Ron Funches on ‘charming’ Travis Kelce and being on ‘Traitors’ with Donna Kelce
Anyone following the new season of “The Traitors” knows that rival contestants — comedian Ron Funches and Donna Kelce — had a special connection through her son, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Now that both have been banished from the “Traitors” castle in recent episodes, Funches is sharing how much he admires “charming” Travis and his mother, and why.
Turns out that was his downfall on “The Traitors.”
Being on the popular show with its celebrity cast was “one of the most intense, unique experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Ups and downs,” Funches said last week on the ESPN podcast “Viewer Discretion.”
“Like I said it before, it’s like a long Scorsese movie where I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ I learned about me. I was thrilled and I never want to watch that again.”
The Oregon comedian has been featured on TV shows including “Blackish” and “Transparent,” has done voice acting work in “The Adventures of Puss in Boots” and “Adventure Time,” and supplied the voice of Cooper in “Trolls.”
He told the podcast’s co-hosts Mina Kimes and David Dennis Jr., who talk about entertainment and pop culture, that he first met Travis when the NFLer hosted the game show “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity” in 2024.
Funches, one of the celebrity panelists on the show, called Travis “an amazing game show host.”
“Never met this man … in my life and was honestly like, ‘All right, football guy, you gonna come in here and host this show? The thing that I want to do? I want to host this show. Let me see what you got,’” Funches said.
“And I’m like, damn, this man (is) charming as hell. I get it, this is why you ... marrying a billionaire. He is so charming and so sweet and so kind.”
Months later, he said, “I was just in Kansas City on the road. Didn’t mention it to him, didn’t bring it up. He sends me a DM, like, ‘Hey, if you and your friends, whoever you got on the road with you, you want to come to the Chiefs game? The box is gonna be full because Taylor’s gonna be there. But I got tickets for you.’
“And I was like, what a sweet guy ... he even checked in an hour before the game started. ‘Hey, I’m going in the phone-off mode, but I want to make sure you got in OK.’
“And so I knew whoever raised him was good people. So when I met who raised him, I was going to treat them with respect and love and joy.”
And that’s how he treated Donna Kelce when he got to Scotland for the show. What he and the other celebs didn’t know, at first, was that Kelce was competing as a handpicked “secret traitor.”
At least they didn’t know that until they sussed her out and banished her in the third episode. Funches was kicked off during episode six, which aired on Jan. 22, in small part because the others suspected him of being in cahoots with Kelce.
“That was my thing,” he said. “I didn’t know that if someone was a traitor I was supposed to be a jerk to them and be mean to them and ostracize them. I didn’t know that.
“If I had known those were the rules I would have followed them. But I was always taught to treat people with respect and kindness.
“Even by the second roundtable, when I knew she was a traitor, I was gonna still ride with her, still want to play games with her because she’s a kind human and a good person.
“And sometimes the challenges were a little difficult for her, so I wanted to make sure I was around to help. I don’t see any issue with that personally, but I guess other people did.”
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