
Bryan & Krissy discuss Ron Funches in the tree of trust, Robots are gaining headway, Bryan's super powerful flashlight, Ron on having a unique voice, comedy or wrestling, your kids are the main character, Portlandia, Home, Ron’s son & being a parent to an autistic child, parental acceptance <3, Is It Cake, giving the truth, Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity, Game Show Host Life, and koala chlamydia.
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Brian Green
This episode is sponsored in part by ZBiotics. Pre alcohol. Let's face it, most of us are not 21 years old partying like we used to. We have to make the choice between a great night or a great morning after. At least that's what we thought. Chrissy and I, until we tried pre alcohol. I don't drink a whole bunch anymore and I was on the fence about this one. But a few weeks ago, Aster and I went out for some drinks for my birthday. The pre alcohol was sitting on the counter and I decided why not give it a try. And let me tell you, pre alcohol is the real deal. ZBiotics Pre alcohol Probiotic drink is the world world's first genetically engineered probiotic. This was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Let me tell you how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in your gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your rough next morning. But pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. You just need to remember to make ZBiotics your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and then you're going to feel your best tomorrow. I kept hearing about pre alcohol and I wondered what is it actually like? Now that I've tried it, I get why everyone is talking about it. And with their GMO technology, ZBiotics is continuing to invent probiotics that will help the everyday challenges of modern living. So go to ZBiotics.com commercial to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use that code commercial at checkout. ZBiotics is backed by a 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they will refund your money, no questions asked. All you have to do is head to ZBiotics.com commercial and use that code commercial at checkout for the 15% off. Thank you ZBiotics, for being a sponsor of a wonderful morning after drinks and.
Chrissy Hoadley
Of the commercial break.
Brian Green
This episode of the Commercial Break is sponsored by Ring. The holidays are almost here and between traveling, hosting family and finding the perfect gift, it's such an exciting, busy and yes, sometimes stressful time. Ring helps you stay connected to the home for all the marriage moments. Even when you're on the go with Ring, you've got the whole home covered. Their video doorbells alert you when gifts arrive and you can even chat with the delivery people to let them know where to leave the packages the indoor cam. It's a game changer. So easy to set up. You can use it to check in on your pets when you're away. And with two way talk, you can even talk to them. Plus, if you want some privacy, you can just flip the manual cover to turn off the camera and microphone. Wherever the holidays take you, Ring makes sure that you're always home for the holidays. So head to ring.com to find the latest deals. Ring video doorbells, cams and alarm kits. Ring makes the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And thanks to Ring for being a sponsor of the Commercial Break.
Chrissy Hoadley
Hey Chrissy.
Brian Green
Best to you.
Ron Funches
Best to you, Brian.
Brian Green
Best to you out there in the podcast universe. It's the holiday season and a lot of times podcasts like ourselves will take.
Chrissy Hoadley
Off, but not us, Chrissy. We have bills to pay and miles to feed. So we are going to be producing.
Brian Green
Brand new episodes of the Commercial Break.
Chrissy Hoadley
This entire holiday season. And I thought it was important to let our audience know.
Ron Funches
Jingle, jingle all the way.
Chrissy Hoadley
Jingle jangle your dingle dangles.
Brian Green
Stick with the commercial break and stay tuned for the 12 days of TCB. Our first ever 12 days of TB. That's right, December 13th through Christmas Day.
Chrissy Hoadley
Brand new episodes every day.
E
Almost lived my dream of petting a koala. Got real close, but they would not allow it. I found out while I was there that apparently most koalas are infected with chlamydia. Don't judge them. It's just the fact that I learned that I am sharing with you. Most koalas have chlamydia, which is crazy. I didn't even know koalas went to Coachella.
Chrissy Hoadley
On this episode of the Commercial Break.
E
One time I did a show for NPR where I opened for Paul Simon. And I I know it's one of my greatest trivia of things. Sometimes when I do a show in Tulsa, Oklahoma For 30 people, I go, hey, I've opened for Paul Simon.
Chrissy Hoadley
You fuck real white people. You know Paul Simon.
E
I bet you do. Yeah, that was my opener. I go every black comedian's dream.
Chrissy Hoadley
The next episode of the Commercial Break starts now. Oh yeah, cats and kittens. Welcome back to the Commercial Break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you Chrissy.
Ron Funches
Best to you, Brian.
Chrissy Hoadley
Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Thanks for joining us on the TCB Infomercial Tuesday. We could not be more excited on this Tuesday to have Ron Funches come in and sit with us for a few minutes. He is a noted comic. He's a voice actor. He's an actor. He is. He's really funny. I actually really like Ron and I'm super excited to talk to him. And he's friends with some of the people that we've had on this show before. My memory fails to tell me which friends of the show he is, but. Or he has, but whatever. Anyway, he's in the circle of trust in the tree of trust. And so we'll let him in the nest.
Brian Green
Let him in the nest with a.
Chrissy Hoadley
Little baby trust and, you know, with his silky chickens. Silky chickens. There you go. Figure that one out later on down the road. But thanks for joining us. Here we are. So I was reading an article a couple weeks back, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention. There is so much attention on Trump taking the White House and how already two people have tried to assassinate the President by the FBI standards, not by mine, but have tried to assassinate the president that they are really concerned about people trying to do harm to President Trump, which is terrible. That's not the answer, in my opinion. I'd rather have a bloodless argument over politics, if you don't mind. Right. Because it's 2024. Do we really need to be shooting each other up? We don't. We don't have muskets anymore. You know what I'm saying? No one's running around musketing anymore. It's like different kind of things going on. They have decided that they are going to be using Boston Dynamic dog robots to troll the White House lawn. Really? As Secret Service helpers. Agents, tools. Yeah, as helpers. And they've already been spotted in on the White House lawn running around doing practice trials. These dogs. I saw a video of it. It's the craziest fucking thing. I'm like, robots are now protecting the White House. Robots. We have gone too fucking far. That's for sure. Shut down 8chan 4chan Q& on conspiracy, whatever it is, shut it down. When you need robots to troll the White House, isn't that like a. Isn't that kind of dystopian? A little bit.
Ron Funches
I don't know.
Chrissy Hoadley
I find it dystopian.
Ron Funches
Robots are gaining headway, Chrissy.
Chrissy Hoadley
Robots are the wave of the future. Well, bam. Chrissy says robots will soon be with us. Wow. You take some dynamic motors and a little bit of AI, whatever that is, and you throw it into a cauldron with some orange hair and a band tan. Wha. Bam. We're protecting the President from harm with our Secret Service dogs, who aren't really dogs. They're what, Chrissy? Robots. Wow. Robots. I just find it to be really dystopian, kind of freaky.
Ron Funches
Aren't Roombas a robot?
Chrissy Hoadley
Roomba is a robot. Technically, yeah. Listen, when I was 12 years old. 12 years old. I won't forget this, the year. Maybe 11, maybe 12. I can't actually, I don't. I don't remember how old I was, but I won't forget the moment that for Christmas, all I wanted was one of those robots. Back in the 80s, they had this version of a robot, and it would, you know, roll as walking, and its little legs would move, but it was really rolling. And then you could give it certain command, and then it would do certain command, like lift your arm, put it down. You know what I'm saying? Or roll this. It had like a little plate you could put on its hands and it'd be like, roll this over to the left or whatever. It was the most ridiculous. You look at it back on it now and it's like, it's not really robots. It's just a motor.
Brian Green
Yeah.
Chrissy Hoadley
A toy that's just running around. But that is the seedling of robots that now control some manufacturing, a lot of industry, and now apparently, you know, guarding the President of the United States. I wouldn't trust those things to be out. Have you seen those Boston Dynamic videos of those robots that do things? Yeah, some of them are fake. You have to be careful. Some of them are fake.
Ron Funches
Yeah, I have seen those. And they look pretty crazy.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yes, they do look absolutely insane. You would not want to meet one of those on the street that intended you harm because it doesn't care. I mean, it doesn't care. To be clear, the Secret Service robots right now, they're controlled by an actual human being. Like, they do their thing, but then if something comes up, then they have to, like, get permission from their overlords, I guess. I'm not sure how that works.
Ron Funches
Is it kind of like a drone where people kind of like a drone zoom in and then see what the robot.
Chrissy Hoadley
Exactly. Kind of like a drone. But, you know, drones have been so great for the United States of America. So we're out back last night, and I have this super powerful flashlight that I have for emergency situations. So powerful.
E
Super powerful.
Chrissy Hoadley
Super powerful. So powerful that you'll drain it in like 10 minutes if you turn it on its highest.
Ron Funches
That's great for emergencies.
Chrissy Hoadley
It's great for emergencies. You have 10 minutes. To get everything done you need to get done to put the children in the bunker and get secure. Right. But you know, it's a thing and.
Brian Green
Okay, well, kids were fucked.
Chrissy Hoadley
I forgot to charge the flashlight. It only gave us three minutes. I thought 10. Daddy's going to die now, but everything's gonna be okay. Blues in charge.
Ron Funches
That's all you could do, is put Ship Blue up off to the White House.
Chrissy Hoadley
Hey, listen, if you want a guard dog that's gonna, that is certainly, certainly gonna repel any kind of harm to the President. Blue is your dog, Blue's your girl because she is a bitch. That girl is a bitch. She cannot let a conversation go. She just has to be in the middle of it. It's so insanely annoying. Anyway, so we're out there with, and the kids are playing with these like toy flashlights, the kind you buy for a dollar at Home Depot or whatever. And so I gave them all little flashlights they can play with. We do shadow puppets and stuff like that. And so one of the kids found that super powerful flashlight in my drawer and ran inside, grabbed it, came back outside. And then I was telling another child of mine, hey, look at the airplane in the sky. It's like a low flying two seater airplane, the kind that I used to fly when I was training to fly single prop Cessna essentially. And it's not flying very high, maybe 2,000, maybe 3,000ft. And the kid who has the flashlight starts flat, starts pointing the flashlight at the airplane.
Ron Funches
Oh no.
Chrissy Hoadley
To which it illuminates the belly of the airplane. I, I mean, I don't think that much, but I could see the stream in the sky, you know that stream in the sky that was going toward the airplane. And I was like, holy, you can get arrested for that. Yeah, you can do that. So I basically jump on my kids, smother the flashlight. That's like 150 degrees. That light gets so hot. Basically it's a fire hazard that doesn't last for 10 minutes. You're in an emergency, it's going to cause an emergency. That's an emergency in a bottle.
Ron Funches
Then you've got the fire going in the backyard.
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh my God. The power went out last night for hours. And, and that was, that didn't feel good. I can't sleep on the.
Ron Funches
Maybe the plane had alerted somebody that they needed to check out this area of town.
Chrissy Hoadley
Secret Service robots were running around town trying to find the source of that one and a half minute long.
Ron Funches
So they just shut the power, shut the power down.
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, the funny thing was they, you know, it was raining, but not bad. It was, you know, like a moder. Moderate rain. You could hear the wind. It was a little bit windy, but the power went out. When I. When we got an alert from the power company, they give you, like, a link to a map where you can see, like, updates and stuff like that. There were, like, many people in this neighborhood, around this part of town that were out. So I imagine it was one of those big, you know, transformer stations that blew. Why am I talking about this? No one cares. But anyway, so, you know, drones, flashlights, robot, like, all those things have done some good for society. Like, we have great stock photography of the Grand Canyon now because of drones. But then they're also out there, you know. And homes randomly killing people. Yeah, and homes on Zillow. That's right. Oh, my God. When I was in the house business, you know, I don't know, seven years ago, eight years ago, when I couldn't make a dollar to save my life on any particular real estate project.
Ron Funches
Yes.
Chrissy Hoadley
There'd be contractors or, you know, builders around me that'd be making, like a million bucks a house, and I'd have the best lot on the street, And I'd lose 600,000 that I didn't have somebody else's money. OTM, as they call it, our OPM. Other People's Money. That's right. Anyway, when I was doing that, you know, the drones were just becoming, like, hot for photography. And anytime we put a house on the market, every agent that we would interact with was like, I've got drone technology to film your house. It's only an extra $3,000. You'd be like an extra $3,000. Let that come out of your pocket, buddy. No one needs to see the roof of this house to buy it. That's not what needs to happen. Yeah, it's a pretty shot, but I'm pretty sure as long as they live in town and they can go actually see the physical property, they're going to get everything they need out of the house by looking at it themselves. Because when is the next time you plan on flying 60ft above your house? Look at how pretty it is from the sky. It doesn't happen.
Ron Funches
No. I guess it would come in handy, obviously, with lots of land, if you had around the house and you could see the view and the.
Chrissy Hoadley
Whatever that I can see. If you're building, like, a massive construction project and you need. Or you're, you know, you're moving into a. I don't know, like the villages or something like that. They're kind of showing you where your house is going to be. Then I can understand why it might be useful. But it's just a house. Everybody thought the drone shots were going to change the real estate market fundamentally. It was like this group of guys out there. Here in Atlanta, you understand we get 10% above asking because of our drone shots. Oh, you do? You do get 10% above asking because of your drone shots. You're a fucking sales guy. Ah. And I used to be one, too. I know what's going on. Anyway, Ron Funches is the voice. He is here in our house constantly because he is the voice of Coop in the Trolls movies, which are fantastically popular. And Cooper is one of the more popular figures in there, for my children at least. He is a noted comedian. He is on tour. He's got dates you can go check out. He's got social media you can go check out. And he's got many films and television appearances that you can go check out. We'll talk to him about some of that and we'll ask him about his tour and how it's going, and then we'll try and connect the dots between Ron and other people who have been on the show many months ago and who they are and how. My brain can't remember any of them. Okay, was it Rachel Feinstein? Was it Gian Marcos Soresi? Was it Mark? I can't even remember. I don't. Kelsey Cook? Who knows? Anyway, we'll try and p put all the pieces of the puzzle together when we get back. Ron Funches here in our studio, in the nest here in on our TV here, pretty close to us. What do you say we take a break and then we'll get him on?
Ron Funches
Let's do it.
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay, we'll be back as soon as I find the liners. What was that? Did you hear that? It sounded like an emergency. We need a flashlight. That honestly sounded like a bomb went off. That was crazy. Okay, we might be back. We'll talk to you soon.
Jenna Fischer
Brian might have just said it's time to take a break, but some of us have to work right now. And by work, I mean gently nudge you, nay beg you to follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and on TikTok @TCB podcast. Because, listen, the more followers we get, the more clout I get with Chrissy and Brian. If you've got something to say, give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 212-4333 TCV or shoot us a text. One more thing. Check out our website tcvpodcast.com where you can find all of our audio and video and even request a new sticker from the Contact Us form. Bye.
Brian Green
This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Okay, the year is early 2000 and I got my first real office job at a company that was selling websites and search engine optimization. We came up with this pitch that the website was the business card of the Future. And now 20 something years later, it's not the business card for your business, it's just your business. And that's why I highly recommend Squarespace. It's an all in one website platform for entrepreneurs to succeed online. You don't have to be a programmer or a coder or a designer to develop your presence online. Just as unique as you and your business are, are three really important reasons why I believe Squarespace is the leader in this industry. Design Intelligence. They combine two decades of industry leading design and expertise with cutting edge AI technology to unlock your strongest creative potential. Number two, Squarespace Payments. This is the part that befuddles a lot of people who go out and try and build their own website. Onboarding is fast and simple and you can take payments from some of the most popular payment methods. Klarna, Ach, Apple Pay afterpay, clearpay. If you're going to put your business online, people have to be able to pay you online. And number three, but no less important, SEO tools. If you want to be noticed, you have to be found. And with Squarespace's integrated SEO tools, every Squarespace website is optimized to be indexed with meta descriptions and auto generated sitemap and more. Check out squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're Ready to launch squarespace.com commercial to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. Again, squarespace.com commercial to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain using that code. Commercial thanks Squarespace for being a sponsor of the commercial break.
Chrissy Hoadley
I'm Jenna Fisher.
Ron Funches
And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends and together we have the podcast Office Ladies where we rewatched every single episode of the Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious.
Jenna Fischer
Guests and lots of laughs.
Chrissy Hoadley
Guess who's sitting next to me?
E
Steve.
Chrissy Hoadley
Is Coming Girl in the Studio.
Ron Funches
Every Wednesday we'll be sharing even more.
Jenna Fischer
Exclusive stories from the Office and our.
Ron Funches
Friendship with brand new guests.
Jenna Fischer
And we'll be digging into our mailbag.
Ron Funches
To answer your questions and comments. So Join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday.
Jenna Fischer
Plus on Mondays we are taking a second drink.
Ron Funches
You can revisit all the Office Ladies.
Jenna Fischer
Rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus.
Ron Funches
Tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there.
Jenna Fischer
Follow and listen to Office Ladies on.
Ron Funches
The free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.
Chrissy Hoadley
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too. With the name your price tool from Progressive, it works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today@progressive.com to join the.
Brian Green
Over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Chrissy Hoadley
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. And Ron is here with us right now. Ron, I have a bone to pick with you, and it's not your fault, but.
Ron Funches
Hi, Ron.
E
Hi. One of you sounds much nicer than the other.
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, thank you. Chrissy's not that big of a. She'll settle down after a few minutes. You have captured the hearts and minds of all 13 of my children, and you are a voice actor. You're so prolific. But one of the things that I'm sure you get commented on about a lot is your turn in the Trolls series as Coop, which is, by the way, if I have to watch a kid's cartoon movie, Trolls is up there on my list of ones that I go, okay, I can watch that one. That's all right. And Inside out too, which I just recently watched with my children. And I learned that you were in that too. Voice acting is. Do you love that? Is that a passion?
E
Oh, absolutely. I love it mostly because it's a way that, you know, I. There's a lot of different types of voice acting, but it falls into two basic camps, one of which being people who are like mimics and who can do a lot of different style of voices, like Eric Baza, who can be like Bugs Bunny or Tweety or anybody. And then there's just weirdos who have weird voices. And I am in that camp. And so for the longest of times, people just made fun of me and it was felt like a detriment to my life. And so for it to now be a thing that's been able to help me buy a house or have people know who I Am or I had like, I mean, I've had people, friends whose kids were in the hospital and they would have the same type of conversation where they're like, oh, we're in the hospital, my kids scared. And we've been watching Trolls on repeat and we've watched it four times before I realized you were in this movie. And then, you know, like, sometimes I'll send little voicemails to kids in that type of situation. It's just been a thing that helps me. A lot of my material on my comedy is for adults. So to be able to connect to a younger generation, to into my own children and be able to show them that type of stuff is always amazing for me.
Ron Funches
Ah, wonderful.
Chrissy Hoadley
You do have a very unique voice. And so. And now that you pointed out, that's an interesting take on it. There are two types of people it. Well, there are celebrities who just use their regular voice and we know them because we know all of their work. There's the third kind who does in, you know, kind of the impresarios that do all the different accents and tones and all that stuff have cartoonish voices. And then there's Ron, who just got a very unique voice. And you mentioned it when you were a child, you probably felt, I would imagine I'm not. I don't want to put feelings in your heart or words in your mouth, but I bet that at times that was not the, like, why was I born like this? Like, why do I have that voice? Yeah.
E
As a teenager in Chicago who wanted to date women, it wasn't the best voice to have at that time. Now as I've gotten older, people hear the different timbres and that there's. Everything in my voice is warmth and, and sweetness and kindness, but also strength. So it's really fun now and I just embrace it. And it's one thing sometimes I work with this charity called School on Wheels here in LA where they do a lot of after school programs and helping homeless kids and kids who are at risk of being unhoused. And I've gone and spoke with them and I tell them, like, embrace those things that set you apart. People make fun of you for. Because those are the things that can, you know, help you win and later in life. Life.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. I have children of a number of them and they're. And they're all over their map with their personalities and their strengths and. And I don't think their weaknesses. I think they're uniquenesses. Right. So their strengths and their uniquenesses. And one of Them is once when he gets. When he likes something, he can get obsessed with it. Right. It's over and over and over again. I think repetition oftentimes calms his mind, the anxiety that he may feel. And Trolls was on repeat.
Brian Green
Trolls.
Chrissy Hoadley
And then the second one was on repeat for years at. At my house. But he just loved your. The character that you were playing. He became so infatuated almost with that character and with Poppy that it was something that was hard to ignore, how he connected with that character when sometimes I feel like he may not connect with other things that sometimes other people connect with. Right. So it's very interesting that you mentioned that you have a depth and a warmth and a sweetness to your voice, because I think that does come through in a lot of the voice work that I have heard you do. It's very. You're. It's complex. It's like there's notes and undertones. It's like a fine wine, Ron. It's like there's notes and undertones. It's not just a chardonnay. It's got, you know, sheep poo poo in there, too, or whatever. So congratulations on all the success. You're all over the place right now. And you grew up in Chicago, in Woodlawn, Chicago, right?
E
Woodlawn Avenue, Southside Chicago. Yes.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. I grew up not too far away in Oak Lawn, Oak Forest. Oak Lawn, Chicago. That's where. That's where I was born. Did you always set your eye on entertainment? On being funny, being entertaining?
E
Well, I think it was more of, like, a natural thing that I didn't know was an actual job path. I just liked making fun of people.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah.
E
Pretty expressive a lot of times. One of the things that was difficult for me with jobs when I was younger is that if I don't respect you, it shows. And so I've learned to get better at that somewhat. But I've never been good at, like, hiding my real feelings. And so I thought I would just make fun of people and have fun. And I didn't know I was being, like, a class clown or anything in school until I actually won class clown in high school. I was just, like, always the guy on the side making fun of the class clown. But I guess I did it enough that people started to really notice, and I just didn't really have. I mean, similar to you talk about with your son, I'd never. Or, I mean, I guess your child. I didn't know if it was your son or your daughter.
Chrissy Hoadley
I apologize, but he's my son.
E
Yeah, it's your son that it. I have very limited interests. I didn't have many other, like, job interests. I either wanted to be working comedy or be a professional wrestler. And I was like, but I'm not big enough for 5 and 5 10. So it's not like a really good size to be a pro wrestler. So I had to focus on comedy.
Chrissy Hoadley
Be. Yeah, you got to be super jacked now to be one of those pro wrestlers. Those guys and girls are huge and they honestly take a beating. Like, I know the wrestling, the storyline is fake and it's probably all, you know, the job. They're jobbing each other and all this other stuff, but you look at. I don't watch a bunch of wrestling, but when you watch some of that wrestling, that. It's just insane how they beat each other up. Yeah, yeah. You. I. The doctors who take care of those people are never out of. They gotta be never out of a job.
Ron Funches
True.
Chrissy Hoadley
They're probably always shooting them up with something. Don't you think they got to like these guys to be taking all kind of pain.
E
They're always. Yeah. Managing pain. There's no wrestler that I know that isn't injured in some capacity. And then a lot of them, you know, you, you think about the top levels, but it's similar to comedy. You have to work your way up. And so a lot of them are getting hurt for like, you know, $50, right? No, no health insurance. So it's a, it's, it's a calling.
Ron Funches
I think you've got to really love that.
Chrissy Hoadley
Do you still enjoy wrestling? Is it still something that you're into?
E
Yeah, I think a little bit less. As I've gotten more interested in, I have started branching out. I started doing jiu jitsu and pilates.
Chrissy Hoadley
I read that about you this year. Jitsu. Yeah.
E
Yeah. I like them both a lot. So that's gotten me more interested in watching more Jiu Jitsu. And I've been just going out to see more live performances in general, a lot of concerts. But yeah, I always, will always love pro wrestling, but I go to less events than I probably used to.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, you know, wrestling. I think when you're, when you think about the comedy world, it's pretty well known that it's a circuit, Right. You start here in the open mics and you make nothing and you open for that. You're the 17th opener, you know, and then you move on and you move up and then you're headlining your own shows and small clubs and then you kind of Work your way up. How did you get started?
E
Yeah, I mean, pretty much that.
Chrissy Hoadley
Were you working?
Ron Funches
But, I mean, were you working Portland, right?
E
Yeah, it's in Portland and in Salem, Oregon, which. Which is where I was living. And I had my son already at the time, so I was just trying to do a lot of. I was trying to get out of open mics as soon as possible. So I was hosting a lot of my own shows in Salem, and then I would go out on do bar shows up and down the Oregon coast and the Washington coast for like 75 a night. And then just trying to get better at it as quickly as possible. Because when I started, my. My son was already 2, so I had to figure out I couldn't really just waste time or money with it.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, when you have kids, it puts everything in perspective. It changes the whole. I mean, they say this and it's cliche, but a lot of times cliches are cliches because they're true. Right. Is that when you have a child and you give a shit about that child, your whole universe changes. It's like the world spins on its access. And you. Your true north is always those children. No matter how much you'd like to take a break and run off to Mallorca for a weekend.
E
Yeah. There's balance in life, for sure. You have. You got to keep your own ideas. But I think as you get older especially, it's nice to not consider yourself the main character in the story anymore. And I'm well aware I'm not like, I'm. What I do is in service of my sons. I'm not. I'm here to prepare them to be the main characters. I'm no longer the main character.
Chrissy Hoadley
That is a very. I love that. Yeah. Self, aware, grounded, mature look at life. Can I have some of that? Can you give me. Did I read that you got your big brain on Portlandia?
E
That was one of them, yeah. For sure.
Chrissy Hoadley
That was like your first acting role.
E
That was my very first acting role, yeah. Just being in Portland doing stand up at the time that they were shooting it and in Portland. So they were nice enough that they used a lot of the local Portland comedians. And I don't think I had a single line, but I made a lot of faces and they said some nice things about me that made it stand out a little bit and got me certainly interested in acting, and then had some auditions where I bombed terribly. And then it gave me kind of the same feeling of bombing and stand up where I was like, oh, I'LL show you I can do this.
Chrissy Hoadley
And I became fire. Yeah, yeah.
E
So I got in the class and then just, you know, slowly got better.
Chrissy Hoadley
And. And so then how. What is your, like, your first voice acting role? How does that come about? Is it just because you have such a unique voice? Someone approached you and said, I really want to use your voice and for a character.
E
Yeah, actually, it was, you know, doing standup in LA and people will cast and directors and things will come to different shows. And I think someone heard my voice and it was a TV version of the DreamWorks movie Home.
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay.
E
Yeah, yeah. And so they did that. And I was playing a space alien princess named Sharzar, who is a very sassy lady who said, dang a lot.
Chrissy Hoadley
I know this cartoon because I know this movie. And the same child who loves trolls also loves these home characters. All of my kids love Home, actually. They really enjoy that show. But then there's a television show that also goes around. Look at how deep, deeply integrated into my children's brain. I feel like I'm paying your rent or something.
E
Happy to do. Trying to get him to come to comedy shows in 10, 15 years.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, they will. I'm sure they will. So can I. Can I talk about your son for a little bit? Is your son autistic? Is he on the spectrum? Is that right?
E
He is my oldest. Yeah. I have two sons now. My. My youngest is 2 and my oldest is 21. And he is. Yeah, on the spectrum.
Chrissy Hoadley
Are you okay to share a little bit about that? Because I'm very interested. So. So I always. I have a couple of friends who have children that are on the spectrum of various degrees, and it's not uncommon. These tell me it's like, to learn. I asked this of two of my friends a couple years ago when they found out their child was on the spectrum. What is the biggest lesson that you have taken away from raising a child that is neurodivergent?
E
Oh, I mean, there's so many. I think my patience levels are off the chart, which is very helpful when it comes to my career, you know, and wanting to do certain things and just realizing, like, life is long and things change. So it helps give me a sense of peace and also it gives me a sense of gratitude with everything that I don't take too much too seriously because I'm aware of the struggles that we've gone through and the changes I've seen in my son and the hard work that he's put in. But the main lesson, I always try to put out and I do in my own standup is that he's taught me to give up all expectations but keep all hope. And those are, wow. Yeah, it was a very wonderful thing. You know, I think when you have a kid, no matter how hard you try, at least for me, you start daydreaming about these things that you want for them and you want for them to achieve or things that you wish you could have achieved and you want to put on them. And I very quickly had to abandon all of those expectations and then just learn to be like, okay, I hope he one day just says, I love you. That would be nice to hear. But even if he doesn't, I'm going to assume he does love me. And the seed that had gone from me never know. And if he would say that to him being so independent and having his own part time job and not, you know, telling me he loves me every day, but also wanting to spend as little time with me as possible. Now he's 21, asking for me to take him to the strip club. It's really just like so fun of a life that I have with him now and it's taught me so much.
Chrissy Hoadley
There are different versions of proud, I think you find when you're a parent, right. And there are expectations. I thought that a long time ago. I think expectations sow the seeds of our own disappointment in a lot of situations. In almost all situations, if we're trying to tell the future and it almost never comes the way that we want it to. And raising children, it's one of the lessons I'm learning, is having younger children that you do have to let go of those expectations because oftentimes those expectations, like the things that you imagine aren't coming true or they're not going to come true or they're not that version of it's not coming true. But there's a different kind of pride, learning, loving, caring that starts to blossom in its absence. And if you can learn to pay attention for that, to look for that blossoming in its absence, then it's more rewarding than say, you know, if my kid was on the honor roll or got married, you know, to whatever it was, whatever the expectation was. And the other day, one of my kids who I don't consider, or he's not like a physical kid, he doesn't, he doesn't lift things, he's not strong, he doesn't care about sports, he's very cerebral, very, he's very intelligent, like book smart. I wanted to move a bed and I Said, just told him. I said, hey, buddy, grab the end of that bed and let's move it over here. And you know what? He picked it up and he moved it. And when he did, Ron, I swear to Christ, I could. Like, I got chills. I could have had a tear in my eye because I was like, the kid did something physical, and he did it on his own. Like, I didn't have to help him with it. He did it on his own, and it made me proud. And in that moment, I realized there are different versions. There's, like, in my expectation was my male son would be able to, you know, throw the football or whatever. It didn't happen. But in its absence, there's this certain kind of beauty in his cerebral ness and his intelligence. And he moved to bed by himself.
E
Yeah.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah.
E
I think there's always. I think our job as parents is to help our kids become their true selves, not what we want them to be. And if we can help them embrace their gifts and help them instill their confidence and let them know that it's okay to be whoever they are, that that is, I think, the best thing that you can do. And you get that sense of pride when you do see it, when you see them in their element. And I've seen the reverse. But me and my mom. My mom was, you know, she was originally supportive of my comedy career, but as it was going on a while and I wasn't making any money and I had my son, she was more like, hey, you've had enough fun. Now it's time for you to buckle down and support. Support this kid more and quit asking me to help pay your phone bill. And I had to, you know, have some strong talk with her about, like, not reinforcing my own doubts. And we. We didn't get along for a while until she did come to a show, and she saw me perform and saw how the staff treated me and how they treated her, and then she pulled me aside, and it was just like, you know, I get it. Like, this is all. This is who you. This is what you're meant to do. And just getting that type of reinforcement for her really helped me.
Chrissy Hoadley
Isn't that one of the. In my opinion, isn't that one of the best feelings in the world? Like, it brings? Almost like it once missed you up a little bit when one of your parents, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, left field. My dad isn't particularly supportive of my creative ventures, but all of a sudden, out of left field one day, we were in the car. Car. He pulled the car over and he said, I don't know if I tell you this enough or I don't know if I've ever said this to you, but I'm super proud of you, and I'm super proud of what you've done with your life. And it's not my expectation for you, but it doesn't matter because it's making me, like, it's giving me chills right now just to say it. And that was a moment that transcends time. I can feel it right now. Like, I felt it back then. Did you feel that sense when your mom said, hey, Ron, I get it, this is you.
E
Yeah. No, absolutely. It just, you know, makes you feel like a little kid again. And just having the approval or someone seeing you. Yeah. Made me want to cry for sure.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. I think that that little kid, that little child is always inside. I mean, if you go to therapy, you'll figure out that. That little child.
E
Yeah. No, Every time. I wish. I wish there was just a button you could press so where I didn't have to go, like, well, why do. Why do you feel like you're a burden? Because when I.
Chrissy Hoadley
You've done so many wonderful and exciting things in kind of a short period of time. When did you. When were you on Portlandia? 20, 17, 16, something like that.
E
Yeah, I'm gonna say that. That sounds right. Sure.
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay. So in a short amount of time and not a very long time, you've had quite a career already. What is. Tell me one thing that you've done where you're like, holy shit, Ron, you did it. You showed up, like, here you are. I mean, you know that arrival moment when you know that, wow, I'm having some success here.
E
I mean, I don't think there really is anything that ever feels like you. You make it. That's one of the premises of my own podcast that I do where I just like. Because I think you. The first time I did have that feeling was when I did my first set on Conan O'Brien. And because it was. Because it was another expectation where I said, hey, when I'm on Conan, I can say I'm a national comedian. That I really did it. And I went and I did it and I crushed it and I made him laugh really hard. But I also brought my. My son and my ex wife with me, and I spent all the money that they gave me for the show before I even got there. And then I had to go back to Portland and do open mics, and nobody had saw me on Conan. And so I learned very quickly that, like, you can just take those as markers, you know, to. In case people try to knock you down. You can go, no, I did this. But overall, I just try to, like, do things that are fun for me and that are interesting for me. But there's certainly been times where I've been like, I can't believe that I'm here. Whether it's like just doing a scene one on one with Maya Rudolph. I remember doing like, a scene with her and Lou and just rehearsal, and then they call cut. And she just walks past me and she just goes, God damn, you're good. And I was like, oh, my God, Maya Rudolph just told me I'm good at acting. And it made me just, you know, it turned similar to how my mom made me feel. It just some. Yeah, I've had multiples. One time I did a show for NPR where I opened for Paul Simon. And I. I know it's one of my greatest trivia things. Sometimes when I do a show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for 30 people, I go, hey, I've opened for Paul Simon.
Chrissy Hoadley
You white people. You know Paul Simon, I bet you.
E
Yeah, that was my opener. I go, every black comedian's dream.
Chrissy Hoadley
You brought your ex wife Dakota to Brian is the best part of that story. But I. I often. I get it. Like, you know, listen, podcasting is kind of like the. I don't know, it's the newspaper of 2024 in some sense. Unless you're like, you know, Joe Rogan or Conan O'Brien. You know this because you're a podcast or like, you get out to the people you get out to. But it's very hard to be found. It's not covered by traditional, immediate. Usually unless there's some celebrity of note that does something on a podcast, something stewed chicken fry or some bullshit like that, right? And then. But, you know, sometimes people send me, like, a screenshot of something. They'll be like, oh, look, you're on the charts. You're here, you're there, you're everywhere. And I go, yeah, the first time that happened, I was filled with pride. And that was awesome. But I put a marker in it real quick because the next day, $1 million check didn't show up to my front door. That's not how it works. It's like slow, slodgy, trudgy steps. And there it's like, you know, it's. You said that's the saying, death by a thousand paper cuts. It's progress by a Thousand paper cuts. Right? It's.
E
Yeah. That's how I do my career. That's what most people like. You know, a lot of people go, where do you know the. Where do people know you from? And I really can never say because I have, like, you know, I have people. You said. Where there's like, families who are like, we've heard you in this and we've heard you in that are. There's people who just saw me and. And like, pop up in little cameos on, like, Netflix movies like the six Underground and where people are like, oh, I really like that little cameo you did. And it's just. Or me just being a fun guest on something like, nailed it. Where people just like, oh, I like him as a person. And I think that's. I mean, that's really what I'm trying to get across, is that, like, put me anywhere. I'm good. You like me. That's what the product is, you know.
Chrissy Hoadley
Were you in? I'm just asking. I don't know the answer to this, but I feel like now that you said nailed it, that. Were you in? Is it Cake? Did you do a guest? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another show my kids love. Yeah, we watched that at night when we're going to bed, and it's a lot of fun, actually. I can't believe I like a show called Is It Cake? But I actually.
E
It was so fun. It was hard to find out what was cake or not. Yeah.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah.
E
But sometimes you could figure out one of them was cake easily. And then you felt bad for them because you were like, I. I don't want to rip it apart. Oh, that was eas.
Chrissy Hoadley
Not so good.
E
Yeah. I know you've been working for it for 14 hours, but that's Kate, clearly.
Chrissy Hoadley
I saw all that sweating going on over there in the kitchen, but I don't think you should be here. No, but you're. You're very nice about it. Like, I mean, you know, and that's. I think that's part of the Run brand, I think, is that you're. You're very nice. You're like, very nice and self aware and. And that's hard to believe that you're so good at putting people down. You're so good at being a cutting, cunning comic is because you are so nice, but you're really good at that kind of. I don't say Roast Battle type of roasting people.
E
Yeah, I like to be. I mean, I really don't even consider it. I don't consider myself that nice. I just Try to come with a base level of respect and kind and treat people how I want to be treated. But if you don't match that with me, I consider myself an energy matter. I'm happy to adjust quickly.
Brian Green
Sure.
E
So over time I've learned how to read people quickly. So that's why I think makes me good at both these things. Because if I give you a compliment or I say something nice, it's because I really see it or I really believe it. I think that's my gift overall is not like being nice, it's like seeing it and saying it and which some people don't. And then I will. But I will also be happy to say the reverse if you, you know, if I need to put someone in their place, I can see their fault and I will say their fault.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, that's a fresh way of looking at things because I do think a lot of people, and I'm guilty of this too, is that sometimes, you know, you. We compliment to manipulate, we put down to defend or be defensive because we're feeling insecure, vulnerable about something. It's just a lot of emotional manipulation sometimes that goes on in this inner personal play that we have every single day of our lives. Right. But there are some people who are really good at calling it like they see it. And that at times I think can be startling or maybe even off putting, but it's refreshing also. It's because there's so much of that that goes on, that interpersonal manipulation. That's right. And so when you give the truth, it's almost like you don't expect it anymore. Right.
E
That is so funny that you say that. That's one of my biggest comedy theories because I spent so many of my early years of my career, I think you, as for any comedians that might listen, is that I spent so many years just trying to like write a type of joke. You know, you'd be like, I'm going to write this type of joke, I'm going to write a fat joke, I'm going to write a black joke, I'm going to write a weed joke. And then I learned quicker that if, like, if I just said things, if I said what I really believed in my voice, that people weren't used to that and that it just automatically, on a base human level, because they were either nervous or because it hit a bone of truth, that it would make them laugh, a real truthful, hearty laugh. As opposed to these laughs of like, oh, that's clever or oh, that, that's. I didn't think of that. But they're laughing because I believe it and because I'm saying what I truly feel. And I think that that in comedy, I don't mean to give away my secrets, but it is one of the.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, but you have to be good. Good. You have to take the secret, and then you also have to have the talent, Ron. So don't worry about giving away the secret, because most people don't have the talent, the timing, the ability. You talked. Am I right about this? You talked to Mike Pesca. Did you sit down with Mike Pesca?
E
Yeah.
Chrissy Hoadley
So we. So Mike Pesca is a friend of ours, right. And so we just had him on yesterday. And I'm just connecting the dots when you're saying this, that he was telling us that you are a. What did he call it? A comedic philosopher or a comedic commentarian, a comedian, some. Whatever. I was asking who. What. Where were some of your favorite moments from the conversations? And he shared a little bit about his conversation with you and said that he really enjoyed it because he felt that there was a. That your base or your foundation for comedy, your. Where it comes from, the roots. And the way that you. Your canter, your cander, and the way that you present yourself on stage was different than some of the other comedies heard. And that's his whole point in doing the series, is to try and get to the bottom of what's making comedy tick and why some comedians, some commentarians like yourself, Rachel Feinstein, and others can open up minds, push the envelope, you know, stretch the boundaries, make people think about something different and make them realize something about themselves that maybe is an uncomfortable truth. And it was an interesting conversation. Your name was brought up and that just. I'm just remembering that.
E
So it makes me feel really good. So I really appreciate hearing Mike said.
Chrissy Hoadley
You'Re an all right guy. Mike said, I like that Ron guy. All right, so tell us what you're into. I feel like I could talk to you all day long, Ron. So tell us what you're up to now. Are you smarter than a celebrity is? Of course.
Ron Funches
Great show.
Chrissy Hoadley
Great show. We've had Natasha on, and I think we have another panelist that's. That's coming in next week. Tell us about this show. How'd you get involved? How are you enjoying it?
E
Oh, well, you know, it's based off of are you smarter than a fifth grader? Classic show. Jeff Foxworthy, who would tell you or not, he was the leading person on specialist on letting you know if you were a redneck or not and then.
Chrissy Hoadley
Letting you know if you were dumber than a third grader.
E
Yeah. But now they decided we know we're all dumber than the children, so let's find out if we're smarter than celebrities. And so we get to team up up with contestants and try to help them win money. And I'm just a big fan of game shows. I hope to host a game show one day. That's one of my big goals, is to host my own.
Ron Funches
And so great at it.
E
I think so I agree with you. And so when I got the opportunity to do this, it was a very easy. Yes. And also one of my favorite things is to help funnel money from corporations to independent individuals. So.
Ron Funches
I like that.
Chrissy Hoadley
Hey, you don't have to say that twice to us. You, you like you, you. I have also thought if I could host a late night TV show or a, or a game show or like a television talk show that's like a dream of mine right now. It seems like there's a lot of game shows to be hosted these days. It's back in form, it's back in fashion after a couple years of kind of going away, so to speak. Do you think that's something in the cards for you? Like tell us, give us a little inside track. Do you think there's conversation where you might be able to host a show? Tell us who you're in conversation with.
E
But I mean, I just hope so. I just really want to. I've had. I've had a chance to host a few things on a smaller scale. I hosted a game show for the platform Quibi before they went away very quickly.
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh yeah. Oh, Quibi, I remember that. Yeah, yeah.
E
And I really enjoyed it. And I hosted a. A spin off of chopped called chopped 420 where people cooked with weed. And it just really, I mean it just kind of reinforced my. What I thought that I would do have a good skill set for it. I enjoy talking to regular people often more than like celebrities. So I. It's just something that's fun for me and so I hope so. I've been working on some individual ideas on my own, some with some of the people from Are youe Smarter Than a Celebrity? And also have some friends at Fox as well with the Max Masked Singer. So I just hope to make my own one day. And then also I would love to host like something like the Price Is Right or something of that nature. Would be really fun for me.
Chrissy Hoadley
That is a dream fucking job. Can you imagine? Drew Carey is living in the Lap of luxury. He just has the best job in the world. He gets to give away a bunch of shit. He gets to have a bunch of fun and he probably works.
E
He gets to spin a Big Wheel.
Chrissy Hoadley
That's it. Spin a Big Wheel.
Ron Funches
That is my all time favorite game.
Chrissy Hoadley
Show, you know, there. So I went to la probably right after he got announced that he was going to take over for Bob Barker. And so maybe he was like half a year, year into this, into this hosting gig. I was out in LA and I was meeting a friend for breakfast in the Hills. And I end up at this diner. And this diner, we're sitting at a table and then right behind us gets sat Drew and he's got a newspaper and he's sitting there drinking his coffee and whatever. And maybe he's like two tables behind us. So I go, oh, I asked the waitress. I go, oh, that's. That's Drew Carey.
E
He.
Chrissy Hoadley
She's like, every single morning he's here, he drinks his coffee, he has his breakfast and then he goes, does whatever he does and goes to work. So we said hello, and I said, oh, you know, the waitress says, you're here every morning. You're a regular here. And he told me straight up, look me in the face. He says, I just got. I just got an invitation to have the best life ever. If I'm good, I get to keep this going for the rest of my life. And I was like, hey, you're right. Probably get paid a buttload of money and just be the host of the Price of Right. That would be a dream come true.
E
I think it would be a great job. You know, that's my new young son I'm looking for anything to help me get. I mean, I always want to do standup. I don't plan to get off the road completely ever. But I could add something that made it not a necessity. I would love that. Yeah.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. By the way we were talking, I saw real. My wife was showing me a real. A couple hours before you came in about you talking about calling koala. Most koalas have chlamydia. Yeah, I learned that.
Ron Funches
I were talking about that before.
Chrissy Hoadley
True. And this is an amazing fact to me.
Ron Funches
Yeah, it's an epidemic.
Chrissy Hoadley
Why do the koalas get chlamydia? Is that a sex.
E
They're not careful.
Ron Funches
Yeah, yeah. They're not using condoms.
Chrissy Hoadley
Is it. Is it a sexually transmitted disease for them or did they get it from like the tree or. You know what I'm saying?
E
I think it's still a Sexually transmitted disease.
Ron Funches
Yes.
Chrissy Hoadley
Those koalas. Literally, those koalas, they get it in.
E
Yeah, they're freaks. I don't judge them, though.
Chrissy Hoadley
No, I don't judge anybody on their sexual pleasure. As long as you're not giving it to me, I don't care. Yeah, that's it. Ron, what's the name of the podcast?
E
My podcast. I have two now. One's called Getting Better. That's the one that's, like, really fun about if you. A comedic self help podcast. I give affirmations and talk to my friends. And then I have a new one called Wagon that Dragon where I just watch House of the Dragon. I've never seen any fantasy or any type of Game of Thrones things in my life. And so it's coming at it from a perspective of one of my friend who's seen it a lot. Joey Saron is a great comedian. Oh, yeah. And then myself, who has never seen it. And so we watch each episode and discuss.
Ron Funches
That's fun.
Chrissy Hoadley
You're like me. I've never all. I've also.
Ron Funches
Oh, I've seen all of that.
Chrissy Hoadley
Two episodes of that. House of Dragon or what's the other one?
E
Okay. All right. Yeah, yeah, you guys can still go get in there. Still. Yeah, still. This premise. You guys redo it.
Chrissy Hoadley
Didn't you have an old podcast too, with someone? You were doing a podcast with someone. I felt like someone came in here and told us they had had you on their podcast as a co host. But maybe I'm mistaken about that, but it also could just be my. My brain. I'm old, Ron. I'm old.
E
It's okay. You really had a lot of good research and other things that were fully correct.
Chrissy Hoadley
We've had a lot of. Had a lot of stress in the last week. I don't know. Sure. Yeah.
E
Oh, yeah, No, I went. Yeah, we had Tuesday, and then I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday.
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh, God. Were they all wagging their dragons?
E
They were. They were very hat. Peppy in.
Chrissy Hoadley
That's as red as it comes out there in Oklahoma. But, you know, there are brothers and.
Ron Funches
Sisters too, that like to laugh.
E
One of the things that I was apprehensive about going right after and some of my friends especially were. But I think it was a good for my own levels of fear just to see that. Like to be reminded that, hey, there were people there who were upset about it as well. But there were people who were happy about it, but they weren't like mean or jerks or.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, they weren't waving around swastikas or something like that.
E
Yeah, no, they weren't. And so that's good to see. You know, some of them didn't seem like they could, but.
Chrissy Hoadley
You know, when we were talking to Mike yesterday, yesterday, he really reassured us. He said, listen, democracy holds. It'll be tested. You know, the bounds are going to be pushed, things are going to be changed, but small incremental changes because, you know, Trump's lazy and he's not. He's not going to follow through on a lot of this stuff. But then also, there are good people everywhere, and there. And there are going to be people who fight the good fight. And I do think that, you know, even no matter who you voted for, some people on both sides of the aisle are just loud and moronic, but most people are just trying to live their lives and be good people for the most part. And, you know, maybe on my opinion on my side of the aisle, that some of those ideas are a little bit misguided, but that's okay. You know, we'll all get through it together and hopefully in four years from now, we get to get to vote again.
E
Well, yeah, I just think also, though, we have to look within. And so often we're like, well, there's going to be some. There's good people out there. I think we have to be those.
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh, yeah.
E
You know, and we have. Have to embrace the people who right now who fear the most maligned and feel the most afraid and let them know that we're there for them and that if something was to occur that threatens their freedom or threatens their ability to feel safe here, that we have their backs and that we would, you know, we use whatever lawful dissent that is available for us if it comes to that, but hopefully it won't.
Chrissy Hoadley
I agree with you wholeheartedly. And we try and do that here on the show through satire and direct conversation, because everyone deserves to be who they are, no matter what that is. So as long as it's not hurting somebody else, that's it.
E
Yeah, you gotta put that second part in.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, well, I mean, as long as it's protested.
E
If you don't say that here, why.
Chrissy Hoadley
Don'T I reverse it and say, as long as you're not hurting anybody else, you deserve to be who you are. How's that?
E
There you go. I love that.
Chrissy Hoadley
Ron, it's been an absolute pleasure. Hopefully we will get to talk to you again. Next Trolls movie that comes out, I'm gonna invite you back at. Is there another Trolls movie? Did I don't know.
E
Not that I know of yet, but hopefully soon. I mean, that's always something animated that I'm working on. So we'll see.
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, yeah.
E
But you get. I would love to. It's great talking to you both. You both have tremendous podcast voices. They're just so easy to listen to. So thank you for having.
Chrissy Hoadley
That's very sweet. I really appreciate.
Ron Funches
Look forward to seeing you hosting that game show. I'm gonna thank you manifest.
Chrissy Hoadley
That's all I gotta say. Not that I have anything bad to say.
E
Not that we Drew Drew can keep it for five to 10 run for his own game show first. That proves that he's good. And then when Drew is ready, go inside. Let me on in.
Chrissy Hoadley
Go. Bob Barker. Drew Carey. It's time for a change. They have television and culture now. Let's do it. Ron, you can still get your dogs spate and neutered. Thanks very much. Absolutely. Ron Funches is on tour right now. He is on Are you smarter than a celebrity? He's got his podcast. We'll put all of the pertinent links inside of the show notes and we wish you the best, Ron, and hopefully we'll talk to you soon.
E
Please, it was a pleasure. Thank you.
Chrissy Hoadley
Thank you so much.
Ron Funches
Thanks, Ron.
Jenna Fischer
Since you clearly haven't had enough of me yet, I am back to yap in your ear and subsequently into your your heart to tell you to follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and on TikTok CBP podcast. You've heard these liners enough to know that we are desperate for followers. So help a girl out while you're at it. Maybe shoot us a text at 212-4333, TCB or leave us a voicemail spilling your guts and asking for advice. You can also check out our website, tcbpodcast.com if you feel like perusing our catalog or if you're just bored. Now let's listen to some sponsors because they keep me paid.
Brian Green
This episode is sponsored in part by Klarna. Well, Halloween is over and you know what that means. It's time to gorge yourself on candy and start searching for that perfect gift to give those you care about or yourself. And in this household, that means buying gifts for the 12 to 18 children.
Chrissy Hoadley
We'Ve got running around.
Brian Green
And while the season is festive and we always love giving giving gifts, paying attention to our finances always gets a little bit more attention this time of year. Astrid and I have used Klarna as our everyday smarter spending partner. Klarna allows you to split a purchase up into four interest free payments. So choose Klarna at your favorite retailers or shop now@klarna.com Klarna really has helped us be a little bit smarter about.
Chrissy Hoadley
Our shopping for the holiday seasons.
Brian Green
So head over to Klarna.com to see their offerings and make Klarna your smarter spending partner for the holiday season. California Resident Loans made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Law License NMLS number 1353190 Klarna balance account required. Klarna may get a commission. Limitations, terms and conditions do apply. This episode is sponsored in part by LIVE Nation. All right, you're a fan of the commercial break, so I know you're a fan of comedy. And good news for you. Some of the best comedians in the world are touring right now. In my humble opinion, the best way to see comedy is to see it live. It's that energy in the room, it's the infectious laughter, it's the sense that someone is doing a high wire act right in front of your face and at any moment the train can come off the tracks. And that is always just as entertaining as when your favorite comedian sets the room on fire. Nasser and I have become big fans of watching live comedy. Never once have we walked out of a comedy show, regret dreading the $300 we're about to pay the teenage babysitter to obsessively text her boyfriend and doomscroll on Instagram.
Chrissy Hoadley
Never once.
Brian Green
Let me punch up a few of the comedians I know are on tour right now. There's the ever lovely Sarah Silverman, hilarious Brian Regan, Chelsea Handler, who I kind of have a crush on, Sarah Milliken, Kevin Hart, the always funny Atsuko Okatsuka, and the literal man of the hour, Sebastian Maniscalco. If that guy doesn't give you a tickle, you just don't a funny bone. There are all kind of live shows, there are all kind of venues, and there are all flavors of comedy. So head over to livenation.com to get your tickets today. That's Live Nation.com comedy. Times are tough. The entire world's stressed out. You deserve it. Go see some live comedy. Live nation.com comedy. And thanks to Live Nation for being a sponsor of another kind of comedy show, the commercial break.
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, I've seen trolls so many times, so many thousands of times.
Ron Funches
Now you met the person behind the.
Chrissy Hoadley
Voice, Coop, who is, by the way, like the. Have you ever seen trolls?
Ron Funches
Yes.
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay. Coop, is that like, you know, weird looking troll that almost look like a giraffe or something like that. And he gets psychedelic. He's like, yeah, but I have seen that Coop is awesome and that one's for the kids. But Ron funches is just a wonderful human being. And I, I, I, I didn't get into all of it, but I, he's just. When you watch enough of Ron, caring, kind, thoughtful.
Ron Funches
Yeah.
Chrissy Hoadley
And he will slice you at the knees, you got to be careful because even that, that voice and that very sweet nature can also roast someone to death. So you got to be careful with Ron. Don't be an around Ron. That's all I got to say. Oklahoma.
Ron Funches
And he will be an asshole to you. That's the point.
Chrissy Hoadley
That's right. What you give him, he'll give back. And so I had a wonderful conversation. Conversation. We had a wonderful conversation with Ron. I'm so glad that he came in. Yeah, we've been trying to get him for or we have been missing each other a couple times over the last couple of months and I'm glad that we finally got it done. Ron Funches all the information that I told you while he was here. Same thing. His podcast, are you smarter than a celebrity? Check out all his voice work. And of course, what else did he say that he wanted us to talk about?
Ron Funches
Well, he's got the two podcasts.
Chrissy Hoadley
Two podcasts, Wagon, the dragon Dragon. Comedic therapy or something like that. I think it was comedic therapy. And we'll put the links in the show notes just in case we get it wrong, because we likely will. So just go ahead and. Yeah, he's got a lot going on. And the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of voice acting jobs that he's had, you've probably seen more than one of them because I went through that IMDb and I was scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and loot. Oh, yeah, loot. We didn't even talk about loot. He huge on Apple tv Season number two. He said he's filming season number three. That is a great show. I've only watched the first season, but it is a, that's another one of those shows that I've got, you know, waiting in the queue to watch season two. And yeah, you know, I've heard from, we've heard from so many people and I've back channel. Ron is fantastic. And now I know why. Because he truly is. So go check all that out. Give around a try. Oh, his tour. That's it. His tour. Go see him on tour. He's always touring. And yeah, I hope Ron comes back.
Ron Funches
I do too.
Chrissy Hoadley
I hope most of our guests, there's been. We've said this before, but there's been. We just keep adding to the list of people I want back. We're not calling any from the herd, you know what I'm saying? There could be one or two in there that would just kind of be like, you know, and then we could. So I think of the. I think I counted the other day. We had. We had like 49 guests. 50 guests or something like that.
E
Wow.
Chrissy Hoadley
46 of which we've broadcast as we're recording this. I think there are three, maybe four where I would. There's four that I would say I. I'm okay. Yeah, Right. Two of them I would just say no to. And the other two I would be like, eh, maybe not our lane. Right?
Ron Funches
Yeah, not. Not many at all.
Chrissy Hoadley
But then, then we got 46 other.
E
People I want to have back.
Chrissy Hoadley
How do I get them all in? Tell me, how do I fit them all in? Anyway, tcbpodcast.com that's where you go to find out more information about the show. All the show notes, the audio, the video, it's all right there from one location. Soon, every episode of the commercial break will be on video on YouTube and available on Spotify video. I'll let you know when that happens. We're currently testing that platform and we have a few videos. Here's a You want to treasure. You want to do like a little scavenger hunt? Try and find the videos on Spotify of you of commercial break episodes. Because I've been putting a few up there just to test them. See if you can find them. Dig through the 690 episodes of the commercial break and try and find them. Anyway. I'll let you know when they're up there. But YouTube. Every single episode. Coming very soon to YouTube. 212-433-TCB 212-433-3822. Questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas? We take them all. No mus, no fuss. Let us know what you're thinking. We'd love to hear from you. Voicemail or text message at the commercial break on Instagram, TCB podcast on TikTok and YouTube.com/the commercial break. All right, and while I've got you, 12 days of TCB coming the 13th through Christmas Day of December, please join us. We would love to have you. We're gonna have a lot of fun. We're gonna talk a lot of. We're gonna have a lot of laughs and we'll all commiserate together. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today. But I'll tell you that I love you.
Ron Funches
I love you.
Chrissy Hoadley
I'll say best to you, best to you out there in the podcast universe. And Ron Funches until next time. Chrissy and I always say, we do say and we must say goodbye. Goodbye.
Ron Funches
Where'd you get those shoes?
Jenna Fischer
Easy.
Ron Funches
They're from dsw. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show up the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker, and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com as we.
F
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E
What the is going on in here?
Chrissy Hoadley
Been sitting a while? Maybe it's time to go for a quick walk around the block. Walk, skip, sprint, sachet, whatever gets you up and moving. A little exercise can make a big difference. This healthy suggestion is brought to you by Regents Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon. Together we help.
The Commercial Break - Episode: Processing...
Release Date: November 19, 2024
Hosts: Bryan Green and Chrissy Hoadley
Guest: Ron Funches
As the holiday season approaches, Bryan and Chrissy reaffirm their commitment to producing brand new episodes throughout this festive period. They announce the launch of the "12 Days of TCB" from December 13th through Christmas Day, promising daily episodes filled with laughter and camaraderie.
Guest Introduction: Ron Funches, a celebrated comedian, voice actor, and actor, joins Bryan and Chrissy in this episode. Known for his role as Coop in the "Trolls" movies and his vibrant presence in the comedy scene, Ron brings a wealth of experience and humor to the conversation.
The discussion kicks off with a topical conversation about the political climate and the unconventional use of technology in presidential security.
Chrissy raises concerns about robot dogs being deployed on the White House lawn:
"Robots are now protecting the White House. Robots. We have gone too fucking far."
[05:30]
Ron responds, highlighting the advancements in robotics:
"Robots are gaining headway, Chrissy."
[06:47]
The hosts express a sense of dystopia regarding the integration of robots in national security, pondering the implications of such technological advancements.
Ron delves into his career beginnings, emphasizing his passion for comedy and the natural progression into voice acting.
"That was my very first acting role, yeah."
[30:07]
He discusses the challenges and triumphs of transitioning from stand-up comedy to voice acting, illustrating his adaptability and dedication to the craft.
Ron shares insights into his notable voice roles, connecting with both younger audiences and his personal experiences.
"I was playing a space alien princess named Sharzar, who is a very sassy lady who said, dang a lot."
[31:23]
He emphasizes the joy of connecting with children through his voice roles, highlighting the positive impact of his characters on young listeners.
Expressing his ambition, Ron discusses his desire to host game shows, drawing parallels between his comedic talents and hosting skills.
"One of my big goals is to host my own."
[49:34]
He reflects on his previous hosting experiences, such as hosting a game show on Quibi and a "Chopped 420" spin-off, indicating his readiness to take on larger hosting roles in the future.
A heartfelt segment unfolds as Ron and Chrissy talk about parenting, particularly raising neurodivergent children. They explore the lessons learned and the profound sense of pride that comes from witnessing their children's unique strengths.
"He's taught me to give up all expectations but keep all hope."
[32:21]
"Our job as parents is to help our kids become their true selves, not what we want them to be."
[36:27]
Chrissy echoes these sentiments, recounting moments that highlight her children's individuality and the joy derived from their personal achievements, irrespective of initial expectations.
The conversation shifts to Ron's approach to comedy, emphasizing authenticity and truthfulness in his performances.
"If I just said what I really believed in my voice, that people weren't used to that and that it just automatically [...] make a real truthful, hearty laugh."
[46:00]
He discusses the importance of honesty in comedy, contrasting it with traditional joke structures, and highlighting how his genuine expressions resonate more deeply with audiences.
Ron provides a glimpse into his upcoming projects, including his podcasts and ongoing tour.
"I have two now. One's called Getting Better."
[53:59]
He also touches upon his aspirations to host additional game shows and his involvement in projects like "Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity."
Bryan and Chrissy express their admiration for Ron's multifaceted career and heartfelt personal anecdotes. They encourage listeners to explore Ron's work, attend his live performances, and engage with his podcasts. The episode concludes with the hosts promoting upcoming content and reiterating their commitment to delivering entertaining and meaningful discussions throughout the holiday season.
Chrissy on Robot Security:
"Robots are now protecting the White House. Robots. We have gone too fucking far."
[05:30]
Ron on Comedy and Authenticity:
"If I just said what I really believed in my voice, that people weren't used to that and that it just automatically [...] make a real truthful, hearty laugh."
[46:00]
Ron on Parenthood:
"He's taught me to give up all expectations but keep all hope."
[32:21]
Chrissy on Parenting Neurodivergent Children:
"When my kid did something physical on his own, it made me proud. It didn't meet my initial expectations, but it was beautiful in its own way."
[36:27]
Ron on Hosting Aspirations:
"One of my big goals is to host my own."
[49:34]
This episode of "The Commercial Break" offers a blend of humor, insightful discussions, and personal stories, making it a compelling listen for both regular followers and newcomers. By spotlighting Ron Funches' journey in the entertainment industry and his experiences as a parent, Bryan and Chrissy provide a relatable and engaging narrative that resonates with a diverse audience.
For more episodes and detailed show notes, visit tcbpodcast.com.