Speaker 1: The following episode was recorded before the WGA sag Aftra
Speaker 1: strikes of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: We have a guest that I have a very very
Speaker 2: warm spot in my heart for mister Ron Functious. I
Speaker 2: met Ron in La six degrees dot Org was going
Speaker 2: down to skid Row to an organization called School on
Speaker 2: Wheels that provides tutoring for unhoused kids in Los Angeles area.
Speaker 2: We were hoping to get another celebrity to show up
Speaker 2: with us, and we had reached out to Ron just
Speaker 2: with a cold call, basically saying, Hey, we're going to
Speaker 2: show up at School on Wheels down in skid Row.
Speaker 2: Any chance you could come and hang out with the
Speaker 2: kids for a while and see what they're up to?
Speaker 2: And he said, yes, I didn't know him, he didn't
Speaker 2: know me, and I think that really speaks to the
Speaker 2: kind of man that he is. I was thrilled that
Speaker 2: he was willing to sit down and shoot the breeze
Speaker 2: with me a little bit.
Speaker 3: So here's Ron funchers.
Speaker 4: Ron.
Speaker 3: So good to see you.
Speaker 4: Good to see you again, Kevin.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm good.
Speaker 2: I'm doing absolutely fine.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: How long has it been now? They tell me six
Speaker 2: years since we were in the same space together. I think,
Speaker 2: I don't know, Yeah, the.
Speaker 5: Time doesn't exist even before the pandemic to me, so
Speaker 5: even more so now you could say it was ten
Speaker 5: years ago, it's always last week in my mind. It
Speaker 5: was such a fun time getting to meet you and
Speaker 5: going to school on wheels and just really opened my
Speaker 5: eyes to a lot of things. So I really appreciate
Speaker 5: I don't think I ever said that thank you for that.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, thank you.
Speaker 2: I mean that was We're obviously going to talk about
Speaker 2: school on wheels, but that was like so cool that
Speaker 2: you just kind of showed up and you know, people,
Speaker 2: a lot of what this podcast is about is about
Speaker 2: meet people who outside how can I say this, We
Speaker 2: live and operate in such a self involved kind of
Speaker 2: worlds as performers, and you know, in order to make it,
Speaker 2: in order to like fight your way through all the
Speaker 2: people in the world that want to be in the
Speaker 2: entertainment industry, you have to have a very very serious
Speaker 2: focus on yourself, especially if you're an actor. So when
Speaker 2: I meet people like you who were willing to do
Speaker 2: something outside of your own sphere of career, it's always
Speaker 2: kind of impressive to me. What do you think is
Speaker 2: that is about you that you know? I don't know.
Speaker 3: Has that imputuce?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 5: First thing, I'd say, I think it helped that I
Speaker 5: wasn't an actor to start out with.
Speaker 3: You agree, I agree.
Speaker 5: A lot of people who I haven't met who are
Speaker 5: straight actors and I and I get It's like you said,
Speaker 5: it takes a And some of these words are gonna
Speaker 5: sound negative, but I don't mean them in any negative connotation.
Speaker 4: But it takes a certain delusion to believe.
Speaker 5: That you're special enough to believe that you can, to
Speaker 5: believe not only just believe that, but to have people
Speaker 5: reject you over and over and over again, and your
Speaker 5: mind state be, no, you're wrong, I'm great.
Speaker 4: You just don't see it yet.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: That takes a certain delusion, a certain selfishness that I think,
Speaker 5: in some ways, I'm very glad that I found I
Speaker 5: came from. I come from the world of stand up comedy,
Speaker 5: and a lot of that is the opposite people pleaser.
Speaker 5: I'm coming from a trauma based background where you know,
Speaker 5: I grew up in an unstable house where my mom
Speaker 5: was in an abusive relationship, and a lot of that
Speaker 5: time as a kid was me spent trying.
Speaker 4: To keep the house at peace. So you know, a
Speaker 4: lot of that comes with the.
Speaker 5: Charm and trying to be funny and trying to and
Speaker 5: so and and and a lot of times at at
Speaker 5: an expense.
Speaker 4: Of my own needs or my own wants.
Speaker 2: Let me just stick into that for one second, because
Speaker 2: because you put your finger, I was thinking about talking
Speaker 2: to you today, and I was refreshing myself on some
Speaker 2: of your hilarious stand up which is available. Folks. You
Speaker 2: gotta see ron stand up because it is absolutely singular,
Speaker 2: both in the material but also in the deliveryank, you know,
Speaker 2: not not really like anybody that you've ever seen before.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking about comics. I've spent some time
Speaker 2: around the comics. I love to go to comedy. I
Speaker 2: think the reason that I like to go to comedy
Speaker 2: is because it is so dangerous. It feels so risky
Speaker 2: to be out there. And I also like to go
Speaker 2: to it because I can tell that I'm correct me
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong. Most comics are coming to this from
Speaker 2: a perspective, from a painful perspective A lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, would you say the majority or or I mean,
Speaker 2: do you know any comics who had a really chill
Speaker 2: and happy childhood.
Speaker 5: I know you, I know a couple and that's what
Speaker 5: makes it. I find them to be the weirdest of all.
Speaker 5: How did you have a good background and you still
Speaker 5: end up But for the most part, yeah, I think
Speaker 5: a lot of it.
Speaker 4: You find a lot of people with similar stories.
Speaker 5: They may be, you know, very unique to their perspective,
Speaker 5: Like you know me coming from a background where my
Speaker 5: mom was in an abusive relationship, and then having a
Speaker 5: son very early at my son a month after I
Speaker 5: turned twenty, and then he was diagnosed with autism two
Speaker 5: years later, and it's like all these different traumas that
Speaker 5: tweaked my brain to a certain way where I was like,
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna do what I want, and what i
Speaker 5: want to do is comedy, and I'm gonna figure it out.
Speaker 5: And you find a lot of people have these stories,
Speaker 5: and then I think one of the biggest things you
Speaker 5: have to do is then let go of that story
Speaker 5: and just be like, well, I'm here now, that doesn't
Speaker 5: serve me anymore.
Speaker 4: I just need to work and enjoy my life and
Speaker 4: build a life.
Speaker 5: And that, I think is what made me more open
Speaker 5: to being involved in charities. Is that I'm like, Oh,
Speaker 5: I'm not in this moment where I'm like I can
Speaker 5: play like, oh I'm a big doing my life's been tough,
Speaker 5: and it's all those things may be true, but but
Speaker 5: they don't do any service right now. So I have
Speaker 5: to go out there and actually be a positive in
Speaker 5: the world. And again, just so with my son having
Speaker 5: autism from an early age, I be which by the way.
Speaker 2: You've you've you've you've mined uh and are very open
Speaker 2: about it in your in your comedy, and.
Speaker 3: And it's it is Again.
Speaker 2: That's another thing that's so interesting about about you as
Speaker 2: a performer that you take something and you put it
Speaker 2: out there, but you put it out there in not
Speaker 2: in a sentimental way, but at all you know, you're
Speaker 2: very uh. It's pretty edgy some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: that comes out, But at the same time, it's so
Speaker 2: clear that it comes from a loving place that it
Speaker 2: it it it It lends a kind of a depth
Speaker 2: to to the show that I think is just so awesome.
Speaker 4: I really appreciate that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just try to be realistic in my life
Speaker 5: and in some of the ways that I had seen
Speaker 5: autism portrayed or just out in the media was always
Speaker 5: just like whoa is me? And oh, you know, we
Speaker 5: can't survive and these kids all are you know, almost
Speaker 5: as if they were feral or something.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, no, this.
Speaker 5: I learned so much from my son and we've had
Speaker 5: issues and we think but it doesn't define him, like
Speaker 5: it's a part of his life. Just if if I
Speaker 5: had diabetes, or if I had a broken arm or something,
Speaker 5: you know, and that made that might be a little
Speaker 5: different because of my arm would get fixed. But it's
Speaker 5: just a part of his character sheet and that's the
Speaker 5: way we look at it. And some of the things
Speaker 5: are really funny. And so I never there was a
Speaker 5: part of my life where I didn't want to talk
Speaker 5: about it because I was afraid people would think I
Speaker 5: was making fun of my son or or just look
Speaker 5: at it in the perspective. But it was the opposite.
Speaker 5: It was so true. I found so many people reached
Speaker 5: out to me and like, oh, I have someone in
Speaker 5: my life, or people who were who had autism who
Speaker 5: were like, it's so nice to just be talk to
Speaker 5: or seen as just a full persons, not like some
Speaker 5: charity case or not something to look down on or
Speaker 5: not a punchline. Which I had seen a lot in
Speaker 5: comedy of just using the word autism and replace of
Speaker 5: the R word and so.
Speaker 4: And to me, that's not edgy, that's lazy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: So I hear you, yeah, to talk about your real life,
Speaker 5: to talk about things going on and talk about you.
Speaker 5: But to me, that's that's where it really, that's where
Speaker 5: real comedy is for me, not you know, I'm not
Speaker 5: a police a comedy, but that's my perspective.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, sure, and that's that's what we're interested in.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I you you made a point about the actors, and
Speaker 2: I know that you do act you you you you've
Speaker 2: come to an acting career and a writing career through
Speaker 2: and a podcasting career through through uh comedy. But I
Speaker 2: think it's very true what you said about actors, and
Speaker 2: that is that you need to become an actor. I
Speaker 2: think you do need a certain level of delusion. I mean,
Speaker 2: I remember walking into auditions when I was in my
Speaker 2: teens and and they'd say, you know, we're looking for
Speaker 2: there was I had an audition once where they said
Speaker 2: the director likes tight Lacoste shirts on boys. So I
Speaker 2: walked into this room and I went out and bought,
Speaker 2: you know, an alligator shirt.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So I've walked in this room. There's like thirty guys
Speaker 2: with you know, you know, kind of highlighted sunny tips
Speaker 2: on their hair, wearing like who've done like a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of you know, push ups, and they're all wearing
Speaker 2: these tight lacosse shirts. And I thought, fuck, I mean,
Speaker 2: how am I supposed to like cut through this?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So, so there was a level of delusion where I
Speaker 2: would tell myself I have something to offer.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: Did I know that I had something to offer? No,
Speaker 2: I don't think I knew that I was any good,
Speaker 2: and I certainly I don't think I thought, wow, you're
Speaker 2: really good. What I thought was maybe I could get better.
Speaker 2: But I didn't think, wow, you're really good. Did you
Speaker 2: know that you were funny? Did you have responses from
Speaker 2: people that were encouraging of that notion?
Speaker 4: I knew I was a funny child.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: One of my earliest memories is, like I tell the
Speaker 5: story a few times, is that just you know, my
Speaker 5: mom was saying Mom always stressed out all the time,
Speaker 5: and we did something to me and my sister and
Speaker 5: she was like, you guys, go to your room, I'm
Speaker 5: coming up in five minutes, You're getting spanked, you know.
Speaker 5: And in that time period, I'm upstairs scared, but I'm
Speaker 5: cracking jokes to my sister, making fun of my mom,
Speaker 5: you know. And on the other side of the door,
Speaker 5: I started to hear my mom laugh, and she's laughing,
Speaker 5: and she's laughing, and she's like liking these jokes and
Speaker 5: then she and she forgets to spank us, and I'm like,
Speaker 5: oh wait, there's a power here.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're still out there trying to avoid a spanking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, pretty much in my life.
Speaker 5: But that's one of the things I love that I'm
Speaker 5: glad that I found acting as well, because I I
Speaker 5: think I needed some of that selfishness and some of
Speaker 5: that delusion in believing in myself in that way.
Speaker 4: Comedy can be a lot different.
Speaker 5: And you know, you go to some of these clubs
Speaker 5: in the green room will be the stock room with
Speaker 5: the mayonnaise and the nacho cheese and stuff. And the
Speaker 5: first time I'd ever actually worked with someone who was
Speaker 5: an actor and they would have this schedule and they'd
Speaker 5: be like, why get up in the morning and I
Speaker 5: work out and I do this, and I do that,
Speaker 5: and I need this, I need these teas and I
Speaker 5: need that. And it was the first time I had
Speaker 5: ever thought about setting those type of boundaries or setting
Speaker 5: those type of things that I needed in my life.
Speaker 4: Those down Oh, I mean a lot of the same stuff.
Speaker 3: Working out. I have to work out every morning.
Speaker 5: I like to do my inter minute fasting and eat
Speaker 5: on my schedule. I don't like someone else to determine
Speaker 5: when I eat, So like, even if you know I
Speaker 5: like I eat it eleven, I eat it two, and
Speaker 5: I eat it like six thirty to seven. And if
Speaker 5: I'm on set, I'll just wait until we have a
Speaker 5: little break and I'll eat. I don't you know, I
Speaker 5: just work on.
Speaker 3: My same thing. I do same thing, and then.
Speaker 4: It's just water standing hydra.
Speaker 5: And one of my biggest things in auditions and everything
Speaker 5: now is like I like to come in not needing
Speaker 5: anything from anyone. So I'll come with my water, I'll
Speaker 5: come with my lunch, I'll come with my things. I
Speaker 5: want to come in as a bonus. I don't need you.
Speaker 3: That's interesting me.
Speaker 2: So that's just but that's just like a mind that's
Speaker 2: like a mindset that you want to have for the audition.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's an awesome I wish I had known that.
Speaker 2: I mean, that is a great, great tip any any
Speaker 2: young actors out there. Don't come in needing something from them,
Speaker 2: you you, you come in offering them something and even
Speaker 2: if it's not true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 5: But that was a lot of my perspective, Like the
Speaker 5: La cost story is so I mean, I think that's
Speaker 5: to so many people's acting careers. Is then you sit
Speaker 5: there and you go, what makes me different from all
Speaker 5: these people? And I think my whole perspective in the
Speaker 5: way it even started now landing more roles and being.
Speaker 4: More confident in myself.
Speaker 5: It switched from that perspective like that I had from
Speaker 5: comedy or from being a traumatic kid, of being.
Speaker 4: Like, what do you need me to be? Whatever you need?
Speaker 4: Do I need to be smarmy, I'll be smarmy. Do
Speaker 4: you need me to be a businessman, you need to
Speaker 4: be a gang member? You need me to do this,
Speaker 4: I'll figure it out.
Speaker 5: And now it got to a point where I had
Speaker 5: to just be confident myself and I go, you know
Speaker 5: the same thing where he's like, what, there's a couple
Speaker 5: of actors in the world, and God bless them, that
Speaker 5: they're can mimic, they can do so many things, they
Speaker 5: could play so many things in the world. I don't
Speaker 5: know if that's going to be for me. I gotta
Speaker 5: find what makes me work and what make what I
Speaker 5: offer that is unique. And if I find a role
Speaker 5: or I see something or they send me something and
Speaker 5: I go, oh, I know, I could pop that or
Speaker 5: I would make that, you know, I would. I see
Speaker 5: how they kind of want it, and I would, and
Speaker 5: I showed them what I can bring, and then I
Speaker 5: just go like that, well, this is what I can bring.
Speaker 5: If you want it, I'm over here. If you don't,
Speaker 5: it was a blessing to me, you hopefully. I just
Speaker 5: did it just to learn to love the work and
Speaker 5: be like, oh I nailed that audition. Like I just
Speaker 5: had this audition to play a detective and I didn't
Speaker 5: get it. And then it was fine because but I
Speaker 5: was like, oh, no one. I would never thought anyone
Speaker 5: would be like, oh he could be a detective. This
Speaker 5: guy could be a detective. And it wasn't a comedy.
Speaker 5: It was like, you know, a drama, a dark comedy
Speaker 5: if anything. But it was very real and drowned it
Speaker 5: and doing the audition and having the cast and director
Speaker 5: and the actual and the di rectro session.
Speaker 4: So the director was.
Speaker 5: There and she was like, I don't really have any notes.
Speaker 5: She's like, that's good, And that's what I love to hear,
Speaker 5: you know. To me, I'll never slam dunkle basketball, but
Speaker 5: that's what when I'm like doing something out of my
Speaker 5: comfort zone and then I hear them go like, well,
Speaker 5: we're moving on, I'm like, oh, I just slammed in
Speaker 5: everybody's face.
Speaker 3: And good. Yeah. I love I love hearing that. I
Speaker 3: love hearing that.
Speaker 2: You know, it's so funny that you mention the word
Speaker 2: smarmy because the very first well I don't think it
Speaker 2: was the first audition I ever had, but the very
Speaker 2: first movie I did was Animal House, which was nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy seven, and I didn't have an agent, and I
Speaker 2: was in acting school and they came by and they said,
Speaker 2: we're looking for you know, kind of like college kids.
Speaker 2: So they sent me over and they said be smarmy,
Speaker 2: and I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know
Speaker 2: what the word meant, and obviously we didn't have a
Speaker 2: little device in our hands to quickly look it up.
Speaker 2: So I just made a face. I hardly had any lines,
Speaker 2: but I basically made a face that I thought maybe
Speaker 2: sounded like what smarmy was. And the director John Landis,
Speaker 2: he loved it. He's like, yeah, the smarty I love
Speaker 2: when you do the smarmy like he kept saying to me,
Speaker 2: do the smarty look. It's just so funny that you
Speaker 2: mentioned that, because I had no idea that it would
Speaker 2: It would be like, I don't know, it would be
Speaker 2: like saying some crazy thing. I mean that I just
Speaker 2: I didn't know, but it was, but it sounded I
Speaker 2: guessed at what it might sound like. Let me ask
Speaker 2: you something, what because I love hearing about this this
Speaker 2: but the idea of this, this auditioning and of embracing acting.
Speaker 2: What are the things that you you love to do now?
Speaker 2: Or do you love them all? And do you love
Speaker 2: them all equally? I mean, and do you love it
Speaker 2: at all anymore?
Speaker 5: I certainly love it. I'm loving it more than ever. Really,
Speaker 5: what I love more.
Speaker 4: Than anything is freedom.
Speaker 5: And I like the ability to bounce around and try
Speaker 5: new things and try new experiences. And that's usually how
Speaker 5: I lead myself and pick my things. Is that, Oh
Speaker 5: did I have ever done that before? I have ever
Speaker 5: thought I'd do that, you know, just even little things
Speaker 5: like one time they asked me to be on Chopped,
Speaker 5: and I.
Speaker 4: Was like, I can't cook. I don't know how to
Speaker 4: cook at all.
Speaker 5: But I was like, oh, I never in my life
Speaker 5: would think anyone asked me to be on Chopped, and
Speaker 5: that would be a unique experience, not every you know,
Speaker 5: every Instead of being on these comedy things where I'm
Speaker 5: fighting with eight comedians to be the best comedian, I
Speaker 5: can go on this cooking show and just talk and
Speaker 5: be naturally funny and not be competing with anyone.
Speaker 4: But just showing who I am.
Speaker 5: And it's opening a lot of doors for me doing
Speaker 5: things like that, and I so I love the ability
Speaker 5: to bounce around because a lot of them can be frustrated,
Speaker 5: as I'm sure you know. You know, there was time,
Speaker 5: especially in my acting career, where I was seeing a
Speaker 5: lot of growth in class and seeing a.
Speaker 3: Lot of.
Speaker 5: Just my abilities broadening and my range broadening, but my
Speaker 5: auditions weren't, you know, so I would still be doing
Speaker 5: a lot of the same things and and feeling like
Speaker 5: I was doing the same thing from the first show
Speaker 5: I was on.
Speaker 2: Undateable, And I mean the auditions that you were getting
Speaker 2: or or what you're doing in the auditions.
Speaker 5: The auditions that I were getting, they were, you know,
Speaker 5: the same style, character, the same you know, just come in,
Speaker 5: hit a button and leave. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: but I'm like doing these dramas in class. I'm doing
Speaker 5: these you know.
Speaker 2: A frustrating part of our business, though, is that people
Speaker 2: I always say that we have so little imagination when
Speaker 2: it comes to casting films and television. Theater is completely
Speaker 2: the opposite, because if you come in and you can audition,
Speaker 2: that's it that they don't. It was never a you
Speaker 2: never got typed. When I was doing theater, it just
Speaker 2: seemed like if you could do it, you know, whatever
Speaker 2: the accent or the you know, the walk or the
Speaker 2: look or whatever it was, then you'd get the part.
Speaker 2: But in films and television, we have so little imagination.
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, I agree, it's one. I agree with you.
Speaker 5: It frustrates me because I'm a big fan of just
Speaker 5: growth and development. I love that in my music. I
Speaker 5: love that, and I love being like, oh.
Speaker 4: I saw them doing a little bit part here, and now.
Speaker 5: Oh this, and then I saw this and then oh wow,
Speaker 5: that's one of the funnest things in life to me,
Speaker 5: And it seems such a shame that so many where
Speaker 5: I feel, you know, the term is usually development, and
Speaker 5: they always are like, well, I saw you do this,
Speaker 5: so you can do this, keep doing that, and I
Speaker 5: just you know, I worked in trap jobs when I
Speaker 5: was young. I remember working at a bank call center
Speaker 5: and you didn't have to have a college degree, and
Speaker 5: they paid you like fifteen eighteen dollars an hour, and
Speaker 5: I was like, well, that sounds great now, but I
Speaker 5: know that's a trap because I'm not gaining any skills
Speaker 5: other than this job. And so if I ever want
Speaker 5: to quit this job, I don't have a college education,
Speaker 5: I'm just either either have to.
Speaker 4: Stay here or I have to go back to seven
Speaker 4: eight dollars an hour.
Speaker 5: And I felt the same way with like if I
Speaker 5: was the key keep doing the same type of roles,
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, I'm just going to keep doing this
Speaker 5: showing them the same person, and I'm going to continue
Speaker 5: to get older and they're either going to be like,
Speaker 5: well he's too expensive now or he's too old now.
Speaker 5: And we found a younger version of that character. So
Speaker 5: let's move on, and just for my heart and my life.
Speaker 5: I like challenging myself and trying new things. So it's
Speaker 5: been really great to be like, Okay, well acting isn't
Speaker 5: going that great right now, so I'll focus on stand up.
Speaker 5: And then the pandemic happened, and the stand up was
Speaker 5: a thing that wasn't as safe for me and a
Speaker 5: new baby, and I didn't want to be out there,
Speaker 5: and so I was like, oh I can. I'm so
Speaker 5: lucky I have my voice acting. And it really taught
Speaker 5: me a lot lessons before because I was like, maybe
Speaker 5: if I was a specialist in one of these things,
Speaker 5: I could move further along than one of these things.
Speaker 5: But I then was like, oh, a complex web. It
Speaker 5: seems to be the best for me because if something
Speaker 5: doesn't feel right, if I'm frustrated, I can at least
Speaker 5: focus on the other thing. I love stand up so
Speaker 5: much because it's immediate. I get the immediate reaction. I
Speaker 5: don't have to wait for some you know, the editing
Speaker 5: and watch it myself or see somebody else's take that
Speaker 5: they pick.
Speaker 3: Are you comfortable playing out now? I'm sorry?
Speaker 2: Are you comfortable playing out now? Are you are with
Speaker 2: stand up?
Speaker 4: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3: I mean, are you doing live shows.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, oh yeah.
Speaker 5: I'm uncomfortable now for sure, and depends on the week,
Speaker 5: but more so now.
Speaker 4: And I just miss it.
Speaker 5: It was, you know, when I didn't have it, I
Speaker 5: really felt a part of my soul was missing. I
Speaker 5: just and so and it really is. If you ask
Speaker 5: me what I love the most of us, be honest,
Speaker 5: it would be stand up because it's the.
Speaker 4: Only one I would do for free. I know I
Speaker 4: wouldn't act for free.
Speaker 3: Tour are you? Are you on tour? Are you planning
Speaker 3: a tour?
Speaker 5: I just got off tour. I'd just been some less
Speaker 5: shows in November as one of the best priorits.
Speaker 4: Of my life.
Speaker 5: Usually I have to go all the way through the
Speaker 5: holiday series, you know, to make sure I can afford things.
Speaker 5: And it's been nice where I was like, oh I
Speaker 5: can end in December. I got seven month old baby
Speaker 5: and we're just gonna help.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
Speaker 5: Are your second my second? I have a twenty year
Speaker 5: old in a seven month old. So I got new material.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely that's great. Tell me about getting better with
Speaker 2: Ron Funcius.
Speaker 5: Okay, it's a podcast. I really enjoyed doing. It's a
Speaker 5: passion project.
Speaker 3: Why haven't I been on it?
Speaker 5: I think I asked my manager to invite you. Perhaps
Speaker 5: things got mixed up in between the peoples, but but
Speaker 5: I certainly asked when we work after a little bit
Speaker 5: after we worked together or we met each other. But
Speaker 5: I would love to have you on absolutely. And it's
Speaker 5: just me and people either have my best friends or
Speaker 5: people who I've always wanted to learn about. Are just
Speaker 5: people whose stories that I've found that are interesting to me.
Speaker 5: About getting better at your life, your chosen field. I
Speaker 5: feel my whole life has been a big moving forward
Speaker 5: of just like not coming from the best circumstances, but
Speaker 5: little by little getting better at my life, getting better
Speaker 5: how I handle things, and pushing myself forward. And I
Speaker 5: think sometimes we get this perspective between like people who
Speaker 5: make it and people who don't have anything, and that
Speaker 5: people don't see the journey and don't think that they
Speaker 5: can do it or don't believe that they have it
Speaker 5: in them.
Speaker 4: And I like humanizing and showing that.
Speaker 5: Everyone that I've ever met is still dealing with some
Speaker 5: rejection and still dealing with a thing that they're driven
Speaker 5: to do, that they're fighting for and they want to achieve,
Speaker 5: and I like celebrating it when I see people achieve
Speaker 5: those things. So when I see my friends get a show,
Speaker 5: or when I see people just achieve their dreams, I'm
Speaker 5: big into celebrating that and then discussing how they got
Speaker 5: there so that people don't just see the end rest.
Speaker 5: It's like when I started comedy. My only beginning comedy
Speaker 5: was that I watched comedy specials, so I was terrified.
Speaker 5: I thought I had to be as good as Chris Rock.
Speaker 5: I thought I had to be as good as some more.
Speaker 5: I had to be as good as all these people
Speaker 5: I saw on TV. But then they go to an
Speaker 5: open mic and you see people just trying it and
Speaker 5: just doing things, and you're like, oh, that's a whole
Speaker 5: world here. Some of these people are good, some of
Speaker 5: these people aren't good. Let me just try and see
Speaker 5: where I fit in. And I think that's just makes
Speaker 5: it easier for people who you know.
Speaker 4: And obviously I'm not like, hey, you could everyone be
Speaker 4: a comedian or things.
Speaker 5: But I think a lot of people have a passion,
Speaker 5: a dream, or a thing that they're just naturally inclined
Speaker 5: to do, and sometimes we get lost in the shuffle
Speaker 5: of that and you try to use my podcast to
Speaker 5: regnite people towards that, and I love it when I
Speaker 5: get great feedback because I like being funny and I
Speaker 5: like when people are like, oh, I saw you in this,
Speaker 5: but when you know, when my podcast sometimes people were like, oh,
Speaker 5: I started going to therapy because I was listening to
Speaker 5: your podcasts, or you help me get through this bad time,
Speaker 5: or I heard you talk about you know, even Whitney
Speaker 5: Commings talking about toxic relationships and it made me realize
Speaker 5: I was in an abusive relationship and it helped me
Speaker 5: get out of it.
Speaker 4: And I was like those type of things.
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, I'm actually doing something positive in the world,
Speaker 5: and that's a big you know, because I'm sing so
Speaker 5: many and I do. I'm like, oh, the world could
Speaker 5: be so tough and it could be stressful, but I'm
Speaker 5: not a person who's like, oh, it all sucks.
Speaker 4: I'm like, let me go.
Speaker 5: Do what I can, you know, And in some small
Speaker 5: ways that's what I try to do with that and
Speaker 5: try to do with the charity, which is usually me
Speaker 5: actually just giving other people's money to them, which I love.
Speaker 3: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I love the concept just of getting better.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you've had anybody's ancient as
Speaker 2: me on the podcast, but I think a lot of
Speaker 2: times people at my age there is kind of a
Speaker 2: thing that people joke about and say, which is, well,
Speaker 2: I'm too old to change now, and you can't teach
Speaker 2: an old dog new tricks. And that applies to so
Speaker 2: many things. I mean, whether it's work. You know, sometimes
Speaker 2: people are retired so they don't have to be a
Speaker 2: better dentist, or they don't have to be a better
Speaker 2: carpenter or an actor or whatever it is. But it
Speaker 2: also applies to like a worldview where someone says, I'm
Speaker 2: just you know, you're not going to change the way
Speaker 2: that I feel about whatever politics or PC stuff or
Speaker 2: or you know, don't I don't like this, you know,
Speaker 2: woke culture or whatever these things are. It's really possible
Speaker 2: to continue throughout your life to keep changing and getting better.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: My father to me was a kind of an inspiration
Speaker 2: in that way because he lived to about ninety four,
Speaker 2: and this guy was always trying new shit. I mean,
Speaker 2: I you know, he'd like he was like he's like
Speaker 2: in his like nineties, and he started he said, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna start doing taichi and I'm like, that is so
Speaker 2: inspiring to me. And I feel the same way that
Speaker 2: getting better at all kinds of things is a really
Speaker 2: not only is it as it's not so much that
Speaker 2: it's noble, but I think it's healthy. I think that
Speaker 2: it makes people live longer, you know, last longer, love longer.
Speaker 2: I think those are all really great. Uh, that's that
Speaker 2: is a that is a cool idea for a podcast.
Speaker 2: So I'm definitely gonna check that out now. We met
Speaker 2: uh at at school on wheels, uh, you know, quite
Speaker 2: a few years ago, which is an organization that you
Speaker 2: have thankfully remained in contact with.
Speaker 1: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
Speaker 1: in supporting six degrees dot org by texting the word
Speaker 1: Bacon to seven zero seven zero seven zero. Your gift
Speaker 1: empowers us to continue to produce pro programs that highlight
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Speaker 1: to learn more.
Speaker 2: So let us bring to the show Shiney Chilton.
Speaker 3: She's here today.
Speaker 2: The chief development and Marketing officer for School on Wheels.
Speaker 2: We met while all three of us met six years
Speaker 2: ago in downtown LA pretty much on what's known as
Speaker 2: skid Row and saw this remarkable spot that you have
Speaker 2: down there. So just for those of us who don't know,
Speaker 2: can you just kind of explain to us what School
Speaker 2: on Wheels is?
Speaker 6: Yes, of course, Kevin, that was almost six years ago
Speaker 6: to the day when you first came to cent So.
Speaker 6: School on Wheels is a nonprofit that provides educational assistance
Speaker 6: to children and youth experiencing homelessness from kindergarten all the
Speaker 6: way through twelfth grade. There are over nearly two hundred
Speaker 6: thousand students in the six counties we serve in southern
Speaker 6: California that are living without homes, and you met is
Speaker 6: at our only learning center in skid Row. Skid Row
Speaker 6: has the highest percentage of homeless people in the nation
Speaker 6: experiencing homelessness and that don't have homes, and there is
Speaker 6: no public spaces, there's no libraries there, so we've always
Speaker 6: had a presence for the past twenty years as an
Speaker 6: after school program for students living in and around that area.
Speaker 2: We've heard a lot about the homeless problems in California
Speaker 2: and Southern California specifically, is it getting better or getting worse?
Speaker 6: Unfortunately guessing worse, Kevin and homelessness has a devastating impact
Speaker 6: on education. You know, students move schools frequently than nine
Speaker 6: times more likely to repeter grade. Seventy five percent of
Speaker 6: students that don't have a home don't graduate high school.
Speaker 6: So while School and Wheels is not a nonprofit dealing
Speaker 6: with ending homelessness, we are trying to end the cycle
Speaker 6: of homelessness through education and that's where our niche and
Speaker 6: our small part in hopefully helping with this problem is.
Speaker 2: So it's it's interesting because, you know, education, we think
Speaker 2: of it in kind of like the reverse. There's this
Speaker 2: homelessness problem, so we need to educate our youth. But
Speaker 2: in some ways, if you educate our youth, and if
Speaker 2: we have a stronger platform for education in this country,
Speaker 2: there's much less of a chance that someone becomes homeless.
Speaker 2: Am I correct about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 6: The number one reason in California while people experience homelessness
Speaker 6: is lack of affordable housing and poverty, two things. And
Speaker 6: you know, the way to get out of poverty, we
Speaker 6: believe is through education. We know the statistics about you know,
Speaker 6: if you have a college degree, you're going to earn
Speaker 6: more money. But with seventy five percent of students living
Speaker 6: in shelters and group foster homes and on the street
Speaker 6: and in domestic violence shelters, if those kids aren't graduating,
Speaker 6: how do they get the jobs? How do earn the
Speaker 6: money to stop this cycle and stay out of homelessness.
Speaker 2: It take us through like a day, like what would
Speaker 2: what would the what would the programs do in the
Speaker 2: course of the day or a week, just kind of
Speaker 2: walk us through the nuts and bolts of it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So, School on Wheels is the only nonprofit dedicated
Speaker 6: to educating homeless children, and we do that with a
Speaker 6: volunteers that joiners from all over the country to help
Speaker 6: a student experiencing homelessness. And those students are identified through
Speaker 6: the school districts or the shelters where they're living, and
Speaker 6: then School on Whlls goes in to provide support, whether
Speaker 6: it's backpack, school supply, whether it's a laptop, chrome book,
Speaker 6: whether it's internet connection, and then we match them with
Speaker 6: a trained volunteer who helps them with their school and
Speaker 6: helps them to catch up and keep up with their studies.
Speaker 6: And it's an hour week shooting program. But since the
Speaker 6: pandemic and a lot of our tutors have been online,
Speaker 6: we can meet students more frequently than physically going to
Speaker 6: the location.
Speaker 2: Online thing is, actually the pandemic had one good benefit,
Speaker 2: which is to really establish the possibility of online tutoring.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was a silver lining for us because we'd
Speaker 6: been piloting a digital online program for many, many years
Speaker 6: and we just got it, and we got the right software,
Speaker 6: the right packaging, and then the pandemic hit and we
Speaker 6: just very quickly retrained our volunteers to be online volunteers.
Speaker 6: And you know, most of them took to it like
Speaker 6: a duck to water. Some people it took a bit longer,
Speaker 6: And most students took to it really well because a
Speaker 6: lot of the kids were just you know, online and
Speaker 6: there was no in person school anyway. So yeah, in
Speaker 6: all of it, that was the silver lining.
Speaker 2: Ron do you remember the feeling? I mean, obviously you've
Speaker 2: stayed in touch with Shaneadan, with this organization since we
Speaker 2: went down there, since you were good enough to join
Speaker 2: Six Degrees down there, But do you remember what affected
Speaker 2: you in terms of the feeling and the vibe at
Speaker 2: the learning center.
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely, I remember a lot of it is like
Speaker 5: both my expectations and then what I saw, you know,
Speaker 5: where I was going. I was a little apprehensive because
Speaker 5: I was afraid that it would be a little bit
Speaker 5: depressing for me and that I wouldn't that it would
Speaker 5: just make me feel upset, and I found it to
Speaker 5: be quite the opposite. It filled me with so much
Speaker 5: hope and inspiration and joy and love. And then seeing
Speaker 5: all these beautiful faces of these kids who had so
Speaker 5: you could see, I mean, I can see the reasons
Speaker 5: why you would get up them every morning and go
Speaker 5: do it. Because these kids are so you see all
Speaker 5: the potential, You see the light, You see all the
Speaker 5: different opportunities that could be in front of them if
Speaker 5: we can, you know, just help break that cycle. And
Speaker 5: for my own background, you know, a getting like I
Speaker 5: told you before, Kevin, with just being in a stable
Speaker 5: household and growing up in the South Side of Chicago.
Speaker 5: Art education, access to free museums. Those were the things
Speaker 5: that save my life and stopped me from going down. Fact,
Speaker 5: there were choices. There were a lot of the kids
Speaker 5: in my neighborhood. We were getting involved in gangs, getting
Speaker 5: involved in bad situations, and I was lucky.
Speaker 4: And I was very lucky.
Speaker 5: You know that my mom was so good is that
Speaker 5: even though we didn't have great financial means, she took
Speaker 5: advantage of whatever resources were available. So if there was
Speaker 5: a free museum day, we were there. If there was
Speaker 5: a day or there was a free jazz concert, we
Speaker 5: were there. And so it showed me a whole other
Speaker 5: world outside of my every day in Southside Chicago. And
Speaker 5: so when I saw the same thing going on at
Speaker 5: school in Wills, I was so happy and inspired to
Speaker 5: see all these faces of every color and every race,
Speaker 5: but for me particular, to see like these young, beautiful
Speaker 5: black faces that remind me of my own nieces and
Speaker 5: nephews and my sister and this uf and it just
Speaker 5: inspired me and made me want to help, because you know,
Speaker 5: these are just your means, and poverty doesn't define who
Speaker 5: you are as a person, and everyone deserves the opportunity
Speaker 5: to find who they can become. And so many of
Speaker 5: these kids and so many people get robbed of that
Speaker 5: because we don't have the we don't have the situation,
Speaker 5: we don't have the organization put in place. And so
Speaker 5: if there's a place like school on wheels. It just
Speaker 5: felt like, of course, I mean, that's what.
Speaker 4: Real charity is.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of things where you know, you go
Speaker 5: in and you're like, I don't know if I'm affecting
Speaker 5: it things at all.
Speaker 4: But I went in and saw.
Speaker 5: The faces of the kids that I affected and just
Speaker 5: seeing it happy and just even talking to them a
Speaker 5: bit about like, oh you're in trolls?
Speaker 4: What's that like? Oh you did this?
Speaker 5: Like just to even open up their minds and be like,
Speaker 5: oh maybe I could be a voice actor or something
Speaker 5: like that is And I'm not saying, you know, like
Speaker 5: oh I did anything too much, but I got so
Speaker 5: much out of it. So I certainly got more out
Speaker 5: of it than the day that I spent. And the
Speaker 5: reason why I keep in touch and anytime I'm able
Speaker 5: to give, or any time I've sent volunteers their way
Speaker 5: of people who were just looking for something to do
Speaker 5: and wanted to be involved, and I'm like, look, if
Speaker 5: you really want to be involved in something, I know
Speaker 5: a place where your time.
Speaker 4: Is well spent and it has been.
Speaker 5: Besides, anytime I can help an autism foundation or things
Speaker 5: like that, it's always my number.
Speaker 4: One charity to bring up and to put a spotlight on.
Speaker 6: Oh thank you so much for the Run. And we
Speaker 6: recently reopened our learning center after a hiatus with the pandemic,
Speaker 6: and the first thing to go on the wall was
Speaker 6: the TV you donated Run, so thank you so very much.
Speaker 6: It took them a while to password it from your accounts,
Speaker 6: but they did it, and they managed to get a
Speaker 6: movie going for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2: So thank you, Shanad. You obviously have spent a lot
Speaker 2: of your time and your energy. I don't know your
Speaker 2: history before School on Wheels, but what is it that
Speaker 2: you think drives you to do this kind of work
Speaker 2: in the world.
Speaker 6: Well, as you can tell, I'm not a native. I
Speaker 6: grew up in West Yorkshire in England, and I moved
Speaker 6: here over twenty years ago, and I didn't realize that
Speaker 6: homelessness was such an issue in America. And I heard
Speaker 6: about School on Wheels online and I just didn't It
Speaker 6: just didn't even cross my mind that there were children
Speaker 6: that didn't have homes, that were sleeping in vehicles, that
Speaker 6: were sleeping in shelters. My first student that I met
Speaker 6: was sleeping on a church floor in Ohai, and every
Speaker 6: night the family had to move to a different shelter,
Speaker 6: a different church that was opening the doors. They had
Speaker 6: to be out of the church by seven in the morning,
Speaker 6: and then the church open the doors at five o'clock
Speaker 6: in the evening to provide dinner and a safe place
Speaker 6: to sleep. And once I saw that, I couldn't see it.
Speaker 6: And you know, working with an eight year old little
Speaker 6: girl for whatever reason, her family were in a homeless situation,
Speaker 6: it had absolutely nothing to do with her, and she
Speaker 6: was just, you know, a terrible in a terrible situation
Speaker 6: and going through such trauma that you know, doing a
Speaker 6: homework that night or thinking about a test for school
Speaker 6: was just very difficult. But it was very easy for
Speaker 6: me to help her with that, with her homework with school,
Speaker 6: to give her a backpack in school supplies. And when
Speaker 6: I first met the founder ag and Stephens of School
Speaker 6: on Wheels, she said, it takes so little to make
Speaker 6: a difference in the life of a child, And that's
Speaker 6: just stuck with me ever since. If you can help
Speaker 6: a child make their day a bit better, a bit brighter,
Speaker 6: give them some hope, give them a laugh, make learning fun,
Speaker 6: then you know, that's why I do it. The kids
Speaker 6: like Ron said, kids are just kids, and they all
Speaker 6: want the same They all want to beloved, and they
Speaker 6: all want to, you know, do the number one job
Speaker 6: of a child is to go to school and learning
Speaker 6: and school and meals really helps them do that. And yeah,
Speaker 6: that's why I'm still here.
Speaker 3: Or do you have.
Speaker 2: Any I'm curious about some of the kids that we
Speaker 2: met those six years ago. Are you able to track
Speaker 2: any of the of the kids and see how they're
Speaker 2: doing and as time moves on?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So, School and Wheels has been around for almost
Speaker 6: thirty years. It's our thirty anniversary next year. And when
Speaker 6: I first started, parents didn't have cell phones mobile phones,
Speaker 6: in fact, in order to stay a shelter. It was
Speaker 6: considered an additional expense that families didn't need. But with
Speaker 6: social media and more children having mobile phone owns, and
Speaker 6: then obviously the pandemic, a lot of students are now
Speaker 6: connected and have laptops and computers. We can keep in
Speaker 6: touch with them much more. And it's fabulous when a
Speaker 6: student gets back in touch with you. I met my
Speaker 6: first ever student, Josh, a few months ago. We drove
Speaker 6: to meet him. He's now mechanic and he lives in Oregon.
Speaker 6: And it was just so fabulous to be able to
Speaker 6: keep in touch with him and see how he's doing.
Speaker 6: So a lot of our volunteers keep in touch with
Speaker 6: the families and the children that they tutor, and then
Speaker 6: we've had students that have come back to be tutors. So,
Speaker 6: for example, at the Learning Center, we have had several
Speaker 6: students that were once attending the after school learning center
Speaker 6: have come back as adults and then shoot, yeah, and
Speaker 6: just hearing their stories and just what a difference a
Speaker 6: positive adult can make in a kid's life is just
Speaker 6: so impactful to me and keeps me going.
Speaker 3: To That's fantastic.
Speaker 2: So I know that people listening to this would want
Speaker 2: to know the possibilities for helping out, whether it's donating
Speaker 2: or volunteering. So this is our time to.
Speaker 3: Put out that call to action.
Speaker 6: Great, Yeah, I mean, everybody can make a difference. Everybody
Speaker 6: can change life. It's so simple. For school on meals,
Speaker 6: we always need volunteers. We need positive adult role models
Speaker 6: that can volunteer for an hour a week. We provide
Speaker 6: all the training. You can meet a student online or
Speaker 6: in person, or in mixture of both. Now, and you know,
Speaker 6: obviously we always need donors and supporters to keep our
Speaker 6: doors open. We're very transparent, small but mighty nonprofit based
Speaker 6: in southern California. Ninety twer cent of every dollar donated
Speaker 6: goes straight back into our program. And then obviously you
Speaker 6: can always advocate if you can't volunteer or you can't donate,
Speaker 6: talk about to spread the word. I don't think, you know,
Speaker 6: people understand homelessness, especially in regards to children. We talk
Speaker 6: about homeless adults on the street, but we don't talk
Speaker 6: about families. And you know, there are over two and
Speaker 6: a half million children in the US that don't have
Speaker 6: anywhere to sleep tonight, and that's just so sad to me.
Speaker 6: And you know, those kids have got a future, those
Speaker 6: kids have got, you know, everything to live for, and
Speaker 6: just that little extra help and support when their family
Speaker 6: is going through such trauma really does make a difference.
Speaker 6: You can find out all our information on our website,
Speaker 6: School Onwheels dot org, so you can check out other
Speaker 6: volunteers from all different backgrounds and walks of life and
Speaker 6: why they volunteer and why they continue to make a
Speaker 6: difference with School on Wheels And I just want to
Speaker 6: thank you Kevin and Ron for helping us spread the
Speaker 6: word and for being such good friends for so many years.
Speaker 6: We really really appreciate you both, folks.
Speaker 2: Someday we will work towards having no homeless children in
Speaker 2: this country. Yes, but until we reach that goal, go
Speaker 2: to school on wheels dot org and uh check it out.
Speaker 2: And as Shand said, there's a bunch of different ways
Speaker 2: that that you can help. And as Ron said, it will.
Speaker 3: Give back to you.
Speaker 2: You will feel better and more hopeful about the world
Speaker 2: and about the situation. Uh.
Speaker 3: Kids are kids and they need you.
Speaker 4: Ron.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, SHANEI thank you so much. Keep
Speaker 2: up the great work.
Speaker 4: Ron.
Speaker 3: Uh what what? How about?
Speaker 2: How about a shout out for you? Like where should
Speaker 2: we go? Check out your stuff?
Speaker 4: You can? You can just google Roun Funches.
Speaker 5: I'm around you can find me if what my podcast,
Speaker 5: he says, called Getting Better.
Speaker 4: I'm in my project I'm on right now.
Speaker 5: It's called Loot on Apple TV Plus with Maya Rudolph
Speaker 5: before I play her cousin. And it's real fun show
Speaker 5: and I'd like to keep doing it. We got a
Speaker 5: second season, so get on the floor.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that is a good show. And that is
Speaker 3: a good show. And you're awesome on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, Thank you folks, thanks for your time
Speaker 2: and really do appreciate you being here with me today.
Speaker 3: Hey everybody, If you want to.
Speaker 2: Learn more about School on Wheels and all this incredible
Speaker 2: work that they're up to, head to their website.
Speaker 3: School on Wheels dot org. School on Wheels dot.
Speaker 2: Org, where you can find all the links in our
Speaker 2: show notes. You can find six Degrees with Kevin Bacon
Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 2: your podcasts.
Speaker 3: I'll see you next time you