Ralphie May

Ralphie May
May on August 2, 2009
Birth name	Ralph Duren May
Born	(1972-02-17)February 17, 1972 Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	October 6, 2017(2017-10-06) (aged 45) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, radio
Nationality	American
Years active	1989–2017
Genres	Observational comedy
Subject(s)	Wit, word play, satire, sexuality, race, religion, family life, obesity, politics, medicine
Spouse	Lahna Turner ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	2
Website	ralphiemay.com

Ralph Duren May (February 17, 1972 – October 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, known for his extensive touring and comedy specials on multiple media platforms.

Early life

May was born on February 17, 1972, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and raised in Clarksville, Arkansas, the youngest of four children.

At 17, he won a contest to open for Sam Kinison, whom he considered his idol. May explained, "The joke that he liked the best was talking about the drummer (Rick Allen) from Def Leppard. 'After he lost his arm, I felt bad about listening to him. Not that I'm prejudiced against handicapped people, it's just the fact that if I applauded, it was insulting to him, like "Ha! Ha! Look at my use of two hands!"'" Kinison suggested that May move to Houston to further develop his comedy routine. May graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Career

In 2003, May was chosen to participate in the first season of Last Comic Standing. He finished in second place in the competition, with Dat Phan winning first place. Afterwards, May appeared in comedy shows, such as The Wayne Brady Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 2005, he was the only white comedian on The Big Black Comedy Show, which also featured Mo'Nique, Rodman, and Vince Morris.

In 2005, May released his first comedy album Just Correct. He later recorded four Comedy Central specials titled Girth of a Nation (2006), Prime Cut (2007), Austin-tatious (2008), and Too Big To Ignore (2012), as well as two Netflix specials titled Imperfectly Yours (2013) and Unruly (2015). He appeared in For Da Love of Money. May also performed at the "Gathering of the Juggalos 2012".

Personal life

On July 3, 2005, May married comedian Lahna Turner. The couple had two children: a daughter born in September 2007 and a son born in June 2009. The couple filed for divorce in October 2015 and sought joint custody of their children, but their separation could never be finalized.

May struggled with obesity throughout his life. He participated on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club and had gastric bypass surgery in 2004, which lowered his weight to 350 pounds (160 kg). After a bout with viral pneumonia on a cruise in October 2011, May lost 40 pounds.

In November 2011, he suffered a nearly-fatal pulmonary embolism after contracting serious pneumonia on a cruise ship, where a blood clot from his leg became lodged in an artery.

May discussed his grandmother in a number of interviews and credited her with helping take care of him and his siblings as they were growing up. Speaking to the Arkansas Times in 2012, May said, "Thank goodness for my grandmother, she was a hell of a woman. She was really beneficial, she kept us in a stature way above our means and made sure we were taken care of as far as clean clothes and shoes." His Facebook bio also references his grandmother. "When I was a kid, my grandmother taught me how to crochet and how to quilt, and that's kind of how I do an act. I have one-liners, I have dirty jokes, but I also have long stories that are 10 or 20 minutes long and the laughs come every eight seconds. It's a different set. And it's a different life than most people have led."

In an interview with the Arkansas Times in 2012, he discussed growing up in Clarksville, shedding light on some of the hardships he faced. He shared, "It was a hard life growing up. It was a similar story to a lot of people in Arkansas. My mom was a florist. I'm the youngest of four. My father and mother hated each other, and they took it out on us. She'd sue him for not paying child support, then he didn't pay, and that ended up costing us a lot."

In 2013, May and his wife Turner started a podcast together called Perfect 10.

His memoir, This Might Get a Little Heavy, was published posthumously in December 2017.

Death

On October 6, 2017, May went into cardiac arrest and died. May had been battling pneumonia for several weeks and had canceled shows over the previous month, his publicist Stacey Pokluda confirmed following his death. He was 45 years old. It was later published that, hours before his death, May was scheduled to do a meet-and-greet after his final performance at Harrah's in Las Vegas around midnight, but he had already shown signs of his deteriorating condition.

Filmography

Year	Titel	Role	Notes
2002	For Da Love of Money	Otis
2003	Just Correct	Himself
	Whoopi	Sammy	Episode: "The Fat and the Frivolous"
2005	Big Black Comedy: Vol. 2	Himself
	Big Black Comedy: Vol. 4	Himself
2006	Girth of a Nation	Himself
2007	Prime Cut	Himself
	Bangin' With Ralphie May	Himself
2008	The Best of Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen	Himself
	Austin-Tatious	Himself
2012	Too Big to Ignore	Himself
2013	Imperfectly Yours	Himself
	Squidbillies	P-NUT	Episode: "Thou Shale Not Drill"
2015	Unruly	Himself
2016	Inside Amy Schumer	Ralphie
2017	Penn & Teller: Fool Us	Himself
2018	Ralphie May Presents	Himself
2019	What's Eating Ralphie May?	Himself

Discography

Year	Title	Notes
2005	Just Correct
2006	Girth of a Nation
2007	Prime Cut
2008	Austin-Tatious
2012	Too Big to Ignore

External links

• Official website
• Ralphie May at IMDb
• Ralphie May at AllMovie
• Ralphie May at Find a Grave