There are few comics who can tell a story as well as stand-up comedian Ron Shock tells it, and there's no one who can tell a Ron Shock story better than Ron Shock. The personal biography on his website starts with the line "comedy from a life fully lived" and it is from a rich and colorful past that Shock draws the stories for much of his humor.

Shock jumped the corporate ship at age 40 from the vice president's chair in a Fortune 500 publishing company to become a stand-up comic. Before that, he was a student at the seminary, a demolition expert in the military, an "invited guest" at a maximum security penitentiary, and, as Shock puts it, a successful jewel thief... until he wasn't (which led him to the previously mentioned residency).

In the early part of his career, Shock was part of a group in Houston called the Texas Outlaw Comics, a collection of comedians that included, among others, himself and the late, legendary Bill Hicks. Shock has a series of videos on his YouTube channel chronicling his experiences on the road and in the clubs with Hicks.

He tells how Hicks in the early part of his career would try to sell Shock as an opener to clubs because Hicks didn't have the money for a plane ticket nor a car to get him to a gig. He tells how he and Hicks went looking for a guy at one club in Atlanta who was supposedly stealing one of Bill's signature bits. These videos showcase Shock's natural storytelling ability, and it makes for great viewing for those who are in a love with stand-up.

Currently based in Las Vegas, Shock tours through much of the US and Canada, including numerous visits to south-east Michigan. It's his ability to find the humor in any situation, to ferret out stupidity and expose it to the light of day all in a casual Oklahoma drawl that make him riveting on the stage. His jokes cover topics ranging from the lunacy of Oral Roberts, to abandoning his car in New Orleans at a busy intersection only to go up to the police station and ask for it back the next day, to the wild path his early life took that led him to be a comic and a storyteller on stage today.

Ron Shock will be playing Ann Arbor this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase including local comedian Mike Evitts as an opener.