one where people started being

6:04

like, oh, you're funny or you're a good joke writer,

6:06

was I just wrote a joke about

6:08

the differences between Chicago and Oregon.

6:11

And just talked about how Chicago, you'd

6:13

see all these like drug dealers, the

6:15

gang members and then Oregon, you'd be like,

6:18

oh, the Blackberries are in season. And

6:20

like, I just remember other comedians

6:22

who I had grown up liking or just became

6:25

fans of as I got into comedy

6:27

were like, oh, that's a great joke. I just remember

6:29

Reggie

6:29

Watts, when I first met him, he was like, oh

6:32

man, that Blackberry joke, he's like, that's a seminal

6:35

joke, that's great. And just to hear that from

6:37

someone like him where I was like, oh my God, okay,

6:39

I gotta keep going.

6:41

Did it take long when you first started

6:43

your comedy career to feel like you were killing

6:45

it? I think for a lot

6:47

of people, they have similar story where your

6:49

first show goes

6:52

like,

6:53

better than your wildest dreams. Like

6:55

I just remember being so nervous. And

6:57

I think a lot of it is just romanticism

6:59

where I just go back and maybe I probably

7:02

got a couple chuckles, but the fact

7:04

that I didn't bomb and people were laughing

7:06

and when I wanted them to laugh, just

7:08

gave me this high that I never felt

7:10

before. And I just remember to this day that

7:13

I parked my car like just down

7:15

the street and I'd walk around.

7:17

I just couldn't find it for like an hour. Just

7:19

couldn't find it because I was so just

7:23

geeked out of my head.

7:25

What is it like for you to craft

7:27

a set? Has that evolved over time? Like from when

7:29

you first started or, you know, has

7:31

it stayed the same like making this like set

7:33

for standup?

7:34

It's the same but quicker.

7:37

I find that I try to just

7:39

kind of stay to my roots of what I enjoy

7:42

in writing, which is I talk about what I love, talk

7:44

about my family, talk about whatever's

7:47

going on in my life. I don't do much topical

7:49

stuff. I find the more that you do it

7:51

and the more that you put stuff out and you do an hour

7:53

and that's usually

7:56

one of the biggest fears as a comedian is like you do

7:58

an hour and you're worried that you won't.

7:59

I don't ever have enough material. But I think

8:02

you find that you have more

8:04

experience and you know what you're doing, so you end

8:06

up

8:07

writing in a

8:10

quicker fashion. And

8:12

just for me lately, it's just been all about just getting

8:14

deeper into, and more authentic.

8:17

That's basically what my set is right now. It's just truly

8:19

being authentic in my life, less of a people

8:22

pleaser.

8:22

Was that like an intentional shift that you made? Cause

8:25

you just got tired of kind of feeling like

8:27

you were pleasing everybody around you? I

8:29

mean, it's just

8:29

a shift in my life. I was married

8:32

for a while. And at a point

8:35

I didn't really enjoy

8:37

it anymore. And it wasn't feeling

8:39

authentic to me. And I felt

8:41

like in some ways that was mirroring

8:44

in my set. I started just feeling

8:46

it creep into my work and creep into my

8:48

life where I was feeling more like a product as

8:50

opposed to my real self. And

8:52

I think sometimes that's a trap of

8:55

gaining some success, you know, and getting

8:57

a little bit of money and being like, okay, I want to continue

8:59

to do whatever it is that you liked about

9:02

me that allowed you to give me money.

9:04

So when I was getting divorced and trying to be

9:06

more of my authentic self, it just now it's

9:08

kind of translating on stage, you

9:10

know? Yeah.

9:13

Okay, we have to take a quick break. When we're back, Ron

9:16

tells us where he gets inspiration for his comedy.

9:18

So we'll be right back. He's

9:22

the Whativeaker ofanta Tribe.

9:27

Tractor drinks are certified organic, non-GMO,

9:31

and made from sustainably sourced ingredients with

9:33

no artificial ingredients, no phony colors,

9:36

no mystery preservatives, or synthetic pesticides. They're

9:39

the drinks with nothing to hide. So as we all know,

9:41

when we got to eat, the clean beverage

9:43

options are pretty limited. That's

9:45

why Tractor Beverage company has a lot of options one cup at a time.

9:48

Now you can enjoy the food you love with

9:50

a drink that makes you feel good. I

9:53

get really excited when I go to a restaurant and I see Tractor

9:55

Beverages on the menu because not

9:57

only do I like them, but my son August really likes

9:59

them, to like share the drink back and forth which is

10:01

always really fun. Tractor comes in bold,

10:04

refreshing flavors like berry patch, lemonade,

10:06

strawberry dragon fruit, mandarin cardamom,

10:09

unsweet tea and mango, as well as organic

10:11

sodas like root beer, coconut, and

10:13

the cherry cream flavor is my absolute favorite,

10:16

but everyone in my family has their own favorite

10:18

pick. So next time you go out to eat, definitely

10:20

look for Tractor on the menu. I promise once you

10:22

try it, you won't be able to go back.

10:24

Tractor. Organically farmed beverages.

10:27

You can find them at your favorite restaurant or go to drinktractor.com

10:30

and find where Tractor is available near you.

10:34

This episode of Funny Cause It's True is brought to

10:36

you by Poise Ultra Thins. You guys know how

10:38

important honesty is to me and I think that there

10:41

are some things that we all struggle with that

10:43

we definitely should talk about. That

10:45

brings me to Poise and particularly what they've been

10:47

able to do for so many people experiencing

10:49

postpartum bladder leakage. You might not hear

10:51

about it, but one in two people who are postpartum

10:54

are experiencing bladder leaks and most

10:56

of them are not using the right protection. Thankfully,

10:59

we have Poise Ultra Thins to change that. Unlike

11:01

traditional period pads, Poise Ultra Thins are

11:03

designed specifically for bladder leaks. For

11:06

anyone experiencing bladder leaks with no idea

11:08

where to turn, Poise Ultra Thins help you stay

11:10

clean, dry, and fresh. Worry free, essentially.

11:13

Poise Ultra Thins offer with and without wings

11:15

and both kinds stay in place all day. Truly,

11:18

you will forget that they are there. Parenthood is

11:20

seriously so much easier when you can actually

11:22

feel comfortable, no matter what your body might

11:24

be throwing at you. Thank you, Poise, for coming

11:27

up with a solution. It takes Poise. Learn

11:29

more at Poise.com.

11:38

Do you have any comedic voices

11:40

that have spoken a lot into your

11:43

comedic voice or the way that you tell jokes?

11:45

Like, any inspirations that you pull from? I

11:48

went to Amsterdam and Paris for

11:50

a couple weeks and just watched a bunch

11:53

of documentaries and went to some museums

11:55

and got stoned a bunch and

11:57

did mushrooms. Love that for you.

11:59

and watched, thank you, it was a blast.

12:03

And I watched like George Carlin's documentary

12:05

and that was very helpful for me because

12:09

he kind of went through a similar situation,

12:11

not necessarily with a divorce, but just where

12:13

he was finding success in one way

12:16

and was like not feeling his authentic self and

12:18

decided to like completely abandon

12:20

that style of comedy to for

12:23

something that was more authentic to him. So

12:25

I would say that, and I get a lot of my inspiration usually mostly

12:28

from like music and

12:31

pro wrestling. Pro wrestling, I

12:34

love that. Do you, does

12:36

pro, wait, what? Like does

12:38

pro wrestling, do you watch it and it inspires

12:40

jokes? Is it you just enjoy the sport?

12:43

Like I've never had anyone answer that before.

12:45

So I'm so curious.

12:46

All of it, the answer to that is

12:48

all of those things. I enjoy

12:50

the pageantry of it, the creating

12:53

characters and stuff of it. I

12:55

have written multiple, I

12:58

wrote a joke about The Rock

13:00

and how he was like the Beyonce for boys

13:03

and it was my last, it

13:05

was great. And it was my last special. And

13:08

it was just a thing because I was trying to shop the special

13:10

around and wasn't getting a lot of necessarily

13:14

big interest that I wanted. And then it was

13:16

super cool because I was like, people

13:19

kind of dismiss their wrestling things sometimes,

13:21

but they forget, like a lot of people have

13:23

a history with it. I think even if you don't

13:25

like it today, a lot of people grew up with it. And a lot of

13:27

the biggest stars today come from it. So

13:29

when I made a joke about The Rock on my special,

13:32

being the Beyonce for boys, and then that's

13:34

the clip they use and then The Rock sees it and

13:36

he decides he wants to retweet it and

13:38

talk about it. Suddenly I got thousands

13:40

of dollars, if

13:42

not hundreds of thousand dollars worth of promotion

13:46

from

13:46

one tweet about talking about something

13:48

I loved. Yeah. I was not prepared

13:51

to hear pro wrestling as a place

13:53

that he finds inspiration for his comedy, but

13:55

I love this so much.

13:57

There's a thing in pro wrestling which

13:59

is called. like just being a mark for yourself,

14:02

which is if you get so caught up on your

14:04

accomplishments, so caught up on winning all these

14:07

championships,

14:09

in the grand scheme of things, it's

14:11

someone else's decision. Like in

14:13

wrestling, it's the Booker's decision on whether

14:16

or not you get a championship. A lot

14:18

of times in comedy, it is a Booker's decision

14:20

or it's some network executive's decision. And

14:23

I think sometimes people get caught up in that. And

14:25

I always like to remember at the end of the day, with

14:27

comedy, my wins are

14:29

gonna be like how much

14:32

time I was able to spend at home with my family,

14:34

how much freedom I had, how many trips

14:36

I was able to take, was I able

14:38

to buy a home and take care

14:39

of my kids because of jokes. So

14:42

for those that don't know, a mark in professional

14:44

like TV wrestling is somebody

14:47

that buys into the emotion and the characteristics

14:49

of the storyline and characters of the

14:52

show that is happening in wrestling. And

14:55

so this whole idea just

14:57

was so profound to me that

14:59

I went home and I couldn't stop thinking about

15:01

it. I have not stopped thinking about it since me and Ron had

15:03

this conversation. I love this moment

15:06

so much. Yeah, that's honestly,

15:08

that's something I've said more than anything

15:10

in my new career as a comedian

15:13

is I've had a baby

15:15

like newborn since this started.

15:17

And so I always have said, I'm really

15:19

grateful this kind of happened for me when I

15:22

didn't have the time to do all the things that would be

15:24

distracting from my actual job.

15:26

And like networking is a part of the job

15:28

and you get to enjoy all that

15:29

and it's fun. But like I'm very

15:31

much in your train of thought of

15:34

like, I just, I want to do enough to be

15:36

able to be like successful

15:38

in what I love doing, but so that I can be home

15:40

with my family. Like I wanna be able to provide for

15:42

my family so that I can enjoy my time with them.

15:45

It's like just refreshing to hear you say that because

15:48

I think a lot of the times people can focus

15:50

so much on being the best that

15:52

they like

15:53

stop being good. Like,

15:56

you know, they like sometimes being really good

15:58

is like just good.

15:59

Like you don't have to be the absolute best it's ever

16:02

been. And so it's just, it's

16:04

really cool to hear you say that. Thank you. That's

16:06

so time

16:07

consuming and mentally draining

16:09

to worry about being the best. You

16:11

know what I mean? Yeah. And

16:14

especially with comedy. Oh my God. Like with standup.

16:16

Okay. That's like being the best chess player.

16:19

Who knows who that is? Yeah. Yeah.

16:22

It's so subjective. Yeah. It's

16:24

not only subjective. It's like,

16:25

I think sometimes just

16:27

because like I love standup. I mean, this is a lesson

16:29

I learned long ago, but just because I love

16:32

standup comedy, it's just like how my friend,

16:34

my best friend Gabe loves comic

16:36

books. You know, he loves comic

16:38

books can tell you about anybody tell you the

16:41

runs, tell you who wrote this, who drew,

16:43

who illustrated that. But like

16:45

the average person doesn't care. They care

16:47

about the Marvel movies. They care about Spider-Man.

16:49

They care about that. And I remember one

16:52

day I was like,

16:54

when I was worried about being the best and stuff

16:56

and I was hitting every mic I could and stuff.

16:59

And I was using it to like flirt with girls and

17:01

was happy that I was touring with people. And I

17:03

was like, uh, was trying

17:05

to hit on this lady. And she was like, I was like,

17:08

Oh, I'm in comedy. I'm doing pretty good. I open

17:10

for great people. I open for John Mulaney

17:12

sometimes open for Aziz and sorry

17:15

sometimes. And this is at the time where

17:17

like both of these guys are like doing

17:19

arenas and especially Aziz. This

17:21

was like the

17:22

Randy era of stuff. And so like,

17:24

he's like the one of the biggest names in comedy.

17:27

And so to me, that's like the biggest name drop

17:29

I can see. Oh, I know what

17:31

Aziz and sorry. And they just look

17:33

at me and they're like, who's that? And I'm

17:36

like, Oh, you know, and they go like,

17:38

Oh, the funny little brown guy on Parks and Recreation.

17:41

And that

17:42

like hurt my heart. And

17:45

like, at the same time opened my mind

17:48

so much to where I was like,

17:50

I remember at that moment going like, Oh,

17:52

no matter how hard I work, I could become the

17:54

best and what do I will be just like, Oh,

17:56

that funny black guy on that thing that they

17:58

know. Really all it comes down.

17:59

It's like trying to seek

18:02

validation from other people where I'm just

18:04

kind of reaching a point, and a lot

18:06

of it is the divorce and stuff, where I'm like, I

18:08

know my value.

18:09

I was literally just talking

18:11

about this last night. I think

18:13

the further I dive deep into

18:16

my career and the more my

18:18

name is known in niche ways, it's

18:21

kind of like what you're saying where it's like, either someone

18:23

will know you very well or they have never heard of you. But

18:25

there's no in between when it comes to being a comedian,

18:28

which is so funny. The

18:30

bigger our world has gotten in this, the

18:33

closer my inner circle has had to become

18:35

because I just started to really need

18:38

and seek validation, even from people

18:40

like on my team or people that are close but

18:43

aren't like family. I

18:45

started to kind of rely on validation

18:47

from them that I was doing a really good job because

18:49

I just needed that. And I found

18:52

the more I needed that, the more I was let down

18:54

from people around me because it's like, I was

18:57

asking the wrong people. And I literally

18:59

forgot I had to be confident in

19:01

what I was doing and know I was doing

19:03

a good job. And I was just waiting

19:05

for people because of the nature of how I got started

19:08

online. It was kind of accidental. It

19:12

forced me to rely so much on somebody telling

19:14

me I was doing the right thing and doing a good job that I forgot

19:16

I had to believe that about myself. So

19:19

it's cool to hear you kind of explain that because

19:21

I'm going through that right now.

19:23

At the end of the day, as

19:26

brutal as it sounds sometimes, you have to always

19:29

remember, besides when you're

19:31

talking about your family, your close circle, most

19:33

of these people love you as

19:35

much money as you make them. And so

19:38

you have to remember to put

19:40

yourself first. I'm lucky, I'm

19:43

super blessed. My manager and

19:45

the people around me have always

19:48

supported whatever I wanna do. There's

19:50

never been a push into, you need to go do

19:52

this because this is gonna make us the

19:54

most money. It's always been about,

19:56

like, where do you want, I

19:58

want, like you talked about, being here. for the long haul. I want

20:01

to be doing comedy when I'm 70, 80 years old. So

20:04

that means I can't get burnt out and be like,

20:06

I hate this industry. Yeah,

20:08

yeah, yeah.

20:09

Just me casually holding back tears.

20:12

That is so wise. And

20:15

like,

20:16

I just hope that I hope you

20:19

understand how powerful it is for people that hear

20:21

that, because that is literally

20:23

not common. Like,

20:26

that is not what people receive

20:28

when they are getting advice about

20:30

starting a career in entertainment

20:33

in general. Like, you hear you have

20:35

to be at everything. You have to be available 24 seven.

20:37

You have to grind. You have to take opportunities

20:40

that don't pay well. And I know that you

20:42

have to do all of that. And there is a lot of that in

20:44

it. But like, there does get to a point

20:46

where you just have to enjoy this

20:48

thing you've built. And it's not always

20:50

about the next thing you do. Sometimes it's just enjoying

20:53

where you're at. And I love that

20:55

you get to teach your sons that. I love that,

20:58

you know, you get to give

21:00

that back to your family. No matter when

21:02

it is in the timeline of your family that you learned it, you're

21:04

getting to give that to them now. And it's

21:07

just it's a very powerful thing. Even for me, I'm

21:09

sitting here and I'm like just taking mental notes

21:12

like, oh, my gosh, this is advice I needed when

21:14

I first started.

21:17

OK, time for another break. When we come back,

21:19

we hear about Ron's vision boards.

21:28

Sleep is important,

21:30

you guys. If you're not sleeping well, chances

21:32

are everything just feels more difficult. I

21:35

used to be somebody that really struggled to wake up

21:37

to my alarms. But the way Hatch Restore wakes

21:39

you up, it's been a great solution to that problem.

21:42

Think of Hatch Restore as your bedside sleep guide.

21:44

It's a sophisticated sound machine, light, and

21:46

alarm clock, beautifully designed for your

21:48

bedside table. The Hatch Restore was engineered

21:51

to help you form healthy sleep habits for life,

21:53

teaching your body when it's time to sleep and when

21:55

it's time to rise with light and sound cues. I've

21:58

struggled with creating sleep habits. entire

22:00

life, so it's great that the Hatch Restore doesn't

22:02

just help you with how much you sleep, but how

22:05

deeply you sleep. It also doesn't hurt that it's

22:07

really, really pretty. Right now, Hatch

22:09

is offering our listeners $20 off your

22:11

purchase of a Hatch Restore and free shipping

22:13

at hatch.co forward slash alise.

22:16

Sleep deeply and wake gently with the Restore. Go

22:19

to hatch.co forward slash alise to

22:21

get $20 off and free shipping. That's

22:24

hatch.co forward slash alise. Okay,

22:28

if you're like me and you write a lot of emails,

22:31

you need Grammarly. Whatever I'm writing or

22:33

editing, Grammarly is constantly offering

22:35

me little tips and tricks. Grammarly doesn't

22:37

just correct my grammar and many, many

22:39

typos, it also makes my writing better.

22:42

First of all, the tech is great. Grammarly for desktop

22:45

works across all of your apps, from browser

22:47

windows to word documents, sitting there

22:49

on your shoulder and acting as your own personal writing

22:51

coach. I feel like even just knowing I

22:53

have Grammarly there as a check has made

22:55

me so much more confident in my writing because

22:58

I know the

22:58

result will be awesome.

23:00

Maybe you're like me and you constantly worry

23:02

about your tone when writing too. Like in

23:04

an email, how many exclamation points is

23:06

fun and how many is just a cry for

23:09

help?

23:09

Grammarly knows the answer. Their tone suggestions

23:12

help my correspondence stay on track no

23:14

matter what.

23:15

And the best part, it's totally free. And

23:17

also check out Grammarly Go so you can get through your

23:19

to-do list and your inbox more easily

23:22

than ever before. You'll be amazed at

23:24

what you can do with Grammarly Go. Go to

23:26

grammarly.com forward slash go

23:28

to download and learn more about Grammarly Go. That's

23:31

G-R-A-M-M-A-R-L-Y dot

23:34

com slash go.

23:43

I heard that you do like vision boards

23:45

too, like from your special, you talked about it. Is

23:48

some of this stuff like on your vision board?

23:50

Like do you have one that you're working on right

23:52

now that you have in your house or what does that look like?

23:55

Yeah, of course. I mean, I usually do

23:57

a

23:57

little party every New

23:59

Year. where

24:01

we have people come over and we work on our boards and

24:04

we talk about our goals and

24:06

have a great time. I love that. And

24:09

so my board this year was just really

24:11

about just returning to my roots and enjoying

24:14

myself as a person and getting

24:16

my own, basically

24:18

just like remembering why I got into

24:21

comedy, remembering what I like and what

24:23

I love and having fun. And

24:25

so I just tried to really

24:28

enjoy it. I started taking jujitsu

24:29

that was on my vision board just because

24:32

I like to do something where I'm like, oh, I

24:34

don't want to do something that's like for

24:36

me to gain a skill for money

24:39

or to like be like, oh, now I can

24:41

do this. Like, I just want to gain another skill and I want

24:43

to feel solid in myself and feel like I can

24:46

defend my family. And so I've

24:48

been taking jujitsu since the beginning of the year. And that

24:50

was a beautiful thing because it's sometimes

24:53

you forget, like, you know, I'm

24:56

not old, but I just turned 40. And

24:58

I just was like, sometimes I think

25:01

that I found everything that I'm going

25:03

to love, you know, so I'm like, I love wrestling. I love

25:05

video games. I love my sons. I know

25:07

what

25:07

I love. But then I tried

25:09

jujitsu and I was like, oh, I didn't know. I didn't

25:11

know I love jujitsu. I love jujitsu.

25:15

I go three times a week now. Wow.

25:18

That's wild. So

25:20

it's just fun to find these new things that

25:22

you enjoy. And I think that's part of the

25:24

freedom of

25:27

being successful in any capacity is that you

25:29

should be able to go and enjoy

25:31

these parts of your life that you wouldn't necessarily

25:33

get to do if you were forced to still be at

25:36

a, you know, a job eight, twelve

25:38

hours a day.

25:40

This makes me so happy to hear. I

25:42

think that the art of having a hobby just because

25:44

is so amazing. And I think it's really

25:46

easy to lose that in adulthood. So to

25:49

hear on talk about this makes me really happy. Oh, my

25:51

God. I'm trying to just like let this sink into my bones.

25:54

I needed this so badly. We

25:56

record in it. I know. I'm

25:58

like.

25:59

You have no clue how

26:02

badly I needed these

26:04

things. You're just like I'm just yeah.

26:07

Wow. I I'm

26:10

like dumb. I like have no words It's

26:15

I mean you can ask questions for you you can

26:18

ask any question you want Tell

26:20

me more about your career because I don't

26:22

know much about your career And

26:25

but I like the idea of someone because

26:27

I started a comedy when I consider

26:29

to be the most traditional route You know,

26:32

which is as in my early 20s

26:34

then have my little son but I didn't have much

26:36

else going on for me and I just open

26:38

miked it and build it do things I went

26:40

through and the idea

26:42

of someone finding it through

26:44

like online and

26:47

gaining popularity and then being like oh

26:50

Cuz that is interesting to me

26:53

Where I had to overcome a lot of rejection.

26:55

Yeah, and then just build but to

26:58

start with like Approval.

27:00

Yeah, and then being like, how do I navigate?

27:04

Wanting more approval but also Wanting

27:07

to like say whatever I want to

27:09

say that seems difficult. It has been

27:11

yeah, it has been very very interesting

27:14

I was a web developer and I Started

27:17

making content online just storytelling and

27:20

I finally decided to be a content creator because

27:22

it just made more sense Financially for my family

27:24

and it allowed me to you know be home more But

27:26

it is exactly what you said it was like

27:29

starting with this immediate like favor

27:31

and acceptance and then working

27:33

backwards because then I had

27:35

to decide very very quickly is This

27:37

like my baseline of just like millions

27:40

of people like

27:40

loving me. Like how do you?

27:44

How do you like feel like a normal person

27:46

after that kind of like immediate favor

27:48

from people? Do you know I mean like it was like really

27:51

shocking and I had to very

27:54

quickly decide what my what I

27:56

wanted my job to Look like what opportunities

27:58

I wanted to take how to filter off opportunities,

28:00

how to balance it all,

28:03

how to not like get lost in it and feel

28:05

way more important than I actually was. It

28:07

was just so much and I finally feel like I have

28:09

figured out how to like be very sober

28:12

and like grounded in it with my family.

28:14

So now we've kind of, I've gotten into the driver's

28:17

seat now and I'm not reacting to, you know,

28:19

opportunities but I'm seeking them out, I'm

28:21

creating them. But it comes with this

28:24

idea that like, I always feel like

28:26

I'm an imposter. And I'm wondering if

28:28

you still feel that way, if that's

28:29

the nature of the job or if, no,

28:33

yeah, you're like, I'm, no, I'm going for this. No,

28:36

not at all. Not one bit,

28:38

not one single bit. Do I feel like an imposter?

28:42

Perfect, it's just me then. No,

28:45

it's not just you. I understand, I

28:47

understand. It took work for me to get there but

28:49

it just was enough, enough

28:52

victories. Like I

28:55

think one of my favorite rappers

28:57

is on trip, underground

29:00

rapper, people won't know. You don't need to know that name but

29:02

look him up if you want to.

29:03

And he had

29:05

this line that I really enjoy where he just like,

29:08

I carve all my successes in

29:10

stone and my failures in sand. And

29:13

I was just like, that's such a

29:15

profound way to look at things. And I do,

29:17

I think there's a balance between like

29:19

having an ego and being like, I did this and

29:21

that. But like what I like to

29:24

use is it as a armor

29:26

people are mean or

29:29

telling you when someone who never

29:31

did comedy and doesn't but they, they're

29:34

just like, you suck.

29:35

And like you get enough of that,

29:37

that you're like maybe I kind of suck. But

29:40

then I have enough armor of being

29:42

like, well, oh no. I have this like placard

29:44

that said I did Conan. I have this thing

29:46

that said I did this. I

29:48

remember this moment when a comedian

29:51

that I love said that I'm one of the best. Like

29:53

it just becomes enough

29:55

armor. If I believe in myself,

29:57

then it feels. Like

30:00

I'm capable of more than if I'm

30:02

just like... Totally. Well, I've

30:04

literally felt my imposter syndrome

30:07

and anxiety through that, literally

30:09

get in the way of me doing my job. Like I have been hired

30:11

for things that I'm on a set

30:13

trying to do the thing that

30:15

other people know I could do because they're just like, they

30:18

saw me do it. And they're like, great, would you do that for us? You

30:20

know? And then

30:22

I will be in an opportunity. And it's like,

30:24

I have convinced myself and taken myself

30:27

out of the running for this before I even started. But

30:29

it actually is so detrimental to

30:32

my career for me not to believe that I can do

30:34

this because then it makes me not actually

30:36

able to do things that I am able to do. And

30:39

so it's crazy.

30:40

Yeah, at the end of the day, it's just

30:43

a

30:44

waste of time and detrimental

30:46

to the process, especially

30:49

what I do. I do a lot of acting and a lot of hosting

30:51

and stuff. So if I were to sit there and being

30:53

worried that I don't belong there, it's

30:56

just taking up time. You know, the crew,

30:58

we're here. We might as well do it. I can

31:00

feel that way maybe later. And I don't

31:03

mean to just act like

31:05

I just always had this. I used

31:07

to feel like that for sure. I used to get on stage and

31:10

to me, every show was like a bank robbery

31:12

where I was just like, let me see if I can get in and out

31:15

of here before they realize I'm not funny.

31:17

Wow. Yeah, that's

31:19

the perfect way to describe it. Yeah, like I tricked

31:21

them. Yeah, tricked them

31:23

again. Yeah. Which

31:26

keep tricking a lot of people. Oh

31:28

my God, I can't even tell you. Last night I was like,

31:31

I looked at my husband and I said, do

31:34

you really think I am the person that you think

31:36

I am? Or do you think I'm just like tricking

31:38

everyone? Like because I just

31:40

got in this deep spiral

31:42

of like,

31:44

maybe I'm actually tricking

31:46

me too. Like, do you know what I mean? You just

31:48

question yourself for no reason. It just

31:50

came out of nowhere. Maybe. And

31:53

he was like,

31:54

oh, I know you pretty well. Like I think

31:56

that you're just great. It

31:59

was really sweet. But it was funny.

32:01

I just yeah, I went to a spiral. I think it's okay

32:03

be delusional. Okay, perfect

32:08

Yeah, I've lived in places

32:10

that have the high-end spectrum

32:13

for both like I lived in Portland,

32:15

Oregon which was super high apathy

32:17

and Lack of

32:19

feeling like you could do anything and that

32:22

and you had to overcome that and I always hated

32:24

that feeling it just

32:28

Was self-defeating all the time and then

32:30

I moved to Los Angeles and you see the exact

32:32

opposite You see all these people who believe

32:34

in themselves so much Sometimes

32:37

to the point where it's very annoying. You're like, you

32:40

should believe in yourself less Yeah,

32:43

right you think that but at the

32:45

end of the day like what's what's better for them

32:49

If you believe that and you're hitting

32:51

it like to me That's what I mean.

32:53

I used to live I was working at a bank call center

32:56

had a two-year-old son with autism I didn't

32:58

have caught do comedy and I was like, I

33:00

believe I can headline shows

33:03

I believe I could end up acting

33:05

or network television. That's

33:08

delusional Wow Worked

33:10

at delusion. Yeah

33:13

It's like a fake it till you make it manifestation

33:16

kind of a thing It's a

33:18

little bit. I mean, it's not like I was like I'm on

33:20

a show I don't know. Yeah, I know it

33:23

wasn't like I'm gonna get but

33:25

I just I don't know I just believed in myself.

33:27

It was more of a why not? I

33:30

just need a tattoo on my body This is it's okay to be

33:32

a delusional

33:34

Is

33:38

there anything that you do like daily

33:41

or before a show if you do start to feel

33:44

Those things that like you aren't meant to be

33:46

here or that you're you know Robbing a

33:48

bank again, like is there any kind of practice

33:51

you put into

33:52

practice? What do you do? I mean

33:56

overall there my main

33:58

thing is that I just

33:59

try to have my life and my stage

34:02

life be as close as possible. So, um,

34:05

and I'm lucky to be in a position,

34:07

um, where I can work with

34:09

mostly my friends and stuff. So I travel

34:11

with a lot of my friends and makes

34:14

it easier. And we're hanging out together,

34:16

listening to music. I have them, um,

34:19

the club or wherever I'm performing play

34:21

a playlist of whatever music I'm currently

34:23

enjoying. So it's like I'm walking into

34:25

my home, basically just hearing the

34:27

same music. I love, I come hang

34:29

out with my friends. We bring video games

34:32

with us. And so it tries to have

34:34

a little separation between stage and life

34:36

as possible. That's that I think really

34:39

helps that. And then just, I also

34:41

have a mantra, um, that

34:43

I tend to do and they've changed

34:45

over time. Um, one of which

34:47

was, I think more imposter syndrome

34:50

based, cause I use my first mantra I'll tell

34:52

you, um, was that, um, I

34:54

know that these abilities are not from me

34:56

or within me, but run through me. Please

34:59

allow me to go out

34:59

there and perform to the best of my abilities.

35:02

And to me, that was a fine mantra for

35:04

that time, but it really is taking away a lot

35:06

of self ownership of what I can do. Um,

35:09

and so my new mantra, which partially

35:12

I stole from my friend, my best friend Gabe, cause

35:14

he was telling me what his mantra was. Um, it

35:18

was just that he says that,

35:20

uh, his mantra was I'm a vessel of light

35:22

and I'm here to spread joy. And I was like, Oh,

35:24

I love that. So I'm going to steal that, but I'm going

35:26

to add my little flair to it. So my current

35:29

mantra, if I'm not

35:29

feeling it, it's just, I go, I'm

35:32

a vessel of light. I'm here to spread joy. And

35:34

I'm the motherfucking shit.

35:36

Oh

35:41

my God, that is powerful. I love

35:44

that so much. That is like the grit,

35:46

the greatest way to end this conversation is

35:48

just that. Oh my God.

35:50

Oh my gosh. Okay, Ron, this is, it has been so good

35:53

to meet you. I am just so grateful for

35:55

like your wisdom and like, I feel like you just encouraged me

35:57

for like a story.

35:59

straight hour. I feel you are an

36:02

incredible human being. Thank

36:04

you. I really that's a beautiful compliment.

36:07

I mean, I just we just talking. Just

36:09

just you're like, this

36:10

is a normal day for me. I'm like, this is the best conversation

36:12

in my life.

36:17

All right. Thank you so much for listening to my conversation

36:19

with Ron. Make sure you check out his podcast

36:21

getting better with Ron Funches. And if you like this

36:24

show, give us a rating and a review. It helps

36:26

other people find us. All right. Thank you so much. We'll

36:28

see you next week. Bye. There's

36:31

more funny because it's true with lemonada premium

36:33

get access to all of lemonada's premium content,

36:36

including my five questions with Chris Olsen, which

36:38

aired last Friday, subscribe now and Apple

36:40

podcasts. Funny

36:42

because

36:42

it's true is a lemonada media

36:44

and powder keg production. The show is produced

36:47

by Claire Jones and Zoe Dennis. Our

36:49

senior producer is Jamila Zara Williams

36:51

and our associate producer is Oja Lopez.

36:54

Rachel Neal is our senior director of new

36:56

content and our VP of weekly production

36:58

is Steve Nelson. Executive producers

37:00

are Stephanie Whittle's wax, Jessica Cordova

37:03

Kramer, Paul Feig, Laura Fisher,

37:05

Kessel, Childers and me Elise Myers. This

37:08

show is mixed by Johnny Vince Evans additional

37:11

help from Noah Smith and Ivan Kriev.

37:13

Our theme song music was written by me and scored

37:16

by Xander Singh. Follow funny because it's

37:18

true wherever you get your podcasts or

37:20

listen ad free on Amazon music with your prime

37:22

membership.

37:35

This episode of funny because it's true is brought

37:37

to you by Poise Ultra Thins. Did you know that

37:40

bladder leakage is super common in postpartum?

37:42

One and two people who are in postpartum are experiencing

37:45

bladder leaks, but luckily Poise Ultra Thins

37:47

are here to make things so much easier. Unlike

37:49

traditional period pads, Poise Ultra Thins

37:52

are designed specifically for bladder leaks. Poise

37:54

Ultra Thins offer with and without wings and

37:56

both kinds stay in place all day. It

37:59

takes Poise. more at poise.com.

38:02

What's up everyone? I'm Delaney Fisher,

38:04

comedian and serial entrepreneur, and I'm

38:07

Kelsey Cook, comedian and I swear

38:09

this is real, a world champion foosball

38:11

player. On our podcast, self helpless,

38:13

we dig into everything from heartbreak to

38:16

career burnout to the wild stories

38:18

from our twenties and the many anxieties

38:20

we've experienced along the way. We're

38:22

often joined by guests who range from celebrities

38:25

to renowned health experts. Together,

38:27

we'll unpack big topics like deciding

38:29

whether or not we want kids, building your dream

38:32

career,

38:32

strengthening self trust, and much, much

38:34

more. So join us every Monday for an unfiltered,

38:37

entertaining and honest conversation

38:38

with friends where you don't even have to

38:41

leave your house. If you're not wearing pants, we

38:43

will never know. That's right. So listen

38:45

to self helpless wherever you get your podcasts.