Interview with Comedian/Viner Ry Doon
I met viner/comedian Ry Doon back in March of 2016, after reaching out to him about starring in a short film I had written. He was one of the few people who actually responded. Iâve always liked the Vine app, and still keep it on my phone. I say that because I know a bunch of people who got rid of it after awhile, but the idea that you have just six seconds to be funny before the viewer swipes you away, still to me, seems fun and challenging in a way. What I enjoy about Ryâs comedy is all the wacky characters that heâs morphed into his account, and the fact that he can get laughs with just facial expressions. Iâm not the only one who thinks heâs funny, just take a look at the 3.6 million followers heâs built up. I really donât want to talk too much during this thing, so hereâs the interview I did with my friend, Ry Doon.
Jon: So you started making Vines in 2013?
Ry: Yes, first month it came out.
Jon: Did you find immediate success?
Ry: No, it wasnât overnight. What happened was, it was a very small community of viners back then and we found each other. I was one of the people putting effort into it. Celebrities were showing their views. Shit like that. I first got known for my Jay-Z impression, so that caught on and then started doing others like this thing called âItâs a beautiful day!â (character voice)
Ry: I would go around to people and say "I love you!" (Alex character voice)
Jon: And then the high society character came along?
Ry: Yes, and then in the summer of 2013, vine itself had become really popular, and I became one of the viners to follow.
Jon: So people started to recognize you on the street?
Ry: It wasnât crazy. There were moments of craziness but it was never like, "Vine guy, whatâs up?"
Jon: One of the vines I liked a lot was the random old man letting you know that he wanted to fuck you. Was that staged at all?
Ry: If there was one vine that blew me up, that was the one. And it was half staged. I went up to him as a stranger and asked âDo you want to dance with me?â and in real life he said âHow can I help you? And I told him âTell me to go fuck myself." So we did it again⌠âDo you want to dance with me?â and he said âGo and fuck yourself,â then I said âWhy wonât anyone dance with me?â and then he improvised âBecause I want to fuck youâ.
Ry: So it was fake, but he really did say that. And, he wasnât trying to be funny, he didnât get it, and it also doesnât make any since. But it works.
Jon: Thatâs one vine that I still think about. I want to know the dynamic and how it all happened.
Ry: Half staged. Sorry. Iâm open about it.
Jon: What vine isnât staged? You-know? Whatâs interesting to me is the fact that you only have six seconds to be funny and thatâs it. There are a lot of people who write off viners and are quick to say they arenât funny, but at the same time they arenât willing to try an be funny in six seconds.
Ry: Yeah, right. Thereâs just some resentful comedians.
Jon: When it comes to including random people in your vinesâŚwhatâs the worst experience?
Ry: Itâs nothing too crazy, thankfully. There was one time in Boston, I went up to a homeless man and I was wearing a wig and I didnât try to hide the fact that I was also filming him and I said âHi, how are you?â (in character voice). I was nice, I wasnât like "fuck you, youâre homeless!â Never mean spirited.
But he did not appreciate me filming him. I told him sorry and I showed him that I deleted the vine but he was being insane, and he started coming after me with a bottle, I think he wanted to smash it over my head. He was shit faced. I started speed walking away. Thought I was clear. It was scary because he wanted to kick my ass.
Then I saw that he started to catch up to me again. I saw him five feet behind getting ready to swing this bottle and I was like âFuck!â So, I jogged across the street and left. So that wasât cool. It was mostly disturbing.
Jon: Seems like he was really upset over nothing.
Ry: I understand, and I deleted it and showed him but itâs the risk you take. He was like, super drunk.
Jon: What would you say is your favorite character to play?
Ry: Probably, Cathy. Although, itâs the most pain in the ass to dress up. The character Alex is fun to do, but I have to put on a lot of make up. Thatâs the biggest pain in the ass.
Jon: You just smear a bunch of lipstick on?
Ry: Yeah, thereâs probably an easier way to do that.
Jon: When you were determining what the character should look like were you putting on makeup and then just like eh, no, and decided to start smearing it on your face?
Ry: No, actually I did it as a tactic to distract people from seeing my phone.
Ry: Â So I made my face look crazy, so they wouldnât see me holding a phone to my chest.
Jon: The immediate reaction is âThis guyâs face is fucked up.â
Ry: Yeah, and to get reactions.
Jon: Thatâs good. I like that.
Ry: The whole lipstick thing⌠itâs super original. Iâm the first person to ever do that. Nah, its not original, I didnât do it to be hilarious. I was not thinking that way.
Jon: You were telling me that you used to beat box in college?
Ry: I was in bands for awhile. I played the saxophone growing up. I was in a band with my friends, starting in Jr. high.
Ry: We were together up until college. Back then we were called Brass. Which stood for Ben, Ryan, Adam, and Sarah. (laughs) Then in high school I played in another band called Cardoza. We were good, and doing pretty well. Doing gigs in Boston. Then we went to college, then dropped out of college and, then the band broke up. Thatâs when I started beat boxing more, I was by myself. Iâm answering this so long. To answer your question, I started beat boxing in my high school band, which was incorporated into live shows, then I would do it in between set breaks, just freestyle stuff.
Jon: Did you do it for rap battles?
Ry: Yeah, at parties. It was also a way to get girls too. I was bad at that. I beatboxed at a party once and this girl came up to me and said âThat was the sexiest thing Iâve ever seenâ (laughs) I responded with âThank you!â I didnât know what to do.
Jon: When I first talked to you were telling me that your career was blowing up thanks to vine and so you were able to sell out your shows, but youâd only been doing your stand up act for two years. Can you talk about the struggle between living up to the vine expectation when people come to see you live, but also how you stay true to your stand up material?
Ry: I started doing stand up three months before vine came out. I started to become recognizable in public, and I would be at an open mic just sucking and being horrible at stand up, and people would recognize me from vine. People would have this idea in their head that I was super funny, because I was funny on vine and was âwell respected,â as much as you can be on vine. So they would see me being awful at an open mic. It was mostly painful for me, stand up is so vulnerable and I felt even more vulnerable, and was like, they think I suck now. I became better at stand up over time, but itâs still Iâm funnier on vine than I am on stage. Arguably, at this point.
Jon: Youâve started to incorporate your characters into your set?
Ry: I just started to do that more. Itâs a struggle to bring the wackiness of my vines into my stand up. But, I have done live vine shows, where I promote it on the vine app and let everyone know its all ages, and itâs on a Sunday afternoon, and itâs designed for my vine audience. Those would sell out. I would do stand up as a character like Cathy, then traditional stand up, then do a video segment where I would show some of my vines, and show horrible comments people left me. In one of the shows I did a bit with Cathy were she was like âuh oh, Iâm getting so nervous, but Iâve prepared for this, sound guy, please play the video.â Then the screen comes down and it was Cathy talking to Cathy. It brought me back to that feeling of presenting projects in high school.
Jon: Are you working on any new characters?
Ry: Actually, after this short film weâre making (us) I plan on killing myself. So no.
Jon: So itâs a picture lock on Ry Doon?
Ry: Doon out. No, I do have new characters that donât really fit on vine. I have some SnapChat characters, when I play with the filters. One of my characters is a British dude whoâs like âI donât like itâ ( British accent). Heâs got emo hair. Itâs fun. I have a character named Caleb, who likes to âpay homageâ to mostly everything. Did you have any skater friends?
Ry: I know a lot of those people, that are like âDonât fuck with the locals, man.â (character voice) Theyâre super into the weather.
Jon: I think your Alex character need his own show. I was watching your Alex vines and I showed it to my girlfriend and we couldnât figure out what accent you were doing? But it was so funny.
Ry: What did you think? Where you like what the fuck am I watching?
Jon: I thought it was funny. The way you were pointing the camera at different objects like your backpack but you would say it like âpack-pack!â. The accent is just madness. I think there is something to be explored there.
Ry: Iâm not sure what to do with it yet.
Jon: Maybe that character just wants to be understood.
Ry: Maybe he has the mind of a three years old âBack pack, right?â (character voice)
Jon: Have you auditioned for Saturday Night Live?
Ry: I have. Iâve sent in two tapes. They watched me, and liked me. It was a dream come true, to even be in that position to have your manger present a tape to those producers, and also to get feed back.
Jon: Thatâs awesome. Can you tell me which characters?
Ry: Yeah, typically they ask for three characters and three impressions.
Ry: I did a fake cholo character, which wasnât really a well established character. I wanted to show I could jump to two different voices. Cathy, fake cholo, and high society. I did five impressions last year, I did Ira Glass, Jay-Z, John Oliver, Bill Burr.
Jon: You can do Bill Burr?
Ry: Only him yelling or whispering. (laughs)
Interview by: Jon Walkup (@jonwalkup)
Edited by: Bri Klaproth (@briklaproth)
For more of Ry Doonâs work: https://vine.co/rydoon (@rydoon)