The Point Radio: That Funny Guy, Ron Funches
He’s “That Guy” – the funny one! Ron Funches is making a big name for himself, taking his unique style of comedy to NBC’s UNDATEABLE and @MIDNIGHT on Comedy Central. So what makes HIM laugh? We find out, then we explore the CSI reality show that started it all. MEDICAL DETECTIVES is headed back to cable and we talk to the guy who is guiding it there – plus Rosario Dawson becomes a part of DAREDEVIL.
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The Point Radio Hey, it's Mike Raub. He is one of the up-and-coming funniest guys out there. He's Ron Funches. And he's here to talk about not only Undateable, but where all that comedy came from in the first place. And it was a forensic CSI show that started it all.
Medical detectives is back, and we talked to the guy that started it all. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. His fresh release tells you that he's a comedian with a unique style in vented delivery and easygoing demeanor. But what it all comes down to is Ron Funches is one funny guy.
You've seen him on New Girl and on The Croll Show and more recently on episodes of Midnight, and part of the cast of the NBC summer comedy Undateable. It's true, his comedy style is unique, and I ask Ron where it all came from. Well, I think it just came from the fact that I was never… I think people associate a lot of stand-up with being very confident and having a lot of swagger or being loud.
And I've never been that type of person. I've always been more of a shy, low-key person. And so that's just the type of style I had. I started to find comedians that were like that, like Mitch Hetbert or Todd Barry. And I'd like to have people like Dave Chateau and kind of just reinforce the fact that I could feed me and be funny. And I think that's kind of just helped develop that and just, you know, continually going up all the time.
Just helped hone my style, which I still don't think is complete yet. Hopefully soon. Like any good comedian, Ron has a huge list of inspirations to draw from. Uh, Tig Notaro is a big fan of hers, Sarah Silverman, and also Lucille Ball and Dave Chappelle. I think I said, yeah, it's that Dave Chappelle. But Lucille, I love Lucille Ball a lot. She's a big influence on you. This summer, Ron's part of the cast of the NBC comedy Undateable.
The show's basically kind of the blind leading the blind when it comes to dating. It's about a group of people who have trouble dealing with the outside world and getting dates and meeting significant others. So they kind of just hang out with each other and pep each other up and make fun of each other and found a unique friendship where they hang around and sing boy band songs and have fun. I think it's a really cute show. So what's ahead for his character?
I think she should get more and more into talking about with more girls. There's no real relationship. I think, you know, there's already a couple going on. But you see me going out and you see me doing some wild themes. So there's a really fun one tonight where I'm some type of dream ninja, which I don't want to explain.
People should check it out. And I think it's going to be really fun and really, there's at least two or three things each episode where I think people are going to be like, that's something I want to talk about. That's funny. And I haven't seen that before. So with a guy as funny as Ron, what makes him laugh? What makes me laugh is just people being themselves and their unique point of view.
So I just really like to stand up and good television. I'm just in the cartoons and my son. My son makes me laugh more than anything, pretty much. See, Ron, an undateable every Tuesday on NBC and also over the summer on episodes of Midnight on Comedy Central. Back from the weekend with a look at what's going on in pop culture.
Rosario Dawson has joined the cast of the Netflix Marvel series Daredevil. No word on yet exactly what character she'll play, but she is the female lead in the cast. It also has Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock. The show set to debut on Netflix sometime next year. Meanwhile, another Marvel casting.
Apparently it was a little exaggerated when we thought that Nathan Fillion was stepping into the role of Nova in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. According to Twitter over the weekend, direct from director James Gunn, it won't be the case. Fillion will have a cameo in the film, but that role is not yet to be determined. Gunn did tease, though, that it's a fun role that fans will appreciate. The new sci-fi network series Dominion debuted to a huge audience in its premiere.
In fact, when you put the numbers together, it ranks as the number four biggest rated premiere on cable so far this year. Dominion picked up a little less than a million viewers and when tied together with the second season premiere of Defiance. Together, they pulled in just about two million viewers for sci-fi. Dominion, by the way, is based on a theatrical movie Legion released in 2010. Starting in September, PBS is going to air a condensed half hour version of Sesame Street Afternoons beginning on Monday, September the 1st.
They'll also be selected episodes of the 30-minute version shown free on the PBS website as well with the PBS Kids Video app and the Roku channel, too. Of course, Sesame Street will continue in its full hour-long version as it has for decades mornings on PBS. Harry Potter as Robin Hood? Well, it has at least been discussed. In a recent interview before reporters, Daniel Radcliffe was asked if he ever be willing to appear in another film franchise and right off the bat he answered Batman saying, You know, I really could be Robin. No comment from Warner Brothers yet.
There's an Alice Cooper comic on the way. It'll be written by the former writer of X-Files, Joe Harris. The ongoing series debuts in September. There'll be a cover by David Mack and a photo cover variant as well. And along with that dynamite, the publisher is releasing a new edition of the collaboration with Alice and Neil Gaiman, The Last Temptation as well. There'll be a special 20th anniversary edition available both signed and unsigned to the product. And that'll be in comic stores in October. Some familiar characters, some familiar titles, and even a couple of books you may have already read back in stores this week.
As we check out what's happening in the comic stores, had Dark Horse, Dream Thief, the successful miniseries from last year, his back for a second run. This time it begins with Dream Thief Escape and a first issue out this week. Emily and the Strangers, the popular indie comic, begins with another series at Dark Horse. First issue of Emily and the Strangers, Breaking Record is out this week as well. Just alongside a brand new version of Sin City of David Kilfor, hardcover version, priced pretty cheap to it. Just about 25 bucks and giving you the best of Frank Miller just in time for the movie.
Over at DC, the doomed story arc seems to be working. Action Comics number 31 gets a second printing, just like Superman Wonder Woman number eight gets one as well. And there's a director's cut of Harley Quinn number zero out this week too. From IDW, the Cartoon Network super secret crisis war done by the incredible Louise Simonson. Brings together the Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, Ed, Ed and Eddie and more in their version of the Justice League. The war is number one sold out, you knew that, there's a second printing of that out this week.
From Image, Kyle number one gets a second printing along with another second issue being out this week as well. Saga number 20 is out along with a second printing of saga number 19 from Image. And Marvel original Sin 3.1 continues that story arc, just like original Sin's number two does as well. And the Savage Hulk is Alan Davis's version of that character with a throwback to the X-Men as well. That's our first issue this week and speaking of throwbacks, some stories about Spider-Man's past early days we're talking about here, right around the days of Amazing Fantasy 15.
All from the perspective of new creators in Spider-Man Spectacular number one this week. And finally Marvel gives us United States of Murder number one, a second printing there, that's also this week as well. And we have to tell you that's barely the scratch edge of the surface of what's waiting for you inside your local comic book stores. Check them out right now with a website called FindMyComicShop.com or you can check out a link in the front of ComicMix.com or the comic book locator service too. You can dial that up at 1-888-COMICBOOK.
The Point. The Point. For episode after episode, Medical Detectives was the premier forensic reality show on television. And now the show is headed back to cable with a look at those earlier episodes under the guidance of veteran writer and producer Paul Dowling. I asked Paul for those who hadn't seen the original run of Medical Detectives, what it's all about. Medical Detectives originally started in 1996 on Discovery's sister station TLC.
It was the first true crime forensic series on television four years before CSI aired. And it's a murder mystery whodunit kind of TV series that describes how science and modern forensics solves murder cases. The concept from the show came from one of the most famous trials in recent history. Twenty years ago, during the O.J. Simpson trial, it became clear to me that the jurors in that trial didn't really understand crime science. They didn't understand DNA testing.
They didn't understand any of that. In fairness, I didn't understand any of it. It was brand new to the jurors. I think it was brand new to the TV audiences who were watching the trial live. They rendered the verdict not guilty.
They were, I think, confused by the science. And I think in the 20 years since the O.J. Simpson trial, because of Medical Detectives, because of CSI, because of all the shows that have come since then, I really do believe that because of all this, if O.J. Simpson trial was held today, I think jurors today would rule that he was guilty of those two murders. I have no doubt about that. So with technology changing so fast, was it hard to keep the show current?
It really wasn't an issue. Every month or two, there was some new – there had been some new tests being done. But the science that was being done to solve the cases that we were doing at the time was still the science. It was – there was nothing that was going to come out, and nothing came out after that that rendered any of the cases obsolete or inaccurate. So it wasn't really a problem.
So what are some of the highlights we'll see in this run of episodes? I think what viewers will see are some really fascinating, historically important cases of many, many firsts in forensic science, the very first time that DNA was used in a criminal case, the very first time that DNA was used to exonerate someone who had confessed, the very first time that science was used to figure out how all of these legionnaires in Philadelphia in 1976 were dying, ended up they were dying of a bacteria that was in the air conditioning system called – they now call it Legionnaires' Disease.
And by the way, that still exists in cruise ships and other air conditioning systems, and people still die from that today. But viewers are going to see some of these important historic developments in forensic science, and the actual cases in which these developments were identified or invented, and I think their viewers are going to find it fascinating. All together? This is a lot of TV. Well, we did 400 episodes of Medical Detectives.
And as you may or may not know, 400 episodes is a ton in television land. For example, many, many more than were in Seinfeld, you know. So there's a lot of cases that we did, a lot of cases that can be rerun, a lot of fascinating cases. They're still interesting. They still play. I think the viewers will still find them interesting. And I think it's going to do very, very well on Discovery Fit and Health.
That's it for the podcast right now, but we're back in all the usual places in just a few days, including ComicMigs.com, MichaelDavisWorld.com, and our home and the iTunes Podcast Directory, too. Pop culture, those cover 24-7 anytime you need to get the Point Radio. Listen to getthepointradio.com or take us along on any mobile device, Apple or Android, with the free app iNet Radio, and that's available in your app store or at iNetRadio.com.
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