'Funny AF with Kevin Hart' Winner Ron Taylor On His INCREDIBLE Comedy Journey

Ron Taylor just won Funny AF with Kevin Hart, which means he is getting his own Netflix special. His path to that moment started in 2010 in Detroit and involved a van he bought with prize money.

Taylor stopped by the show to walk through the run.

The first inspiration came from a single name.

"Dave Chappelle," Taylor said.

The cadence resemblance is something Taylor has heard before.

"You've got a similar sort of cadence, and your voice sounds like you were born to do this," Rich said.

"Yeah, I've heard that," Taylor said. "It takes a while to develop your own voice, and it takes quite a few years to mature in comedy. So people can still hear some of my influences."

Taylor moved to LA in 2016. The funding mechanism for the move was old-school grinding.

"I did a show at a college in Michigan, and I got, I think, a thousand dollars," Taylor said. "And then I went on BET and I won Apollo Live, or I won like some contest of Apollo Live. I got another thousand dollars. That's two thousand dollars. I bought a van. With that van, I just drove to LA."

Rich asked if the rumor was true that Taylor worked the door of the Comedy Store.

"Yep. I was a door guy, and the reason I was in a van is cuz I didn't want to have to really pay for anything," Taylor said. "Some friends of mine were like, hey, you should try to get a job at the store. I said, I don't want to work there. I didn't know about the lineage of being a door guy there."

Rich pushed Taylor to talk about his Netflix special plans.

The default would be Detroit. Taylor had a reservation about that.

"Detroit would be nice," Taylor said. "But I could imagine it being filled with my family and them just yelling, going, that's not true."

He landed on a theater.

The sports-star intro question was where Taylor's pre-existing material kicked in.

"Give me Cade," Taylor said. "He's doing well right now. Cade Cunningham would come out, people go nuts. And I'm going to need Cade to apologize to me as well."

The story behind the apology request came from a Pistons road trip to LA.

"They were out in LA, the Pistons. And I did a show at the Improv. And they were tight. They were not laughing," Taylor said. "Finally, I just went up there and said, hey, you guys are not laughing like you all are doing well. We're doing fine. You guys are sucking right now."

The bit landed for Taylor, retroactively.

"Brother Cade, I need you to apologize to me for being tight with your laughs back then," Taylor said. "And I want you to bring me out at the Fox."

The room offered an upgrade on the framing.

"Instead of apologizing, he owes you," the cast said.

Taylor took the deal.

"That really hurt my feelings," Taylor said. "I've worked hard on those jokes. You guys should have given it up like I've given it up to you all. I was at the games."