Known for his unmistakable giggle and immediate charm on and off stage, Ron Funches began his standup career in the early 2000s in Portland. The city that birthed his love of comedy, however, was none other than Chicago, where he grew up in the midst of its thriving arts scene.
On October 11, just a few days after audiences can see him on the third season of Apple TV’s Loot, Funches returns to Chicago to tape his new special at the Den Theatre. We talked with Ron about landing his dream voiceover role, his upcoming appearance on Peacock’s The Traitors, and why he could never be a contestant on Survivor.
You’re about to tape a special at the Den Theatre here in Chicago. What makes it such a great city for comedy?
I think it has an ingrained history for comedy that is well-known, whether it's through improv with Second City or just the wealth of comedians from Chicago, like Bernie Mac and people I know like Matt Braunger and Hannibal Buress. It's just a strong comedic background of a city, I think—like many cities that are cold and tough just kind of breed this skew of humor because you kind of have to have it to survive to be out there. So I think Chicago is also just a strong city for live performance in general. It's a big sports city, big wrestling city, so it's a great place to just perform.
What are some of your favorite memories of growing up in Chicago?
It's where I fell in love with performing and learned about art. The city itself, for being so big and very expensive, is also very accessible when it comes to art. One of the things that my mom always did was make sure that she took us to the art museums and the music festivals, especially if they were free. From an early age, I got to see some legendary performers, whether it was Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and just going to the Chicago Blues Fest and seeing my first comedian, which was my first concert. I was seeing Morris Day and the Time when I was probably five years old, and they had the comedian Shucky Ducky as the opener. It was the first time I ever saw a live stand-up. And it was just, to me, such a powerful thing to listen to a whole room of people laugh in unison and enjoy someone like that.
So my own performances in Chicago, whether it's been coming up and being able to perform at legendary clubs like Zanie's or being at Chicago Theatre with Conan the last time I was able to do that—it's been nice, and I hope one day I'll be able to perform at the big arena where the Bulls play one day. I don't even know what they call it now.
The United Center.
Yeah. I love the city, and grew up there from ages 4 to 13, so it means a lot to me to come perform there, do this special there. I always try to pick a place that means something to me more than just—I mean, I always want a good audience and a good place. People are great for comedy, but I always try to pick places that mean something to me. So my first album was in Denver, because I just love the people there, and they had embraced me pretty early. And then my first special was recorded in Seattle—I started comedy in Portland, and going to Seattle was the first time I ever got to travel outside to go do comedy.
And now I had a chance to decide where I wanted to do this special. I still have a lot of family that lives in Chicago. It'll be very nice. My mom will be there. My son will be there. There'll be a lot of friends and family, so it should be beautiful, because I think this hour is very intimate and very vulnerable for me, and so I just wanted to kind of have a home-field advantage in a way.
I love that your family is coming out to support you. When you know those special people are in the audience, how does that change the atmosphere for you?
It just makes me go harder. It makes me feel more supported, so I usually feel good. I know sometimes some comedians don't like performing in front of their family because they feel like they can't say certain things, but I've been doing comedy for long enough, and my family's always been supportive, so if anything, it usually makes me go a little bit harder. And so I'm excited about it, and then we get to have a great dinner after, so it'll be fun.
What are your favorite food spots in Chicago?
My opener, for sure, I got him hooked on Harold's, and he just can't get enough of it. He loves mild sauce with a passion now, so I'm sure we'll get some of that. I'm always down to get some Pequod’s or Italian Fiesta pizza, because that's what I grew up on. Just get a little beef dip, but I also just try to eat well, so I think we'll have one special meal afterwards that we'll pick from. I like the Girl and the Goat. I think that's a great restaurant, but again, I'm keeping my options open.
But yeah, you could be in Chicago, and you will certainly—you could get so fat so quick.
Definitely true. I’m glad you said Pequod’s and not Lou Malnati’s. Whenever I interview someone not from Chicago and deep dish comes up, they always say Lou Malnati’s and I tell them it’s a tourist trap.
I know, and my son fell for it the last time we went, because he wanted deep dish, and I was like, “OK, let's go get something good.” And he was like, “I want Lou,” and I was like, “Oh, God, OK, I guess.” We got it, because he wanted to do it. But no, again, I grew up there, so I know better. Deep dish is its own wonderful, beautiful thing. I prefer the tavern style. I think it’s more Chicago-based pizza to me, personally. But people know us by the deep dish.
Do you remember the first joke you told at an open mic?
I did a five-minute bit about having man boobs, pretty much. It was all man-boob material for five minutes, and it went pretty well. People tend to like it when you make fun of yourself. And I got such a high, and it felt great, and then you chase that high for years until you realize that you've been doing it for 20 years, and you have no other skills that can translate to anything, so you’ve kind of just got to keep plying away at this, which I love, because it's fun. I don't think I could do anything else. I don't want to do anything else.
You do have a pretty solid career doing voiceover work too, on shows like Bob’s Burgers and the Trolls franchise. Do you have a favorite animated role you’ve done?
My favorite is playing Bloofy on Inside Out 2, just because I've always wanted to be in a Pixar film. I love Pixar. When I started voice acting, it was one of my goals to be in a Pixar film. So to be in one, and to be the first 2-D animated character in a 3-D Pixar movie, is pretty cool to me. And it's fun trivia for a nerd like me, so it makes me real happy. I think that's my favorite.
In June you competed on a season of The Traitors set to air on Peacock next year. Typically, that show casts former reality TV contestants. What drew you to compete?
I just like doing things that are different, that I haven't done before. I like problem-solving. I played a lot of the game Among Us during the pandemic, which is a similar betrayal mechanic. I played Mafia before. So it was interesting to me, and one of my main things in choosing work is if it will take me somewhere I've never been before. I've never been to Scotland, so it will provide me an experience that I would never have otherwise. I don't think that being in that castle, meeting someone like Alan Cumming, who is such a great actor and great host, and has been to the places where I'm trying to go, I couldn't see anything negative but to try something new and have fun with it.
I do pretty much nerdy, family-based story comedy, and it's not necessarily the most zeitgeisty thing right now. It's more crowd-working or controversy-based comedy that people tend to be more in the zeitgeist. So I thought this would be a good chance for people to get to know me and see me. I think one of the things about that show is that it really reveals your character and who you are. So I think that when people get to know me, they like me. I'm hoping that this will be a chance for a bigger audience than I'm used to to get to know me. That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it.
Obviously I know you can’t reveal anything about how it went down, but what did you think of the overall experience?
Oh, it was amazing. I can see why it's such a tremendous hit and such a phenomenon, because even when you're just participating in it, it's so mystifying and unique, and things are just changing around you. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced before. And one thing I would say is that the crew and the people who work there are the best at what they do, providing these experiences for you, feeding us, taking care of us, and making sure that we're also mentally okay, because it's a very, very intense situation. It was like my own little Disneyland trip where I got to do all these fun missions and do all these amazing things. So yeah, it was truly a great experience. I know now they're doing these new ones in America where you don't even have to be a celebrity at all, so I'm excited to see that, see where they continue to go with the show, because it's a unique experiment in human nature.
I applied for Survivor a couple of years ago, but The Traitors sounds like it would be more fun. Maybe I’ll try out for the civilian version.
All I learned from talking to the people who did Survivor is that, man, they really are crazy people. They're like, ‘Oh, you know, we just eat a grain of rice once a week.’ Then they're not pooping regularly. That was the thing that they brought up more than anything, how you stop pooping, and to me, that's the one thing my doctor told me you're supposed to do every day. There's nothing worse than not pooping regularly for me. So you've got to be crazy to do Survivor. At least at The Traitors, you can poop whenever you want.
NBC should use in the promos: "Apply now, you can poop whenever you want."
Poop whenever you want. Pee inside.
As much as my editor would love for me to continue with this, I’ll change the subject for my last question. What is your best advice for up-and-coming comics?
My advice for what I did doesn't really translate to what people have to do now, because comedy continues to change and evolve. One thing that changed is that I used to be so particular and conservative with my material. I didn't want to put it out online. I didn't want people to see it until it was perfected and ready because I always thought that you were saving it up for your five minutes or your hour or whatever. And what I've learned now is that it really is a thing of consistency and just pushing things out.
When you think about it, that's not even necessarily a new thing. If you're a grassroots artist, which most of us are as comedians, the biggest grassroots artists always have something new out every month. And you've got to find what works for you. So someone like Josh Johnson really inspired me because he was always putting out these long sets on YouTube every week, and they were growing and growing and growing to the point where he became the place where people were getting their weekly news. And that's not me. I don't really care about that type of stuff. It would be phony for me to try to do that. But I was like, what can I do to find my version of that? And so I started working more with my friends and doing more sketches and putting out my standup and starting off more topical when I do my material, and then not being afraid to burn that and putting that out online.
At the end of the day, I realize it's my job to just create. I can't really judge it. Other people will judge it. It doesn't even matter how good it is. Somebody will say it's meh. And if I don't like it, somebody else might like it. I just have to continue to put it out and hope that I find my lane and it continues to hit. When I was more special about putting it out, it allowed others to get these memes that were still in my material or other things that were taking it. And so then when I finally got a social media team and started putting it out and putting these clips out, people were like, ‘You stole this. This was a meme.’ And I'm like, “No, the meme took it from me!” So it's just wild and ridiculous to have to deal with, but it teaches me that I've got to keep pushing my art. And I've also got to not care because the people who know know. People who know comedy know how good I am, and the fact that other people were finding me is a positive.
I just say keep pushing stuff out and just do what works for you. You don't have to copy somebody else or ape what works for somebody else. Consistency and finding your lane is the best thing you can do in comedy right now because it's so niche.
Ron Funches performs at the Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave., on Saturday, October 11, at 7:15pm and 9:30pm. Tickets are sold out.
