Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
What Happens When Laughter Meets Purpose and Education
The car is moving, the mics are live, and Big Energy fills the cabin. We welcome Steve from Cleveland’s southeast side—a former class clown turned campus champion—who proves that humor, heart, and hard work can live in the same room. We trade locker room stories and tight five timing, then unpack what makes a great set: reading the crowd, owning the mic, and turning a heckle into momentum. If you’ve ever wondered what the comedy grind really looks like beyond the hour on stage, this conversation pulls the curtain back on writing, booking, producing, and staying sharp when the room gets spicy.
The heart of the ride dives into learning differences and inclusive education. We share a visual learner’s path through dyslexia and explore why “instruction” isn’t the same as “education.” Steve brings receipts from his work in multicultural affairs—building community, addressing food insecurity and housing stability, and asking the one question that changes a student’s day: “How are you doing today?” It’s a masterclass in belonging, practical resources, and the kind of care that helps young adults carry on with their studies and their lives.
Then the story hits a different gear: performing for 400 incarcerated people and hearing that 20 minutes of jokes bought six months of peace. That moment reframes what “crushing” means and shows how laughter can be a service, not just a show. We wrap with creator ownership and a dream in motion: The Emerald Boot, a comedy club and kitchen blending Irish and Italian comfort with stage time for rising comics. There’s tactical advice on pop-ups, programming, and learning adjacent skills so you can build your own room—and hold the door open for others. Stick around for the Fast Fiddy Five and a final word on kindness, marriage, and money wisdom that actually travels.
If this ride moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop a quick review. Your support helps more people find the laughs, the lessons, an
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Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rance podcast. This is as always your host, Mike Bono. I have a great guest for us today. He comes to us all the way up from Cleveland, Ohio. That is uh Steve Furlonman joins the show and he is actually on his way home, folks. This is a true ride home rants. But Steve, thanks for joining, man.
SPEAKER_02:Well, what's going on, Mike? Man, I appreciate you having me on the show. It is a hundred percent a real ride home. Getting off late because you know, work. And uh I was like, hey, podcast is podcasting. We still gotta jump on this thing. We got to get on this show. So I'm super excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01:We're super excited to have you on here, Steve. So uh tell us a little bit about Steve. You know, where did you grow up? You know, kind of like the high schools and all that. What tell us a little bit about you?
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, let's do it. So um grew up in uh Cleveland, Ohio, actually the southeast side, um, because Cleveland is very particular about what part of Cleveland you're from. So uh Southeast side, uh 131st is kind of where I grew up, and then from there, um I went further into the southeast side, a place called Garfield Heights, Ohio, and now I'm over in Maple Heights, Ohio. They're all cousins, they're all always in the same neighborhood. Um went to, of course, local elementary schools. Uh father was in the Marine Corps, that's how we ended up in Cleveland anyway. Funny story. Was born in Boston. Um when my parents got married, my father moved us here. So uh, yeah, so Boston. Got family there, Cleveland, definitely family here. Uh went to Benedict and High School, played football. Uh Benedicton is a is a I'm gonna say world-renowned all-boys school, uh located on the east side of Cleveland as well, kind of in that southeast side area. Um there's a lot of community help offered by my high school. I take a lot of pride of the fact that um it's not necessarily the best conditions around the school, but the school definitely tries to do its best to uplift community. Um, and so you know, being in that space, being a part of privilege in that way, but also going home to some realities and having a cross by other people's realities and finding the intersectionality between my blessings and other people's pain. Um definitely have my eyes wide, so it kind of put me on some different paths. So not only was I into athletics, I was into volunteerism and um, you know, making people smile and making people laugh. So I was kind of a class clown for a long time, which then ultimately turned into like hosting and throwing parties and doing events, and I just really wanted people to have a good time. Big energy. Big energy is my brand, bro.
SPEAKER_01:Dude, that that's I I love that. Um, because I I was labeled the class clown. Obviously, I'm doing stand-up comedy now, which is just so everybody that I I went to high school with was like, say, dude, we told you you'd be doing stand-up, and like like they just keep like pounding me and like making jokes like that too. But I I like you said, you know, I love to make people laugh. That is what I've always loved to do. Even on the football field, I played football in high school too, as well. And like there've been times where guys are like, dude, can you just like take something serious right now? Like, I mean, you you cracking jokes out here. We're out here sweating in two-a-days, and you're out here cracking jokes and stuff. I was just like, Yeah, you're forgetting about how much those legs hurt from all these wind sprints we've been having to do, though, ain't you? Like, and they're just like, Oh shit, I didn't think about that. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:Like, it was burnt to pass out, but I got this joke for you though, real quick.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's because that's what it is. Bill's time router, man. It it cures the spirit. You can make somebody laugh if you can if you can put a smile on their face, changes that whole the whole look of the day. You know what I'm saying? Those roll-pilled glasses, come on.
SPEAKER_01:I I still remember to this day, uh guy that he was just coming off of an injury, and we were running, they called him pulse laps. It was just a lap around the outside of the field about outside the goalpost. And you know, being a skilled player, they wanted us to do that in 45 seconds. Well, they were giving him a little bit of leeway, you know, you're coming off of a leg injury, uh, build yourself back up and you know, get yourself back right. And he was just like, Hey, uh, can you like just like jog with me just so I don't feel like I'm that much of a weight being left? Well, I'm six foot five. He was like five foot two. And so I'm like walking next to him. And he's like, Can you slow down, man? Like you're I was like, one of your steps is like six of mine. So like it was just funny. Like, Coach was like, What are you doing? I was like, I'm trying to get him to like go a little faster, but like I'm just like moving my arms real fast and making it look like I was jogging it. I will I wasn't. And like we still had a good laugh. We had a still good, we still had a good laugh about it when we got back to like the the start finish and everything like that. He was just like, All right, I think I need to find somebody else to run with me, but I'm like, Yeah, I appreciate you trying, but you're just too damn tall to be doing that with me.
SPEAKER_02:I'm 6'4, so yeah, I'm I'm I'm going to you know outstride you. And I laugh because when you see me and my wife in public, we have similar issues. She's only 4'11. So when I'm out and I'm walking, I gotta be mindful, man. I gotta slow it down. You know, I gotta baby stepping.
SPEAKER_01:I I still deal with it on a daily basis. My wife's 5'2. I'm still and like there's oh, she was she just always like, What can you walk at my pace, please? Like she's like, I can't, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_02:Like, you're I'm gonna look like the Pink Panther walking next to you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Everything's gonna be a very sly and slow motion. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely for sure. I deal with it, I deal with the two.
SPEAKER_02:Um so the injury um makes me think of a story, though.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh so I I'm in I'm in college. I played one year of college ball D3, not a big story. Okay. Uh, so that's not the story. Nobody's like, yeah, D3. But I did play one year of college ball. It was a great time. I I had a uh great team, we had a good time rider, uh, terrible record, but we were friends. So we're in friends on a team goes in for end zone, no tackle. Um it's uh uh kind of a goal line play. Uh he gets cracked by the mic linebacker and goes down. So middle linebacker pretty much taking out over the top. We of course don't score. And after all the smoke clears, this dude's fingers in like four different directions.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Now everybody's on the team talking to him and tell him to calm down because he feels pain, but he can't figure out what's going on. And he's not looking down at the hand yet. So the thing is like, bro, you good, it's fine, everything's okay. No, don't look at your hand, don't look at your hand. I don't know what they're they're talking about yet. I see the play, but because I'm playing tight end, I had a whole different route. When I come back over, I'm like, hey, what's going on? Everything good? And I look at Dude's hand and I go, oh damn. And it felt like the Kevin Hart moment before the Kevin Hart moment. Where he's talking to Don Tito. And I promise you, people just looked at me with like total disgust. So that's when I knew I could make it in comedy at some point, too, if I wanted to.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because that that was that's timing. Only a jerk could be that that good at timing right there. That was just funny.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. I tell people all the time at shows, I I pretty much preference every show and start with if you want to heckle, by all means, go ahead. I love hecklers. I have a microphone. You were all in proximity to this speaker system, and I will ruin your night. I'm just letting you know that now. Like it this could go one of two ways. You could just let me tell my ha ha stories and we can and we could have a good time and everybody can laugh, or you could try to say something, and then you will be my entire set. I will throw every joke I've written out the window and I will make everything about you.
SPEAKER_02:You're my favorite comedian. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And it's just I've learned to like be real quick off the cuff. And I I equate that to I grew up in a very blue-collar town. Uh, my dad was a steel mill worker for as long as I can remember. And for growing up, if you were either going along with the joke or you were the butt of the joke in my household, like that's just how I grew up. We all ragged on each other, and it was just good time, good humor. But if you were sensitive or you didn't you didn't like the joke or anything like that, you just became the joke. So you had to learn to be quick off the cuff to get back at anybody who was talking to you, and that made me the comedian I am today. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Like every show, I was like, because there's always that one person in the crowd, like, I'm gonna get him. No, you're not. Um I'm I'm a professional crap talker. That's what I am. Like, I won't that's I I get paid to talk crap. That's that's there it is.
SPEAKER_02:There it is, and that's and that's the dream. And that's the dream.
SPEAKER_01:So going back to you a little bit, I believe you have uh a few different degrees uh with that. You know, what are your degrees in, you know, education? I know is a big thing for you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so of course you got your high school diploma. Gotta get that to start the journey. Um, got the high school diploma, and shout out to anybody who is doing education in a non-traditional sense. I always love to shout out people who um have had obstacles, who have had to overcome things, and who have had to truly strive to get high school diplomas and degrees and stuff like that. It is not easy. It is made to seem like it's easy. There is, you know, a program in front of you, but if if something throws you off that trajectory and you get back on and you go for it, shout out to you. So, yes, I have high school diploma, then I have my bachelor's in education. Um, early childhood was initially the focus. Um, and then I was like, you know what? I don't know if I'm gonna teach in the classroom. So I went towards the educational administrative um piece and component of it, and then finally my master's is an educational foundation. So learning about the history of what education is supposed to be, what it looks like, um, who was responsible for for receiving it. And pretty much if I was to walk into any school, I could go, let me see. Let me let me see how well you all are doing, and if you're truly educating kids, or if you just provide instruction and lunch. Like, like it's because it's different. Like you gotta you gotta educate a person from top to bottom. There's a holistic approach to making sure that a child or a young person um is knowledgeable and can obtain knowledge, right? Has access to real knowledge. So it it's it's it's levels and layers, but all I have to say, I spent a lot of money to be able to teach people how to teach people who teach.
SPEAKER_01:I gotcha. That's that's I know I have a big respect for people in your uh profession and what you do. Um I think I I don't say this a lot. I don't like to bring it up, but you know, I I grew up diagnosed dyslexic. So I learn differently than most people. Uh and I I'm a visual learner. It's basically what it's all just to save everyone the long spiel about it. I'm a very visual person. I have to see it, touch it, taste it, and I can I figure it out and I'll do it. And so growing up, you know, in the in the 90s, uh in that sort of aging myself a wee bit, uh, but uh that was a very new thing to uh teach someone differently than how teachers were uh taught to teach. So I I somebody who does what you do like that's amazing to me, and somebody who's willing to take the time to learn that is just an awesome thing. And uh, you don't see that in a lot of people.
SPEAKER_02:I appreciate the flowers, but I also uh uh I can give you that same and extend that same sentiment to you. Um someone who is trying to navigate, especially at that time, right? Because we're in school around the time, or at least there you know what an overhair projector was. So we're in the same class. We're in the same age bracket. Um it's funny because I saw that online the other day, and people really don't know what those are. Uh, but anyway, knowing that you went through um life having to understand, number one, what it was that was challenging you in that way, and then number two, coming to grips, and then finding people who could either give you the resources or the space to learn better and more efficiently. Um big big ups to you for not losing patience with yourself, because there are a lot of people who had things that were undiagnosed or untreated, like this idea, um, with no programming around them and no resources. So, you know, for you to be able to find it, for your parents to be able to find it, for you to just grow through it, or learn how to adapt and teach yourself certain things just so you wouldn't fall through the crack. And shout out to you. That's big spirit right there. And we respect you.
SPEAKER_01:It still blows uh my parents' mind to this day, like when there's like something new and like I can see it, figure it out, and like be able to touch it and do it, and then I just always know how to do it. It's not like it's an it's like it's somebody with an identity memory. I and I I don't have one of those. I don't at all. But if I can see it, touch it, and then do it, I can remember how to do that, and I know how to do it from then on out. And like my mom's still shocked that like at an early age I figured out how to do a Rubik's Cube. And it was took that one time to figure out how many times you need to turn this way, this way, that, and it was done. And uh it it it's weird now because I am getting older. I was I was always really good at math, and now that I do math on a daily basis with like day jobs and stuff like that, it's just not that thing for me anymore. Like I just don't want to do it anymore because I do it every day. Um but you know, it's it it's still, you know, it's still a challenge at 36 years old. You know, it you know, it's not like something that just like goes away. And I think that's what some people think they're like, oh, you learned how to figure it out, like also you're good now. Like, no, not really.
SPEAKER_02:You still work, you work through it. But we we all have things, but some people understand what they need in order to survive, move past it, um, you know, grow from it, like, and you know, it it can be it can be tough. It can be tough, but I I like how your brain works because all these degrees and everything else we just mentioned, can't do a Rubik's Cube. Well probably could, but I haven't successfully completed one. I got so frustrated that one time when I was a kid, took all the stickers off and just put the colors together the way I felt like they should go. So that's that's me. I have more patience instead of learning how to do the Rubik's Cube to peel off every sticker perfectly, which if you know they're glued on there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's tough.
SPEAKER_02:So I took that type of time.
SPEAKER_01:That's more patience than figuring out that Rubuscube is peeling off those stickers perfectly to put them over there.
SPEAKER_02:See, that's that's sick. So my mom was like, Did you solve this? And I was like, No, I got tired of it. So I showed her what I did, and she was like, Wow, you could have just learned how to do a Ruby cube. And I was like, Nah, I like this better. So that's that's me.
SPEAKER_01:I I I get it, man. I mean, there's still things like even even to this day, like my wife always can tell. She's like, You need you need to calm down and then redo what you just did. Because if I start to get overly stressed or over, I don't even want to use the word stimulated, but like overly stressed or angry or anything like that, like words tend to like just do certain things, and then she's always like, calm down, redo it. Wow, that's that's insane. I will say this though, my like like going off of this little tangent here, but my mom, you know, spent a lot of time with me uh with education growing up, and she I still remember her telling me this story, and she and she references it a lot of times when we're talking about it. It's like, do you remember the time you read a sentence from period to the capital letter and it made sense? And I I I did it, that's how I saw it. I from left to right, I saw it from like the period to the capital, and I read it at first, and somehow the way I read it, it made sense. Wow. And she just would have to do it to me too. Calm down, reread that. And I did it, and it was it was a completely different thing, but she was like, you know, it made sense the first way you read that, right? I was like, apparently, I I don't know. Like, you know, and I I was still like five, six years old when this was happening too. So, you know, like that's where like stuff like that still happens.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, but who's to say it's not connected in just how we shape things? Like if your art wasn't comedy and your art was painting or drawing, right? How would that play a part into that, right? Or like if you play music, how might you see music notes differently? Everybody's just different. So sometimes you you you want to go, uh, there's a right way to do certain things. And other times you just want to go, nah, this is the way I do things. And whatever you can become more comfortable first, as long as you can get things done efficiently and all in all correctly, you don't want to just turn anything crazy, but if you can get things done, there's there's something there. Right. I feel like it becomes a true problem when it prevents you from handling whatever business you set out to handle.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. It's um uh it it I I I don't want to say hate's a strong word, uh, but I I hate the people that are like, yeah, this is the way you have to do it. Why? Is this the way you do it? Like I do things differently and I still come out to the same answer. And does it make your way right or my way right? Just this is how I do it. So I get that all in all. Um so with those degrees, like what do you do for a day job? Like what what does that all entail for like what's the day look like for you?
SPEAKER_02:So um I work for a university um and I work in the office of multicultural affairs. And so for me, um, the day looks like figuring out ways where I can stress and impress upon our students that they are significant. Um, they're significant from their cultural backgrounds, from their connections, through intersectionality, through agreeability. Um, and by agreeability, what I mean is where do we find those areas where we can agree on things? Um, and then where can we have some dynamic conversation about those things that come up that are different from us? Um so it starts from a good place, and then once we have some rapport and once we have um some connectivity um within the group or within you know our space, now we can have more dynamic conversations. I also just create a space where students can cool out and relax and um find resources and you know, everything from um students who may have some some issues with transiency, right? You you you may not have a study place to live. So if you're unhoused, let's find you some resources. Um if if there's a um you know, if there's some issues with finding food, right? Um, because these disparities happen. Um they happen in college too, and people don't think about that, but it's real. You know, so if you if you're dealing with um hunger on any level, I'm finding a way to feed you. I'm finding, you know, different programs that are on campus and the things that we have in terms of resources, but I'm also doing that in my space as well. So uh it comes with a lot of different things because I'm taking care of the whole suit. Um, yes, we have academic supports and stuff in our office as well, um, that I'm responsible for making sure that you know exist. Um, but the the the bigger thing is how are you doing today? I feel like if I could sum up what I do, I ask that question with all the necessary and due sincerity to every student, every student that I come across. Because you might not be doing well that day. And I need to I need to know how I can assist you in getting you back to where you need to be so you can go and change the world. I deal with some brilliant kids too, by the way. Like this this is the this is uh and I call them kids because I'm an adult, but honestly, they're young adults. But that's how you see them. You see them as, you know, as yours almost. Like you feel responsible. Um, you take work home differently. Like I'm not taking home necessarily, you know, papers and stacks of papers because I'm not on the faculty side of the house. But I'm taking home people's mood and their energy and their their their hardest stories that they've had to tell, and um things that they're uh uh afraid to express to their parents, or you know, those fears of not fitting in socially, or you know, their their financial burdens, and you know, do you know if there's any on-campus work? Like those are the things I'm taking home. So we and it's it's just myself, we we've had some some changes in terms of staffing, so it's just myself and one other person, and we have some really great student coordinators, and that's that's what's balancing this thing out, and we do a great job. Yeah, it it's gonna say it. I'm gonna say it. We do a great job.
SPEAKER_01:It sounds like you do um just from the passion that you have when you talk about what you do, and I I love to see that with anybody when with whatever they do, whether it's like you said, art, music, comedy, education, anything like that, if you have that passion to just sit and talk about it, uh it uh it doesn't make uh for a work day. If if that makes sense. Uh I've always said if if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. And this podcast and comedy 13 years. Uh not the podcast we're on five, but uh you know comedy for thirteen years, and people are like why do you still do it? Why do you still uh do the comedy grind? Because even thirteen years later, I'm still considered quote unquote an up and cover. And like it it it is a grind. It it's and I I I love it. I love being on the road, going to to different places, seeing different places, meeting different people, and getting up on stage and making a room full of strangers laugh.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. You know I gotta ask you though, Mike. You know I gotta ask you.
SPEAKER_01:Let's do it.
SPEAKER_02:What has been one of your most favorite experiences? And let's talk food for a second. What has been one of your best meals on the road?
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, I've had so many good meals. I mean, I do a lot of work in bars, so I I eat a lot of bar food.
SPEAKER_02:Uh bar food is big, but we can go wing for wing. We go, you know, we can go fry for fry. They had like a different type of potato. Because some some bars don't have potato skins, but others do.
SPEAKER_01:So Yeah, I'm a I'm a big potato skin fan. I am. I mean, I've I've eaten some garbage on the road too, you know. There's been there's been times like I growing up in, you know, I was I was living in West Virginia, uh, where I grew up, and I was like two, three years into comedy, and this guy from Illinois like hit me up for a show. And the first time I've really traveled outside of Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia, so that tri-state area. And he was like, hey, I mean, it's not a lot of money, but uh I'll pay you like 150 bucks to come out here. Now I was gonna spend more on gas to get out that get out there and back. And I was like, Bet, I'll do it. I already I had to work that day. Uh so I worked like half a shift at um I was working at 18T at the time and drove to Illinois, did the show, had to turn around and drive right back so that I could be at work in the morning. And that's that's the part that like people don't see with comedy when you're first starting out. You're gonna take some of these uh these shit shows for lack of a better term, excuse my friends, but you know, like you're gonna eat some crap. And I did uh to this day, uh I ate something on the way home. I just like a little truck stuff. I was like, I need to get some food, some energy drink, or something just to get me home.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you stuck out sushi, didn't you? It wasn't sushi.
SPEAKER_01:I don't like I'm not a big sushi guy as it is, even fresh. I was like, no, I don't I don't do sushi, but like it was one of those things on like one of those rollers, like and this was like two three in the morning. I still don't know what I ate to this day. Um but I ate it just to get some food in my stomach, to get me the eggs, to get me help. And like people ask me all the time, they're like, Oh dude, you're comedian. So you work like uh an hour a night. It's like uh I wish, but like I'm constantly writing jokes, I'm constantly doing stuff like this podcast, I'm constantly looking for uh venues to produce my own shows, I'm constantly looking for shows and talking to bookers. Like, I I don't ever have like if I was clocked in with comedy, I would have clocked in 13 years ago and I still haven't clocked out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like for a day, nothing, lunch break, nothing. Like that's the grind of comedy. People don't see that. And I love every minute of it. That's the thing. Like, I don't feel like I've worked for the past 13 years.
SPEAKER_02:And that's what I you know, I mean uh with uh you love what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah. Even this pot even this podcast here, like I I last week and in end of this week, you know, at a at a day job that I still work, I worked a 60-hour week and had to record three shows. You know, so like even that working uh 12, 13 hour days at a day job and coming home and uh doing more work here. And uh those of you who've listened to the show before know I still don't have a producer. I still don't have anybody editing my stuff. I have my switchboard here and my microphone. I do everything. Johnny helps out with the the guests and the administrative stuff and keeping me on schedule because if he wasn't, I would forget everything.
SPEAKER_02:Umny, man. That's my guy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Fitti. I love Fitty. Um, I've known Fiddy since college. I've I love him so much. Uh it's just like so, yeah, I do everything with this show, and I I love every minute of it.
SPEAKER_02:That's what's up. I mean, and and you know what it shows. Uh, and it's kind of cool that you're doing everything in this hour. Like, I hope that's never your life story, but in this hour it's cool because even as you're doing this, you're learning and you're growing and you're putting yourself in different positions. One of the things I used to tell students back in the day was, all right, boom, because you know, you get students they and they they want to be pop stars, they want to be in movies, they want to do TV and stuff like that. Um, but at the time I was working for a trade program. And I'll tell you where I used to work. I I might not tell you where I work, but I'll tell you where I used to work. I used to work for a company called Jobcore. Jobcore, national program, but it's trade-based. So we would get students that would come in and, you know, of course they they still want to do what they want to do after they graduate high school. They're doing a trade, they're doing HVAC, they're doing carpentry, they're doing brick man. But, you know, I want to be such and such, you know. I was watching Instagram and I think I can do such and such. Well, I want an audition for this, bro. And I'd be like, those are all great dreams. But how can you get in the room? And I would share a story about this RB singer and vocalist who's real who's real dope now. Her name's Joe Scott, but she hung out and she was actually working for a cleaning service, but that service used to clean studios, and one of her favorite producers was in one of the studios and she was assigned to clean. She got to singing in that room. So I was like, well, let's think about it. If you want to be on TV or in a movie, why you can't learn how to do set design after you get your carpentry uh certification.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:You know, put yourself in the space and have some other discernible skills so people are involved. And then once you're in the room, make a fool of yourself. And that might get you to the next level. So, like with you right now, with you learn how to do all these other technical aspects of it, I mean, you can take your, you know, you can pull a LeBron, take your talent somewhere else, and help somebody else with their show, but you're an on-air personality, whether they know it or not. You're a comedian, whether they recognize it or not. So as soon as you get an opportunity, they catch a cold, and you might fill in for me, Mike, they got a natural platform. Who knows? You know what I mean? Like those things happen. So yeah, I say do everything as a part of it, and I'm not taking my own advice because I don't know how to produce a song to save my life. But I do know how to um do some vocal artist production, right? But if you ask me to make a beat, no, can't do it. I got a guy for that who does a phenomenal job. Shout out to my boy Sean. But you know, those are the things. Learning just something else outside of the part that you love puts you in a position that even if you have to do a little bit of what you don't necessarily love, but it's still in the same realm, you still get that opportunity. You surround yourself with that energy of like, I'm still here and I can still do this.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So you can buy a comedy club. You look, if all if you did nothing else, buy a comedy club, and part of them going on your stage is you doing 10 minutes a night.
SPEAKER_01:It's so funny you bring that up. My wife and I, honestly to God, have kicked around the idea of opening up our own comedy club and restaurant. We have a name, we have a theme, we have everything we we want to do. We just don't know where to start, essentially. Like we we have the idea, and we've been talking about this for the better part of about two years now.
SPEAKER_02:Find a space with a small parking lot next to it that you can get access to at this time and that time, and and then you slap a neon sign on the front and call it what you want because people will come, right? People are looking for entertainment, people are looking for a good time, and people are looking for accessibility to these things. And if you got great bar food and some bar stools, somebody will sit there, eat, and laugh.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that's the thing. It's it's it's we make it bigger because it's it's a business. So we're seeing the business aspect, we're seeing where we can fail. What about where we can be super successful? And that's what holds a lot of us back, honestly. I mean, and you're and you're doing great, but we both still work real jobs. So we're not doing everything that we necessarily want to do, even though we're, you know, and I and I say this with respect to everybody's beliefs, but even though we're blessed to be able to do a little bit of both, right? We can stabilize our lives, we have quality um careers and day jobs and things that we can rely on. I absolutely, I absolutely love working with my students. But if you would have told me that my plan A minus, I'm not gonna call it my plan B, but my plan A minus was going to overcome the plan A, I'd have been like, nah, I'm gonna be a star. And so still wanting that for myself, I have to find different ways of being, you know, that celebrity, at least in my head and in my walk. Because it may not ever be, you know, MTV's greatest hits of the week, you know what I mean? But it's but it's something. I'm I'm doing something that I love. So you gotta decide though. Like, because I want to come to the club now. Now I want to come to the comedy club. Now I want to go to, you know, to the spot.
SPEAKER_01:It it it's it's it's I'm just it's funny that you brought that up because like I said, we've been talking about it. Like, I like we even like I'll I'll say it on here. I'll just put it out there. Like, we've we've called it because I'm full Italian, my wife is full Irish, and we were gonna call it the Emerald Boot. Like the Emerald Boot Comedy Club, like we were gonna serve off like have the bar food there for that too, but we were gonna have like uh uh Italian food and Irish food there too as well. So you can get the best of both cultures in one. And then just make people laugh while we're while we were doing it too as well. Like in that like we've we we've thought, like we've almost to the point where we've almost literally sat down and wrote out a business plan.
SPEAKER_02:Uh like it's you can do that from now, so go for it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we we we just gotta find the sp the right space, honestly, is I think the only thing holding us back because I know so many comics from doing this for 13 years that even if I had opened it up, I would all I would have to do is make a couple quick calls. Hey man, I I'm putting this together, I'm gonna do this like Bringer show. If you can bring five people uh to the show, I'll give you 10 minutes of stage, I'll give you 15 minutes, you know, whatever of stage time on on it here to start out with. And you know, just so we can grow the brand and grow people like, oh, he's doing this, and then go from there. I I like I thought about this way too much um right now too as well.
SPEAKER_02:In the missus, we're gonna flesh it out because now I want to see the hemorrhague. We could do something really cool over the summer. You can do a pop-up one time, just so you can see how it feels. And if you like how the boot fit, wear it. But uh, yeah, that's a that's a vibe, man. We love hearing about dreams, though. You know, dreams are dreams are great. Like, is there something now? I'm interviewing you. Let me stop with that.
SPEAKER_01:I don't give a no dude, you cool like that.
SPEAKER_02:Something that like when you were younger, you were like, I know the I know the laughs were there, but did you have like a uh a let's talk about obtained? Is there something that you actually did do that was on your checkout? And you were like, oh, I got a chance to do this in comedy, like in my space, in the thing that I dream about most. I've gotten a chance to touch this. This was great. This was a great experience. Or did it turn out not to be that great and you want to do something different?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I mean, I've gotten the the things that I think are great. They're still uh a comic. I mean, he's had countless HBO specials and that, and I got to open for him. Um little little hole in the wall bar. I mean, me and him are still friends to this day. We still talk, we still bounce ideas off of each other. Uh bought his book, uh, I'll give him a little shameless plug, How to Fail at Stand Up Comedy, uh by Steve Sabo. And I've had him on I've had him on the show um countless times. One of the few books I don't I don't read a lot. Obviously, we had the the dyslexic talks about like I don't read books just just to read them for that's not enjoyable for me. I read his book cover to cover. Absolutely love it. It had so many tips and tricks, you know, on how to make it as a stand-up comedian. And I realized reading that book that early on in my career I was doing almost everything uh uh that would help you fail at stand-up comedy.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And so, you know, just having that, I I I don't want to call him a mentor, but you know, a mentor just to bounce it off, and you know, being able to open for him and just uh be in the same green room as him uh and just bounce ideas off of him, uh that that was a great experience for me. There there was a few things, you know, doing a couple of like theater shows and stuff like that that it just it that wasn't my uh my cup of tea. There was a couple ones like I'm not a clean comic. I'm not gonna sit there and act like I'm this even killed uh person. I'm not had to do a PG I didn't have to. I I chose to do a PG-13 show. Right and it took me out of my comfort zone. And the experience that I got from that is uh I could make it as a PG-13 comic because I absolutely uh killed to the point where the headliner that went on after me uh like he wasn't uh mad that I did so well because his jokes didn't hit as hard uh as they should have. Uh right. But he was just like, man, like uh uh you sent me your tape and I almost didn't book you for this show because of how dirty of a comic you you can be. And how like in doing a PG-13 show, we have kids here. There's certain things you can't talk about. Um, so that was uh that was another one. The uh last big, big show I had, which you know, take the the payment and everything of that. I got to work with a local company in Columbus, Ohio, uh Slapstick Comedy, give them a shameless plug. I still love them. They were putting together prison shows. They were sending us into prisons, and I got to perform for 400 inmates. Wow. And uh after 13 years of doing comedy, I hadn't signed one autograph, anything like that. Uh these inmates were coming up to me and shaking my hand and asking for an autograph. Uh a lot of them have told me, like, hey man, that uh 20 minute set that you just did just gave me six more months of peace in here. I I almost told Slapstick, don't pay me for this show because that's all the payment I need. Right there, that I just gave 400 people a little bit of a break and to feel normal for a little bit and not like they were incarcerated. And that that to this day is still I'd probably say my shining moment in comedy was being able to do that show for them.
SPEAKER_02:Man, that that that sounds insane to to have that moment, right, where you are doing literally walking in your purpose in that way. You're doing comedy, but you're doing it for a group that you don't know how they're gonna take it. Yeah, and then they and then take it the best possible way, and they appreciate you in that way. I think that was very, very powerful. That's what's up. Of all the moments that you expressed, I know I know they were all really great, but I like that one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I like that one a bit. And you know what? That that was the start of that show was the most nerve-wracking show for me because I'm a big crowd work guy. And it's just like, all right, like I don't know how these guys are gonna take this. You know, if they if they give me something, I'm gonna give it right back to them. Like, I'm not gonna shy away from it. But right. No, they're they were all over it. Like, I'm just gonna No, it's it's funny because my wife, I mean, we and her have been together 10 years, um uh married for four, but we've been together for 10. She's missed three shows total in that time. Uh one, she had food poisoning, literally couldn't get uh out of the house. The second one, she had uh COVID, so she wasn't allowed to go. And the third one was that prison show because she literally wasn't allowed to go. Um and that like, you know, I she was a ball of nerves while I was there because like and that I don't know if I fed off of that, just knowing like, okay, I'm uh three hours away from her. Um I can't have my phone in there. Uh I'm in a room full of inmates, but like getting out, like and being able to text her, like, hey, show went great, uh, everything's fine. I'm in the van now with the with the other comics, and we're on our way home. Like, and she was asking, but like looking around that room, you know, there were officers everywhere. Like, you couldn't look around and not see one. So, like, if anything were to happen, like I would have been fine. So, like that lowered the nervousness a little bit for me. But yeah, like that that it was a nerve-wracking show, but at the end the reward superseded everything.
SPEAKER_02:Those are those are sometimes the best though when you're in front of a crowd that you didn't you I mean, you of course you signed up for it, you kind of knew what it was, but when you're finally in it, and then they receive you, and it's a nice reception, people are really excited to have you there and you feel appreciated, that's always the best.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm glad that that was the experience you had. I'm I'm I'm still hype about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that that was that was the best thing. And you know, touching on it a little bit, you know, outside of work and everything like that, you are uh, you know, family man, you are married. Like, how do you how do you balance that work life balance with, you know, job, family, and everything like that?
SPEAKER_02:So, you know, it's myself and my wife. Um, no children just yet, but you know, life can be licensed. So we never know when um that'll happen. But when it does, that'll be something else that that that'll be another show. I'll come back on and be like, hey, kids now. But uh right now we're we're just learning how to be married. Um and be married when you have um and you shout out to my wife, she's a wonderful, wonderful woman. Um, career woman, yes, but also um just truly about this this idea of us, this we. And um when you have somebody who wants to be a we, uh, that's a good thing. Um marriage. People have a lot to say about marriage and and and sometimes it's it's vaguely negative. Uh like no, you get to you get to wake up and go and experience life, and you get to look next to you and be like, hey, that was crazy, right? And somebody else can literally answer you back and be like, yeah, that was wild. I'm glad we made it out of that. Like, or you know, that we're doing this together. Uh because that's just kind of where where we are. Like, we are um going into our third year. Um, so we're we're new at this, and and when we get frustrated or when we have you know moments where we're not quite sure, we have to remind ourselves does a three-year-old know everything? You know, we're we're we're you know, in our 30s, so we don't know everything. So I know a three-year-old doesn't. So I look at it from the lens, and this is why I think, you know, me being in education is really big. I look at my life as, you know, in these moments, these things, these my these uh milestones, when they're upon me, or I'm growing in those ways, or we're growing in those ways. Um, I chart it and I look at it like from infancy all the way through adulthood. So by the time we're 18, we're not dealing with what a three-year-old dealt with. We're dealing with what an 18-year-old deals with. Because it's just the maturation of relationships. All you're looking at is something maturing and the time that it takes to truly educate yourself around where you are now. Um and looking at it from that standpoint keeps me in love every day. Because I love our three-year-old. Our three-year-old is great. You know, we're in a we're in a three-year-old marriage, and we get to continue to learn things about each other. Um, we get to continue to grow as individuals, which is a roller coaster ride in itself. And then we have to come together and be like, all right, this is what I learned today about me. What did you learn about you? And how does it now work together? Um, and what does together really look like in this moment? And it's okay to admit that you don't know stuff. And you can be super transparent. So to answer your question, I think we balanced it out by just understanding that we don't know everything. Um, and that it's best to ask questions, especially right now, and continue to ask questions, and continue to give each other that space um and that margin for grace and error. So you go you gonna make mistakes. So as long as we hold the vow steady, as long as we adhere into those, everything else is just trivial. It's gonna suck for a day, a week, and then we're going right back to you know how life should be. Um, the biggest thing I think too, and this is for anybody who is thinking about getting married, um, is making sure you understand how finances work. Make sure you understand how money works, um, and make sure you understand everybody's threshold and expectation when it's centered around money. Know your partner broke boiling point. When it's either more or less. Um, and if you can get a good idea around that, um, everything else will kind of like fall in line. When you can when you can create some sense of true stability and enjoyment um outside of the things that you all do, and especially when you can come together and find enjoyment in some of your some of your partner's hobbies, those things are also cool too. So, yeah, marriage is cool. Yeah, I like it. It was for me, bro.
SPEAKER_01:I was I do it all the time because like as soon as I'm on stage, you know, I mentioned being married, like I can feel the crap, like, ah, he's gonna talk shit now. Like, like and I'm just like, no, I'm not one of those comics. Like, I actually love my wife. Like, I like I'm not one of those comics. Uh no, I that's not to say I don't have jokes about uh my wife that I stay on stage. And like she like okay. It it my my whole I don't my whole stick on stage is you know that I got dubbed the angry white comic. Um at like after my like third show because I just go on these long filled rants about I hate stupid questions and I hate like stupid people, and like that's the whole thing. And like that's not something that I don't say stupid things to as well, and I don't ask that, but my wife does too. So like that gets put into my act on stage. Uh and recently like she started to do this thing now where like she wants to be the heckler that wants to to to talk during the show. So like that that's that's a new thing, but like we we're we're learning that and it it's working for us too as well. And you know, it's it's funny. Like you you mentioned it there in the middle there where you just like look at it, like I know it's crazy, right? Like, you know, the I said something, and I can't remember what the hell it was uh to save my life, but it was something along the lines that I was gonna do something for my wife. I don't know if it was just to go get her another drink uh or what it was, and she just looked like I'm talking about like that. That's just like it was that quick of a moment where I was like, I'm running inside, do you need anything? And she's like, that's what I'm like. See? Like that's what that's why we were together. Like, you know, you like you knew I needed something without me even saying anything.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you get it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Get it. So I say that I was ready for marriage for a long time because I was a serial monogamist. You don't want to teach you how to date. I don't know if the 90s is like that. Yeah, but nobody taught us how to date.
SPEAKER_01:It was just like you figure it out.
SPEAKER_02:That that's exactly you figure it out, but you like you have a lot of like relationship quotations.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And and along those lines, you realize, hey, I don't want to, I really don't want to be in all these people's faces. What is it that I actually want? And so you create the dun dun dun checklist. And when I tell you, as soon as I literally was like, these are the things that I think I'm looking for in a woman. Can they be delivered in a package that's pretty? Again, beauty is an outta behold, but I I I think my wife is absolutely gorgeous. And she's my wife now. And it's so crazy. So I'm like, now I'm trying to manifest Bentleys and Mansions and stuff like that. Because if it's that easy to find a gorgeous wife who's intelligent and smart and laughs when stuff ain't funny, um, what what else can I just talk up? You know, am I able to get some cool stuff? So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Gotcha. Uh-oh. Uh, but Steve, I I just realized how long we've been sitting out here talking, and we are running down near the episode.
SPEAKER_02:We're just chopping it up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and uh, we are running down near the end of the episode here, but I do have to get this segment in before we end the show. And for all the old listeners out there, you know what's coming in. But for the new listeners out there, it is the Fast Fiddy Five. Five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast, Johnny Fitty Falcone. Uh, for the new listeners, these are rapid fire. Uh, you can elaborate if you need to here, Steve. But if you already, because these have nothing to do with what we've been talking about for the better part of an hour here. All right. Question number one. Is white water rafting overrated or underrated, in your opinion?
SPEAKER_02:Ooh, overrated. That's crazy. Why am I drawing on purpose?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I love the water as a former swimmer. No, no, thank you. Um, question number two. If you could be either Batman or the Incredible Hulk, who would you pick? Oh, it's Batman all day. Yeah. That's an easy one. Uh three, uh, what month is the worst month in the year?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, April. Nothing but, you know, nothing but rain. Uh, and and it's like icy sometimes, but the sun will be out and it's fooling you, it's cold. I April, trash. Garbage. Yes, get it out of here.
SPEAKER_00:Number four, what is your go-to grocery store to shop at?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, man. I'm gonna be in trouble with this one. Um, Trader Joe's.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Trader Joe's is solid, and then there's a place called the Miles Market that I absolutely love. It's it's more of a marketplace. I guess. And I'm telling you, they got the best selection of just produce and fresh meats and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah. All right. Well, last but not least in the Fast Fity Five, the best flavor of Popsicle is.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, we gotta go the punch one, the red one.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. I I I mess with the red one. I'm I'm more of an orange fan. Which is that that's controversial. People either let's see.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're popping the icy pops right in the plastic that's frozen.
SPEAKER_01:It just is just his pop signal.
SPEAKER_02:So I gotta go with, I gotta go with that. The frozen ones that come in the clear bag that they're along, that's the break. You just pop them boys in the middle. Yeah, it's gotta be the red one. The red one is crazy. I will take orange as a backup though. Shout out to you.
SPEAKER_01:I got you. No worries. Uh, that was the fast fitting five. I feel like he took it easy on you, Steve. I'm not gonna lie to you here. Like, those were those were like layup questions. Like, he's gotten like deep into these things before. If you've listened to the show Eddie at all, like you'll know like there's questions that like I have to stop in the moment be like, what the hell does that say? Like, that's like it's it's crazy how this man's mind works, and I'm I'm here for it. Like, there was one question that I'll never forget it. And uh he asked uh one of our MMA fighters that was on um uh you're locked in a racquetball court. It's you, a fat man in a silverback gorilla, you have a flare, a dumbbell, and boxing glove. Who comes out alive? Like, that's the way this man's mind works. Like, and he just wants to know what people think of like that stuff. Like, and we made a whole segment on this show about these random.
SPEAKER_03:I'm going to play the girl.
SPEAKER_02:The gorilla will undoubtedly see Batman in the light and become startled and start pounding on Batman. I take the dumbbell. I don't see nah, because then you're gonna have the animal people on me. I can't I got nothing. I could drive, I could drive the dumbbell on the gorilla's foot. Now the gorilla has a broken toe, but he already beat up Batman and I walk out unscathed.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that that's that's better than the answer I think I got that on the on the show when I actually asked that. Wow, that's phenomenal. But like I said, Steve, we are running down here near the end of the episode here. I give every guest this opportunity at the end of every show. If there's anything you want to get out there, anything you want to promote, or even if it's just a good message, I'm gonna give you about a minute and the floor is yours.
SPEAKER_02:What's going on, everybody? It's your host big Steve, aka Fair Conference. And I just want to let you know that um love is a good thing. Um, being kind is an even better thing. Um shout out to my guy Ricky Smith, random acts of kindness everywhere. He would often let me know that if you can get a smile on a person's face, if you can um make it so that people feel comfortable, it makes the world just that much better every time. Um shout out to my boy Headcraft, who uses music to get a word out. Shout out to my boy Misery Jones, Sean Green, who has a wonderful food truck, who serves up smiles all the time through delicious cuisine. Um, that's authentic, not only to him, but to his family bloodline. And um, you know what? Continue to do the things that make you happy. Don't hurt anybody in the process, and especially don't hurt yourself. We just want to see everybody come back and listen to another episode of My Man Mike's go. You feel me? So thank you for listening. That's my that's my minute.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, I I appreciate that. That at the end of there, uh, shout me out like that. But I love it when there's a good message at the end of every show. I'm all about helping people get anything that they want out there, uh, anything they got going on. But when there's a good message like that to end the show, there's no better way to end it. So, with that being said, that is going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. I want to thank my guest again, uh Steve Furlone Mun for joining the show. This was a lot of fun to get to talk to you. And as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend. Tell a friend. If you didn't, tell them anyways, because they might like it just because you didn't. That's gonna do it for me, and I will see y'all next week.
