Ron Taylor Was Ready for Everything Except Winning Funny AF

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By the time Ron Taylor auditioned for Kevin Hart’s Netflix comedy competition, Funny AF, he’d been a working comedian for 15 years. He’d achieved many typical goals for a stand-up, including performing on Comedy Central, releasing a popular Don’t Tell set with millions of views, and starring in a full-hour special called Avalanche on Veeps. Despite these accomplishments, he hadn’t yet broken through to widespread mainstream success. For eight years, from 2015 to 2023, he chased his comedy dream while living in his van.

Things shifted when Funny AF launched on April 20th. The show features 44 comedians competing for approval from judges like Kevin Hart, Kumail Nanjiani, Tom Segura, Chelsea Handler, and Keegan-Michael Key. It’s created a real event around stand-up comedy, which is unusual these days, and comedian Shane Taylor has been gaining fans throughout the competition. He easily made it to the semifinals and finals, which were broadcast live on Netflix May 4th and 5th as part of the Netflix Is a Joke festival. During the show, Taylor proved he’s charming on stage, can make people laugh even when talking about difficult topics, and is surprisingly good at roasting—even managing to playfully tease special guest Marshawn Lynch. Ultimately, after viewers voted, Taylor was named the show’s first winner.

Taylor will receive an hour-long Netflix special as a prize, but he believes the chance to perform and improve his skills is equally important. He feels that fully capitalizing on this opportunity will prove all his hard work and sacrifices were worth it, and emphasizes that this is just the beginning of a new phase for him.

Congratulations on your win! Now that things are starting to calm down, how are you feeling? Honestly, it still feels surreal. It’s amazing, and incredibly validating. Being able to compete, then immediately go to a festival and perform at the Comedy Store with so many friends here – people from Detroit, Austin, L.A., and New York – is just really cool. Everyone’s acting like they always believed in me, which is funny because I definitely didn’t see this coming!

When you found out you were in the top two on the live show, you looked like you were trying not to cry. What were you thinking in that moment?

Honestly, I hoped I didn’t look emotional – I was aiming for a really stoic expression! But I was honestly a bit overwhelmed, so I can’t be sure. Mostly, I was just shocked. The competition was incredibly tough. I felt like I made a lot of mistakes along the way, so making it that far was a real surprise. I’m used to losing, to not doing well – everyone experiences that. Winning was completely unexpected. I had prepared for every possible outcome except actually winning.

You mentioned living in a van from 2015 to 2023 to chase your goals. Now that you’ve won, does it feel like those sacrifices were worth it? It’s hard to say ‘yes’ definitively, because you can’t get back what you give up. You have to find your own reasons to believe it was the right choice – telling yourself, ‘I gave this up for that.’ I think I managed to find a good balance between what I sacrificed and what I was working towards. But I’ll truly feel vindicated when I fully capitalize on this opportunity. In a way, the real work is just beginning, and now I can focus on making even bigger sacrifices to achieve my goals.

Has your social media following increased a lot since being on the show?

Absolutely. When the show premiered on Netflix, everyone involved saw their follower counts go up. The further you got in the competition, the more followers you gained. It’s been amazing to connect with people I’ve admired for years – people I’ve followed and been a fan of – and they’re reaching out like we’ve been friends forever, telling me they’ve enjoyed my work. It’s surprising because I didn’t realize they were even aware of me before!

I approached the competition by generally saving my strongest material for later rounds, though it wasn’t a deliberate strategy. Because I usually perform longer sets, the five-minute time limit was challenging. I often planned three jokes, aiming for five minutes, but couldn’t always deliver my closing joke due to time constraints. Luckily, this meant I still had strong material saved for the semifinals and finals. Ironically, I would have likely used my best jokes earlier if I’d been better at managing my time during each round.

Knowing the audience would be voting live during the semifinals and finals, I definitely changed my approach. Throughout the competition, we were focused on impressing the judges – comedians who were looking for originality, confidence, and a sense of who we were as performers. But the audience just wants to laugh! We noticed that the acts that got the biggest laughs were the ones who advanced. So, for the finals, I decided to focus solely on being as funny as possible. That meant doing whatever got the biggest reaction, even if it was a bit crude or simple. My goal was to take those easy jokes and add a clever spin to them. I just wanted to say the most outrageous things I could think of.

The roast round was definitely the most challenging part of the competition. Unlike the other rounds, it wasn’t traditional stand-up. As a comedian, I’m used to having time to prepare and knowing who I’m performing for, but a roast is different. It felt especially tough because none of us were really known for roasting – it wasn’t our strong suit. I doubt any of the ten comedians involved would have been chosen if Marshawn Lynch was actually holding the roast, especially since I don’t even follow football!

They asked me to write a roast of Marshawn Lynch and I think I had about a week and a half to prepare. That’s a reasonable amount of time if you’re organized, but honestly, I didn’t become a comedian to do homework and manage my schedule. That’s actually why I dropped out of college – not why I started doing comedy.

Going through that competition felt really strange and unreal. Did that shared experience bring you and the other finalists close together? Absolutely! That was a major benefit for all of us. After the initial rounds, the top ten comedians had already been through a lot. It felt like preparing for another battle, but we’d already fought our way to the top ten together and become a tight group. Even those who joined us from earlier in the competition were incredibly supportive, and we all celebrated each other’s success. It’s rare to find a situation where so many comedians benefit equally – we all got the opportunity to be featured on Netflix.

Even before the final competition, we all felt like we’d already achieved success. Several people mentioned this to me yesterday, and I especially remember Dave Chappelle – I actually met him! – pointing out that this Netflix show will likely be seen by more people than any winning special, meaning we’ve already gotten great exposure.

I really believe this special will get more views than many Netflix specials are getting now, especially since you’ve had time to build an audience. It’s similar to winning American Idol – people have expectations for your music. If I were a completely unknown comedian releasing a special, viewers might be more forgiving, or gradually start to like it. But in your case, there’s a lot of pressure to really deliver and make the most of this chance.

Given how much material I used for the show, I need some time to prepare a new hour of material. I definitely need to work on it now. Luckily, winning the competition means my brother Kevin is going to give me the resources and gym time I need to create something really strong. I wouldn’t want to rush and just put something together quickly; I want to use this opportunity to build a great hour of material properly.

Are they pressuring us with a specific filming date to keep the current excitement going?

I haven’t received any details about that yet. I’m still recovering from yesterday’s intense work! But my current plan is to aim to film each hour-long segment over the next month. That way, I can make consistent progress and have everything ready when Netflix needs it, without feeling rushed.

Now that you’re getting more recognition, what are your goals, both in comedy and beyond? It’s interesting to think about how comedians want to expand their careers. Kevin Hart has really set the standard for what many of us aspire to. Previously, someone like Steve Harvey showed a path by hosting various shows. But Kevin Hart has done it all – he even has his own shoe line! As a comedian who isn’t particularly tall, that’s impressive. He’s also successful in movies, books, and even music, with his rap persona, Chocolate Droppa. Plus, he runs his own production company. My friend, KevOnStage, is also showing a great model for building a career outside of stand-up.

Right now, I’m really focused on taking advantage of this current success and working as much as possible. When you’re starting out in comedy, you can’t just ask for opportunities – you have to prove you can draw an audience. I want to be able to perform regularly and refine my material. It’s like finally having a place to practice after wanting one for so long – I’m just eager to get started.

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2026-05-07 20:56