Colonna’s book has ‘perfect ending’
Comedian’s writing includes relationship with punter Ryan
For Jon Ryan and Sarah Colonna, the final chapter is essentially the beginning.
Colonna, a comedian and author, concludes her latest book — Has Anyone Seen My Pants? — by writing about her burgeoning relationship with the Regina-born Ryan, who is a punter with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Shortly after the book went to press, Ryan proposed. Colonna accepted — one day before her 40th birthday. The engagement of a celebrity couple was touted as an exclusive by People magazine on Dec. 30.
“That was interesting,” Colonna says from her home in Los Angeles. “I wasn’t expecting that. I’m sure there were plenty of people going, ‘Who are these people?’ But I thought it was nice to see. They just thought it was a cool story and I thought it was cool that they decided to feature it.
“That’s how I ended up hearing from a bunch of people I hadn’t spoken to for a long time as well. They were going, ‘I just saw on people.com that you’re engaged.’
“It was an exciting day for us. It was a little overwhelming, just because I don’t think I’d ever been used to that kind of coverage in our personal lives, but it was cool. It was really fun. You just kind of have to embrace it.”
Ryan and Colonna embraced one another from the moment they met, early in 2014 — shortly after the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl championship.
Long before they met, Ryan was a fan of Colonna, who appeared on the Chelsea Lately show. Before the NFC championship game on Jan. 19, 2014, Ryan ran into Ross Mathews, who was also a regular on Chelsea Lately, and asked him to put in a good word with Colonna.
Mathews complied with the request. Not long after that, Ryan and Colonna began exchanging messages on Twitter. A flurry of text messages followed. Then came their first date.
“I feel ridiculous saying it, but it’s just so true,” Colonna says. “On our first date, when we finally met face to face — because we’d just been texting for a while — when I opened the door, I just went, ‘Oh ... yeah ... OK ... this is it.’
“You don’t say that to him, because that can send someone running for the hills when you say it on the first date, but I just knew.”
For the past two off-seasons, Ryan has been a regular at Colonna’s live shows. The opposite also applies, in that Colonna has attended more football games than she could have imagined before meeting Ryan.
As a veteran of nine NFL seasons, the former Sheldon-Williams Spartans, University of Regina Rams and Winnipeg Blue Bombers star has always marvelled at his good fortune.
“A lot of the pinch-yourself moments were on the football field,” the 33-year-old Ryan says. “Now, in the past year, a lot of that stuff has been off the football field for me as well. It has been exciting.
“It was exciting the way that we met, and then getting engaged was pretty incredible. And there were things like seeing her on The View. That was memorable, and it was probably more nerve-racking for me than playing in the Super Bowl. It was just another one of those cool moments.”
Lately, Colonna and Ryan have travelled all over the United States as part of a book tour. Ryan is accustomed to road trips, given his occupation, but nothing like this.
“It’s a lot different travel schedule and a lot different road life than I’m accustomed to in football,” he says.
He has also enjoyed his fiancée’s latest book, which is a look at life in her late 30s. Colonna’s first book, Life As I Blow It, was a New York Times best-seller — leading to a clamour for her to produce a sequel.
“When she started writing the book, we hadn’t met yet,” says Ryan, to whom the book is dedicated. “She was kind of writing the book as we were meeting, and then our relationship kind of developed. She didn’t want to leave that part out of the book, so the book kind of ends with her and I getting together. After the book was done, we got engaged.
“It’s kind of interesting because when she started writing the book, she didn’t necessarily know how it was going to end.
“In my opinion, this is the perfect ending.”