Episode 742 - Chris Garcia
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck tuckians what the fucking east does what's happening i'm mark maron this is wtf my podcast welcome to it nice to have you uh how are you let's just let's just talk about you for a second what's happening everything okay uh-huh oh really well that's good
Marc:Oh, it's not good.
Marc:Sorry, I misunderstood the tone.
Marc:Oh, Jesus.
Marc:Yeah, that's bad.
Marc:I don't know how I... Yeah, I'm an idiot.
Marc:No, I'm sorry for not being more sensitive.
Marc:I just... I don't know you that well and you sound excited, but now I know that you're really upset.
Marc:Yeah, well, I'm sorry.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, oh, but it's better.
Marc:OK, so that's better.
Marc:Yeah, good.
Marc:Well, that's good.
Marc:It's nice that you have a few things in your life that, you know, you can at least fall back on as being OK and not just that one thing.
Marc:But that'll get better, right?
Marc:Oh, you don't know.
Marc:Well, maybe it will.
Marc:Hopefully it will.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:Okay, well, we'll see what happens.
Marc:But yeah, I mean, I would just keep doing what you're doing, right?
Marc:And if it's not hurting you, only you can know.
Marc:Anyway, I hope that conversation was enjoyable for you.
Marc:I enjoyed my side.
Marc:What's going on?
Marc:This is the first day back in the garage.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:I talked about...
Marc:And re-watching The Sopranos, which I'm still doing, and it seems like a lot of people are doing it.
Marc:That's the weirdest thing about serendipity or coincidence or things that are beyond coincidence.
Marc:Somebody told me that Stern had talked about re-watching it, and then other people were emailing me, and they're like, well, I just started watching it, too.
Marc:I mean, I don't know what's in the air, what's compelling those of us who share that impulse to go watch The Sopranos again.
Marc:Maybe it's some type of stability.
Marc:Maybe there was a time where every Sunday we would look forward to that thing and it gave us stability, knowing that we would be jarred and excited to watch The Sopranos.
Marc:I don't know, but I can't stop watching them.
Marc:I'm happy I am.
Marc:Though it has triggered some things.
Marc:It's triggered some things.
Marc:What can I tell you?
Marc:Today on the show, Chris Garcia is here.
Marc:He's a comedian.
Marc:He's opened for me before.
Marc:I enjoy his comedy.
Marc:He's very funny.
Marc:He's got a new album coming out called Laughing and Crying at the Same Time.
Marc:Uh, well, actually it's available.
Marc:I'm just getting this in just, just in that it's, it's, it's now available, but it's going to come out on vinyl on the 30th on root beer colored vinyl.
Marc:So he'll be here soon.
Marc:I would like to mention an old friend of the show and old buddy of mine, Mike Doty.
Marc:has a new album coming out called The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns, which is apparently a quote I said on this show while trying to kick nicotine gum.
Marc:Happy to help out, Mike.
Marc:I'm glad you got a record coming out.
Marc:It comes out October 14th, and the first video for the single, I Can't Believe I Found You in That Town, premieres today.
Marc:Today, if you want to watch Mike Doty's video, on the music website Brooklyn Vegan, head over to brooklynvegan.com to check it out and pre-order Mike's album wherever you get music.
Marc:Passionate guy, that Doty.
Marc:You might know him from the old days in Seoul, coughing, but he's a worker.
Marc:Intense shit.
Marc:Good.
Marc:Good songwriter, good singer, good guitar player.
Marc:All the shit is good there, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All my tour dates are up.
Marc:All the ones that have been rescheduled are now up at WTFpod.com.
Marc:The Wilbur coming up quickly next weekend, September 24th.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I believe there's some tickets for that late show.
Marc:Campbell Hall at UCSB in Santa Barbara, October 21st.
Marc:Go grab them.
Marc:Largo here in L.A., October 22nd.
Marc:I think there are tickets.
Marc:The Ice House, October 23rd in Pasadena.
Marc:Yup.
Marc:Carnegie Hall.
Marc:They're going.
Marc:Few tickets left.
Marc:I would do that if you're going to do that.
Marc:November 19th at the James K. Polk Theater in Nashville, Tennessee.
Marc:The Vic Theater in Chicago, December 3rd.
Marc:So what's been going on since I last talked to you?
Marc:Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Marc:That's what's been going on.
Marc:I went over, did a wardrobe fitting, did some pictures, did some camera tests for the shoot for the show Glow for Netflix.
Marc:Had to shave off a little bit of my shit.
Marc:So now I look like a stranger in the mirror, but that's good.
Marc:I need to look like a stranger to myself to become the stranger that I will become that has some similar things that I do.
Marc:Very exciting.
Marc:Saw Alison Brie.
Marc:Met a lot of the other people, the other actors.
Marc:Gonna be exciting.
Marc:I went to the set.
Marc:I saw the set.
Marc:It's very exciting.
Marc:All of it's very exciting.
Marc:I read the first two scripts.
Marc:I'm thrilled.
Marc:And then last night, just spiraled.
Marc:Just fucking went right down the goddamn self-toilet.
Marc:Unbelievable.
Marc:I'd forgotten what it felt like to just fall without a net into the never ending pit of insecurity.
Marc:Can I do this?
Marc:Did they pick the right guy?
Marc:Oh, no.
Marc:And then, hey, why don't why don't we look up some psychiatric diagnoses?
Marc:To see maybe you're even worse than you thought.
Marc:Why don't you beat the shit out of yourself for a few minutes about what you ate when you were away?
Marc:Why don't you do a little of that?
Marc:Why don't you do it all at once?
Marc:Have the initial bit of insecurity as opposed to excitement for the new job.
Marc:Why not go the other way?
Marc:Instead of going like, this is going to be great.
Marc:It looks fun.
Marc:Everybody's excited.
Marc:I'm excited.
Marc:No, let's go.
Marc:I can't do it.
Marc:I'm not the guy.
Marc:I'm not good at anything.
Marc:Jesus, what am I even fucking thinking?
Marc:Why am I even a comedian?
Marc:Why do I do a podcast acting?
Marc:That's ridiculous.
Marc:Who am I?
Marc:Who am I?
Marc:Who am I really?
Marc:Man, just plummeting, plummeting down the beautiful pit of self into the pure, damp darkness.
Marc:What got me out of it?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I pulled it together.
Marc:I realized like, hey, this is a symptom.
Marc:It's an old fucking symptom of my brain.
Marc:I'm excited.
Marc:I'm going to do a great job.
Marc:The character is good for me.
Marc:And I don't have any major psychological problems, but I do underestimate how emotionally fucked up I am.
Marc:I like to play that down by not thinking about it.
Marc:That's one way to handle psychological problems.
Marc:Hey, you know, I got these problems.
Marc:Let's not deal with them and not think about it.
Marc:What do you think of that idea?
Marc:Sounds good to me.
Marc:You sure you don't want to take another flight down the pit?
Marc:Nah, let's watch The Sopranos.
Marc:Good idea.
Marc:So my dad, right?
Marc:He was up there.
Marc:I told you he was in Rochester.
Marc:Look, I've let a lot of stuff go.
Marc:I understand who he is.
Marc:I know what the deal is.
Marc:But when I'm freaking out, it all leads up to it.
Marc:I spent two days hanging out with him on and off, and that just kind of...
Marc:Fucks the wiring up a little bit.
Marc:He is who he is.
Marc:There's nothing I can do about it.
Marc:I'm pretty happy with where I'm at in my life.
Marc:And I was sharing that with him about all the things I'm doing and the new show.
Marc:And he was like, you know, he he said he was proud of me.
Marc:And then after this big, long conversation, you know, about maybe a half hour later in the car, he goes, you know, that what's that kid's name?
Marc:The Facebook guy.
Marc:Zucker?
Marc:Zuckerberg?
Marc:Yeah, how do you do that?
Marc:How do you come up with something like that?
Marc:And in my mind, like, it didn't feel like an innocent question.
Marc:It felt like a giant eraser.
Marc:It just felt like, you're not that guy.
Marc:He figured it out.
Marc:You're doing a lot of stuff, but that's Zuckerberg, right?
Yeah.
Marc:And then he talked about winning the lottery, that kind of stuff.
Marc:But I tried to just stay in my own shit, stay detached from his shit, and enjoy my little old dad.
Marc:He's becoming a little old dad.
Marc:Having some trouble with the stairs, that kind of stuff.
Marc:There's no joy in my heart.
Marc:There's no glee in my tone.
Marc:But life will humble you.
Marc:And then I got this email.
Marc:The dad stuff always gets me, you know, this just subject line.
Marc:Thank you, dear Mark.
Marc:I just wanted to take a second to write and compliment you on the recent interview you did with Billy Crystal.
Marc:I had the pleasure of listening to this talk while driving from Chicago to Michigan, where I was going to hook up with some family for a small vacation and
Marc:At one point in the trip, we were all in my father's car on yet another long drive across the peninsula when my dad asked me if I had anything good to listen to.
Marc:I told him about your recent conversation, and since he too is a big Billy Crystal fan, he told me to put it on.
Marc:At first, I couldn't tell if he liked it.
Marc:My dad will give a pilot quiet to things he doesn't really enjoy.
Marc:And for the first few minutes, he seemed to be doing just that.
Marc:now you think right here he could insert but i fast forwarded through the intro but no he said but then billy started talking about the draft lottery and how he was so lucky to get a high number my dad started reminiscing almost immediately about his experience during that very night an experience he had never spoken of before he told me how he was 18 a freshman at penn state watching terrified with all the other guys in their common room most of them including my father were not called till late
Marc:But he went on to say that his friend from childhood had his number called in the first 100, and just a year or so after that lottery, his friend was killed in Vietnam.
Marc:Needless to say, your conversation was very thought-provoking, and it enabled my dad to tell us about a part in his life that I and even my mother and my aunt, who were also in the car, had no idea about.
Marc:It was a very moving moment, and I feel that it brought me closer with my father.
Marc:So for that, I say thank you.
Marc:Keep up the great work.
Marc:I love listening to the podcast, and I hope to see you the next time you're in Chicago.
Marc:Boomer lives.
Marc:Chris.
Marc:I'll tell you, man.
Marc:That makes us the best job in the world.
Marc:It really does.
Marc:It's great to hear that, you know, if something that we put out there and that conversation provokes other conversations, I just, beautiful.
Marc:Got a little choked up when I read that the first time, Chris.
Marc:Thanks for sending it.
Marc:Now, another Chris is on my show right now.
Marc:Chris Garcia, a very funny comedian who talks about his father as well a lot in a very touching way.
Marc:His comedy album Laughing and Crying at the same time is now available.
Marc:And it's going to be out in root beer colored vinyl on September 30th.
Marc:That will include a digital download with a bonus track.
Marc:You can also go to ChrisGarciaComedy.com for his tour dates.
Marc:This is me.
Marc:And the lovely Chris Garcia.
Marc:I think that the first time I met you was at Rooster Teeth Feathers.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You were featuring for me or doing guest spots.
Marc:Was that the week I was there with Searoff?
Marc:No.
Marc:It was you, me, and Sam Murrell.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Who was that guy?
Guest:He was like an East Coast guy.
Guest:He's a New York guy.
Guest:He's great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Is he around?
Guest:Yeah, he's around.
Guest:He's doing super well.
Guest:He is?
Guest:What's he doing?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:He's always like a Comedy Central guy.
Guest:He headlines around.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:He's on TV and stuff, and he's really funny.
Guest:He's like one of the New York guys that are kicking butt.
Marc:But that was the first time I met you.
Marc:You were there.
Marc:I thought you were odd.
Marc:You had a weird energy.
Marc:You seemed sweaty to me.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You had a guitar and you used that, but I thought it was funny.
Marc:I thought it was very funny.
Marc:I enjoyed your act, but I couldn't get a handle on you.
Marc:I thought you were just an odd sort.
Marc:You were kind of like, I didn't know if you were gay or weird or you didn't know how to talk.
Guest:Really?
Guest:You thought I was that?
Guest:Oh, that's great that I put that off.
Guest:I remember you being grumpy and you were pacing around and you'd stop every once in a while.
Guest:You'd be like, you a San Francisco guy?
Guest:And I'd be like, yeah.
Guest:You go, oh, okay.
Guest:And then you'd walk away and then you'd come back and you're like, you going to play guitar?
Guest:Like, yeah.
Guest:And he's like, hmm.
Guest:All right.
Guest:And then you're like, have fun.
Guest:You told me, you told Sam, he's like, you're going to go out there and do your New York shit.
Guest:And Garcia, you're going to go out there and do your sweet, sensitive Latino thing, I guess.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was right.
Guest:I thought it was, I interpreted that as a compliment.
Marc:I sound like I nailed it.
Marc:Yeah, you did good.
Marc:Was that the week where I was all mad about the sound system?
Guest:Yep.
Marc:You were very mad about the sound system.
Marc:Oh, and I forced them to change it and they tried to adjust it and it sucked more.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I heard that they went out and got a whole new system since then.
Marc:Yeah, because of you.
Marc:They did?
Marc:Yeah, they did.
Guest:I think the very next day they got a new system.
Marc:Does it sound better?
Marc:Have you been up there?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I don't remember the sound quality being that bad to begin with.
Marc:But it sounded good.
Marc:It was bad.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So what is the story now?
Marc:Now you just auditioned for SNL because I know I got a text from you.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:What happened with that?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I haven't heard anything yet.
Guest:But yeah, they flew me out there.
Guest:What was the process?
Guest:How did it happen?
Guest:Well, they asked my manager for me to submit a tape of characters.
Guest:Do you have characters?
Guest:Yeah, I do characters and stuff.
Guest:You do?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:Me and Singer do that show, Underbelly, where we do characters and stuff.
Guest:So you have a bunch you've invented?
Guest:Yeah, a bunch of characters.
Guest:What are their names?
Guest:There's Manny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Manny, he's from Ecuador.
Guest:His father's a toucan and his mother's a witch.
Guest:He's just like an odd little guy.
Guest:And I do a bunch of different characters.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I had no idea.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You do impressions?
Guest:Not really.
Guest:Uh, I do, uh, no, I did in the thing, I did Pablo Escobar, uh, reviewing Narcos, the TV show.
Guest:And that was, that was fun.
Guest:But, uh,
Guest:i don't not really an impression guy so they flew you out flew me out yeah and uh since i you know the tape i was like i have no chance of getting this i'm just gonna have fun right i wasn't even going to uh do it because i was like i'm leaving for cuba on like my honeymoon tomorrow yeah i don't have time for this and i was like i'll just put it together and they liked it and then they brought me in to audition at ucb and i was like i have no chance right and you know people were like
Guest:other people backstage doing push-ups and shit like and all hyped really there was that going on there was that and i was like i got no i'm not even a ucb guy this oh my god people doing warm-up exercises in the dressing room singing and stuff really yeah people were getting really getting their game this is a lot of people's dreams and they were really psyched and uh i just was like i have no chance i'm gonna have fun and then i had fun
Guest:And they called me and said they wanted me to fly out and go for it.
Guest:And, you know, you did it.
Marc:Yeah, but it was different.
Marc:Not really, but so you did it.
Marc:You went to the studio.
Guest:I went to the studio.
Guest:I tried not to get psyched up about it and just have fun.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I was like, oh my, you know, he put you up right across from 30 Rock.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And all this stuff.
Guest:And I was, you know, I just got a little... I started getting like pumped up.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like it was a big thing.
Guest:So I went for a run in the rain.
Guest:I was like, I got to run.
Guest:And I started thinking about...
Guest:I was like, I was trying to find mental leverage and I was in like just running through the rain, Rocky style.
Guest:And I was thinking about, I was like, my dad was a fucking political prisoner for two years in Cuba and my family lives there.
Guest:I'm not scared of this Canadian fuck.
Guest:Like he's,
Guest:This motherfucker cannot scare me.
Guest:This is nothing.
Guest:This is a privilege.
Guest:And then I ran through the rain, and the first thing I see in Central Park is Jose Mati.
Guest:It's like this statue of the Cuban.
Guest:He's like the Cuban Abraham Lincoln.
Guest:He's like the national hero.
Guest:And I see it as a sign.
Guest:I start crying and shit.
Guest:I run up to the statue, and I put my hand on it.
Guest:I'm like, oh.
Guest:And at that time, I was like, I'm not playing it cool anymore.
Guest:I am not having fun.
Guest:Crying in front of the statue.
Guest:I just got so pumped.
Marc:Touching the statue for good luck because you thought that all things were moving your way.
Marc:That cannot be a coincidence that I end up in front of this statue of Jose.
Marc:What's his name?
Marc:Madi.
Guest:Madi.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then, you know, I went in and, you know, tried to have fun and it was all right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:How'd you do in the room?
Guest:It was good.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They try not to laugh and stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I got some chuckles and it's intense.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They make you wait for a little while.
Marc:You saw Lauren sitting there?
Guest:Saw Lauren and the crew.
Guest:I think he was there.
Guest:It's just a blur.
Guest:People are just like 30 feet away and these little rafters and they have their little note books and stuff.
Guest:It's horrendous.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It's not in my hands.
Guest:I had fun.
Guest:It'd be cool if I got it.
Guest:Maybe one day I'll tell my kids that I got to audition for it.
Marc:You're already planning that story?
Marc:I'm already planning that story.
Marc:You can do a rough version of what you just did for me now, that all the signs were there, but he let you down.
Marc:Jose, what's his name?
Marc:Jose Mati.
Marc:Jose Mati let you down.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You disappointed the entire country of Cuba.
Guest:My family, everybody.
Guest:I could have been another national hero.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There could have been the Chris Garcia statue.
Guest:The first Cuban on SNL.
Guest:Would you have been?
Guest:I think so.
Guest:I think there's only been like Horatio's Chilean, I think.
Guest:Is he Chilean?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Fred's Venezuelan.
Guest:Right.
Marc:I think that's it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So you would be representing Cuba.
Marc:This would be a good move politically, I think.
Guest:I think I could make the change.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I could be, you know.
Marc:It'd be a good thing for Cuba.
Marc:If you got SNL?
Guest:Oh, it would be huge for both.
Guest:I could be like Rocky in Rocky IV.
Marc:You would be the wall coming down.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that'd be great.
Marc:I don't know if that would be.
Marc:So, but where were you born, dude?
Guest:I was born here in LA in Inglewood.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And both your parents are Cuban?
Guest:Both my parents are from Cuba.
Guest:How many siblings you got?
Guest:I got an older sister.
Guest:She was born in Cuba.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm the first one in my family born here.
Guest:And yeah, my sister's older than I am because my parents, they just didn't have a kid for a while.
Guest:In Cuba, right after they had her, things got tough.
Guest:And then they moved to Spain.
Guest:And they always thought about moving to the United States.
Guest:So they held off.
Guest:Was Spain easier?
Guest:Is that an easier move?
Guest:I mean, why Spain?
Guest:Well, yeah, it was an easier move to go into a big... Yeah, my dad is in exile, and he was pretty much kicked out of Cuba, so that's where he went.
Marc:During the Revolution?
Marc:Can't go that far back.
Marc:How... Right?
Marc:He wasn't... No, my dad... Not in the mid-60s.
Guest:No, it was like the late 60s.
Guest:Here, move that down a little.
Guest:Here we go.
Guest:Late 60s.
Guest:There you go.
Guest:But I actually...
Guest:Just learned a lot of his backstory that I was not ever really kind of told by my family.
Guest:Because you just went to Cuba.
Guest:Because I just went there.
Marc:I want to get to that.
Marc:Okay, we can fill in the backstory.
Marc:What was the story that you got as a kid?
Marc:So you're growing up in Inglewood.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:How did you end up in the Bay Area?
Marc:Are they still here?
Marc:Yeah, my parents are in LA.
Marc:Okay, so that was your own move.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I lived in Inglewood and then Westchester for a couple years.
Guest:Westchester, New York?
Guest:Westchester, LA, just right next to LAX.
Guest:That's where I grew up.
Guest:And then my parents, they lost their house, and so they moved to North Redondo, like to an apartment in North Redondo so I can go to a school in Manhattan Beach for high school.
Guest:So you had the beach.
Guest:Redondo's a nice beach.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it was nice.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah, my parents, yeah, they moved to North Redondo so I can go to school in Manhattan, a school called Miracosta.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And since my dad was out of a job, he was in the adult ESL program.
Guest:What's ESL?
Guest:English as a second language.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:So my dad was in the, like, bungalow across from my classroom.
Guest:And so my dad went to school at the same time as me for my first year at that school.
Guest:Was that embarrassing or nice?
Guest:That was pretty embarrassing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Because he was just always there.
Guest:Like, I was in... Did you eat lunch with him?
Guest:I did not eat lunch with him.
Guest:He tried.
Guest:Oh, you iced your dad?
Guest:I was a teenager.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:Yeah, I did not eat lunch.
Marc:I tried to avoid it.
Marc:So, like, other kids are like, is that your dad?
Marc:And you're like, yeah, but it's all right.
Marc:You just saw him eating by himself?
Marc:Pretty much.
Guest:I don't know what he did for lunch, but I was just in that, in those bungalows for homeroom, like second period.
Guest:And then after that, I was just off to my other classes.
Guest:Yeah, I was out.
Guest:But I would see him every morning.
Marc:You didn't go to school together?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:He took you to school.
Guest:and yell at me and stuff and embarrass me and he was he tried to get super involved like with baseball he got super involved and because you know it's like a Cuban pastime and uh he I didn't make my sophomore year I didn't make JV I made frosh soft yeah and I told and my dad was so pissed off about it and he straight up was like you didn't make it because because you jerk off too much he was like you masturbate too much and he's like you got nothing left on the tank and
Guest:Nothing left in the tank.
Guest:And he totally called me on it, and it was kind of true.
Guest:I was just jerking off too much.
Guest:How did he know?
Guest:They know, huh?
Guest:Yeah, small apartment.
Guest:He was waiting to turn that on you.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Did he do that in front of people?
Guest:No.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:I didn't declare it in front of my biology teacher.
Marc:Well, what was his job?
Marc:What did you know about him in terms of... What was the family mythology of why he had to leave Cuba?
Guest:The mythology was that it was really tough for him for being not communist.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And he...
Guest:Was sent away to work in some fields.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then because he wasn't communist and he was separated from my mom and my sister who was like a year or two old.
Guest:And then after that he was like kicked out of the country and he like moved to Spain.
Guest:That was the story.
Guest:That was the story.
Guest:And what was his occupation when you were younger?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, a machinist.
Guest:So he worked like at, um, aerospace jobs and stuff like that.
Guest:And even though I think it was frustrating for him because he was really smart and, um, kind of like an engineer type, but he came to America as like 37, like his late, like mid late thirties.
Guest:So he was just like, he just got factory jobs as a machinist and just worked as a machinist the rest of his life.
Marc:But by the time you started high school, he'd been out of work and he couldn't really speak English or what?
Guest:Yeah, his English wasn't strong.
Guest:Like he came in his mid-30s and he just hit the ground running and just started working immediately.
Guest:So he spoke with broken English and was always trying to figure out a way to...
Guest:Like he's very ambitious and he put a lot of that into me just to focus on me to have a better life.
Guest:But he he was always trying to like, you know, hustle, get a better job and stuff like that.
Guest:So while he had unemployment or whatever, he's like, I'm going to try to improve my English to get a better job.
Guest:uh-huh and your mom was did what my mom was uh like a um a electronic assembler like she was a factory worker where she like she'd do whatever like she was a person if you see like a keyboard that says like inspected by number 35 oh yeah that was my mom she'd like she was number 35 my mom was number 35 and she did that um pretty much her whole career they both they were both factory like blue collar wow did your dad work over at lax at all
Guest:No, he didn't work at LAX, but he worked at those aerospace companies over there like McDonnell Douglas and Northrop and Rockwell and JPL.
Guest:He bounced from place to place.
Guest:And as the economy got worse in the 90s, a lot of those jobs went to overseas.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so jobs like more manual stuff like machinists, those jobs started disappearing.
Guest:They got pushed out.
Guest:Started going like being made by robots.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So he had a very skilled trade that just started disappearing.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And when you were younger, was baseball the thing you wanted to do?
Marc:Or were you just doing that?
Guest:Oh, I loved baseball.
Guest:What position were you?
Guest:Pitcher, first base, and right field.
Guest:All the left-handed stuff.
Guest:And I wasn't very athletic, but my dad is a badass.
Guest:And at a young age, I already knew how to bunt and throw a curveball.
Marc:He's a big baseball guy.
Guest:Big baseball guy.
Guest:Who was your team?
Guest:I'm a Dodger guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I grew up with the Dodgers, like hometown kid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Did you go over to watch the games?
Guest:I would go to the games with the kid and watch Fernando and like Steve Sachs, all the like the 80s.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, all right.
Marc:So you're going to baseball games.
Marc:You're an LA kid.
Marc:Are you like, do you have friends?
Marc:Do you have a car?
Marc:Are you going into Hollywood?
Marc:When do you start getting interested in, you know, fucking your life up with show business?
Marc:As a little kid.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Just like being a latchkey kid.
Guest:How much older is your sister?
Guest:12 years.
Guest:Oh my god.
Guest:Do you know her?
Guest:I know her pretty good.
Guest:Not like someone that's my age, but we've gotten closer and closer.
Guest:But by the time I was eight, she was out of the house.
Guest:She was married already.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Still married?
Guest:Still married.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:Nieces and nephews?
Guest:I got nieces and nephews and everything.
Marc:Oh, you're like a regular guy.
Marc:A regular dude.
Marc:Yeah, maybe that's what I was sensing when we were working together.
Marc:Like, what's wrong with this guy?
Marc:Yeah, what's wrong with this dude?
Marc:Looks like he had a pretty good family.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, when you were young, you started moving towards... Yeah, I was just like class clown.
Guest:Like, I was always, even when I was in a Latin school, I stuck out because I was light-skinned.
Guest:Or when I transferred to other schools, you know, I had a funny lunch, you know, or my parents spoke funny.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we had a shitty car, so it was always kind of an outsider.
Guest:Yeah, what kind of car?
Guest:My parents had a Gremlin.
Guest:They had a Nova.
Guest:They had, like, a bunch of old... Now cars that would be kind of cool.
Guest:Novas are pretty cool.
Guest:People hot rod those things.
Guest:Yeah, so that type of, you know, American car.
Marc:Yeah, good American car.
Marc:The Gremlin was an odd car.
Marc:Dodge Dart.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Those were pretty... People like those, too.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Because you make them go fast, too, I think, right?
Marc:Yeah, you can make those go fast.
Marc:The Nova is what people love.
Marc:Or am I thinking of...
Marc:Yeah, Chevy Nova, you could turn those out, right?
Marc:Yeah, those are badass.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So, all right, so you're that kid.
Guest:I'm that, I'm just the kid that's, you know, I'm hanging out and all my other, like, I went to a Catholic school in Westchester when I grew up in Englewood, which is, Westchester's a little, at the time was like a better neighborhood and my parents didn't want me to go to school in LA USD anymore.
Guest:And so I went to a school in Westchester and all this like immigrant kids were just like, it was the...
Guest:Kids that had mustaches in fifth grade are hanging out like the, you know, me and the Palestinian kid and the Lebanese kid and the Italian kid and the Filipino kid.
Guest:The Russian kid?
Guest:There was a Russian kid and it was just us and our little...
Guest:UN that we had in the corner.
Guest:And it was, you know, it was the same kids for like a long time, same 30 kids in the same school.
Guest:But it was mostly like- So you're always like isolated with those kids?
Guest:No, I mean, they ended up being okay, but I found out that my way to assimilate and become friends with people is to be the funny kid.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so I looked back, I was at my mom's house looking through storage the other day, and I found a yearbook from when I was like in second grade, and it was signed by Sister Perpetua, like the nun that said-
Guest:to chris the comedian oh really i was just like always either because i was that was a nice way of saying you were a pain in the ass yeah a very nice irish catholic way to say that was a pain in the ass but i think because also i spent a lot of time at home by myself when my parents were at work i was just watching you know the cosby show and just watching like i love steve martin and all that stuff were you watching those uh those afternoon talk shows or was that before your time
Marc:I watched some of those, but it wasn't really super easy to.
Marc:Well, yeah, but they weren't featuring comedians then.
Marc:There was that gap.
Marc:You were probably too young for Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas and all that shit that I saw when I was a kid.
Guest:I guess it was Jenny Jones.
Marc:I think she was a comedian.
Guest:She was a comedian.
Marc:I think she was from Seattle.
Marc:I don't know what happened to her.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:She was kind of a comedian.
Marc:I'd always see her pictures at comedy clubs.
Marc:I never saw her perform or anything.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And she did a talk show though, like Phil Donahue style.
Marc:Yeah, on like channel, not one of the major networks.
Guest:She was like channel 13 or 11 or something.
Guest:How's your Cuban?
Marc:My Cuban?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:My Spanish?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, it's great.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah, it's- All intact?
Marc:All intact.
Marc:Is that straight up Spanish or is it Cuban Spanish?
Marc:So I'm not being condescending.
Guest:No, no, that's fine.
Guest:uh it's cuban spanish is a little different it's faster it's very loud yeah it is a very loud span a lot of slang yeah and you only pronounce like half the word and so sometimes uh so when i was there at first uh it took a little getting used to i was like okay i have to really turn it up
Guest:And by the end, it was fine.
Guest:But at the beginning, I was like, hola, ¿cómo estás?
Guest:And by the end, I was like, oye, tipo, ¿cómo estás?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:It was really- Got the intonation going?
Guest:Really got the intonation because I wanted to because it was like, you know, I think- Was it second nature in a way?
Marc:I mean, did you grow up with that or were your parents sort of like trying to speak English?
Guest:My parents, I mean, I always spoke Spanish at home and I still speak Spanish with my family except for my sister.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they're not super-
Guest:kind of flamboyant.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They're not like that.
Guest:They're more mild-mannered.
Guest:My dad's like a hot-blooded Cuban type of guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he's not loud and obnoxious.
Marc:He's not out in the street playing dominoes?
Marc:He's not out in the street.
Guest:Is that wrong?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:That's cool.
Guest:But he's like more, he's not like super Miami.
Guest:You know, Miami's like more flashy and everyone, my dad's like, you know, he's an engineer type and stuff.
Marc:You have to understand, the only images I have of Cuba are like people smoking very large cigars and playing dominoes in the street.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Does that happen there?
Marc:Yeah, people are smoking cigars, people are playing dominoes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:People are driving old cars.
Marc:Right, because I almost went.
Marc:We were trying to plan a trip.
Marc:I don't remember which woman it was with.
Marc:But before, I guess it's now getting a little easier, but, you know, when we were looking into it, you had to fly through Mexico, from Mexico City or somewhere.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then, you know, it was very vague about whether or not, about renting a car, about whether there was lights, about where you stay.
Marc:Like, it was not... Like, as interested as I was to maybe go there before it opened up, it seemed like it wasn't going to be an easy trip in terms of getting there.
Marc:And I'm not...
Marc:I can handle a lot, but it just sounded like, I don't know.
Marc:I've traveled with you.
Guest:Where do we go?
Guest:We just went around the Midwest and stuff.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Guest:Cleveland and Minneapolis and Chicago.
Marc:Yeah, you did all those shows with me.
Guest:It's not easy traveling.
Guest:It's a little complicated.
Guest:With me?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:With you, it's easy to travel.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In Cuba.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like, it's not, things are never, there's a lot of bureaucracy.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:There's a lot of like, almost like secrecy.
Guest:Like, it's hard to get an answer, a straight answer from someone because it might affect somebody else, you know?
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:You ask someone like, hey, how much is a cab to, you know, in Malecon or something?
Guest:They'll be like, I really don't know.
Guest:And you're like, oh, you really do know.
Guest:You just don't want to say the price because it might, someone else might try to get a different price out of you.
Guest:And then you're the person that snitched on what the right price is.
Guest:And so you got to ask like a bunch of people sometimes to be like, hey, how much is this?
Guest:And they're like, I don't know.
Guest:Somebody's like, oh, it could be 20.
Guest:And you're like, it's not fucking 20.
Guest:It's like five.
Guest:So it sounds like a little bit of an aggravation.
Guest:Nah, well, it's just different.
Guest:It's not aggravation.
Guest:I was just like, it's just a little more complicated than it is here.
Marc:All right, so now you're, like, in high school, you're watching TV, you're doing this shit.
Marc:How do you end up in the Bay Area?
Marc:How do you end up committing to comedy?
Marc:And, you know, when does that start?
Marc:I mean, class clown business and...
Guest:I was class clown.
Guest:I went, I finished school at, uh, in Manhattan beach and then I went to community college for a couple of years.
Guest:And then I went to Berkeley to finish off, uh, you know, the rest of my education.
Marc:So you really locked down, huh?
Marc:You got the, you got community college and you locked in your grades in high school are okay or not good enough or what?
Guest:Yeah, they were fine, but I just couldn't really afford and I wanted to go kind of do a better school than I could have.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because I think after a couple years, at first I felt a little lost in high school and then I was like, oh, I can do this.
Guest:I did Model UN and that was big on me.
Guest:With all your old friends that you came up with?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:We just took over the world and these simulated debates and it made me kind of, I traveled a little when I did Model UN and I went to Georgetown and Berkeley to do these debates and
Guest:And I was like, oh, I can roll with these kids.
Guest:And be in front of people.
Guest:I could be in front of people.
Guest:Those early debates were like early stand-up because they'd just be like the funny.
Guest:And you'd write it all out?
Guest:I'd write it all out and do little routines and win debates.
Guest:I was a good debater.
Guest:I don't know anything about structured debate.
Marc:Yeah, I didn't really either.
Marc:You make your point, they make their point, you answer back, they answer back, and then you see?
Guest:You start a delegation and you figure out little ideas with other countries.
Guest:Oh, that was the UN part.
Guest:Just debating.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you'd go up and have a position paper and you'd read your statement and stuff like that.
Guest:You never thought about getting into politics or service?
Guest:I did at that time, but that was just... Youngster stuff.
Guest:Little youngster stuff.
Guest:But so I was like, oh, I could.
Guest:And then I remember I did a debate at Berkeley and I was like, this is where I want to go.
Guest:What was it about Berkeley?
Guest:It was just cool.
Guest:Like it was, you know, my parents are very conservative Cubans, like a lot of Cubans are.
Guest:And Berkeley is the opposite.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Of that.
Guest:Conservative what?
Guest:With like Catholic conservative?
Guest:Yeah, they're religious.
Guest:They're just a lot of Cubans come from Cuba and they're like, you know, communism, socialism.
Guest:No, thank you.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I'll just be the opposite of that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They're good people, but that's how, you know, they're more on the Republican side.
Marc:So conservative, like fiscally conservative, like real pro-capitalism.
Guest:My dad was just like Ronald Reagan all the way.
Guest:Make your own way.
Guest:Like even, you know, space industry and like that stuff kept my dad in business because he, you know, made parts that went in the space shuttle or were part of like, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:naval ships.
Guest:He worked in that, so he was USA all the way.
Guest:And he felt that connection.
Marc:When the shuttle went up, he was like... Oh, yeah.
Guest:I remember when I was a little boy and the Challenger happened, and it was really hard on him because he took so much pride in working in aerospace and stuff like that.
Guest:And he would tell me when he was a kid in Cuba that he would think about... He would stare at the stars and think about space.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And think about and know that...
Marc:Well, you know, they find out now that the guy, you know, someone tried to rally against that.
Marc:One of the engineers knew that the seals wouldn't hold at a certain temperature.
Marc:It was really only... Oh, crazy.
Marc:Oh, dude, the guy, I think he might have just died, but it was a burden on him his whole life.
Marc:He tried to argue.
Marc:He knew that the seals, like, they couldn't take off and the temperature they were taking off and because the seals would not...
Marc:tolerate it and he told them that and then he was voted down yeah and they fucking just winged it and blew those people up yeah it was one of those stories and he he lived with the burden of of of not being able to convince wow like he stood his ground but it was not enough to make them not send it off oh that's not
Marc:Yeah, I heard it on NPR.
Marc:Oh, of course.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, it wasn't your dad's fault, is what I'm saying.
Marc:Oh, thank you.
Marc:Yeah, it had nothing to do with whatever parts he made.
Guest:It'd be great if it was.
Marc:It'd be horrible.
Guest:This is what I'm here to talk to you about, Mark.
Marc:Oh, no, no, no.
Marc:I'm going to break big news.
Marc:So you're up at Berkeley at the hippie school.
Marc:I'm at the hippie school.
Guest:Hippie Ivy League school, right?
Guest:No, it's not Ivy League, but it's a good school.
Guest:And so I went there.
Guest:I was also in love with a girl that went to school in Portland, like a high school sweetheart that went to school in Portland.
Guest:So I was like, well, Berkeley's closer.
Guest:Were you going up there too?
Guest:Yeah, I would go up there and go back and forth.
Guest:I got my heart broken.
Guest:I started a bunch of shitty bands.
Marc:Oh, you played guitar in bands?
Marc:Yeah, played guitar and sang.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So that was like what I saw and what you still sing about.
Marc:I haven't seen you with the guitar in a while.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The La Bamba joke.
Marc:Is that on the record?
Marc:It's on the record.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:With the guitar?
Marc:No guitar.
Guest:No guitar on the album.
Marc:Oh, really interesting.
Marc:You chose no guitar.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It was hard to let it go.
Marc:Is that what happened?
Guest:No, it was like, it was a phase that I went through because I started seeing up with no guitar and then I was like, oh, I'm going to just play guitar.
Guest:Try to integrate it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Many a person has tried that.
Marc:Few keep it in.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Hard to transcend the reputation of the guitar act.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Don't want to have the- I don't want to be the guitar guy.
Guest:No one wants to be the guitar guy.
Guest:But everyone's like, oh, well, I guess he's doing guitar.
Marc:Yeah, he's the guitar guy.
Marc:Who's Chris Garcia?
Marc:The guy with the guitar?
Marc:Oh, God.
Marc:He closes with that guitar bit.
Marc:Ugh.
Marc:It was a phase.
Marc:No, I had good jokes.
Marc:I had good stuff that came out of that.
Marc:No, I liked it.
Marc:I liked it.
Marc:So you were playing in sensitive, emo, funky bands?
Guest:A band called Love Minus Zero.
Guest:What?
Guest:I know.
Guest:It's a Dylan song, you know?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It was very emotional.
Guest:I also was a creative writing poetry major, so I was pouring my heart out into poems.
Guest:See, this is what I felt for me.
Guest:That's what it was.
Guest:You felt this little heartbroken kid.
Marc:Yeah, it wasn't the normal guy.
Marc:I was like, this guy's got some heaviness.
Marc:Seems sensitive.
Marc:Yeah, that's what I felt.
Marc:Yeah, I'm a sensitive guy.
Guest:But I'm not like a crybaby.
Guest:I don't wear it.
Guest:I don't know that week.
Guest:Ha, ha, ha.
Guest:I do cry.
Marc:I thought you might cry that week.
Marc:But I'm not a wimp.
Marc:But I am sensitive.
Marc:Who am I?
Marc:I'm a pretty big pussy.
Marc:But we ended up working together.
Marc:We traveled together.
Marc:You opened for me.
Marc:We were in Cleveland together.
Marc:We had a nice conversation.
Marc:Were you there for that?
Marc:Remember when we sat there?
Marc:That was an amazing moment.
Marc:That was really cool.
Marc:like because we you and i performed in the same theater complex that dennis miller and bill o'reilly did a show like literally down the hall and we were out front i was smoking a cigar you were you were smoking cigarettes you still smoke no and uh that guy sat next to us and he had gone to the o'reilly thing and i chose not to bring politics into it and he just laid out his life for us it was this interesting southern life he was a vet right he was in vietnam yeah he was in vietnam
Marc:And you and I had that realization that if I brought politics into it, we would have not had that conversation.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We would have just pigeonholed the guys like, oh, that guy's an asshole.
Marc:And it was just this beautiful kind.
Marc:It was moving in a way.
Marc:It was superhuman.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he seemed to get emotional, too, about talking about this stuff.
Marc:It was pretty wild.
Marc:Cleveland's interesting.
Marc:It was cool.
Guest:And it was like it felt so symbolic.
Guest:We're just sitting on a bench in the middle of the Rust Belt.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Not talking about politics.
Marc:Talking America.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So you're in Berkeley.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're being a poet.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you studied poetry, creative writing?
Guest:I studied poetry and creative writing.
Guest:Did you publish some poems?
Guest:I had some stuff and like I worked at the literary magazine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like I was like an editor.
Guest:I did that.
Guest:Like an entertainment editor or some sort of editor.
Marc:Dude, this is what I'm telling you.
Guest:You saw...
Marc:You see me in you.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I was the editor of the Literary Journal.
Marc:I wrote poetry.
Marc:I was that guy.
Marc:I killed that part of me.
Marc:Me too.
Marc:We didn't, though.
Guest:We really didn't.
Guest:I tried.
Guest:I burned those moleskins.
Guest:Did you?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I found some poems recently when I was looking through stuff.
Guest:Taking it pretty seriously?
Guest:Pretty serious.
Marc:I never understood that because I wanted to do poetry too, but you couldn't pick something with less of a future.
Marc:Comedy has more of a future.
Marc:It's like if you're going to be a poet, you probably got to stay in academia.
Marc:You got to publish poems that are only important to other poets and a few people that read poetry.
Marc:It's so insulated and precious.
Marc:I think it's important.
Marc:I like reading good poetry occasionally.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, uh, but I, I don't know what the future is in it.
Guest:It was so, my parents must've, they never were like, that's, you shouldn't do that.
Guest:But I can't imagine them sacrificing everything.
Guest:You didn't feel the weight of it?
Guest:No, I didn't really feel it.
Guest:Uh, cause I was, you know, academia and I was really pursuing this.
Guest:And you graduated from Berkeley?
Guest:Yep, I graduated.
Guest:It took me a while.
Guest:I didn't do it in two years.
Guest:I took some time off and went back and finished.
Guest:When did you start stand-up?
Guest:Because I think stand-up's a reasonable extension of poetry.
Guest:Yeah, I think so.
Guest:Well, I did poetry slams.
Guest:I would do funny poetry slams.
Guest:I know.
Guest:Did you ever go up against Jamie Kilstein?
Guest:No, I did not go up against Jamie Kilstein.
Guest:I did go up against this guy, Bo Sia, who's a great, he's still like a good poet guy that I looked up to.
Guest:But there was like a big scene in Oakland and Berkeley at the time, and that's another taste.
Guest:I think I was always kind of skirting stand-up, but didn't do it.
Guest:I was in bands.
Guest:I did poetry.
Guest:I took an improv class in college, and while I was there, the director of the science theater, there's a public science center.
Guest:And the director was like, hey, we have a children's theater.
Guest:Would you like to be one of our improvisers?
Guest:And so I got a job doing improv for little kids.
Guest:Oh, how was that?
Guest:About the brain.
Guest:It was really cool because I was just like 20 or something.
Guest:And all the other improvisers were like seasoned Bay Area improvisers and actors who had like a good day job with benefits.
Guest:So they were all really talented.
Guest:And I was like the new kid.
Guest:Who were they?
Guest:Did you know any of them from television or anything?
Guest:No, but they were all working professional actors that were part of companies and stuff like that.
Guest:And so I did improv about the brain in this troupe called The Brainiacs.
Guest:And we would do outreach at schools for an entire auditorium.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I would present science shows and dress up like a wizard and do science performances.
Guest:This is for kids.
Guest:Good Samaritan, good hearted guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Teaching the kids.
Guest:But then that was also stand up like a 45 minute routine of me like, you know, putting an onion and some liquid nitrogen and like being like, what's going to happen, kids?
Guest:And the kids are like, yeah.
Guest:And like me rallying these kids and, you know.
Guest:So you got to do all the experiments and make smoke?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I made the smoke.
Guest:I put the kids on the Van de Graaff generator where their hair would stick out and stuff.
Guest:And it was like a 45-minute science comedy routine.
Guest:And then you have that nice relationship with kids.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:With all the kids.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so that was nice.
Guest:And then eventually I was like, I have to do stand-up.
Guest:Like I just wanted to.
Guest:And then I... What was the slam audience like?
Guest:Because a lot of those people do funny shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A lot of snapping.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:A lot of that.
Guest:A lot of head nodding.
Guest:But you got some good laughs, right?
Guest:Yeah, I got laughs.
Guest:I just did, for that sort of thing, I didn't pour my heart out or do anything political.
Guest:I was just being the stupid.
Guest:Yeah, I was just silly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was fun.
Guest:So I was like, oh, I love, I've just always liked being the class clown and center of attention from debate to poetry slams to music to everything.
Guest:And I was like, well, obviously.
Guest:Final Frontier.
Guest:Is stand-up like my childhood dream is the thing I really want to do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Was it?
Guest:Yeah, since I was a little kid.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Who'd you watch?
Guest:Steve Martin was like it.
Guest:That was it?
Guest:That was it.
Guest:Because I was just a little kid alone in a room.
Guest:My parents were gone and I would just watch like Wild and Crazy Guy and clips like I just had like a bunch of VHS tapes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When I was a kid, I loved Gene Pompa.
Guest:He's great.
Guest:I used to love Gene Pompa.
Guest:I was a kid.
Guest:Hey, little bear.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Hey there, little bear.
Guest:Why the long face?
Guest:Like that joke and like...
Guest:That joke about his boyfriend's dad and be like, your toothbrush tastes weird.
Guest:And I knew he was like a Latin guy.
Guest:And I was like, oh, this guy's like a weird Latin guy.
Guest:He doesn't make a huge deal out of it.
Guest:He does talk about it.
Guest:But above all, he's a weirdo.
Guest:And I was like, this guy is like my hero.
Guest:And so I really love- Does he know that?
Guest:Uh, I, when I first started comedy, I sent him a message on face on my space and I was like, Hey, I'm doing a show in LA.
Guest:This is going to sound odd, but you're my comedy hero.
Guest:Would you do the show?
Guest:And he was like really flattered.
Guest:And, uh, he ended up, he couldn't do it for some reason.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, um, I don't think I've actually ever come across him.
Guest:Like I've never really seen him since then.
Marc:I haven't seen him lately either, but I definitely liked watching him.
Marc:Oh, so cool.
Marc:And he had that weird thing he did with his mouth to kind of, like, I've only seen a couple of guys do it.
Marc:It's like, you know, he'll deliver a line and he'll kind of half smile.
Marc:You know, like he does this, like, almost like he's about to laugh at himself.
Marc:Like, it's a charm thing.
Guest:Yeah, but he's like kind of shy.
Guest:It's like he's embarrassed and he's about to laugh because he made a funny.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But he's not going to give a slap.
Guest:Right, but it's a device.
Guest:It's a total device.
Marc:And I don't know if he, I'm sure it just happened naturally.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I've only seen a couple of guys do it.
Marc:Rick Aviles used to do it, also Latino.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:Well, Rick Aviles was a street performer, and then he became a stand-up.
Marc:He was in Ghost, the movie Ghost.
Marc:He was the scary guy, the murderer in Ghost.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:Yeah, that guy.
Marc:He passed away.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:And his brother's a stand-up, too, but he was another guy who did that thing with his mouth, and I always remembered it because it was a way, it was an interesting thing because it makes the audience want to laugh.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's an interesting thing, and I always liked watching Gene, and then he started wearing hats.
Marc:Ha ha.
Marc:I remember Gene before the hat, and then he wears the hat.
Marc:He's a hat guy now.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I don't know where he's at.
Marc:He used to be an improv guy.
Marc:I think he's still there.
Marc:I see his name around.
Marc:I just don't roll in the same circles.
Marc:Oh, you got to go meet him.
Marc:I got to.
Marc:You got to tell him that.
Marc:I've never heard his name come up.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Especially someone's comedic hero.
Marc:That's a very flattering thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That he was the guy.
Guest:And there's another guy, Álvarez Guedes, who's like a straight-up Cuban comedian that just had...
Guest:He has like 40 records in Cuba.
Guest:And my parents and I would listen to it all the time driving to my sister's house.
Guest:Like they would just listen to stand up in the car whenever we drove somewhere.
Guest:And delivery, was it different?
Guest:I mean, like how does Cuban comedy work?
Guest:It was like jokes, like set up punchline, like one-liners.
Guest:Some of them were like street jokes that he just used in his act.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:But his...
Guest:timing is like impeccable even if you don't i was imagining i listened to it recently i was imagining what it would be like if i didn't understand it and it would it seems like it would still be funny because just the intonation in his voice and it's just so classy and you could just the timing of it is just like so perfectly it was like stand-up so it wasn't um broad like uh character driven stuff oh no he it was like about it was stand-up about life and life as being a cuban like he has this famous joke that i love that my dad would tell all the time he's like
Guest:So Fidel just decided when they're going to bury his, he's made his funeral arrangements already in case he dies.
Guest:If he, they're going to bury his feet in wherever he is, like Matanzas, because that's where he took his first steps.
Guest:They're going to bury his heart in Havana because that's where he poured out his heart.
Guest:And he just like went through his whole body and was like, and they're going to bury his ass all over the country because he shit all over the fucking thing.
Guest:Like he just had like jokes like that.
Guest:You're like, whoa, that's like a heavy political,
Guest:like a good it was like you know he delivered it way better but the punchline was like oh that's a good one so he didn't live in cuba no he uh he left and so he would do comedy in like miami and new york and stuff like that but he had like over i think 40 records wow but my parents had them all oh wow we would just listen to them and like it was super as a family live perform it was like a live record and you do that as a family
Guest:Yeah, we'd listen to it in the car as a family and just like crack up.
Guest:And my parents, my mom's very funny.
Guest:And like, it's like a funny.
Guest:Oh, that's sweet.
Guest:It's like a funny family.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Just like, I think maybe subconsciously, I was like, well, this is what I do when I'm a latch kid alone.
Guest:And when I'm in front of the other kids at school, I'm starved for attention.
Guest:I get laughs there.
Guest:My family, when we're together on these car trips that are nice, we're listening to comedy.
Guest:Just comedy is just always there.
Guest:Well, how did you start stand-up?
Guest:You started in San Francisco, like at the punchline?
Guest:I started, yeah, I mean, that's the home club.
Guest:That's where everyone goes every Sunday, all the young comics.
Guest:To wait it out?
Guest:Wait a year for a spot.
Guest:I didn't know that until recently.
Guest:Yeah, everyone just, you got to sit in the back.
Marc:I talked to Ali Wong.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:We started the same month.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I had no idea that was the system, because when I came to San Francisco, I was already kind of established, so I didn't have to come up through that.
Marc:But I had no idea that you had to wait for a year, that Molly made you wait for a year.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think it's a good, I thought it was a good way to like- You just watched.
Guest:You just watch and sit there every Sunday, and finally, like, you get the courage to talk to Molly, and as a young comic, it's very intimidating, and you're like- She's intimidating as an old man.
Guest:Yeah, she's a badass.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so I was like, you know, hey, I've been, my name's Chris, I've been waiting for a year.
Guest:She's like, okay, well, I've seen you around, so I'll let you know.
Guest:And you're like, and then you just sit and wait.
Marc:But were you doing comedy other places?
Guest:Yeah, I would do all the mics and stuff, the brainwash cafes where everyone starts.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then, you know, it's a laundromat.
Guest:Yeah, I remember it.
Guest:It sort of came to be when I was there, like in the early 90s, I think.
Guest:It's been around forever.
Guest:The guy, Tony Sparks, who runs it, he's like really passionate about it, really great to young comics.
Guest:And that's where you start.
Guest:And then you do, at the time, there's a mock cafe, which is like this other, it's like in the mission.
Guest:And there's like a bunch of luggage store, which was like some weird art space on Market Street.
Guest:It was all really kind of dingy places.
Guest:But at the time, it was like Moshe and Weinbach and Shang Wang and Louis Katz and all these people that I really admire.
Marc:What's Louis up to?
Marc:uh he's uh he just got a job writing for a show in new york um i think just last week so he was here for a while and he just moved back to new york okay no yeah no i always liked louis so all right so you you come up through the ranks there and that's when i met you i guess yeah not that long ago five what is it five years ago five years ago it's just a couple years in and then uh you have this amazing break in your career your dad gets alzheimer's
Guest:It was the best career decision I ever had was convincing my dad.
Guest:How is he?
Guest:Good.
Guest:Thanks for asking.
Guest:He's hanging in there.
Guest:He's safe and he's in a home and he's being taken care of and stuff.
Guest:And it never really ever gets better, but it'll plateau for a while.
Guest:And right now it's like he's just kind of calm and hanging out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's, you know, it's tough, but he's, uh, he's, he's here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's here.
Guest:He's in long beach.
Guest:That's where his home is.
Guest:And do you go see him a lot?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I go to see him on the weekends for like every other weekend.
Guest:I go visit him and stuff with your mom.
Guest:Uh, sometimes with my mom, sometimes not, but my mom's there all the time.
Guest:She's there like four or five days a week.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But there it's, it's amazing.
Guest:Like how dedicated she is to him and how sweet he still is to her.
Guest:Like he still carries her purse and stuff.
Guest:oh really he's even though he doesn't always know it's her he's like still yeah uh the habits are deep my mom's always says like you can tell which husband here was a bad guy which guy was cheating like she could always tell she's like that guy like and she points him out she's like he tried to
Guest:grab me like she's always like very she'll say stuff like that about the other uh dementia people the other guys like she'll be like that guy trying to grab my ass that guy trying to grab my ass this guy uh-huh and uh i mean she kind of she's kind of in she likes the attention but like she's like dad is always very like he's like a good yeah guy always tell like he's polite and sweet and stuff it's still hard huh yeah it must be hard
Marc:But it's nice everyone shows up, and I can't imagine what that's like, really, to watch the memories go.
Guest:Yeah, especially because my dad had such a vivid memory.
Guest:He's an amazing storyteller.
Guest:He could put you right in the place.
Guest:He could talk about anything like he's very well read.
Guest:He'd talk about like Celtic folklore or something and just tell a story.
Guest:And he'd like put you right there.
Guest:You tell a story about when he's a kid, all these things.
Guest:And and that's just gone.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And so I. How do you frame it?
Marc:Just that sometimes this happens as a natural course for life for some people.
Marc:And, you know, you just kind of accept it, I guess, huh?
Guest:That what?
Guest:Alzheimer's disease?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a terrible disease.
Guest:It's like, you know, there's no solution to it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And unfortunately, a lot of people get it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And just people don't know how to fix it.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's like, no, it seems like people don't care about old people.
Marc:But you still enjoy the time with him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And now I feel like it's weird, but it's like a very calm time and we're very, I'm just, I just want to hang out with him even though he doesn't know who I am anymore.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I just like, I'll try to dance with him or sing with him or like tickle, just to get any emotion out of him is kind of a beautiful thing.
Guest:Cause it's just in one little moment like that could just like make an entire four hour visit or something.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And a connection.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a connection of any sort, you know, like before I got, I got married in October and I went to talk to him before even he's really, I, he doesn't really, sometimes he'll remember me and like smile or something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I just went there and cause he didn't come to the, he couldn't come to the wedding.
Guest:I just went and I just had, I just talked to him.
Guest:I was like, Hey dad, I'm getting married.
Guest:It's going to be awesome.
Guest:Uh, thanks for showing me how to be a good guy.
Guest:Like all this stuff.
Guest:And, uh, I started bawling.
Guest:And he just like hugged me and patted my back and tried to force my mouth into a smile.
Guest:And it was just, and I, you know, put a smile on my face.
Guest:It was beautiful.
Guest:And like just a moment like that is just, it's all, it's, you know, it's very beautiful.
Guest:I'm lucky.
Marc:Yeah, where he could show up on an emotional level.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's deeper than the memory.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right?
Marc:Totally.
Marc:And your wife, where did you meet her?
Guest:We met in San Francisco.
Guest:We were coworkers, and we met- Where?
Guest:We worked at Rooftop Comedy, where she was an editor and producer, and then I was just the homepage guy that I would pick the clips and stuff like that.
Guest:We met each other there.
Guest:So you're in comedy.
Marc:Yeah, in comedy.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And that was when they had the big nationwide network of cameras.
Marc:Yeah, they had that.
Marc:They still do that?
Guest:I think they kind of changed.
Guest:I think they're more into, I don't know, they've changed.
Guest:I think they've rebranded themselves, and I think they're trying to produce shows.
Guest:Yeah, I think they're partnered with Audible or something.
Marc:Yeah, with Audible and stuff.
Marc:I just learned that today or yesterday, yeah.
Marc:So now, how's marriage going?
Marc:Good?
Marc:Yeah, it's awesome.
Marc:Are you going to have a baby?
Guest:We're, you know, in a couple years.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We're going to enjoy being- How old are you?
Guest:I'm 38.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And right now, we're just going to enjoy being married for a little bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm going to keep on making some traction in the comedy world.
Guest:Sure, man.
Marc:And then- Well, you've done my live show.
Marc:You did a live WTF.
Marc:and you work with me on the road, you make an appearance in my special, more later.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And Ira Glass heard you on my show, I imagine, and then put you on his show.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And got you a bigger audience.
Marc:Always swooping, you know.
Marc:I think he does sometimes.
Guest:But that was a good venue for you, This American Life.
Guest:Yeah, it was really nice and special.
Guest:It's like the thing, I'm just so proud of that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Got you a lot of attention, I imagine?
Guest:I think some people noticed.
Guest:It got attention from people all over the world whose parents have dementia and stuff like that.
Guest:Sure, sure.
Guest:It got a lot of, like hundreds of messages from people that were really touched by it.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:It was nice not to feel so alone about it.
Marc:And also to find the humor in it and to balance that humor with the emotions, I think probably provides people who are in the same situation with a lot of relief and the freedom to maybe look at it a little differently.
Guest:Yeah, I think so.
Guest:That's kind of the point of it, I think.
Guest:I'm not going out to do that, but I think that's what it does for me.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You've got to process it in the way that you do it with your creativity and also to sort of balance the emotions of it.
Guest:Yeah, and so to make it funny and to find those moments balances it out.
Guest:Yeah, it's a powerful shit, man.
Guest:Soothing.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So this trip to Cuba was a honeymoon?
Marc:It was a honeymoon.
Marc:Prolonged honeymoon, like you waited?
Guest:I waited.
Guest:Oh, yeah, I waited a couple months to do it.
Guest:It was my parents.
Guest:My mom was not happy about it initially because they've never gone back to Cuba.
Guest:I've never been to Cuba.
Marc:And they have the anger about it?
Guest:Yeah, they just don't want to go.
Guest:They had a terrible time there.
Guest:Even though they have all their siblings and family there, they were just like, don't do it.
Guest:But then I was like, you guys went on your honeymoon there.
Guest:I want to go honeymoon where you guys honeymoon 50 years ago.
Guest:Good sales pitch.
Guest:And I want to get the family history while I still can because dad can't give it to me.
Guest:So I'm going to go on this pilgrimage and stay with our family there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that's what I did.
Guest:So we went and we stayed.
Guest:We went to Havana and we stayed with my family for like half of the trip.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And I got to meet my whole family that I'd never met before.
Marc:Was traveling there easier?
Marc:Because you went right at this time.
Marc:No, it's easier.
Guest:Well, because of, I mean, I can go straight there and some people can, but we just flew from Miami to Havana.
Marc:Oh, because you're a Cuban citizen?
Guest:Because my parents are from Cuba, I could just travel there.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, good.
Guest:So it was easy.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Marc:And who were you with?
Guest:Your aunt, your uncle, or who?
Guest:We stayed with my dad's sister, and then we eventually met up with my mom's sister.
Guest:But yeah, we met my dad's sister for the first time.
Guest:And they're all there, but your mom stays in touch, right?
Guest:Yeah, they stay in touch.
Guest:It's like they send them packages all the time.
Guest:They send medicine and money, and they write each other letters, and they talk on the phone.
Guest:And that's
Guest:stuff like that's become easier over the years at the beginning they would like send packages that wouldn't arrive right my dad would get heated on the phone and like yell about communism the phone call would drop oh really stuff like that yeah yeah so but now it's you know now that things are a little easier they can you know call more and you know send letters did you meet cousins that you didn't know about
Guest:Yeah, most of my family's in Cuba, and I met everybody.
Guest:For the first time.
Guest:For the first time, and it was so cool.
Guest:My aunt is 70.
Guest:She's so smart and so classy, and she's a lot like my dad.
Guest:I look just like my dad, so she just started bawling when she saw me.
Guest:I'm the age that my dad was when he left basically.
Guest:And so it was like seeing him.
Guest:She hadn't seen him in person in, you know, since the seventies.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And so she sees me and it was like, I cried every day for one reason or another, just like sheer pride.
Guest:I heard all these stories from my aunt.
Guest:Like, uh, like I told my aunt, I was like, mom says that a dad was the best dancer in the neighborhood.
Guest:Like she always talks about how good of a dancer dad was.
Guest:And she was like, my aunt was like, no, he was a fucking weird dancer.
Guest:He was like the weirdest dancer.
Guest:And she started making fun of him.
Guest:I was like, oh, my mom just had the hots for my dad.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And maybe he was unique.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:If he was a weird dancer, he stood out.
Guest:Yeah, he stood out.
Guest:And then I met my cousins.
Guest:They're all, you know, they're all really, I didn't know how poor my family, like my parents always guarded me from, I just didn't know how poor my dad was.
Guest:And I got his whole story and I was really blown away by how incredible of a journey that he's made from being like a street kid.
Guest:to come in all the way.
Guest:I learned... Yeah, I just... My aunt... I knew some of the story, but I never heard my dad talk about his dad before.
Guest:I didn't even know my grandpa's name at all.
Guest:And so I was like, what's your dad like?
Guest:And she was like, and she showed me a picture, and he was very dapper, and he was a swindler.
Guest:He was like a con man, and apparently...
Guest:um he was like kind of a party guy and loved the nightlife and he would take my grandma out and they'd go out and have a night on the town yeah and he didn't really care for his kids didn't really care for my dad so they would like my grandma would give or my grandpa would give uh my dad and his and his sister like robitussin or like like um to knock him out knock him out yeah and then one day
Guest:Uh, they, you know, they knocked him out and I think my grandma left the iron on and like started a fire while they were out partying.
Guest:And my, these two little kids woke up to like a fire in the house and that's like one of their earliest memories or experiences like this fire.
Guest:And then, but, uh, he was just like, he was just like a, you know, um, womanizer.
Guest:My dad's dad was a womanizer.
Guest:And then it was like pre Castro.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This is pre-Castro.
Guest:This is Bautista.
Guest:When it was big party time.
Guest:This is big party.
Guest:American companies were coming.
Guest:Sherman Williams paint company came to the island.
Guest:And my grandpa was like, okay, I see how these motherfuckers work.
Guest:And he faked a workers comp claim, took him for a whole ton of money and then was like, peace out to my dad and aunt and grandma and left Cuba, just abandoned them and went to Mexico where he eventually started a baseball team.
Guest:Like he owned a baseball team.
Guest:He was just like, he was like, fuck this.
Guest:I'm out.
Guest:And just left.
Guest:And as a result, it left my, my, you know, my dad and his family, like on the streets and they just couch surfed from their entire youth.
Guest:And that's how my dad eventually met my mom is like, he would like stay on their couch or like stay with their family and stuff.
Guest:But like my dad was very, like they were very poor and I didn't know about, I didn't know like they just never had a home.
Guest:And then, uh, my dad, there, there was this time at the time teenagers would, in Havana would do this thing called alphabetized, which means they would, um, uh, they would go to rural areas and they would tutor rural kids how to read.
Guest:They would like teach the kids on like plantations and stuff like that, uh, just in the country, teach them how to read.
Um,
Guest:And so my dad went and did that and, you know, they get paid and my dad opted to send the money back to his mom so she could, you know, get an apartment.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so he also worked and made money at that time and he sent it all home.
Guest:And after like three months after he was gone, he came home and his mom had spent all the money.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:And so my dad was like, oh fuck.
Guest:And so he got so mad that he just ran away and lived in a convent for a year.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:As like a teenager.
Guest:And then the nuns were like, they're like, you're a very bright young man.
Guest:You're in a very terrible situation.
Guest:And they got him to go to this fancy boarding school in the outskirts of Havana in Guanabacoa, which was like a really good school.
Guest:And then he just went to school there.
Guest:And, you know, he didn't have to worry about where to live and stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then he got out.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he finished school and his sister had a boyfriend or a husband at the time who made earrings.
Guest:He was like an earring maker and a jeweler who was making a ton of money.
Guest:And my dad was like, huh, you're making a ton of money hand making these earrings and stuff.
Guest:And he saw that other people were making a bunch of money.
Guest:And so my dad was like, I'll make an earring press.
Guest:So he created an earring press that eventually a bunch of jewelers in town started using and buying from him.
Guest:And my aunt said that her husband was balling.
Guest:He was making like 80 bucks a week.
Guest:And my dad at that time was making $200 a week.
Guest:Like he was rich.
Guest:Right.
Guest:For the first time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so he was like, he saved up.
Guest:He did that for a while.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he was like, that's it.
Guest:We're blowing this place.
Guest:We're leaving Cuba.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he's just married to my mom.
Guest:Was Castro in by that?
Guest:Castro is in.
Guest:This is the late 60s.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And my dad.
Marc:So everything changed.
Guest:Everything changed.
Marc:And this jewelry press business had to be on the down low.
Guest:Had to be on the down.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Everything's on the down low.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it's illegal.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But he's still doing everything.
Guest:There's a whole secret economy on the side in Cuba.
Guest:It's all, you know.
Guest:So my dad's balling, makes all this money.
Guest:He goes to the government.
Guest:He's like, hey, I'd like to leave.
Guest:He presents his papers to leave Cuba.
Guest:And they're like, no, you're a traitor.
Guest:You're not a part of the Communist Party.
Guest:You're like a Catholic.
Guest:Fuck you.
Guest:And so they take him and they...
Guest:send him to these sugarcane fields where he was in solitary confinement pulling sugarcane, like these sugarcane camps, where he pulled sugarcane sunup to sundown for two years.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:And he was put in solitary confinement, and he was like...
Guest:like tortured he was given electroshock therapy and like i'm curious to see what other what resulted with other people at that time because people like my mom suspects that my dad got alzheimer's at an early age because of all the electroshock therapy no kidding and stuff like that and so so your mom knew about all this
Guest:yeah my mom knew about that stuff you didn't know they just said like oh they sent dad away to this work camp right for two years right but he was you know he was away from his wife and his new daughter and he was like his hands are still scratched from pulling cane all day he was like a hundred pounds when he got out yeah and then uh after two years and and that was a place where uh catholics went non um they sent homosexuals there it was this
Guest:uh concentration camp it's like a concentration camp yeah and that you know he was there i mean 67 like late yeah maybe 67 to 69 or something like that he was just in this and he came out emaciated and i didn't know when i was a teenager i was like dad you're crazy like i didn't know that because of this my dad had suffered like ptsd and stuff like right right
Guest:And so then he goes, you know, he does that for two years and he's like, hey, I want to leave.
Guest:Like he still wanted to leave Cuba and they're like, sure, you can leave, but you got to leave your wife and your daughter behind.
Guest:So my dad left and went to Spain and he worked all over Spain.
Guest:He worked on like tow trucks and engineering projects, construction, like all this type of stuff.
Guest:And then made enough money to kind of bribe or like send my mom and sister to Spain.
Guest:And then they lived there for a couple years.
Guest:And they got it.
Marc:And then they came here?
Marc:And then they came here.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:So now after this trip, you go sit with your father and you are the container of this history.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And it's so heavy.
Guest:It's so... I just look at them and part of me is almost...
Guest:grateful that he can't remember some of this stuff because it's so bad even after he came to the united states he had such a tough time because he was like i'm in like i'm in america well let's do this and then he was just like you know working right low factory doing nothing and he had a tough time and he was like he was putting an institution for like a couple months because he just had a breakdown because he was like i can't fucking catch a break wow
Guest:Because his whole life, he's just, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think about like the old man in the sea when I was there.
Guest:There's, you know, the old man, they call him a salao.
Guest:It's like the unluckiest of the unlucky.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think about that.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:But then I also think about how my mom is like so valuable to him.
Guest:Like she's so amazing and so beautiful and so funny and so kind.
Guest:And it gives me a lot of hope because –
Guest:just just about love and and humor she's so funny to take this guy who's kind of at you know so kind of sad about things yeah and just just cheer him up and him being nice and grateful to her it's you know they've been married for over 50 years and they've gone through all that shit and they've known each other since they were like 15 years old and she's still there for she's still there for him and he as as when he can he's like there for her is there a feeling that there's something peaceful about where he's at now sometimes
Guest:Yeah, a little bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because he's like, yeah, he's mellow because, you know, he would blow up all the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like he would just and now I get it, but I didn't get it at the time when I was in junior high and my dad, we moved to Westchester to this house and he was trying to put together a laundry.
Guest:He was trying to make the laundry room and he fucked up and he destroyed the fucking thing with a hammer.
Guest:He just took the whole thing down.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, why is my dad like this?
Guest:And now I know.
Guest:And I, like, regret that I would... Like, at the time, I probably don't know how I would have acted knowing this information.
Guest:I was in high school just being like a fucking teenage asshole.
Guest:But, like, now it just... I have so much empathy and respect and admiration for him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know?
Marc:Well, it's glad that you get to own that and show up for him now.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, there was probably nothing you could have done then, necessarily.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did you try to humor him?
Marc:Is that where you sort of got...
Guest:when he started knowing you were funny where did was your relationship with him frightened or were you trying did you try to to humor the situation that was more my mom's thing she was like you know they they spoke their own language right you know it had anything nothing to do with english or spanish but they just like she would just like uh-huh just really charm him and like put a smile on his face and that was their thing i was more of like a
Guest:I know I talk about my dad the most, but I was like more of a mama's boy where she just like idolized me.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I was, you know, Latin mom stuff.
Guest:Probably protected you a little bit too.
Guest:Protected me a lot from knowing all this stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I was such a sensitive kid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And such a crybaby.
Guest:They're like, you can't handle this information.
Guest:So we're just not going to tell you that.
Guest:We're just going to pretend we're like all the other kids in your school.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And also from his rage, I would imagine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or his volatility.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he never, he never once, he never hit me on anything like that.
Marc:He was just frustrated.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was just frustrated.
Guest:I remember when I was a kid in high school, my dad asked me to make a resume for him because he was like, I don't, I just need a fucking job.
Guest:Like he had trouble finding jobs.
Guest:and so I made a resume on, like, bright blue paint.
Guest:I didn't know how to fucking make a resume, but I, like, made a, like, probably some shitty font, like, big font.
Guest:I just tried to make it stand out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I went to fucking Kinko's to, like, print it out, and I brought it back, and my dad was like, what the fuck is this thing?
Guest:And the way he thinks, he's just like, you did this so I wouldn't get a job.
Guest:And then I took the resume, I wiped my butt with it, and I threw it in his face.
Guest:What?
Guest:And the fact that I am alive to tell that story is like says something really nice about my dad.
Guest:Like he should have beat the shit out of me.
Guest:He should have fucking pounded me into the ground.
Guest:And he was just like, all right.
Guest:Cool.
Guest:I guess I'll make my own fucking resume, you ungrateful piece of shit.
Guest:But, you know, I just really lucked out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Even though, you know, my parents, you know, they went through a lot, but it was all for me and I really appreciate it.
Guest:And how great would it be if a kid with this life story ended up on Saturday Night Live?
Marc:Right.
Marc:You hear that?
Yeah.
Marc:So you go to Cuba and you have this amazing experience and you learn all these things about what you come from and the hardships your father went through in this very dramatic, painful story of transcendence.
Marc:And then you go back and do the SNL audition.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and I'm like, oh, man, this is a piece of cake.
Guest:I mean, it's not, but I'm like, oh, I'm going to be scared of this.
Guest:My dad was in a fucking sugar cane field.
Guest:Concentration camp.
Guest:Concentration camp for two years, and I'm going to be scared of 12 white people with clipboards?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Get the fuck out of here.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So that explains the moment we talked about at the beginning where the reason why Jose Manny.
Marc:Mati.
Marc:Mati.
Marc:Jose Mati.
Guest:Like, it meant something to you.
Guest:Yeah, I was like, ah!
Guest:It really felt like it was like...
Guest:That Rocky moment or like, I don't know, Superman, you know, when he leaves.
Guest:I am my father's son.
Guest:I'm like, yeah.
Guest:Like it really felt like a big, like almost like even like a Lion King moment.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Just being raised on the cliff or whatever.
Guest:Now they're making you wait as that moment dissipates.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You think waiting in a green room for two hours.
Guest:My dad was there.
Guest:Sugar cane concentration camp.
Guest:I'm not scared of you.
Guest:They're flying me out to New York, putting me up.
Guest:Oh, I'm so scared.
Marc:Yeah, really suffering.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:Whether I get it or not, it's just a privilege.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I just have a privileged life.
Guest:You do, man.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I'm just a lucky guy.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:And to have that framework now, given what your father went through, it's a real gift, buddy.
Marc:And I'm glad you got a nice wife and that, you know, I think that-
Marc:having all this information is only going to make you, uh, you know, uh, like a deeper person in terms of like, you know what I mean?
Marc:To process that and to, you know, come out the other side with whatever childhood memories you have, but then to sort of like see him in this whole other way is really a gift that's going to resolve things for you too.
Guest:I think so.
Guest:It's very inspiring.
Guest:Me inspiring.
Guest:It's given me a lot of hope and it's given me an inspiration to be a better person.
Marc:Right on man.
Marc:Well thank you for talking Chris.
Marc:Yeah thanks Mark.
Marc:That was me and Chris Garcia.
Marc:I like him very much.
Marc:And now I want to go to Cuba.
Marc:Now I'm going to be one of those guys, though, that's sort of like, I should have went to Cuba before it became regular.
Marc:I could play, I guess.
Marc:I could play.
Marc:I'm not feeling very confident today for whatever reason.
Marc:But I'll play some guitar because I know so many of you are just hanging, hanging out away from me to play my shitty guitar.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Guest:Boomer Lives!