Chicago-based comedian Dan Ronan passed away Friday at the tragically young age of 24. Ronan, who began doing comedy at 15, was a writer/performer for The Late Live Show and a regular at The Lincoln Lodge and other spots around the Chicago comedy scene. Ronan struggled with substance addiction and relapsed after briefly moving to Los Angeles last year before returning to Chicago to be closer to family.
Here’s a bit from Late Live Show co-host Joe McAdam’s heartfelt post about Ronan’s life:
Dan created some of my favorite comedy I’ve ever witnessed. He was truly inspired and I’m really lucky that I got to work with him. His mind worked in a really weird way, something I’m not sure I can relate to, but he was compulsive about comedy. He would be doing 24 hours a day if that were possible. When he wasn’t doing it, he didn’t know what to do with himself. So he clearly created a lot, and honed and perfected things. A discipline I was always jealous of. We talked about that too, he always wanted to know how certain sets went, what I was working on, what jokes worked. He needed comedy, even if it wasn’t his. He stressed more over my sets than I did.
Below are two performances from Dan Ronan; the first one of him playing the demented creator of a comic strip called Skunky Funkybuns on The Late Live Show and the second of him doing standup as himself:
