When was the last time you saw Ron Funches live?

Chances are it’s been awhile unless you happened to be at an open mic or made a road trip or just happened to be in NY, LA, Seattle, Charlotte or a myriad of other places he’s been at, as Ron has been a very busy dude. But fear not fellow Salem Comedy Fans! Ron’s coming out to the Roxxy on State and 12th right here in good ol Salem and will be appearing with a VERY funny Portland comic, Anthony Lopez! That’s a lot of exclamation points!

It all goes down on Monday the 2nd at 9PM and be sure to get there early to catch your host Will Woodruff.

facebook event

Ron Funches’  Twitter

Anthony Lopez’s Twitter

Here’s Ron Doing the ‘Spicy News’

This Week in Salem Comedy

Slow week this week, on Monday, we have out open mic at the Triangle starting at 9, and the only way to see Salem comics after that is if you go to Portland to Queen of Hearts and you can see Jesse Priest and Jared Richard. Come on out and have a blast!

This Week in Salem Comedy 2/20 – 2/26 2012

I’m gonna try to make these weekly if at all possible.

Monday

Un-Manic Monday’s at the Triangle.

Hosted by Tory Jarmin, a variety open mic that is VERY stand up friendly.

Wednesday

The Joe Stoddard Show at the Half Penney.

Joe Stoddard, a one man band does funny music and cover/parodies with guest musicians and stand-up comedians dropping in every show. You never know who’s gonna drop in.

Saturday

Ian Karmel feat: Cody McCullar, hosted by Jesse Priest at the Dugout.

If you only go to one show this month, make it this one. Ian Karmel hasn’t played in Salem in over a year. He’s been on TV and regularly works at Helium Comedy Club, where he shares the stage with some of the greatest comics in the world. Cody McCullar is an established road comic with over 5 years experience.

We’re not gone! Let’s play ‘catch up’.

Whew! It’s been quite awhile, you’d have thought the the comedy scene had dropped off the face of the earth. This is quite odd considering all the people on TV and in contests.

On the contrary, the scene has been thriving to the point where this author just hasn’t had the time to update this blog. Soooooo much has taken place. We’ll talk about the good and the bad, first the good.

The Good.

We have a new venue in Keizer called The Dugout for shows which makes for 3 more nights of comedy a month. One of those shows is an ultra slick professional deal with a door charge and legit road/tv comics.

We have still have an open mic on Mondays at the Triangle Inn.

The Half-Penney has comedy night every other Wednesday and some of us comics get up there and we do our thing.

We have new people telling jokes like Jared Richard and people who have done it longer starting to take it more seriously like Justin ‘Juice” Hrabik.

We had a contest at the Dugout. It was a success.

The bad.

The showcase at The Triangle is no more.

The showcase at The Silver Spur is no more.

All in all 2011 was a great year for Salem comedy, I personally wasn’t around for earlier years, so I can’t say it was the best, but it’s happening. Have you been out to a show yet?

Salem Weekly Interview With Ron Funches + vote for Ron in the Statesman Journal “20 under 40″

Just a couple quick mentions here, 1st, Ron Funches was recently interviewed in the Salem Weekly. That can be found here.

2nd. Ron was nominated in a contest the Statesman Journal runs every year for young people who stand out in the community. It’s called the 20 under 40. You can vote for him once a day per computer up until September 2nd. While you are at it, please vote for Jason Stringer in the category “The Networker”(he’s the one who wrote the Funches article) and vote for Jordan Blake in the category “The Foodie”(just because he’s cool).

Jason Stringer interviews Ron Funches.

Vote for Ron Funches in the Statesman Journal “20 under 40″ peoples choice awards.

Congratulations to Ray Danko, semi-finalist in the 2011 Brickwall Amateur Comedy Competition

Ray Danko ripping up the mic at The Triangle Inn

The preliminary round of the 2011 Brickwall Amateur Comedy Competition is over, and the latest Salem contestant to advance is Ray Danko who is actually living in Monmouth right now, but we can claim him.

Tonight Ray destroyed the room and lit the crowd on fire beating out 4 other contestants including Portland’s own Cedric Mitchell and myself. Congratulations Ray! Represent Salem well!

So Salem comedy fans, let’s try to come out and support our comedians and come out to the Brickwall Comedy Club on Sept 1st and 8th and help our comics advance to the finals!

 

The Dates For the Brickwall Amateur Comedy Competition Semi-Finals and Finals are Here!

As you may already know, 2 Salem comics are already in the semi-finals of the Brickwall Amateur Comedy Competition (BWCC), Erica Brimhall and James O’Neil. There are 2 more weeks of qualifying left and a carload of Salem comics are going down tonight to enter and there is one more qualifier in Albany on the 25th of August at My Favorite Mistake.

The dates of the finals and semi finals we’re unclear until now. Round 1 of the semi-finals is Thursday Sept 1st. Round 2 is Thursday Sept 8th and the finals are the next night, Friday, September 9th. All shows start at 8:30 PM.

Why don’t you come down to Eugene and support our Salem comics during those nights?

Video of Funches on Conan!

 

I can’t figure out how to make the video embed.

Remember this? Well here’s the video to Ron Funches doing stand up for his first time on Conan. Now go share it with all of your friends.

http://teamcoco.com/video/ron-funches-loves-blackberries

Ron Funches is on late night television and it’s not stupid human tricks…

Ron Funches is an anomoly for Salem, I don’t really think anybody in Salem has been on late night tv for something other than Letterman making fun of them for “stupid human tricks”. Maybe a band has some ex-Salem members but it’s a little known secret that Ron still lives here, sort of. Ron tends to spend a LOT of time doing comedy outside of Salem as any reader of this blog knows that Salem just doesn’t have the shows to sustain a headliner of Funches caliber.

I sent him an email, and here on the Salem Comedy Blog, I will share with you our private correspondence.

This must be a dream come true, can you think of a particular Conan experience that sticks out to you as a viewer?

Seeing Richard Bain’s Fart Car video gave me the first idea that it was possible for a Oregon comedian to be on late night tv. I always loved “In the year 2000″ and the masturbating bear as well.

Having been on tv before, is there anything about the experience of doing tv that has surprised you? Are they going to put make up on Ron Funches?

Well I expect the experience of doing my first set on TV to be completely different from being a guy with no lines on Portlandia. I will probably wear make up yes.

Do you ever want to host a talk show? What would you put in your gift bag for stand ups?

What comic doesn’t want to at least once? I’d probably put pot and Jack in the Box gift certificates.

You played at the Wasteland about a week before they closed, how was that?

I loved it! I’m saddened to hear of it closing. Salem should support its artistic youth, and the Wasteland did just that. Sucks

You played at the first ever comedy show at the world famous Ground Kontrol Arcade, what other interesting places have you done comedy at?

Comic book stores, moose lodges, bowling alleys, banks converted into bars, you name it. Ground Kontrol was very special to me.

Would you like to give a shout out to anything, comedy or otherwise?

Shout out to the lady who told me to quit Grocery Outlet.

There you have it, Ron Funches will be on CONAN on Thursday August 4th, the TV show starts at 11. TBS is channel #55  on Comcast and on Directv it’s #247  and Dish Network it’s #139  . If you are at a bar at the time, make the bartender change the channel to TBS and watch the show with the whole bar. If you miss it we’ll try to have a video up soon.

Brickwall Comedy Competition 2011

In Eugene for the first time ever there is comedy club. It’s call the Brickwall or “Green Room” and it’s next to Doc’s Pad downtown. Right now every Thursday there is a comedy competition going on at the club and last Thursdays at the bar/bowling alley/mini golf  ”My Favorite Mistake”  in Albany and there has been 2 winners of the prelim so far that hail from Salem!

Erica Brimhall at Un-Manic Mondays

Last nights winner was Erica Brimhall a 22 year old comic who is one of the 2 comics to be spawned from Un-Manic Manic Monday’s, a recently started open mic at The Triangle Inn.

James O'Neil at Comedy is Free! #5

The first person from Salem to win was James o’Neil, who puts on the Stand Up at the Spur show at the Silver Spur in Silverton road. He’s the most experienced amateur from Salem.

Expect fierce competition with Eugene comics Seth Milstein, Stephanie Purtle and Charlie Prengaman also in the competition and a few weeks left for a couple more competitors to squeeze in.

Good job James and Erica. I’ve seen both of your guys comedy and I think you both have what it takes to win the whole thing!