Funari was born in
Rome, where his father was a coachman. After working as a croupier in casinos in
Hong Kong and
Saint Vincent, he was introduced to stand-up comedy by actor
Oreste Lionello, who had spotted him doing an amateur performance in a Roman nightclub. Funari then specialized in satirical monologues, and in 1970 he made his television debut in the
RAI variety show ''La domenica è un'altra cosa''. In 1980 Funari debuted as TV host and writer with the
Telemontecarlo program
Torti in faccia. In 1981 he created the successful political talk show
Aboccaperta, which was first broadcast on Telemontecarlo and from 1984 to 1987 on
Rai 2. Other television shows he wrote and hosted also include
Mezzogiorno è (Rai 2, 1987–90),
Mezzogiorno italiano (
Italia 1, 1991),
Zona Franca (a TV show he hosted on a network on 75 local TV station following a series of disagreements over his political freedom with
Mediaset, 1992);
Funari news (
Rete 4, 1993-4),
Napoli capitale (Rai 2, 1995-6),
A tu per tu (
Canale 5, 2000) and the Saturday night show
Apocalypse Show (
Rai 1, 2007). In 1994 Funari was invited to edit the newspaper ''
where he also worked as a columnist. He was also a television critic for the magazine Il Borghese''. Funari died on July 12, 2008, at the
San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, where he was hospitalized for five months for lung and heart problems. == Bibliography==