November 10, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode of Sacred Lessons, host Mike de la Rocha sits down with comedian Jerry Garcia, whose journey from Huntington Park stages to HBO and Netflix has made him one of today’s most relatable voices. Beyond the laughs, Jerry is a father of three boys whose humor bridges culture, family, and healing. Together, they explore how comedy helps men embrace vulnerability, how culture shapes storytelling, and how fatherhood changes everything.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What are the cycles fathers passed down that sons are
left to heal? What if being a man was about
holding it all together but learning how to let go.
This is a space where men speak truth and find
the power to heal and transform. I'm Mike Dela Rocha.
Welcome to Sacred Lessons. Welcome to Sacred Lessons. I'm Mike
(00:24):
Dela Rocha, and I'm honored to speak with Jerry Garcia,
one of today's funniest comedians, someone I've watched rise from
Huntington Park stages to a nationally acclaimed HBO special. But
beyond the spotlight, he's a father of three boys, using
humor and his Latino roots to hold space for healing,
(00:44):
for laughter, and for fatherhood. So welcome Jerry. Yeah, thank
you so much for going to be a part of this. Yeah,
and I just want to first just honor you. You
know when we first met seeing you, like I said
said in that intro from Huntington Park to the HRIO Special.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
But something that folks may not.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Know is you sold out the Ford Amphitheater and as
a co owner to beat the Coffee. We were so
excited to sponsor that because we knew how important it
was for three Latino men to sell out an iconic
theater in LA And so before we even start, I
just want to say congratulations and thank you for being
who you are.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Oh, thank you, Mike, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, it hasn't been It's not a one man show obviously,
even though it's stand up comedy when you're up there
by yourself. It definitely is this tour that I think
is very important for Latinos, for our culture, for different
three different generations. Shout out to Concrete, Duno, and obviously myself.
It's a three headed monster tour and it's literally three generations.
(01:48):
Man on forty five, Concrete about to hit forty students
thirties technically, and Dun those twenty five years old. So
we've come from three different perspectives and I think we're
really unifying Latino culture and what it is like from
three different eyesights, point of view, through different povs. And
I think that's what's been hitting pretty big overall as
a tour goes along, and it was a really problem moment.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
For all of us. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, I could tell from looking at the photos in
the video now sharing with you. I was young when
I was on that stage and it felt I'm just saying,
as a brown man, Yeah, to see you and to
hear you now talk about like, hey, I wasn't even
sure if we could sell it out. I told you,
but actually you sold it out and there were probably
(02:33):
hundreds that wanted a ticket, you know, And so how
in reflection, how does that make you feel like?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
It just feels like they we're doing something right and
then we are representing our people like as we should.
Man obviously through comedy we have fun. The best thing
is we laugh with each other and at each other.
It's how Latinos do, That's how we move. It just
makes me feel that I just feel that we're doing
the right We're making the right moves, and we're representing
(03:01):
our people the right way. And that's what makes me
the most proudest of it all.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
We're not being fake. We're all genuine, you know. Do
you know it goes off the cuff.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
He's super wild, super crazy, and Concrete is obviously figuring
it out on himself, the crazy skids and I'm more
of the writer type of thinker type of situation, and
I think we always just make a great team.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
But as far as myself.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I just I'm very proud of who I am and
what I do, what I represent Mexicans, Central Americans, Latinos,
East La, Southeast La, just Cali, Southern Cali, everything Bro,
like it just h yeah, that's why I am bro.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Like that, who I am is who I am?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Bro every day And have you always been like that?
That's a sense of pride that you exude right now?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Like yeah, pretty much, Bro. I mean again, growing up
on No Parks, it's all I knew. I didn't leave
onneing No Park until like I was like almost eighteen, dude.
Like I didn't even go to the beach until like
I was about eighteen, and are never like I never
left my town. It's all I knew. It's all I
consumed every day. So it's all I knew. So it's
still everything I kind of know. Now it's still with me.
(04:11):
But now I get to see the country like I'm
this weekend, I was with gabrieg Lecias in Atlantic City
and Vermont in Pennsylvania. You know, the place I've never
ever been in my life before, dude, making white people
laugh and through my jokes, through the stories that I write.
And so I mean just it just all comes together
and I'm doing it my way.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's dope, man.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And I don't change my act for anybody. When I
mean it's cold, I don't choose my act. I'm in Pennsylvania.
I'm Allentown, Pennsylvania. Five thousand white people laughing, and I'm
just enjoying every minute of it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Man. And I love to make everyone laugh, bro, no
matter where you're from.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So culture in comedy is being your vehicle to tap
into folks that maybe you know assumption wise, it's like
these five thousand white folks, they're not going to care
about Latino culture, but you're obviously it's a different story
with you.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Uh, it's not that I forced them to care. It's
just it's just through laughter, bro. Yeah, it's just through
a you know, a mutual feeling that we all have
no matter what color you are, where are you from?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Bro? Like, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
It's funny, dude, And a lot of it's because I
ran about my kids and my materials about family. So
it doesn't matter what color you are, bro. Like, if
it's gonna hit, it's gonna hit, dude.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So let me ask this because you mentioned family. I
was really excited about this conversation because your father of
three boys, and you use them a lot in your content.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
How did that happen? And how do they feel though?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Now? I mean they're older now since that HBO is special,
But like you talk so much about I was talking
smack with with with my wife watching your show about
your stepfather's you know, and so like, how do why
did you make that choice?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And how did they feel?
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Knowing that When I first sarted talking about my kids,
they were obviously very young and I only had two
at a time. When I first started talking about them.
As I was writing when I was first coming up
in comedy, you're trying to find yourself again. I'm as
from Southeast La, talking to my slang, so forth and
so on, but that doesn't always connect with everybody. I
couldn't find myself at the time, so I was just
(06:14):
making just general cholo jokes and hood jokes and you know,
dating jokes, and just I it wasn't great and so
and so.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Then I just realized, you know, what I got to talk.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
About what I know, and what I know is being
a dad, being a being at home with these kids
that you know, just you know, stressed me the shit out,
but I love them no matter what, and so I
started talking about that that part, like taking them to
chuck e cheese and what that's like, uh you know,
changing uh whatever, their tantrums and so forth, and so
(06:47):
I just let let's just talk about what.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I know and what I live every day, and that's that.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And then at that time, unfortunately my marriage fell apart
early on.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So then then then then that happened.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Then I had to face that situation of being a
single dad and cold parenting and sharing my kill my
children with other people stepdads, and so instead of being
angry about it and bitter about it, I wanted to
make fun about it. And have you know it was
it was I was disguising my pain, I really was
because I was really jealous of the step dad. I
(07:19):
was jealous of that situation of this guy, the new
man in my kid's life. And so I had to
check myself, bro like, because at the end, I realized
this guy has the right intentions for my kids.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I learned that early. My kids will talk good highly
about him, and they would say good things about he
was good.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
He took us to the park, we played bast we
went to the movies, and at first I'm getting jealous,
but then I'm like, this guy's actually helping me out,
like he's showing my kids cool things. And so I
started to write about it, and so I think then
that I started connecting and obviously that their work people
started laughing at the stepdad situation, and I just ran
with it, you know, even though that's that relationship didn't
(07:57):
last long. He was gone within a few months. But
the point is he left his presence and my jokes.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Forever though, yeah forever.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Well, a lot of men, including myself, we use jokes
as a way to hide how we truly feel and
to mask our feelings and what I feel.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know. What I like about you.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Is you lean in intentionally obviously. Yeah, but talk about
that just in terms of why do you think it's
so difficult for men just to be honest and not
have to throw a joke in there.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Well, it's because we can't show vulnerability, right, we can't.
We can't show weakness. Dog at the end of the day, though,
especially like like where I came from, you couldn't. Man,
I was I'm not a big guy, you know, don't
let this manly stature full you dog like this. I've
not been very tough and big, but you have to
you have to show show face.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Dog.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You have to at least act it. You know, we
would happened if you didn't, though.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I guess you get pushed around, bullied, get your get
your snack, get your lunch money taken away.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Though, uh which I did. I never got bullied.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
People look at me and for sure got but I
never did thanks to my humored dog.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I was always a funny guy that people didn't want
to mess with. The funny guy.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
You know, whenever there was a bullying situation, somebody's like
bigger wants to take my shit or takes take something
for me, there was al somebody there like, no, don't
mess with him, bro, Like he's cool, dude, he's funny,
like he's a good guy. And so I think the
comedy guy has kind of saved me in that situation.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It sounds like comedy was your was your your shield,
but also your weapon because I knew not to punk
you because you would, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying
to unpack all this. Obviously, different cultures and just men
and gender in general, there's this prevailing notion that if
we show any sign of vulnerability, we're weak, and so
(09:47):
therefore you have to be strong and strong as very masculine,
and you know, oftentimes being not who you are, to
fake it so you don't get hurt. Right, Yeah, and uh,
you know I grew up that way, and as I'm
getting older and my kids are getting older, we get softer.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, we do it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But I'm also but it's you know, what I'm realizing
is like, yes, and being softer is harder than being
hard because everything around me is telling me, yo, don't
don't cry or don't show this emotion because then you
are weak. But I'm like, actually, if I don't show that,
I'm going to die like my dad did at sixty
six because he held up all his emotion and his
(10:29):
body and his body started to break down. And that's
what happens for too many men. Fact, and so you know,
I'm trying to tease this out. I don't know the answer,
but this is all the questions I have, especially because
my son is in middle school, and so I'm like,
do I raise him the way my dad raised me?
Or do I raise him a different way or a
blend and all of that. And I guess, like you know,
(10:51):
with your with your sons, how you were raised, did
you raise them differently in this issue of like strength
or vulnerability.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Or whatever, differently, bro, differently? Yeah, we're yeah, they they're
they're different. They're definitely connected to their to themselves and
to their feelings.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It's weird. It's just, you know, it's the world that
we live in now.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Bro.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I of course you gonna accept it.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like I never, like, I never really hugged or kissed
my dad often or at all, and I.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Had no problems with that obviously. That's what you know.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
We're not supposed to be hugging up and kissing up
on each other. But it's funny because now I do.
I kiss my kids all the time on their cheek,
like every day, like every good morning, good night, give
him a kiss my grown ass high school kids.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Man, I like, come here, man, how you been? And
give him kiss on the cheek. That's what that.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I never did with my father ever until as an adult,
until like in my thirties, I started hugging my when
I saw my dad were fragile, you know, That's when
I started like hugging my dad embracing him more and
giving him his kiss on his cheek and well costas
and I give him kiss my dad. If I was
as a teacher, if I could do that to my father,
my father would flip out like whoa, what the are
you doing?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Bro? Like back up, help me? Uh?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
But now even you know, my even my father has
changed as well. He's become more like, you know, sensitive
and easy going. Because yeah, because he's still with us, thankful.
You know, I lost my mom this year, man, but
my dad's still with us, and so he gets and
now he knows you're right. Like it would have ate
him up alive and he would have continued to be
that person though. So now he's very more soft. He's
a soft he's a teddy maright now. But nah, I mean, man,
(12:18):
And you're talking about your son in middle.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
School, Like what grade?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
He's in seventh grade?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Okay, my son just entered sixth grade. My youngest, my
ten year old, and he still believes in Santa Claus
dog like he genuinely dead ass believes in Santa Claus.
Bro at ten years old, maybe not so much as
a tooth fairy. I think he started to lose some
of the tooth fairy feel because he just likes this
tooth a couple of months ago put it on the pillow.
(12:42):
We forgot, bro, we didn't put nothing in there, and
he kind of like kind at that point, kind of
figured out like maybe there is no tooth fairy, but
Santa Claus, I don't know if he's just playing us
to get what he wants.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Maybe there's some of that out also there, but he comes.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
With a genuine feel and believe in Santa Claus when
he talks about him, When he talks about him still
like a nine years old and ten years this last Christmas,
he still talks about Like, yo, man, you think Santa
found out about the time that I got in trouble
this hey, dude, Like you think Santa could bring two
gifts instead of three gifts this year?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Like he was.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
He's trying to figure it out as a which is
cute as shit, But at the same time, you're like, bro,
you're also nine dog, Like is this fair?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Are you playing me?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Are you for real?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I don't want him to I don't I don't want
to lose it, bro, Like, yeah, I don't want to
like talk him out of any situation, but I also
worry for him because now he's a middle school dog
and you're you know, middle school could be he's a
middle school Now he's a middle school child.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Believing in Santa Claus. I don't know that's a good.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I mean, that's the tension, right that you use humor
to discuss on stage, But also for me, I'm trying
to unpack, Like, what was the reason that you started
being more emotionally or physically affectionate with your dad? Was
it because you saw him starting to get frail?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
I think it was ad bro, yeah, honestly, yeah, and
me just being a grown as man at thirty something
years old whenever that happened, and just seeing my dad
just being being more vulnerable, yeah, and being just you know,
just seeing him slow down and not being able to
work and be as strong.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, And then that's when I started.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah. I remember just one day just hugging him and
kissing him and him being okay with that.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
I don't know how exactly it happened. I just remember
it just organically happening.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And it happens regularly.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Yeah as Oh yeah, bro, Now I see my dad
every time I see my that it's not often he
lives up in the in an empire. So when I
do see him, yeah, going for the hug and the
kids and I miss you?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Are you being? Are you doing?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
And the goodbye is the same, bro, and yeah there's yeah,
there's no ifs or buts about it.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Now do Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And I'm my hope for this conversation is two fathers, yeah,
with two sons pretty much the same age and coming
up in the generation we did where you know, my
dad loved me more in life itself, but Mioelo never
sent me the almoal I love you, So therefore I
never really heard those words growing up, and I always
(15:05):
wanted to, you know, I try to act on Macho like,
oh I didn't need to hear.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
It, No, but I do, and I still do.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
You know, I'm and with this new generation, it is different,
and I'm trying to figure out, like, how can I
teach my son to do what I'm doing in my
forties and not wait till he's forty, if that makes sense,
to be more like just tell me, don't hold it in,
you know. And obviously he's going through mood changes and
(15:30):
all this other stuff. But I just want to figure
out a more healthier version of what being a man
and a Latino man is today. And I know, looking
at my grandfather, looking at my father, they taught me
beautiful stuff. They also taught me things that are really unhealthy,
(15:51):
you know. And there's no judgment or shame obviously, you know.
But I'm just trying to figure out, like, do I
do my son a disservice? Do we do our onto
disservice if we say, hey, stop believing in Santa Claus
or a act hard because if not, you're going to
be punked. But actually a lot of folks that I
see around them, they're just being themselves. Like you know, bro,
(16:13):
you're confident in who you are right now, and obviously
as a young kid you're not. But this is that tension,
if that makes sense, And trying to figure out how
to unpack that. Man.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
I think at the end of the day, Bro, we're
already we're reading by example. Man, the kids eat up
everything we do, whever we're paying attention to it or not.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Like they know everything they pay attention to.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
The kids look up to us obviously, right and they
know whatever we do it's going to affect them, whether
we notice it or not.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So I think what I'm trying to tell you is
that we're already doing that.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
We're already molding them into the man they're going to
become without even realizing.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You know what I'm saying again again, my kids just remind.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Me of me a lot, and I have a running
joke with my kids or like, you know, again, I
don't know this is right or not, but my thing
is I was like, men don't cry, bro, Like, men
don't cry. And the only reason I say that is
because I don't want them crying for any little dumb reason.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
It says they were young, Okay, guys, men don't cry.
Men don't cry. And then and then I go, if
you cry, it has to be for a real purpose.
And I will tell them that, Bro. They're ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
they were young. And I'll be like, Bro, your tears
gonna mean something, bro, Like, I only want to see
you cry if something very like harsh happened to you,
or like a death in a family dog or a
(17:27):
pet died, or you lost something that really means a
lot to you.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Dan you could cry.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
I'm not gonna judge you, bro, but I don't want
you crying because you didn't get the happy meal you
want it, or you didn't get the shoes you wanted,
or your girlfriend broke over you. I don't want to
hear that at ten twelve years old, bro, Like, like
I want you tears.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
To cry because I'm not much of a crier. I
don't cry. I've never been crying. As I'm getting older
and I'm becoming a little bit more softer.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
But what what made you have those boundaries? Not just
be expressive general? Like what what made you inside say hey,
you can only cry if someone dies?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Or like what was that? Is that something?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Honestly?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Do that? Not to overthink you, dog, I think my
only purpose was because I just didn't want them crying
for every little reason. Bro, I got it for a
little tantrum, and I didn't want I didn't want to.
I didn't want to, and they and they weren't. They're
not like that, like they only cry when it's necessary.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
So I don't know. I don't know if that's the
right way or the wrong way and work, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
For me, it was just like I don't want you
to cry because you didn't get your chicken nuggets. Dog,
I don't want to have. I don't want to be
that guy. I don't want to be that I don't.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Want to have I don't want to have those children.
You know, I want you guys.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
So I would always tell them I want your tears
to mean something I don't want. Because you got, you got,
you gotta fail in your math class.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Don't cry over it. Do something about it, get better, improve,
you know, do better next.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Time, But don't cry about it. Like little things like
that dude, like, oh, I don't know, whatever it is,
I don't want to cry.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Go to your room. I'm gonna cry. I don't want
to clear my room. No, I don't want to cry
for I'm.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Sorry, and we'll hope. What's been their response.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I feel like it's worked. My kids don't cry, they rarely,
they rarely cry. But I don't know if that's good
or not dying again. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I don't know if I affected him in a harsh,
worse way. But my little one is a baby. He
cries more often a ten year old. He is more softer,
and he does, and I let him cry. I'm not
gonna judge judge him, but I do remind him, I go,
was that worth crying for it?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Bro?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Was that worth crying?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Really?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Do?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Because he didn't go to the movies with tramont with
with your friends, that was worth crying? No, well we're
at then, come on, man, save those cheers for something
more important. And I even reminded him my mom passed
away in April, and I cried aloud for I cried
for days. I cried for weeks. I cried for a
long time. And I would tell my kids, Bro, like,
this is worth worth crying for. You're modeling, Yeah, you're
(19:46):
modeling that. And I think I was kind of like
able to emphasize my point because they wouldn't never see
me cry. My kids had never seen me cry until
my mom passed away.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Well, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
My my grandmother passed away at my parents' house in
my my grandma father was holding her left hand and
I was holding her right And even then I looked
over to my dad and he didn't cry. And there's
a part of my book where the first time ever
so cry was Christmas Eve. You know, that's when we
(20:16):
opened Santa Claus keeps coming into this conversation. But I
was staying at my parents' house and I saw the
lights on downstairs, and I given my dad a Neil
Diamond box set and cigars. And I was always tripping
out because I was, how's this mayhe gano that immigrated
to Boil Heights, but he's so in love with this
(20:37):
Jewish guy from Brooklyn, New York, you know, and because
he had these songs like they come into you know,
like he was an immigrant story.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
But that's part of what Bro.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I walked down and I can still, like as if
this was yesterday. I came to turn off the lights
and I look and he's by himself on the recliner, crying,
listening to Neil Diamond, and I just froze because we
don't have these conversations, so I didn't have the vocabulary.
(21:10):
I didn't know what to do. Bro, Like you see
your dad cry for the first time, and again it
wasn't he didn't cry when my grandmother died. This is
remembering Mexico, remembering all this shit that he had to
go through.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, inside coming out.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So Dog, I froze.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
How old were you? I was.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
In late twenties, Damn, early thirties, No, late twenties, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Not that long ago, Bro, It wasn't.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And that's my point, Like, even in my own evolution,
I like disrupted this moment of healing because I was
taught don't cry by him, and then I didn't know,
like what do you do as two men when you
see someone cry? You just kind of like and Bro,
(22:00):
I get emotional thinking about it because like if I
would have if that would have happened now and he
was still with me, I probably would have just came
over and just tried to say, it's okay to cry, Papa.
But what my reaction was like, don't cry to my
own dad?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Did you tell him that?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I just said I.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I didn't say those words exactly, bro, but I said
it by kind of like I almost.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Follow your own rule kind of you're like reminding him
of his own rule.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And it was that moment where and he looked on me, man,
and I'll never forget bro, Like I was like, it's
almost like hey, he wanted to say, like me, who, like,
don't do what I'm doing. But I had ruined the
moment at that point, and I tried to get it
back and it was done, you know. And I always
think about that because I was like, I've been conditioned
(22:50):
by society, by my father, by my grandfather, don't cry,
don't cry. But then when I catch you crying, which
is actually helping, you know, we're supposed to that's actually
a good thing, you know. And so it was like,
and that's why with my son, I'm like you, I'm
trying to find that balance.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
There's a video, there's a balance. But I think so much.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You know, in your comedy, you're not just making people
laugh like when I watch you, like I study you, bro,
and you're teaching people like these are difficult conversations. So
it's not like we're gonna have this at a bar,
but you're doing it through comedy. But you're also bringing
up issues of like sexuality, there's other things that are
like kind of taboo to talk about. So you know,
(23:37):
is that intentional? Are you working out all these things
in your mind on this stage? Like, tell me more
about that.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I think some of it is.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Obviously it's intentional because it's obviously it's in my it's
in my head, it's in my thoughts and my process.
So yeah, when I do right a bit, especially if
it's like I'm pushing the little I'm not really.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
I think that that been in particular was about care
my kid was gay. I love him no matter what.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Now his boyfriend f that guy. But at that time
it was just a joke that I thought was funny, clever.
But it has some intentionality in it behind it. Now
I'm not like now today twenty twenty five, Jerry, because
I joke was like twenty eighteen, Jerry. It's like, I'm
not as proud of it anymore. Obviously there's more growth
with me now. At the time I thought that was funny,
(24:26):
but when I watched it sometimes I hear it, I
remember it. I'm like, I don't think I would say
that anymore, Jay, twenty twenty five, I wouldn't say that
no more. But again, but there is intentionality and pretty
much everything, right, it's just at that time. But it's
also that at that time, at the moment, right, yeah, dog,
Like there's everything has its own little medium purpose for it.
(24:47):
There's definitely for sure, it re presents me at that
moment though, you know, so I can't say I'm I
was proud of all the material I've done. There's some
material that I'm like, I kind of cringe now that
I've done. I kind of there's like a wet back
joke that I used to do, a web back joke
that we're not wet bags because we didn't swim here,
we ran, we're running backs.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Like that's an old joke again that and I look back,
I'm likeugh, like, I don't know, I don't think I
would say that anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
But at that time, I thought it was twenty fifteen, Jerry,
Like twenty fourteen, Jerry. So like again, so yeah, so
there's there's an't to answer your question. Yes, there's intentionality
and everything I write, But then damn you kind of
still like judge for it later too, you know, And.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Well this is so you know, truthfully, my closest friends
are like, are you sure you want to do this podcast?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And I'm like, why, like because it uncovers a lot. Yeah,
it does, and uncovers both my own like what I'm
sharing with you. It's you know, I don't Yeah, that's
a lot that.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I'm sure you don't go around to time people, but.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Also they can look back on twenty fifteen, Mic, that's
different than twenty twenty five, just like you, and we
live in this time of canceling when we're trying to
figure it out, you know. And and you know, I
wanted to ask you about that because I watched the Specials.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Twenty eighteen, Yeah, twenty eighteen, right, and you're doing I
dropped twenty nineteen, but I filmed the twenty eighteen when
you're a totally different personal for the pandemic, Right, So
what do you say to other men that don't want
to take the leap of faith or just like share.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
What their thoughts are because they're like, I don't want
to get canceled, bro, I'm just gonna keep it inside.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
It depends what format they're doing it on, too, Dog.
We can't just be encouraging people to speak their minds
all the time either, Doug, because there are you know,
cern rules to the game as well, you know, Yeah,
there's ways to express yourself correctly, right, I just I
mean social media is also taken into a whole different
level too, where like people overspeak, Dog and over you know,
(26:44):
they say they talk basically out of their ass a
little too much. Just have a little bit more you know,
thought and planning and what you're going to talk about,
what you want to emphasize. That's what I do now, Bro,
I'm very careful dog like I of course, I still
keep it light. I still be myself, you know, but
I'm also very careful, like bro Like, I don't want
to just get myself in trouble for some dumb thought
(27:04):
that just came out of my head, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
But let me ask you what.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You're on tour with two other comedians and their three generations. Yeah,
so are they looking up to you for this kind
of yes?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And they yes?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And no.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
I mean, of course they look up to me and
the joke writing process and how to you know, how
to deliver a punchline and so and so on. But
they're still there themselves, man, I mean, like, do no
bro like Dune those twenty five Bro he talks about
those most insane, gnarly crazy things these kids are going
through right now, Like they still like they used to,
how they still call each other b words, you know,
(27:39):
they still call each other bitches and this and that
and and you know, man like, and I'm just like,
ohh bro Like, yeah, that was me dog twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
That was me, Bro. I'm not that guy no more.
But he's still there. You see. That's his life right
now that's his world, dude.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
And I'm not gonna stop him from that. Like, bro,
that's do you homie. And you know, Concrete is another
wild specimen himself, dude. So he just over the place
as well. But he's funny and he gets it. He
does put a little bit more thought about what he
wants to, you know, accomplish on stage. So we just
how I just I helped them structure their sets and
(28:12):
I just helped all right, man, you should say like this,
emphasize this part, say this, set them up here, punchline there,
and so forth. That's kind of my job with them, bro.
I'm not gonna change who they are, of course, but
I am going to warn them, like yo, just be
careful now. I can come back to you later before
you talk to keep talking like that.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So what's you're You're bringing up a lot, You're learning
a lot because you know, typically I don't mean a
comedian that has this intergenerational opportunity to both learn, Like
what's like even yesterday and I learned a new term.
They asked, Hey, how was your weekend? I was like, oh,
I just chilling. Oh you were rotting?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Oh right, couch writing. I heard about culturating you know, man, Man,
But I'm trying to keep up too. I just learned
that one too. Couch I heard it as couch route writing. Yes,
couch rotting.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
But what is the thing you've learned from this journey
with specifically with those two Latino men, just in terms
of anything, but like, because I'm hearing you mentor and guide,
I'm also hearing you like accept and love them to
be who they are, don't change them. But like you know,
you're in a unique position like what you've got from
this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I honestly, I haven't put much thought into it, Mike,
I'm just enjoying the moment. We're having tons of laugh
tons of laughs every where we go. Man, Dude, It's
just it's a whole new experience for me because obviously
has a stand up comic. Most of the time, you're
out there on your own, like you're I've toured along
a long time by myself just hitting the road, uh,
(29:40):
you know, and so now as a group setting, I'm
really enjoying it, dude. I just like it's just more
feels like a more team effort. So I don't know
exactly because it's still going on Mike. So it's like
it's it's more of a situation where like I don't
know what I'm living right now. I'm just enjoying it, Doug,
Like having a good time. We're making good money, like
(30:03):
I'm paying my bills. Like it's cool, dude, Like I'm
just it's a refreshing way to tour because for a
long time I toured like after the Special. So when
my Special jobs in twenty nineteen, the pandemic hit, so
my whole tour year twenty twenty, I had a whole
fifty tour date in twenty twenty just canceled, gone, and
(30:23):
so then I had to restart in twenty twenty one
and remind people I have a special and shit and
this and so for and then carry from there. So
then I toured in twenty twenty one, but it was
a little different because the Special I had been out
of it for over a year now, Doug. So like,
you know, so now I'm kind of restarting all over.
So I toured for a long time from twenty twenty
one to like twenty twenty three, I toured by myself, man,
(30:44):
and it was a lot of lonely, sad, empty shows,
empty nights, empty you know, venues, and it was tough, man,
it was tough. So eventually I started, you know, gaining
some steam again.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Some stuff started going viral.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
So when my started going virraul, so I was able
to bring myself back up again. Then I made people
like concrete and do know, and they're like, yo, man,
I want we want to get we want to get
into stand up as well. Let's do something together. And
it just took off from there. Twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So twenty twenty five or even twenty twenty six, what
would Jerry tell thirteen year old.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Jerry that that dreams do come true? Doug, Because about
thirteen years old is when I realized that I wanted
to be a stand up comedian. That's when about thirteen,
I was in eighth grade, and that's when I discovered
what stand up comedy is because the teacher told me
(31:41):
I was always a funny, the class clown.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I was very funny, sayce.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
I was an elementary all throughout middle school, and every
teacher would tell me one day at that time, we're
talking about nineteen eighty three, they're like, you're gonna be
the next Eddie Murphy. You're gonna be the next next
Jim Carrey, You're going to be the next Richard Pryor
will be thrown out there a PAROGUEZ.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You're gonna be the next one man.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
And I didn't know who these people were besides them
being actors. I just knew them as actors. I don't
know what stand up was. And then there was a
teacher who introduced me, this is stand up. They gave
me like a brun album. I think it was an Ay
Murphy raw Like I can't Lenny go, I can lend
you borrow this, but this is what he does stand up.
And there's tracks and so far. The point is that's
the time where I realized Bro. Then a few years later,
(32:23):
like in ninety six ninety seven, late high school, I
learned about George Lopez. And then now there's George Lopez. Dog,
there's freaking there's a Mexican man, brown, sweaty, ugly, just
like me. Bro, that's our voice, that's him. That's who
I was waiting because I never connected to Richard Prior,
Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, even Prodriguez.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I didn't really know who he was.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
I had never seen him, so when I saw George
Lopez on TV, I was like, Damn, that's it. That's
the guy, that's the one right there, bro, And of
course he was hilarious, and then that's it.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Ever since then, that's what I knew.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
I'm gonna be a stand up comic and I want
to get those laughs and I want to get that.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I want to get that feeling that he's getting up
there on stage.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
And so but I said that like at eighteen, I
didn't start coming till I was twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
So I just again, I was nervous.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
I didn't want to I don't want to set myself
to fail, try and fail and never try again. So
I waited for my time. I wanted to study the game,
what it's like. And of course real life comes into play.
Gotta pay bills, got to get a job, gotta go
to school, gotta go to college, gotta find myself. And
it took me a long time to find myself until
(33:31):
my first two borns were babies or one and two.
I'm about to be thirty years old, and I'm like, bro,
I'm about to be thirty, I got two kids, My
life is going. I got a part time job, I
ain't shit, bro, I ain't shit, bro, Like I want
to do something with my life, and and comedy called me.
I just I got back to comedy, Like, well, what
I really want to do? I want to do comedy.
(33:52):
I want to be I'm about to be thirty. I
want to be able to say that at least tried it.
If I fell on my face, I got it out
of my seat, stumb and let's move on with my
life and find a real job. But once I hit
comedy at twenty nine, dog, no looking back, food, that
was it. I was hooked. It was a drug and
I never wanted to stop, and I never stopped since, dude,
(34:13):
and it just kept going from there.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I want to honor you because I'm thinking of someone
in particular right now that I believe we're all brought
into this world with gifts and talents or or shay
you call it, and life's about remembering what that gift is.
But then society, the job, everything beats you down to
(34:36):
get away, and then you're paying bills and struggling raising two.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Kids, and your resilience.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
To stick through, but not just to stick through, bro,
that discipline, but to listen to your inner voice. And
be like, nah, I'm going to do this, and then
it becomes a drug and then becomes who you really are.
And so I just want to honor that because there's
a lot of in between.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
There is a line in between, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And with that being said, I guess you know one
of my final questions I'm always asking folks because you
say a lot on stage. Probably a lot of stuff
you say on stage is probably hard for you to
say off stage. Yeah, that's a whole Well, let me
let me ask you that. Why is that first?
Speaker 4 (35:23):
And I want to ask you because obviously it's an act, right,
so it's easier to hide your soop behind a knackt
So it's always it's easier to say things are difficult
to say because.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
You're on stage.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
It's of course it's coming in because you can always
just fall back and say it's a jog dog jog.
I don't really mean it. You know this and that
so for and so on. So yeah, that's a timple answer.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Simple.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
And is there anything unspoken to your three sons or
your your dad that you haven't said that you want
to say?
Speaker 3 (35:51):
I just hope that I make them proud every day.
But fortunately Mike.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
To be honest with you, they've they've my father and
my three kids tell me constantly that the proud of me,
and that's where they keep me.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
It keeps me going.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Dog.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Uh. My kids, especially my older kids and even my
little one, they've grown up watching me do this and so,
and I think you wanted to ask earlier, like how
do they feel about the material?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
They're fine.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
I've always been very clear with them, like, hey man,
it's it's jokes.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
It's on stage.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
I embellish, I exaggerate, I do whatever it takes to
make people laugh. And so sometimes it's going to be
at your coss. But obviously you know your dad, you know,
you know what's up, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And they get it.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
They they're very smart, and they're like, yeah, they get it,
Like I get it that, like you know, we've been
to Choky Cheese and I get how how it is
and so on and so on and so yeah, today
they tell me all the time, I'm very proud of
you that they do. My dad, every time I talked
to my dad, very proud of keep going and keep going.
So it's a constant reminder from then. It's so honestly,
(36:51):
it's fuel mic, it's just fuel fuels me to like,
I don't want to let them down, dog, I don't
want that feeling to stop.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I just want to. I want to name flecked back one.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Thank you for teaching me and whoever's listening to this,
that your acknowledgment of your father and your sons and
that communication is making you a better performer, because oftentimes
we're taught not to tell your father or your sons
the truth. And it sounds like you're being very upfront,
like hey, I'm embellishing it, but hey, I'm proud of you,
(37:24):
and they're like, hey, Papa, I'm proud of you too,
And that is healing generational cycles. Because my grandfather never
said that to my dad. I can tell you that
for a fact, And so I just want to I
want to name it so folks know, like, hey, it
may take a leap of faith to actually tell your
child or your parent how you really feel, but you're
(37:45):
gonna get fueled back if you do it from a
genuine place for sure.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
It comes from there, for sure. Yeah cool, hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
So we're gonna go into our sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
But before I want to actually get this because one
of the things I'm inspired by your story is that
you started later. You started at twenty nine, and oftentimes
I felt like, man, if I didn't make something to
myself in my twenties.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
That ship has sailed.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, it's gone. Yeah, but you're proving the opposite.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, And so just want to give some space for that,
anything you want to share it, because I.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Think it's important because I, like I mentioned, I knew
at thirteen I want to be a comedian, and at
eighteen I really wanted to be a comedian.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
But I didn't start to twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
And I tell people all the time, man, I trust me,
I wish I wish I started at twenty one, Dog,
I would have been a lot more famous curtful if
I was. I tell people all the time. But I'm
also glad that I started at twenty nine because if
I would have started my early twenties, I wasn't ready
for a rejection.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
I wasn't ready to fail. Dog. I was afraid of that.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I knew.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
If I knew in my early twenties, if I would
have tried comedy and I would have failed, I would
have never came back to it, dog, because I couldn't
take that at that time of my life, at twenty nine,
I had a thick skin and I was able, and
I did fail in the beginning.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
I was not good for the first year or so.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I was bad.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Bro.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
It took me a while.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
But I will have to have the the stature, the age,
the maturity to take people not to laugh at my
jokes at that time and come back and retry and
attempt it.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Again and again and again.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So no age limit, man, for sure, no age limit,
all right, Jerry, So these are sacred five. So someone
asks ask five questions, answering one word or one couple
of sentence. So first question, name three things that make
you feel safe, connected and whole.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
Oh it's gotta be Diego, Adrian Nicolas, my kids.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
What a proud dad as you should be.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Okay, what song book or prayer brings you back to yourself?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well, song book or prayer. I'm a big thing.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
It is a North fan, huge bro and a lot
of their songs really connect. I know it's cheesy, but
I'm a huge, huge fan.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
There's like America uhschado.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Uh and.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Are songs that just really connected with me throughout my
life and why Uh America obviously is the immigrant and
also my mom is from a Sovador and then, uh,
but almost it's just a heart breakup of a girl
that you know, it's a song that relates to like
one day, I'm never even gonna know this girl's name,
so and I'm waiting.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
For that day.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Love it. So, what is one daily ritual or practice
that grounds you?
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Uh, one daily ritual that grounds me is making my
own breakfast and my own coffee. That really starts my
day off, being able to like just reset the day.
And food is my comfort zone, especially breakfa I'm a
big breakfast guy. I love my coffee, my pastries, my pancakes,
my eggs, my hash brows that I now learn how
to make myself. And I just when I don't make
(41:13):
my own breakfast, I have to go buy McDonald's breakfast.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
It kind of throws out my whole day. I feel
like less of a person.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
I got that. Okay, what's so much of this? I
don't know if you feel it, but at least I do.
It's this is a healing conversation, and so a lot
of folks are searching for that, and so I always
like to ask people, what's one smart action that a
person can take on their own healing journey acceptance.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Acceptance.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
Dog, we all go through shit, and we all go
through really bad bad times, and you have to be
able to accept it. And that's the only way you
can move on from it, dude, learning from your mistakes. Yeah,
for me, it's that simple, dude, Like when I when
I when I messed up really bad, Dude, I just
have to own it and then just grow from it.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Dog, God, it's beautiful acceptance, all right. Last one, really
share a one line blessing or quote that inspires you.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Man, somebody just gave me a good one, dog at
which I really enjoy it is about, Hey, I think
I have it right here, dude, could I retweet?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
I retweeted it? Dog famous sir, Yeah, he us.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
You cannot expect God to bless what You cannot expect
God to bless what you're too lazy to build. Say
that again, you cannot expect God to bless what you're
too lazy to build. You can't expect God just to
give you something for if you're not.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Gonna work for it. Well, there we go.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
So before I give a wrap up, where can folks
find you?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
What's next?
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Ig is the best Way Instagram comedian Jerry g At
Comedian Jerry g I also have my own podcast called
It's Not My Weekend Podcast on YouTube and it's really
cool raw podcast.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I literally just talk about my everyday stuff that goes
that I go through at shows, at home, at business wise, Like,
it's really cool. We learn from each others. I read
people's comments and questions and it's really dope.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Man.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
It's like a vlog. It's just I'm by myself. It's
a weekly thing. It's only like forty five minutes. And
then I just vent and people love the eventing processes
that I go through.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Doc.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
It's really fun.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Doc.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
It's on my weekend on YouTube and that's the best
two about. And then obviously like those World Natural tours
going on right now and in any shows just Instagram,
my link TREEFKA.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Well, Jerry, it's been absolute honor. Every time we're in conversation,
I always just want to reflect back some things that
stood out to me, and there's a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Number One, I want to honor you as.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
A father, has been done as man or as fathers,
we oftentimes don't appreciate or acknowledge or say thank you
for being a good man, Thank you for being good father.
And I want to say, knowing your three sons, but
just feeling this energy, like, thank you for being a
good man.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Thank you for.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Showing that we could be vulnerable, not just on a
stage but in real life. And I know we're a
real time trying to figure out what does it mean
to be a man in this generation because it's different
than ours. And I want to thank you for your
ability to use humor to bring our guards down to
have really honest conversations that we need to have. In
(44:46):
my prayer really for both of us, for all of us,
is that we could be this open and honest and
accepting of each other, not just when we're performing. And
you are in that journey and so I just want
to say thank you for that, and also that you
know you could be thirty, you could be forty. That
it's never too late though, and it's never too late,
(45:08):
too late, and so thank you from the bottom of my
heart for being a part of this.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
I would show thank you, Mike, this is awesome, bro.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, and we'll be supporting you every step of the way.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
Let's get it, baby, Let's get it. Say likewise, Bro,
congrats on your book, tooful.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Thank you, show done all right man.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Sacred Lessons is a production My Heart's Michael through It,
a podcast network Sacred Lessons Media, and.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
The Prince Group.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
What are the cycles fathers passed down that sons are
left to heal? What if being a man was about
holding it all together but learning how to let go.
This is a space where men speak truth and find
the power to heal and transform. I'm Mike Dela Rocha.
Welcome to Sacred Lessons. Welcome to Sacred Lessons. I'm Mike
(00:24):
Dela Rocha, and I'm honored to speak with Jerry Garcia,
one of today's funniest comedians, someone I've watched rise from
Huntington Park stages to a nationally acclaimed HBO special. But
beyond the spotlight, he's a father of three boys, using
humor and his Latino roots to hold space for healing,
(00:44):
for laughter, and for fatherhood. So welcome Jerry. Yeah, thank
you so much for going to be a part of this. Yeah,
and I just want to first just honor you. You
know when we first met seeing you, like I said
said in that intro from Huntington Park to the HRIO Special.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
But something that folks may not.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Know is you sold out the Ford Amphitheater and as
a co owner to beat the Coffee. We were so
excited to sponsor that because we knew how important it
was for three Latino men to sell out an iconic
theater in LA And so before we even start, I
just want to say congratulations and thank you for being
who you are.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Oh, thank you, Mike, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yeah, it hasn't been It's not a one man show obviously,
even though it's stand up comedy when you're up there
by yourself. It definitely is this tour that I think
is very important for Latinos, for our culture, for different
three different generations. Shout out to Concrete, Duno, and obviously myself.
It's a three headed monster tour and it's literally three generations.
(01:48):
Man on forty five, Concrete about to hit forty students
thirties technically, and Dun those twenty five years old. So
we've come from three different perspectives and I think we're
really unifying Latino culture and what it is like from
three different eyesights, point of view, through different povs. And
I think that's what's been hitting pretty big overall as
a tour goes along, and it was a really problem moment.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
For all of us. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, I could tell from looking at the photos in
the video now sharing with you. I was young when
I was on that stage and it felt I'm just saying,
as a brown man, Yeah, to see you and to
hear you now talk about like, hey, I wasn't even
sure if we could sell it out. I told you,
but actually you sold it out and there were probably
(02:33):
hundreds that wanted a ticket, you know, And so how
in reflection, how does that make you feel like?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
It just feels like they we're doing something right and
then we are representing our people like as we should.
Man obviously through comedy we have fun. The best thing
is we laugh with each other and at each other.
It's how Latinos do, That's how we move. It just
makes me feel that I just feel that we're doing
the right We're making the right moves, and we're representing
(03:01):
our people the right way. And that's what makes me
the most proudest of it all.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
We're not being fake. We're all genuine, you know. Do
you know it goes off the cuff.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
He's super wild, super crazy, and Concrete is obviously figuring
it out on himself, the crazy skids and I'm more
of the writer type of thinker type of situation, and
I think we always just make a great team.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
But as far as myself.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I just I'm very proud of who I am and
what I do, what I represent Mexicans, Central Americans, Latinos,
East La, Southeast La, just Cali, Southern Cali, everything Bro,
like it just h yeah, that's why I am bro.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Like that, who I am is who I am?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Bro every day And have you always been like that?
That's a sense of pride that you exude right now?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Like yeah, pretty much, Bro. I mean again, growing up
on No Parks, it's all I knew. I didn't leave
onneing No Park until like I was like almost eighteen, dude.
Like I didn't even go to the beach until like
I was about eighteen, and are never like I never
left my town. It's all I knew. It's all I
consumed every day. So it's all I knew. So it's
still everything I kind of know. Now it's still with me.
(04:11):
But now I get to see the country like I'm
this weekend, I was with gabrieg Lecias in Atlantic City
and Vermont in Pennsylvania. You know, the place I've never
ever been in my life before, dude, making white people
laugh and through my jokes, through the stories that I write.
And so I mean just it just all comes together
and I'm doing it my way.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It's dope, man.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And I don't change my act for anybody. When I
mean it's cold, I don't choose my act. I'm in Pennsylvania.
I'm Allentown, Pennsylvania. Five thousand white people laughing, and I'm
just enjoying every minute of it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Man. And I love to make everyone laugh, bro, no
matter where you're from.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So culture in comedy is being your vehicle to tap
into folks that maybe you know assumption wise, it's like
these five thousand white folks, they're not going to care
about Latino culture, but you're obviously it's a different story
with you.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Uh, it's not that I forced them to care. It's
just it's just through laughter, bro. Yeah, it's just through
a you know, a mutual feeling that we all have
no matter what color you are, where are you from?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Bro? Like, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
It's funny, dude, And a lot of it's because I
ran about my kids and my materials about family. So
it doesn't matter what color you are, bro. Like, if
it's gonna hit, it's gonna hit, dude.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So let me ask this because you mentioned family. I
was really excited about this conversation because your father of
three boys, and you use them a lot in your content.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
How did that happen? And how do they feel though?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Now? I mean they're older now since that HBO is special,
But like you talk so much about I was talking
smack with with with my wife watching your show about
your stepfather's you know, and so like, how do why
did you make that choice?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And how did they feel?
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Knowing that When I first sarted talking about my kids,
they were obviously very young and I only had two
at a time. When I first started talking about them.
As I was writing when I was first coming up
in comedy, you're trying to find yourself again. I'm as
from Southeast La, talking to my slang, so forth and
so on, but that doesn't always connect with everybody. I
couldn't find myself at the time, so I was just
(06:14):
making just general cholo jokes and hood jokes and you know,
dating jokes, and just I it wasn't great and so
and so.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Then I just realized, you know, what I got to talk.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
About what I know, and what I know is being
a dad, being a being at home with these kids
that you know, just you know, stressed me the shit out,
but I love them no matter what, and so I
started talking about that that part, like taking them to
chuck e cheese and what that's like, uh you know,
changing uh whatever, their tantrums and so forth, and so
(06:47):
I just let let's just talk about what.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I know and what I live every day, and that's that.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And then at that time, unfortunately my marriage fell apart
early on.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So then then then then that happened.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Then I had to face that situation of being a
single dad and cold parenting and sharing my kill my
children with other people stepdads, and so instead of being
angry about it and bitter about it, I wanted to
make fun about it. And have you know it was
it was I was disguising my pain, I really was
because I was really jealous of the step dad. I
(07:19):
was jealous of that situation of this guy, the new
man in my kid's life. And so I had to
check myself, bro like, because at the end, I realized
this guy has the right intentions for my kids.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I learned that early. My kids will talk good highly
about him, and they would say good things about he
was good.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
He took us to the park, we played bast we
went to the movies, and at first I'm getting jealous,
but then I'm like, this guy's actually helping me out,
like he's showing my kids cool things. And so I
started to write about it, and so I think then
that I started connecting and obviously that their work people
started laughing at the stepdad situation, and I just ran
with it, you know, even though that's that relationship didn't
(07:57):
last long. He was gone within a few months. But
the point is he left his presence and my jokes.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Forever though, yeah forever.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Well, a lot of men, including myself, we use jokes
as a way to hide how we truly feel and
to mask our feelings and what I feel.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
You know. What I like about you.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Is you lean in intentionally obviously. Yeah, but talk about
that just in terms of why do you think it's
so difficult for men just to be honest and not
have to throw a joke in there.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Well, it's because we can't show vulnerability, right, we can't.
We can't show weakness. Dog at the end of the day, though,
especially like like where I came from, you couldn't. Man,
I was I'm not a big guy, you know, don't
let this manly stature full you dog like this. I've
not been very tough and big, but you have to
you have to show show face.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Dog.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
You have to at least act it. You know, we
would happened if you didn't, though.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I guess you get pushed around, bullied, get your get
your snack, get your lunch money taken away.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Though, uh which I did. I never got bullied.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
People look at me and for sure got but I
never did thanks to my humored dog.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I was always a funny guy that people didn't want
to mess with. The funny guy.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
You know, whenever there was a bullying situation, somebody's like
bigger wants to take my shit or takes take something
for me, there was al somebody there like, no, don't
mess with him, bro, Like he's cool, dude, he's funny,
like he's a good guy. And so I think the
comedy guy has kind of saved me in that situation.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It sounds like comedy was your was your your shield,
but also your weapon because I knew not to punk
you because you would, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying
to unpack all this. Obviously, different cultures and just men
and gender in general, there's this prevailing notion that if
we show any sign of vulnerability, we're weak, and so
(09:47):
therefore you have to be strong and strong as very masculine,
and you know, oftentimes being not who you are, to
fake it so you don't get hurt. Right, Yeah, and uh,
you know I grew up that way, and as I'm
getting older and my kids are getting older, we get softer.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, we do it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But I'm also but it's you know, what I'm realizing
is like, yes, and being softer is harder than being
hard because everything around me is telling me, yo, don't
don't cry or don't show this emotion because then you
are weak. But I'm like, actually, if I don't show that,
I'm going to die like my dad did at sixty
six because he held up all his emotion and his
(10:29):
body and his body started to break down. And that's
what happens for too many men. Fact, and so you know,
I'm trying to tease this out. I don't know the answer,
but this is all the questions I have, especially because
my son is in middle school, and so I'm like,
do I raise him the way my dad raised me?
Or do I raise him a different way or a
blend and all of that. And I guess, like you know,
(10:51):
with your with your sons, how you were raised, did
you raise them differently in this issue of like strength
or vulnerability.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Or whatever, differently, bro, differently? Yeah, we're yeah, they they're
they're different. They're definitely connected to their to themselves and
to their feelings.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It's weird. It's just, you know, it's the world that
we live in now.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Bro.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I of course you gonna accept it.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like I never, like, I never really hugged or kissed
my dad often or at all, and I.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Had no problems with that obviously. That's what you know.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
We're not supposed to be hugging up and kissing up
on each other. But it's funny because now I do.
I kiss my kids all the time on their cheek,
like every day, like every good morning, good night, give
him a kiss my grown ass high school kids.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Man, I like, come here, man, how you been? And
give him kiss on the cheek. That's what that.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I never did with my father ever until as an adult,
until like in my thirties, I started hugging my when
I saw my dad were fragile, you know, That's when
I started like hugging my dad embracing him more and
giving him his kiss on his cheek and well costas
and I give him kiss my dad. If I was
as a teacher, if I could do that to my father,
my father would flip out like whoa, what the are
you doing?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Bro? Like back up, help me? Uh?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
But now even you know, my even my father has
changed as well. He's become more like, you know, sensitive
and easy going. Because yeah, because he's still with us, thankful.
You know, I lost my mom this year, man, but
my dad's still with us, and so he gets and
now he knows you're right. Like it would have ate
him up alive and he would have continued to be
that person though. So now he's very more soft. He's
a soft he's a teddy maright now. But nah, I mean, man,
(12:18):
And you're talking about your son in middle.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
School, Like what grade?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
He's in seventh grade?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Okay, my son just entered sixth grade. My youngest, my
ten year old, and he still believes in Santa Claus
dog like he genuinely dead ass believes in Santa Claus.
Bro at ten years old, maybe not so much as
a tooth fairy. I think he started to lose some
of the tooth fairy feel because he just likes this
tooth a couple of months ago put it on the pillow.
(12:42):
We forgot, bro, we didn't put nothing in there, and
he kind of like kind at that point, kind of
figured out like maybe there is no tooth fairy, but
Santa Claus, I don't know if he's just playing us
to get what he wants.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Maybe there's some of that out also there, but he comes.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
With a genuine feel and believe in Santa Claus when
he talks about him, When he talks about him still
like a nine years old and ten years this last Christmas,
he still talks about Like, yo, man, you think Santa
found out about the time that I got in trouble
this hey, dude, Like you think Santa could bring two
gifts instead of three gifts this year?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Like he was.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
He's trying to figure it out as a which is
cute as shit, But at the same time, you're like, bro,
you're also nine dog, Like is this fair?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Are you playing me?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Are you for real?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I don't want him to I don't I don't want
to lose it, bro, Like, yeah, I don't want to
like talk him out of any situation, but I also
worry for him because now he's a middle school dog
and you're you know, middle school could be he's a
middle school Now he's a middle school child.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Believing in Santa Claus. I don't know that's a good.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I mean, that's the tension, right that you use humor
to discuss on stage, But also for me, I'm trying
to unpack, Like, what was the reason that you started
being more emotionally or physically affectionate with your dad? Was
it because you saw him starting to get frail?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
I think it was ad bro, yeah, honestly, yeah, and
me just being a grown as man at thirty something
years old whenever that happened, and just seeing my dad
just being being more vulnerable, yeah, and being just you know,
just seeing him slow down and not being able to
work and be as strong.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Right, And then that's when I started.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah. I remember just one day just hugging him and
kissing him and him being okay with that.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
I don't know how exactly it happened. I just remember
it just organically happening.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And it happens regularly.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Yeah as Oh yeah, bro, Now I see my dad
every time I see my that it's not often he
lives up in the in an empire. So when I
do see him, yeah, going for the hug and the
kids and I miss you?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Are you being? Are you doing?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
And the goodbye is the same, bro, and yeah there's yeah,
there's no ifs or buts about it.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Now do Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And I'm my hope for this conversation is two fathers, yeah,
with two sons pretty much the same age and coming
up in the generation we did where you know, my
dad loved me more in life itself, but Mioelo never
sent me the almoal I love you, So therefore I
never really heard those words growing up, and I always
(15:05):
wanted to, you know, I try to act on Macho like,
oh I didn't need to hear.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
It, No, but I do, and I still do.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
You know, I'm and with this new generation, it is different,
and I'm trying to figure out, like, how can I
teach my son to do what I'm doing in my
forties and not wait till he's forty, if that makes sense,
to be more like just tell me, don't hold it in,
you know. And obviously he's going through mood changes and
(15:30):
all this other stuff. But I just want to figure
out a more healthier version of what being a man
and a Latino man is today. And I know, looking
at my grandfather, looking at my father, they taught me
beautiful stuff. They also taught me things that are really unhealthy,
(15:51):
you know. And there's no judgment or shame obviously, you know.
But I'm just trying to figure out, like, do I
do my son a disservice? Do we do our onto
disservice if we say, hey, stop believing in Santa Claus
or a act hard because if not, you're going to
be punked. But actually a lot of folks that I
see around them, they're just being themselves. Like you know, bro,
(16:13):
you're confident in who you are right now, and obviously
as a young kid you're not. But this is that tension,
if that makes sense, And trying to figure out how
to unpack that. Man.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
I think at the end of the day, Bro, we're
already we're reading by example. Man, the kids eat up
everything we do, whever we're paying attention to it or not.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Like they know everything they pay attention to.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
The kids look up to us obviously, right and they
know whatever we do it's going to affect them, whether
we notice it or not.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So I think what I'm trying to tell you is
that we're already doing that.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
We're already molding them into the man they're going to
become without even realizing.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You know what I'm saying again again, my kids just remind.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Me of me a lot, and I have a running
joke with my kids or like, you know, again, I
don't know this is right or not, but my thing
is I was like, men don't cry, bro, Like, men
don't cry. And the only reason I say that is
because I don't want them crying for any little dumb reason.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
It says they were young, Okay, guys, men don't cry.
Men don't cry. And then and then I go, if
you cry, it has to be for a real purpose.
And I will tell them that, Bro. They're ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
they were young. And I'll be like, Bro, your tears
gonna mean something, bro, Like, I only want to see
you cry if something very like harsh happened to you,
or like a death in a family dog or a
(17:27):
pet died, or you lost something that really means a
lot to you.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Dan you could cry.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
I'm not gonna judge you, bro, but I don't want
you crying because you didn't get the happy meal you
want it, or you didn't get the shoes you wanted,
or your girlfriend broke over you. I don't want to
hear that at ten twelve years old, bro, Like, like
I want you tears.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
To cry because I'm not much of a crier. I
don't cry. I've never been crying. As I'm getting older
and I'm becoming a little bit more softer.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
But what what made you have those boundaries? Not just
be expressive general? Like what what made you inside say hey,
you can only cry if someone dies?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Or like what was that? Is that something?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Honestly?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Do that? Not to overthink you, dog, I think my
only purpose was because I just didn't want them crying
for every little reason. Bro, I got it for a
little tantrum, and I didn't want I didn't want to.
I didn't want to, and they and they weren't. They're
not like that, like they only cry when it's necessary.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
So I don't know. I don't know if that's the
right way or the wrong way and work, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
For me, it was just like I don't want you
to cry because you didn't get your chicken nuggets. Dog,
I don't want to have. I don't want to be
that guy. I don't want to be that I don't.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Want to have I don't want to have those children.
You know, I want you guys.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
So I would always tell them I want your tears
to mean something I don't want. Because you got, you got,
you gotta fail in your math class.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Don't cry over it. Do something about it, get better, improve,
you know, do better next.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Time, But don't cry about it. Like little things like
that dude, like, oh, I don't know, whatever it is,
I don't want to cry.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Go to your room. I'm gonna cry. I don't want
to clear my room. No, I don't want to cry
for I'm.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Sorry, and we'll hope. What's been their response.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I feel like it's worked. My kids don't cry, they rarely,
they rarely cry. But I don't know if that's good
or not dying again. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I don't know if I affected him in a harsh,
worse way. But my little one is a baby. He
cries more often a ten year old. He is more softer,
and he does, and I let him cry. I'm not
gonna judge judge him, but I do remind him, I go,
was that worth crying for it?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Bro?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Was that worth crying?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Really?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Do?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Because he didn't go to the movies with tramont with
with your friends, that was worth crying? No, well we're
at then, come on, man, save those cheers for something
more important. And I even reminded him my mom passed
away in April, and I cried aloud for I cried
for days. I cried for weeks. I cried for a
long time. And I would tell my kids, Bro, like,
this is worth worth crying for. You're modeling, Yeah, you're
(19:46):
modeling that. And I think I was kind of like
able to emphasize my point because they wouldn't never see
me cry. My kids had never seen me cry until
my mom passed away.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Well, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
My my grandmother passed away at my parents' house in
my my grandma father was holding her left hand and
I was holding her right And even then I looked
over to my dad and he didn't cry. And there's
a part of my book where the first time ever
so cry was Christmas Eve. You know, that's when we
(20:16):
opened Santa Claus keeps coming into this conversation. But I
was staying at my parents' house and I saw the
lights on downstairs, and I given my dad a Neil
Diamond box set and cigars. And I was always tripping
out because I was, how's this mayhe gano that immigrated
to Boil Heights, but he's so in love with this
(20:37):
Jewish guy from Brooklyn, New York, you know, and because
he had these songs like they come into you know,
like he was an immigrant story.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
But that's part of what Bro.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I walked down and I can still, like as if
this was yesterday. I came to turn off the lights
and I look and he's by himself on the recliner, crying,
listening to Neil Diamond, and I just froze because we
don't have these conversations, so I didn't have the vocabulary.
(21:10):
I didn't know what to do. Bro, Like you see
your dad cry for the first time, and again it
wasn't he didn't cry when my grandmother died. This is
remembering Mexico, remembering all this shit that he had to
go through.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, inside coming out.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So Dog, I froze.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
How old were you? I was.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
In late twenties, Damn, early thirties, No, late twenties, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Not that long ago, Bro, It wasn't.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And that's my point, Like, even in my own evolution,
I like disrupted this moment of healing because I was
taught don't cry by him, and then I didn't know,
like what do you do as two men when you
see someone cry? You just kind of like and Bro,
(22:00):
I get emotional thinking about it because like if I
would have if that would have happened now and he
was still with me, I probably would have just came
over and just tried to say, it's okay to cry, Papa.
But what my reaction was like, don't cry to my
own dad?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Did you tell him that?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I just said I.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I didn't say those words exactly, bro, but I said
it by kind of like I almost.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Follow your own rule kind of you're like reminding him
of his own rule.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And it was that moment where and he looked on me, man,
and I'll never forget bro, Like I was like, it's
almost like hey, he wanted to say, like me, who, like,
don't do what I'm doing. But I had ruined the
moment at that point, and I tried to get it
back and it was done, you know. And I always
think about that because I was like, I've been conditioned
(22:50):
by society, by my father, by my grandfather, don't cry,
don't cry. But then when I catch you crying, which
is actually helping, you know, we're supposed to that's actually
a good thing, you know. And so it was like,
and that's why with my son, I'm like you, I'm
trying to find that balance.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
There's a video, there's a balance. But I think so much.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You know, in your comedy, you're not just making people
laugh like when I watch you, like I study you, bro,
and you're teaching people like these are difficult conversations. So
it's not like we're gonna have this at a bar,
but you're doing it through comedy. But you're also bringing
up issues of like sexuality, there's other things that are
like kind of taboo to talk about. So you know,
(23:37):
is that intentional? Are you working out all these things
in your mind on this stage? Like, tell me more
about that.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I think some of it is.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Obviously it's intentional because it's obviously it's in my it's
in my head, it's in my thoughts and my process.
So yeah, when I do right a bit, especially if
it's like I'm pushing the little I'm not really.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
I think that that been in particular was about care
my kid was gay. I love him no matter what.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Now his boyfriend f that guy. But at that time
it was just a joke that I thought was funny, clever.
But it has some intentionality in it behind it. Now
I'm not like now today twenty twenty five, Jerry, because
I joke was like twenty eighteen, Jerry. It's like, I'm
not as proud of it anymore. Obviously there's more growth
with me now. At the time I thought that was funny,
(24:26):
but when I watched it sometimes I hear it, I
remember it. I'm like, I don't think I would say
that anymore, Jay, twenty twenty five, I wouldn't say that
no more. But again, but there is intentionality and pretty
much everything, right, it's just at that time. But it's
also that at that time, at the moment, right, yeah, dog,
Like there's everything has its own little medium purpose for it.
(24:47):
There's definitely for sure, it re presents me at that
moment though, you know, so I can't say I'm I
was proud of all the material I've done. There's some
material that I'm like, I kind of cringe now that
I've done. I kind of there's like a wet back
joke that I used to do, a web back joke
that we're not wet bags because we didn't swim here,
we ran, we're running backs.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Like that's an old joke again that and I look back,
I'm likeugh, like, I don't know, I don't think I
would say that anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
But at that time, I thought it was twenty fifteen, Jerry,
Like twenty fourteen, Jerry. So like again, so yeah, so
there's there's an't to answer your question. Yes, there's intentionality
and everything I write, But then damn you kind of
still like judge for it later too, you know, And.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Well this is so you know, truthfully, my closest friends
are like, are you sure you want to do this podcast?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And I'm like, why, like because it uncovers a lot. Yeah,
it does, and uncovers both my own like what I'm
sharing with you. It's you know, I don't Yeah, that's
a lot that.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I'm sure you don't go around to time people, but.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Also they can look back on twenty fifteen, Mic, that's
different than twenty twenty five, just like you, and we
live in this time of canceling when we're trying to
figure it out, you know. And and you know, I
wanted to ask you about that because I watched the Specials.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Twenty eighteen, Yeah, twenty eighteen, right, and you're doing I
dropped twenty nineteen, but I filmed the twenty eighteen when
you're a totally different personal for the pandemic, Right, So
what do you say to other men that don't want
to take the leap of faith or just like share.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
What their thoughts are because they're like, I don't want
to get canceled, bro, I'm just gonna keep it inside.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
It depends what format they're doing it on, too, Dog.
We can't just be encouraging people to speak their minds
all the time either, Doug, because there are you know,
cern rules to the game as well, you know, Yeah,
there's ways to express yourself correctly, right, I just I
mean social media is also taken into a whole different
level too, where like people overspeak, Dog and over you know,
(26:44):
they say they talk basically out of their ass a
little too much. Just have a little bit more you know,
thought and planning and what you're going to talk about,
what you want to emphasize. That's what I do now, Bro,
I'm very careful dog like I of course, I still
keep it light. I still be myself, you know, but
I'm also very careful, like bro Like, I don't want
to just get myself in trouble for some dumb thought
(27:04):
that just came out of my head, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
But let me ask you what.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You're on tour with two other comedians and their three generations. Yeah,
so are they looking up to you for this kind
of yes?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And they yes?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And no.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
I mean, of course they look up to me and
the joke writing process and how to you know, how
to deliver a punchline and so and so on. But
they're still there themselves, man, I mean, like, do no
bro like Dune those twenty five Bro he talks about
those most insane, gnarly crazy things these kids are going
through right now, Like they still like they used to,
how they still call each other b words, you know,
(27:39):
they still call each other bitches and this and that
and and you know, man like, and I'm just like,
ohh bro Like, yeah, that was me dog twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
That was me, Bro. I'm not that guy no more.
But he's still there. You see. That's his life right
now that's his world, dude.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
And I'm not gonna stop him from that. Like, bro,
that's do you homie. And you know, Concrete is another
wild specimen himself, dude. So he just over the place
as well. But he's funny and he gets it. He
does put a little bit more thought about what he
wants to, you know, accomplish on stage. So we just
how I just I helped them structure their sets and
(28:12):
I just helped all right, man, you should say like this,
emphasize this part, say this, set them up here, punchline there,
and so forth. That's kind of my job with them, bro.
I'm not gonna change who they are, of course, but
I am going to warn them, like yo, just be
careful now. I can come back to you later before
you talk to keep talking like that.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So what's you're You're bringing up a lot, You're learning
a lot because you know, typically I don't mean a
comedian that has this intergenerational opportunity to both learn, Like
what's like even yesterday and I learned a new term.
They asked, Hey, how was your weekend? I was like, oh,
I just chilling. Oh you were rotting?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Oh right, couch writing. I heard about culturating you know, man, Man,
But I'm trying to keep up too. I just learned
that one too. Couch I heard it as couch route writing. Yes,
couch rotting.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
But what is the thing you've learned from this journey
with specifically with those two Latino men, just in terms
of anything, but like, because I'm hearing you mentor and guide,
I'm also hearing you like accept and love them to
be who they are, don't change them. But like you know,
you're in a unique position like what you've got from
this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Man.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I honestly, I haven't put much thought into it, Mike,
I'm just enjoying the moment. We're having tons of laugh
tons of laughs every where we go. Man, Dude, It's
just it's a whole new experience for me because obviously
has a stand up comic. Most of the time, you're
out there on your own, like you're I've toured along
a long time by myself just hitting the road, uh,
(29:40):
you know, and so now as a group setting, I'm
really enjoying it, dude. I just like it's just more
feels like a more team effort. So I don't know
exactly because it's still going on Mike. So it's like
it's it's more of a situation where like I don't
know what I'm living right now. I'm just enjoying it, Doug,
Like having a good time. We're making good money, like
(30:03):
I'm paying my bills. Like it's cool, dude, Like I'm
just it's a refreshing way to tour because for a
long time I toured like after the Special. So when
my Special jobs in twenty nineteen, the pandemic hit, so
my whole tour year twenty twenty, I had a whole
fifty tour date in twenty twenty just canceled, gone, and
(30:23):
so then I had to restart in twenty twenty one
and remind people I have a special and shit and
this and so for and then carry from there. So
then I toured in twenty twenty one, but it was
a little different because the Special I had been out
of it for over a year now, Doug. So like,
you know, so now I'm kind of restarting all over.
So I toured for a long time from twenty twenty
one to like twenty twenty three, I toured by myself, man,
(30:44):
and it was a lot of lonely, sad, empty shows,
empty nights, empty you know, venues, and it was tough, man,
it was tough. So eventually I started, you know, gaining
some steam again.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Some stuff started going viral.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
So when my started going virraul, so I was able
to bring myself back up again. Then I made people
like concrete and do know, and they're like, yo, man,
I want we want to get we want to get
into stand up as well. Let's do something together. And
it just took off from there. Twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So twenty twenty five or even twenty twenty six, what
would Jerry tell thirteen year old.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Jerry that that dreams do come true? Doug, Because about
thirteen years old is when I realized that I wanted
to be a stand up comedian. That's when about thirteen,
I was in eighth grade, and that's when I discovered
what stand up comedy is because the teacher told me
(31:41):
I was always a funny, the class clown.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I was very funny, sayce.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
I was an elementary all throughout middle school, and every
teacher would tell me one day at that time, we're
talking about nineteen eighty three, they're like, you're gonna be
the next Eddie Murphy. You're gonna be the next next
Jim Carrey, You're going to be the next Richard Pryor
will be thrown out there a PAROGUEZ.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You're gonna be the next one man.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
And I didn't know who these people were besides them
being actors. I just knew them as actors. I don't
know what stand up was. And then there was a
teacher who introduced me, this is stand up. They gave
me like a brun album. I think it was an Ay
Murphy raw Like I can't Lenny go, I can lend
you borrow this, but this is what he does stand up.
And there's tracks and so far. The point is that's
the time where I realized Bro. Then a few years later,
(32:23):
like in ninety six ninety seven, late high school, I
learned about George Lopez. And then now there's George Lopez. Dog,
there's freaking there's a Mexican man, brown, sweaty, ugly, just
like me. Bro, that's our voice, that's him. That's who
I was waiting because I never connected to Richard Prior,
Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, even Prodriguez.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I didn't really know who he was.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
I had never seen him, so when I saw George
Lopez on TV, I was like, Damn, that's it. That's
the guy, that's the one right there, bro, And of
course he was hilarious, and then that's it.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Ever since then, that's what I knew.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
I'm gonna be a stand up comic and I want
to get those laughs and I want to get that.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I want to get that feeling that he's getting up
there on stage.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
And so but I said that like at eighteen, I
didn't start coming till I was twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
So I just again, I was nervous.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
I didn't want to I don't want to set myself
to fail, try and fail and never try again. So
I waited for my time. I wanted to study the game,
what it's like. And of course real life comes into play.
Gotta pay bills, got to get a job, gotta go
to school, gotta go to college, gotta find myself. And
it took me a long time to find myself until
(33:31):
my first two borns were babies or one and two.
I'm about to be thirty years old, and I'm like, bro,
I'm about to be thirty, I got two kids, My
life is going. I got a part time job, I
ain't shit, bro, I ain't shit, bro, Like I want
to do something with my life, and and comedy called me.
I just I got back to comedy, Like, well, what
I really want to do? I want to do comedy.
(33:52):
I want to be I'm about to be thirty. I
want to be able to say that at least tried it.
If I fell on my face, I got it out
of my seat, stumb and let's move on with my
life and find a real job. But once I hit
comedy at twenty nine, dog, no looking back, food, that
was it. I was hooked. It was a drug and
I never wanted to stop, and I never stopped since, dude,
(34:13):
and it just kept going from there.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
I want to honor you because I'm thinking of someone
in particular right now that I believe we're all brought
into this world with gifts and talents or or shay
you call it, and life's about remembering what that gift is.
But then society, the job, everything beats you down to
(34:36):
get away, and then you're paying bills and struggling raising two.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Kids, and your resilience.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
To stick through, but not just to stick through, bro,
that discipline, but to listen to your inner voice. And
be like, nah, I'm going to do this, and then
it becomes a drug and then becomes who you really are.
And so I just want to honor that because there's
a lot of in between.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
There is a line in between, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And with that being said, I guess you know one
of my final questions I'm always asking folks because you
say a lot on stage. Probably a lot of stuff
you say on stage is probably hard for you to
say off stage. Yeah, that's a whole Well, let me
let me ask you that. Why is that first?
Speaker 4 (35:23):
And I want to ask you because obviously it's an act, right,
so it's easier to hide your soop behind a knackt
So it's always it's easier to say things are difficult
to say because.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
You're on stage.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
It's of course it's coming in because you can always
just fall back and say it's a jog dog jog.
I don't really mean it. You know this and that
so for and so on. So yeah, that's a timple answer.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Simple.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
And is there anything unspoken to your three sons or
your your dad that you haven't said that you want
to say?
Speaker 3 (35:51):
I just hope that I make them proud every day.
But fortunately Mike.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
To be honest with you, they've they've my father and
my three kids tell me constantly that the proud of me,
and that's where they keep me.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
It keeps me going.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Dog.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Uh. My kids, especially my older kids and even my
little one, they've grown up watching me do this and so,
and I think you wanted to ask earlier, like how
do they feel about the material?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
They're fine.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
I've always been very clear with them, like, hey man,
it's it's jokes.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
It's on stage.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
I embellish, I exaggerate, I do whatever it takes to
make people laugh. And so sometimes it's going to be
at your coss. But obviously you know your dad, you know,
you know what's up, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And they get it.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
They they're very smart, and they're like, yeah, they get it,
Like I get it that, like you know, we've been
to Choky Cheese and I get how how it is
and so on and so on and so yeah, today
they tell me all the time, I'm very proud of
you that they do. My dad, every time I talked
to my dad, very proud of keep going and keep going.
So it's a constant reminder from then. It's so honestly,
(36:51):
it's fuel mic, it's just fuel fuels me to like,
I don't want to let them down, dog, I don't
want that feeling to stop.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I just want to. I want to name flecked back one.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Thank you for teaching me and whoever's listening to this,
that your acknowledgment of your father and your sons and
that communication is making you a better performer, because oftentimes
we're taught not to tell your father or your sons
the truth. And it sounds like you're being very upfront,
like hey, I'm embellishing it, but hey, I'm proud of you,
(37:24):
and they're like, hey, Papa, I'm proud of you too,
And that is healing generational cycles. Because my grandfather never
said that to my dad. I can tell you that
for a fact, And so I just want to I
want to name it so folks know, like, hey, it
may take a leap of faith to actually tell your
child or your parent how you really feel, but you're
(37:45):
gonna get fueled back if you do it from a
genuine place for sure.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
It comes from there, for sure. Yeah cool, hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
So we're gonna go into our sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
But before I want to actually get this because one
of the things I'm inspired by your story is that
you started later. You started at twenty nine, and oftentimes
I felt like, man, if I didn't make something to
myself in my twenties.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
That ship has sailed.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, it's gone. Yeah, but you're proving the opposite.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, And so just want to give some space for that,
anything you want to share it, because I.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Think it's important because I, like I mentioned, I knew
at thirteen I want to be a comedian, and at
eighteen I really wanted to be a comedian.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
But I didn't start to twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
And I tell people all the time, man, I trust me,
I wish I wish I started at twenty one, Dog,
I would have been a lot more famous curtful if
I was. I tell people all the time. But I'm
also glad that I started at twenty nine because if
I would have started my early twenties, I wasn't ready
for a rejection.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
I wasn't ready to fail. Dog. I was afraid of that.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
I knew.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
If I knew in my early twenties, if I would
have tried comedy and I would have failed, I would
have never came back to it, dog, because I couldn't
take that at that time of my life, at twenty nine,
I had a thick skin and I was able, and
I did fail in the beginning.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
I was not good for the first year or so.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I was bad.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Bro.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
It took me a while.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
But I will have to have the the stature, the age,
the maturity to take people not to laugh at my
jokes at that time and come back and retry and
attempt it.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Again and again and again.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So no age limit, man, for sure, no age limit,
all right, Jerry, So these are sacred five. So someone
asks ask five questions, answering one word or one couple
of sentence. So first question, name three things that make
you feel safe, connected and whole.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
Oh it's gotta be Diego, Adrian Nicolas, my kids.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
What a proud dad as you should be.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Okay, what song book or prayer brings you back to yourself?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well, song book or prayer. I'm a big thing.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
It is a North fan, huge bro and a lot
of their songs really connect. I know it's cheesy, but
I'm a huge, huge fan.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
There's like America uhschado.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Uh and.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Are songs that just really connected with me throughout my
life and why Uh America obviously is the immigrant and
also my mom is from a Sovador and then, uh,
but almost it's just a heart breakup of a girl
that you know, it's a song that relates to like
one day, I'm never even gonna know this girl's name,
so and I'm waiting.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
For that day.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Love it. So, what is one daily ritual or practice
that grounds you?
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Uh, one daily ritual that grounds me is making my
own breakfast and my own coffee. That really starts my
day off, being able to like just reset the day.
And food is my comfort zone, especially breakfa I'm a
big breakfast guy. I love my coffee, my pastries, my pancakes,
my eggs, my hash brows that I now learn how
to make myself. And I just when I don't make
(41:13):
my own breakfast, I have to go buy McDonald's breakfast.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
It kind of throws out my whole day. I feel
like less of a person.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
I got that. Okay, what's so much of this? I
don't know if you feel it, but at least I do.
It's this is a healing conversation, and so a lot
of folks are searching for that, and so I always
like to ask people, what's one smart action that a
person can take on their own healing journey acceptance.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Acceptance.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
Dog, we all go through shit, and we all go
through really bad bad times, and you have to be
able to accept it. And that's the only way you
can move on from it, dude, learning from your mistakes. Yeah,
for me, it's that simple, dude, Like when I when
I when I messed up really bad, Dude, I just
have to own it and then just grow from it.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Dog, God, it's beautiful acceptance, all right. Last one, really
share a one line blessing or quote that inspires you.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Man, somebody just gave me a good one, dog at
which I really enjoy it is about, Hey, I think
I have it right here, dude, could I retweet?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
I retweeted it? Dog famous sir, Yeah, he us.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
You cannot expect God to bless what You cannot expect
God to bless what you're too lazy to build. Say
that again, you cannot expect God to bless what you're
too lazy to build. You can't expect God just to
give you something for if you're not.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Gonna work for it. Well, there we go.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
So before I give a wrap up, where can folks
find you?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
What's next?
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Ig is the best Way Instagram comedian Jerry g At
Comedian Jerry g I also have my own podcast called
It's Not My Weekend Podcast on YouTube and it's really
cool raw podcast.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I literally just talk about my everyday stuff that goes
that I go through at shows, at home, at business wise, Like,
it's really cool. We learn from each others. I read
people's comments and questions and it's really dope.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Man.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
It's like a vlog. It's just I'm by myself. It's
a weekly thing. It's only like forty five minutes. And
then I just vent and people love the eventing processes
that I go through.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Doc.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
It's really fun.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Doc.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
It's on my weekend on YouTube and that's the best
two about. And then obviously like those World Natural tours
going on right now and in any shows just Instagram,
my link TREEFKA.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Well, Jerry, it's been absolute honor. Every time we're in conversation,
I always just want to reflect back some things that
stood out to me, and there's a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Number One, I want to honor you as.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
A father, has been done as man or as fathers,
we oftentimes don't appreciate or acknowledge or say thank you
for being a good man, Thank you for being good father.
And I want to say, knowing your three sons, but
just feeling this energy, like, thank you for being a
good man.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Thank you for.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Showing that we could be vulnerable, not just on a
stage but in real life. And I know we're a
real time trying to figure out what does it mean
to be a man in this generation because it's different
than ours. And I want to thank you for your
ability to use humor to bring our guards down to
have really honest conversations that we need to have. In
(44:46):
my prayer really for both of us, for all of us,
is that we could be this open and honest and
accepting of each other, not just when we're performing. And
you are in that journey and so I just want
to say thank you for that, and also that you
know you could be thirty, you could be forty. That
it's never too late though, and it's never too late,
(45:08):
too late, and so thank you from the bottom of my
heart for being a part of this.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
I would show thank you, Mike, this is awesome, bro.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, and we'll be supporting you every step of the way.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
Let's get it, baby, Let's get it. Say likewise, Bro,
congrats on your book, tooful.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Thank you, show done all right man.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Sacred Lessons is a production My Heart's Michael through It,
a podcast network Sacred Lessons Media, and.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
The Prince Group.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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