Ralphie May interview

Lauren: Hi Ralphie, how are you?

Ralphie May: I'm great how about you guys?

Kelsey: We're great.

R: I thought our interview was tomorrow.

K: Oh we were told today, we can call back tomorrow.

R: No this is great, let's get started.

L: So what were you like as a kid?

R: Well I was always goofing around and playing tricks on people. I focused my attention on that instead of the school work.

K: Did you always want to become a comedian?

R: Oh yeah, I always enjoyed making people laugh and getting that type of reaction to a joke that I told.

L: So do you consider Last Comic Standing your big break?

R: Last Comic Standing was a great opportunity and it was a great learning experience. Even though I didn't win, I've had more success than the actual winner.

K: Well I definitely think you were the fan favorite.

L: Did you ever think that your size would hinder you chances at becoming successful in Hollywood.

R: Well I never thought it would but the other day I auditioned for the part of a fat guy and they told me I'm too fat to play a fat guy, and I said you've lost your f-ing mind, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's laughable, it's so ludicrous. The role was a guy that was so fat he was eating himself to death because his mother died; alright I'm too fat to play a guy that's eating himself to death.

Kelsey: So you were part of the reality show Celebrity Fit Club, do you think you'd ever do reality TV. again?

R: You know I loved Celebrity Fit Club, my manager and my agent don't want me to do any more reality TV., so I auditioned last week for C.S.I. They push stuff on me like that. Celebrity Fit Club had a lot of heart especially if people go into it with a positive attitude like I did, like this is going to be a positive experience. I made a lot of head way in my life and for that I got a lot of people who respect me for what I did on that show, and they've never even see me do standup or saw me on Last Comic Standing, they just saw me on that show. I get emails, 15-20 a week you inspire me to lose weight, I lost 155lbs because of you, at one time I was bigger than you and you wrote back to me and told me to just get out and walk dude, walk and eliminate all sugar you drink, if you do that you'll lose weight. And the guy goes when he started walking he could only make it half a block and how he's lost 200 lbs and walks 6 miles a day.

K and L: Oh my!

R: So when you make that type of positive impact, it's amazing. He's met a new girl; he's going to get married. He's livin' the dream

K and L: that's great, that's amazing

K: You are married, has your wife and your family always been supportive of your aspirations in the entertainment business?

R: My wife is also a standup comic, so yes it's something for me that's awesome. She's a beautiful girl; I really married above my level. She was with me when I was a lot heavier and a lot broker and when you have that type of thing in your life you can do anything you're given and my mother always supported me and always believed in me and even though she didn't agree with it, there were a lot of easier roads I could have taken, instead I ended up being a standup. But she said that whatever you want to do is what you want to do. And they kind of like it, they think it's funny, they always want me to write jokes about them but when something bad happens they go don't put this in your act. Then they go aww you're going to make this into a joke.

L: I would like it, I would like if you made fun of me on stage. So who would you consider you're biggest inspiration?

R: I would say Sam Kinneson, Richard Pryor, a guy named Bill Hicks he's a brilliant comedian. A guy named Doug Stanhope, one of funniest people I've ever met.

K: So what's next for you, what are you working on?

R: Working on a movie about a fat super hero named Supperman, and we got some big directors involved in that. Another Comedy Central special, that's ready to drop anytime, and I'm working doing late night TV. shows like the Tonight Show and David Letterman. Other than that I'm auditioning for acting, always in the mix, always trying to do more.

L: What celebrities have you met since becoming famous that made you star struck? Or you don't get star struck?

R: No one, A lot of them are just good business people. You know, oddly enough they are usually extremely nice, Buddy Hackett used to call me over to house and we'd talk stories about other comedians. There are very few comics I'd rather talk to if I had my choice of comedians. I met Danny Devito, a brilliant actor; everybody forgets he was in One flew over the cuckoo's nest. You meet all these people, I've met everyone from music stars, Gene Simmons who are fans of me, they go man, and you're an artist. Comedy is the least appreciated art forms but it's one of the hardest to do. We're writers, producers, directors and actors and there are no synthetic machines that can make us better and make people laugh harder. And people are kind of getting that now, they're lookin' at Dane Cook, and Larry the cable guy they're the two biggest forces in comedy right now. It's like we take two steps forward with Dane Cook and Larry as far as acceptance of the art form and then 5 steps back when dumb dumb Michael Richards gets up and has a racial meltdown. I think the guy went crazy to be honest with you. He's not even a comedian, I wish he would come out and say I'm an actor who was trying to do standup comedy and I got shook. If he had just said that it would have been better for my industry.

K: Ok so this here is something we here at PCM like to ask, if you had to pick, Maryann or Ginger?

R: Damn, I think when it comes to women it's like a used car, mileage counts. Ginger looks like she's been around the block, doesn't she, kind of vampy Hollywood. Maryann, Kansas, a farm girl, I don't even know what she was doing over there.

L: Maryann or Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie"?

R: Now Jeannie with the magic powers or Jeannie in general?

L: Powers

R: Oh you gotta take the magic powers, you gotta do that. I mean how many times you can fit in a coffee cup. I'd love to see a two story tall pencil. Jeannie or Bewitched, I still go with Jeannie. That outfit was hot as hell. The pirate episode, the black and white episode, Jeannie came out of the bottle speaking Arabic.