September 18, 2025 • 57 mins
Cristela Alonzo isn’t just one of the funniest voices in comedy—she’s a storyteller whose underdog journey fuels razor-sharp stand-up on identity, class and culture. Her latest Netflix special "Cristela Alonzo: Upper Classy" blends hilarity with humanity, but in the comedy clubs, she’s proving that laughter can spark real change.
Hear firsthand about the family struggles that shaped her, the dystopian nightmare she found herself in on election night, and the unexpected way she raised $30K of life-changing support, one laugh at a time.
All proceeds from Cristela's live "Room Temperature Shows" benefit The Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Learn more about their work at https://www.immdef.org/.
Cristela's new Netflix special "Cristela Alonzo: Upper Classy" comes out September 23rd.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Sophia, Welcome to work in Progress. Hello friends.
Today we are joined by a guest that I have
(00:20):
such a comedy crush on. She is a brilliant comedian
and a trailblazer and a storyteller whose journey honestly reads
like an incredibly powerful underdog tail. Today we are joined
by none other than Christella Alonso. She is one of
the funniest women on stage and on TV working today.
(00:43):
Her stand up specials on Netflix deliver incredibly incisive commentary
on identity, class, mobility, her wild childhood, and she manages
to invite audiences to laugh alongside the deeply human truths
of her Latino culture, social awkwardness, racism, and the randomness
(01:06):
of everyday life. Her first two specials, Lower Classy and
Middle Classy, are about to be succeeded by a third,
and I cannot wait to talk to her about how
she writes about her life and her family, about how
she manages to blend her incredible achievements with really committed activism,
and more. On the subject of her activism, Christella is
(01:30):
doing something really incredible as she has been touring around
the country like so many of us, She's watched these
ice raids happening in our home city of Los Angeles,
and inspired by her mentor and idol, Delores Querta, she
decided to take action. So she started doing shows all
over LA called the Room Temperature Shows Tickets or thirty bucks.
(01:53):
She donates one hundred percent of sales revenue to the
Immigrant Defender's Law Center, which is a nonprofit thatocuses on
defending immigrant communities against injustices, and so far she's raised
nearly thirty thousand dollars. Crystella manages to be such an
inspiring and powerful voice that proves that laughter can drive
(02:13):
meaningful change, and I for one, cannot wait to dive in.
Let's hear from Christella. Do I go to the art,
the rad vintage on AirSign, the fiddlee fig You have
(02:34):
an excellent background here.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I always tell people that my esthetic is like mid
century pee Wee's playhouse.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's you know, it's a lot. I'm a big plant person,
but I love color.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I love it. They don't have legos. I'm a big
lego person.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
My god, me too. Shut up. I won Lego Masters
last year.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Shut up. I am so jealous of you. I am
so jealous of you.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It was the absolute time of my life. And I
looked at will Arnett and I was like, you have
the best job in the world. Like, bro, I don't.
I'm not going to like push you down the stairs
to steal your job, but I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You know that the rumor was that he wasn't doing
the next season, so they're actually they're looking for people.
They were looking for people at all.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So what you're saying is we should be the co
hosts of Lego Masters.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I've actually talked to my manager about trying to see
if we could do it in Mexico, just so I'm like,
I'll speak it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Think that would be so sick.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I'm like in love. I'm so jealous.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I cannot believe, Like, not only did you, not only
are you into Legos, but you won Lego Masters.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Like that's next level And I.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Gotta be honest, It's like after the first two builds,
I was like, we are not going to win, and
I don't know what happened. We just like me and Corey,
we just like stepped up our game and.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
We did it.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
We did it. There were animatronics involved. It was Christmas themed.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And you know what people don't we don't talk about
enough in the Lego world is how your fingers hurt
after like the blocks and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's really Yeah, it's also like it's like learning to
play the guitar, but it never gets better. Yes, yeah,
Oh my god, aren't you so excited you came on
this podcast to talk about Lego today.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Honestly, it's one of my favorite podcasts.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I'm so stoked.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
This is it, this is it, but this is how,
this is how it happens.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, well, because also with podcasts, it's like, look, I
was born in the same state every podcast and stuff,
but it's like when you get them, when you get
something different, you're like, let's.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, and here I was going to be like, well,
we clearly have to go to the Rose Bowl together
because I'm a century junkie. But seriously, that actually reminds
me of the point I didn't finish before we discovered
this happy coincidence, which is remember that room raider account
that started during COVID because everyone one of the top
ten I knew it.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
I was like, you must be.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
A ten out of ten on room Raider.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I was actually and it's actually in my old in
my old place, because I I when the pandemic started,
I went crazy. I'm like, let's wallpaper, let's just go,
let's go to town. I started doing renovations, but I
was I was renting, but I did this mid century
kind of like aqua, you know pattern, and then I
(05:46):
had these paintings which I knew people would love. And
you know, once I got the ten out of ten.
And I was doing a lot of stuff with MSNBC
at that time, and people would always recomm and me
to the room Raiders and they're like, look, she's Hall
of Famer now because and I'm such a plant person
that I always had different plants because I was plain.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Oh my god, I love it. It's like and this
week on MSNBC, I've upgraded to a Japanese maple. I
love it. I have to admit, this is going so
great for me because to make a comedian that I
love as much as I love you laugh, I'm like,
I'm crushing.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Obviously you have a new career, like wonderful.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh my god, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I had a tight five You're opening for me, like
it like.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Took me a little while to figure out that my
particular brand of just like neurospiciness, Yes, gives me crippling anxiety,
but also can make me sort of funny. And then
I was like, oh, I think I've found my lane.
And then my mom was like, yeah, why do you
think you were so obsessed with like Jerry Seinfeld and
Murphy Brown and like you love Larry David. I was like,
(07:00):
anxiety comics.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, yes, I have really bad anxiety and people don't understand, like.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You just see you are for me?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Like you are so for me, you said Seinfold.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
When I was in high school, I used to love
like I was the person like he had that book
sign language which was just all of his stand up
and I was like.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Hey, I'm so cool.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I'm just gonna go here while you guys are hanging
out and read about comedy.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
But Marty Brown's one of my favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh, my favorite show of all time.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I talk about it all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I talk about the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Yes
Brown and like the evolution of women me too.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I really think even when I like, when I
started to really know I wanted to focus on theater training,
I think half the reason I wound up. When I
got to college and I was like, Oh, all these
actors are like octoors. And I was like, oh, I
don't know if these are like really my people. I
want to like tell stories, but this seems like a lot.
(07:59):
And I shifted out of the BFA program to do
a double major in theater and journalism. And I'm telling you,
I'm like, oh, it's because I wanted to be Murphy Brown. Yeah, yeah, cool, cool, cool,
But this is actually something and I want to I
want to get to this part. But it's it's something
I've thought a lot about, you know, becoming a fan
(08:21):
of your comedy and then learning about your story. I'm like, oh,
there's got to be something about having women in journalism
idols as young women that primes you to be a
storyteller and an activist.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Absolutely, And actually I think it's really interesting. I loved
theater growing up. I loved it. I wanted to be
on Broadway, you know, Oh it was my dream.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And I remember, you know, I'm in my forties, and
it used to be that growing up. Every night, families
would come kind of pick a network and they.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Would just watch the whole network.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Like that was just and CBS was like my Sunday
because I love murder.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
She wrote, Yes, I got a cute little old lady
solving a murder mystery.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Oh I got sign me up.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
And she's just so perfect and she can't drive like
she's actually, if you think about it, she's almost like
TLC scrubs, but like as she's just always on the
passenger side.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And your incredible, incredible, but she's a scrub. But also,
we don't deserve Angela Lansberry and what do.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
You do with that? Yeah, totally, it's like ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I used to watch Murder sheer and then one night
they didn't show it and they showed the Tony Awards,
and I was like, what is this?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
What is what are all these colors? What is this?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I remember it was the year that Miss Saigon
was new and Jonathan Price was performing. He was doing
the engineer in Miss Iigone, which would now be so
not get cast because he's a white guy playing an
Asian guy.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
But he did a.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Song called American Dream and he's describing American the American Dream,
and it's like colors and costumes and everything, and you know,
being the kid of immigrants, I was just like what
is this? This is like he's talking about like the
country that we're in, and he's talking about how great
(10:20):
this country is and he's singing and dancing, like I
want to do that.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
And I started a theater, but my mom couldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Speak English, so I used to have to translate the
news to her. So as I got really into journalism
because my mom was into the news, she was really
in events, so I had to I had to translate
the news to her. So it was a really weird
kiss met of like journalism theater that I grew up.
(10:54):
And then in high school I started doing uh oratory.
I started writing speeches and like did bait and theater
and all that, and you know, it.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Sticks with you. It sticks with you.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And then I remember I like, look, I love I
love to perform.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I love to act. But once I knew the activism,
the storytelling, once I knew that side and I knew
what it could be, it became bigger. It became a
bigger part for me. It was like I love it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I love and it's just what you know. I hate
social media and I love social media because it's like
same when I was a kid. Yeah, it's like when
I was a kid, I couldn't imagine being so connected.
And you know, when the Internet started, I was like,
oh my god, we're going to be so smart, Like
like you know, it's like remember encyclopedias, they used to
(11:53):
they used to be dated.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
If you had to check.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
One out some there's a chance that somebody checked it out,
or somebody stole it and just didn't know about like Japan.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
If you had to find out about.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
You're like, oh, that issue is gone. Cool.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And then the Internet started, and I love that this
space can exist, spaces like too, where you can actually
talk about your interests and you can talk about what
works and what doesn't, and talk about what's happening in
the world, both good and bad, because we need to
know both good and bad.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, all of it well. And it's really interesting because
you know, we obviously really segued first and foremost over
our shared fandom of building blocks. But the question I
normally like to ask people first, because like you've got
the specials and the shows and the thing like people
know your work. I'm always curious about you and I
(12:54):
And if you got to go back and hang out
with your eight year old self, would you recognize yourself
her like, would you see the woman you are today
and the creative person you are today in that little girl?
And now, given what I know for the first fourteen minutes,
I'm like, hell, yeah, you would, right, I'm.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
The same person, and you know, and it's that thing
where I think, you know, I think that subconsciously, I
always did want to become I always wanted to become
the person I wanted to be when I was a
little kid, and I never let it go.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And it's weird because it's a hard thing because.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Life gets in the way, and then you start forgetting
things that you loved, which in turn changes who you are.
The things that you love, the little hobbies, the things
that you get into, they.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
All create who you are.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
And if you stop, if you just stop doing one thing,
it slowly becomes this domino effect that changes you. But
when I was a kid, I used to love legos,
you know, And it's like, it really is this thing.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
One thing that I think.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I've constantly done in my life is because I have
almost crippling anxiety, you know, and I struggle with depression.
It's like every time that I get sad or stressed out,
I have always gone back to do something that I
did when I was a little kid, because it reminds
me of how happy I was, and it's that thing
(14:30):
that I love, you know, It's like it's a reset.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yes, what are some of those things for you?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You know? I love, Like the lego thing is really
big for me.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I actually like sometimes my brothers used to like we
used to play video games.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
We used to play like the Nintendo, like the original Nintendo.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
So I have the original Nintendo and I will play
the games that I played when I was a kid,
and I love it because the old systems, you can't restart.
Once you die, you die, the game's got to start
all over. And for some reason, it brings that part
of your brain that reminds you of when you were
ten eleven, when life was simpler. And it's one of
(15:14):
those things where you realize that I can get annoyed
about losing the progress of a game, but I also
remember how cool it was that this technology existed when
I was a kid, and it makes me so happy.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
You just have to go back sometimes to capture the joy.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
And I think that as adults were horrible at doing that,
and it's something that I talk about in the special
that's coming out, because it's this idea that we are
taught how to live the wrong way. We are taught
that you have to grow up. You know, so many
(15:55):
of us get told you go to college, you graduate,
you get married, you have the family, you know, blah
blah blah, you get the job. And then I always
started thinking, like, what if you don't want to? What
happens if you don't want to? You know, but this
is life. It's like, but what if it is? Oh?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Why?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It's like, what if you do the thing that you
want to do?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like, yes, say that I didn't have kids, and everybody's like,
but you have to have kids.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
It's like, but no, you don't. What if you don't? Yeah,
what if you don't want them?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know? It's like, but why don't you want kids?
It's like because I already raised children. I help my
sister raise her kids. So if I don't have the
urge to raise children.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
What if I don't?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
And it's asking those questions that you realize, yeah, you
don't have to.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And now a word from our sponsors who make this
show possible.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
When I turned forty, I realized that I had gotten
to the point where, if I'm lucky, I still have
the exact amount of time that I have lived left.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yes, it's like being a newborn, but with a bank
account and taste.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
It's so cool.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Like I turned forty and I was like, well, forty
was a rough year for me, but forty one was
like the best birthday of my life. And I literally
was like, I've honestly, I don't think I've ever been hotter,
I've never been funnier, I've never been smarter. Weirdly, I've
channeled so much anger at stepshit in the world into
(17:50):
emotional tenderness, Like how's that for a magic trick? Like
I'm great and it's so weird. It's like I look
around and you know, no shade to a teen TV show.
I literally grew up on one. But I'm like, I
want to see shows about us.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yes, yes, Like.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
I love this stage and there it is really weird.
There's something missing. It's like you either have a one
tree hill or you have like an eighty for Brady.
And don't get me wrong, like I die for a
Jane Fonda movie. I love Grace and Frankie, but I'm like,
we're so fun in our forties. Where are our TV shows? Yeah,
that's why we all miss Sex and the City so much. Yes,
(18:30):
it's why we miss Seinfeld.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You're right, And it's weird because it is this weird
thing where you know, there's I remember when, you know,
when I had my TV show, I had created it,
I was writing it. We were auditioning people to play
my sister, and the uh every time that an actress
would come in that was over forty, they would say, wow,
(18:55):
she's she can't she's older, and I'm like, well, because
my SO is older, so I would love an older
actress to play an older sister.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And they were trying to steer young.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And it's like, no, no, because the most popular shows
of our time all.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Have older people in it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Fraser is an older cast, Golden Girls is an older cast.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Everybody loves Raymond.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Everybody loves Raymond, like everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The Jeffersons, like you know, Mary Tyler, Moore, Murphy, all
of them, they all had people that were older.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
That yes, and you never thought man as a kid.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
As a kid, I could watch Wondree Hill and Fraser
and I didn't I didn't think, why am I watching Fraser?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
This isn't my show. It was just a funny show.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yes, it's that, just like Murphy Brown.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Absolutely, it's like why am I watching Murphy Brown as
a kid and loving it because it's a good show.
And that's what people don't understand. It's like, if it's good,
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's in it, it
doesn't matter what the story is.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
You know, I say this all the time.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
As a Latina, I didn't have a lot of Latino
representation on TV, and I've found the things that spoke
to me because I was looking for connection. And the connections,
you know, you find them in places that you never
thought you know, and it's because of the story.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
That's why the story is so important. I say this
all the time.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
As different as we all, maybe we're all very much alike.
If you can find a stranger from another culture, you
can find so many things in common about everyday life,
and that is why those stories are important.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yes, and you said something about this when you were
you were taught talking about your show, which you know,
for our audience at home, like you made your own history.
It was twenty fourteen. You became the first Latina ever
to create, write, produce, and star in your own primetime
sitcom casual just like dust your I mean, you know,
dust your shoulders, a polytics make your cash. But one
(21:21):
of the things I think is so interesting about it is,
you know, you talked about how your childhood experience, your
lived experience, was so specific to you, but that actually
the more specific you could be in the storytelling, the
more every kind of viewer could relate to it. And
I love I love that because it's kind of like
(21:44):
it's almost like two things that are opposite or true,
that the more unique your story is, the more relatable
it is, even though you would think the more unique
it is, the less people you know.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
When I started doing stand up I was really popular
in the college circuit. I was like one of the
most booked college comics of all time. And you know
it's the number one state that I performed at was Wisconsin. Wisconsin.
I mean, I know Wisconsin. I love Wisconsin. And it
(22:17):
was this thing where people would think, well, why do
you get booked in Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I didn't know there were latinos there, and.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I was like, well, you know, it's just it's where
I get booked, right, but also grows, you know, I
remember one of the appeals was that I would always.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Talk about growing up blue collar.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You know. It's like, you don't have to be Latino
to grow up blue collar, you know. And it was
there used to be a joke that I did about
how in my family, expiration dates were just suggestions, right,
and it's just like women like family with money. The
day the milk exps fires, you throw it out. In
(23:02):
my family, it's like, oh my god, like you gotta
taste it, taste the milk, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And my family it was always will smell it first.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, you know, it's like and it's
it's very specific because the joke I kind of explained
how as the youngest I was always the person that
had to taste everything.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
You know, and it's like this thing where it but
you know, family like people would love like that joke
a lot because it was relatable to them. It was
very specific, and I would paint this picture of how
I would do it, but they had similar things in
their families too, And that just shows you that by
(23:44):
being specific, you're actually being very universal. That's great storytelling,
you know, a great storytelling makes everybody feel like they
could like like they had the same life where similar experience.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, And one of the things I really appreciate about
the way you move your stories through the world is
you've talked a lot about how you grew up, like
you didn't have an easy time. No, And I'm curious,
you know, reflecting back on experiences with poverty on the
time that your mom was undocumented, like things that we
(24:24):
understand in real laser sharp focus right now are so
scary for families in our country. Do you think you
realized how tough it was then or has it come
to really be clarified for you in your adulthood. And
that's part of what you would say fuels your activism
(24:46):
for similar families now.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
You know, I think that when I was a kid,
my I was the youngest of four and we're they're
all like older, so they're like eleven, thirteen, and.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Fifteen years older than I am.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And when I was a kid, they really did such
a great job of shielding me from a lot of bad,
a lot of the bad that I remember my childhood
being so happy. I remember so much laughing, so much joy.
You know, when I was born, we lived in this
(25:24):
abandoned diner. We squatted in an abandoned diner for the
first seven years of my life, and we didn't have money,
and my mom used to borrow electricity from this house
that was next to the diner, and they would let
us use an extension cord and we would power our
diner with the extension cord and she would give them
(25:46):
some money every month. And there were times that we
had no electricity and we used to have this little
radio from radio shack, and we at night was so dark,
my mom would play the radio and we would pick
up stations from like Mexico that she knew, and on
(26:08):
a clear night, and we would just sit around in
the dark, just singing and like really kind of having
like a very sit commie almost. It almost seems so scripted,
this family moment. But it was so happy that I
(26:28):
didn't realize that we had no electricity, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
But it's that thing.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
There were moments I knew that we were poor, and
the kids at school made sure that you knew that
they knew you were poor.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
And there is a moment.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Where I knew, but I was happy and I did
you know, I worked with what I had.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
But there is a moment in my twenties. When I
was telling a.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Story of how I grew up, I was I had
just moved to La I can't remember, but there used
to be a diner around like Beverly Hills, West Hollywood
where the servers were so rude on purpose.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
A becks. They would throw French fries at you. Yes, yeah,
that was the whole shtick. You'd go in to get
yelled at and berated. It was a performance, and they
would like take a dance break on the tables.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I wasn't there, and I'm telling the story about my
childhood and this one guy's like, you're poor.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And the way and like like it was insane.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
It was this moment where that specific story YEA could
not understand. He couldn't understand because he would have never
guessed that I had grown up so poor. You know,
it's this assumption that because you're well spoken, because you're
(28:00):
you know, people think, well, it's weird.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
How class this idea, how class is.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So embedded into our society that they think that this
class system that is kind of invisible but exists is
connected to education.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well, they assume it's connected to your to intellect and worth. Yes,
which is so so weird.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yes, yes, because sometimes people will treat you.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Like because you had no money, you didn't learn the.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Same alphabet, the same math, the thing that anybody else did.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
It's it's really.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Weird here, Like I didn't have to pay per letter in.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
School exactly exactly, Okay, yes, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
And but it was that moment in my twenties, at
that story, at that moment that I realized the of
poverty that I lived in wasn't everybody's experience. And it's
weird because I wasn't allowed to go hang out at
(29:13):
my friend's houses when I was My mom was very strict.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And you know, as a kid, you only know your life.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Exactly, so you think you assume that your life is
like everybody else's life, and then when you go out
into the real world and you meet other people, you
realize everybody has a different life. Right When when I
went to college, I remember there was a guy uh
in my year that was writing out a check for
(29:44):
his tuition, like just flat out all of it. And
I had never seen anyone write a.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Check for that much money and it was and it was.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So nothing to him, and.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I realized, oh wow, like there are people that can
do that. And it was such a weird moment that
you realize, like I have work study, I have the
pel grant, I have, like the the SEO, like the
lower income. You know.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
It was so different, and but then you remember that
you're both in the same spot.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, and that's when I think, I think a lot
of us forget that regardless of where we came from,
we find ourselves in the same spot, you know. So
it's like he can afford it, I couldn't. And we
were both at the same college. And that showed you
that that showed you that there are certain equalizers in life,
(30:51):
you know. But it is this thing where, you know, yeah,
realizing what I've been able to accomplish despite because of
also the way that I was raised and how I
grew up. I also realized that the narrative that was
being shown about my community was so badly written and
(31:18):
people were going with it. Yeah, But it was this
thing where you wanted to be the outlier and show
people this humanity because that is the thing we're very
good at vilifying what we don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Oh yeah, with any community.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
We don't know it.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
So it's like we vilify it because what are we
going to do get to know them, it's easier to vilify.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Them, which is crazy to me. I'm like, I literally
started a podcast so I could hang out with people
I think are interesting who otherwise wouldn't meet. Like, I've
given myself the job of getting to know people because
it's it's the best job I've ever had. And we're
just like out here acting like we don't need our neighbors.
It's so weird to me, and now for our sponsors.
(32:15):
I think part of it for me is, look, I
understand the privilege I was born with being born in
la when I was looking like I look like I
can kind of pass anywhere. You know, you don't get
to not be Latina unless you're like, you know, eating
(32:36):
in one of those by the way, ironically, the way
you talk about growing up, I'm like, yeah, now there's
like Michelin Star restaurants where you eat in the fucking
dark and you're just supposed to trust the chefs, Like okay.
But it's like for me, I sort of have this
really interesting experience stretched across two communities because my dad
is an immigrant who didn't become a citizen until I
(32:58):
was thirteen. My mother was worn here, but my mother's
mother immigrated with her family through Ellis Island, and they
experienced in that generation the backlash against you know, the
Italians and the Irish people that was swiftly swept under
the rug because the really waspy white people were like, Okay, well,
(33:18):
we'll collect anyone who looks white and let them be
part of our community so we can complain about all
the other communities. And I'm like, really, we're we still
haven't gotten the point. So, you know, I grew up
pretty secure, like very lucky. My dad's a wonderful entrepreneur
and artists, but my mom spent a large part of
her childhood in a housing project in the Bronx, like
(33:39):
eating sandwiches when there was no food. Yes, so I
understand our relative comfort, and I very much understood my
whole life and work to still the absolute lack of
comfort that so many people come from and experience every day.
(34:00):
And I remember going to college thinking like, you know,
I have like a pretty nice life.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
When I was thirteen, we like moved into a house
with an extra bedroom, like whooie. And I got to
USC and I was like, oh, there are there are
eighteen year old girls who take a credit card their
dad pays for to Gucci and spend ten thousand dollars
and don't get murdered by their families, like I would
cease to live on the planet.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I was like, Oh, I have like a meal plan
card that my parents got my bed as announcer like
I'm pretty lug and luggy, and I went, oh, and
that's really where I saw, like there's every kind of life.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
What's crazy to me is that generation after generation of
families with stories like my moms with my grandparents and
yours with your parents, we are still doing the thing
where we look at our neighbors like they're not our neighbors,
like they're not like they're the problem instead of a literal,
(35:09):
you know, ruling class trying to become an oligarchy that
uses everyone else as they're underpaid workforce.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
You pull up the ladder.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Oh yeah, and I don't get it. And for you,
I really want to thank you, because not only have
you broken barriers in your community, you've broken barriers for
women in our industry. Like when you win, it makes
it easier for me to win. And you're taking your work,
and you're really creating something out of it. You're doing
(35:39):
these room temperature shows, you're supporting the Immigrant Defender's Law Center,
like you are out on a comedy circuit making people laugh,
and you're also managing to make that activism. And I
want to talk about it because I think so many
people view activism as like hard intellectual sad, angry work,
and they miss that it can be the most creative,
(36:02):
most generative, most affirming, like community experience. And I think you, yeah,
you're like showing that out loud and on the road
right now, and I'm just I don't know. I want
to give your flowers and I want to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
No, I think that you know, there's there's two kinds
of people.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I think that the people that we're talking about that
do pull up the ladder, you know, it's uh, people
forget that they were once where the other people are
that they now do not want to support, do not
you know.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
That they right, it's and it's weird.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
But then there's also the people that come from it
and it is so embedded in them that you cannot
ignore what is happening. And I'm that person, you know,
and it's growing up in a border town in the eighties.
I grew up with with the UH. I grew up
with the immigration rates from the border patrol. So what
(37:05):
is happening in our country right now is old news
to me. Yeah, you know, and I know that people.
I like when people get invested in it. I would
love if people One of the reasons that we find
ourselves where we're at is because people do not know
(37:26):
their history.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
If we knew our history, we would not repeat it.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Yes, that's the same, right we are. Those that don't
know history are doomed to repeat it. You know.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Well, and let's be clear, that's why they're trying to
defund education absolutely so they can keep doing this to people.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yes, absolutely, And it's it's this weird thing where for me,
there is no way that I couldn't be active because,
like with what is happening right now, with Ice coming in,
taking people, kidnapping people, I start thinking, that's my mother. Yes,
(38:09):
and not only that, but like right now, my brothers
and my sister they all live in Texas, and it's
weird to live in a time where you don't know
if they're okay, even though they're citizens. Yes, my oldest
brother became a citizen in twenty sixteen, and we were
(38:30):
talking about how we should check into getting our Mexican
citizenship become dual citizens, and it's just it's this thing
where you're like, this is where we're at.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yeah, Anyway, I think that for me.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Because I'm so specific in my stand up and when
I had my show, it brought in when I started
doing clubs after the show, I started bringing in this
demo that the clubs never didn't really see, which was
a lot of like latinas, a lot of like college educator,
(39:07):
like a lot of college like educated, like recent graduates
or like.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Because the sitcom I wrote was.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
About me finishing in law school, that there were a
lot of lawyers, a lot of professionals that were coming
to the clubs.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
That never went to comedy clubs.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
They didn't know they existed, so they've went to the
clubs because the girl from the show was at the clubs.
And when I started talking about how I grew up,
it resonated with so many people that saw me because
that was their story too, and they liked that I
was showing this smart character that was really trying to
(39:48):
better themselves and like and wasn't you know, wasn't wearing,
It wasn't being very tropy, wasn't being typical, you know,
it was you know in the show, I I was
a big nerd, you know, and I liked being a nerd.
And then after I shot my first Netflix special in
twenty sixteen in August, and I it was right.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Before, right before the election, and I.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Thought, well, you know, we're going to be fine. You
know we're gonna be fine. And I tell this story
all up. But like the Lotus worked as my mentor.
So I've learned a lot from the Lotus, a lot
of community work, everything, all the activism I really learned
from her. And we were together on the night of
the election, and when you know, I was moderating a
(40:38):
panel and I was supposed to moderate a panel the
day after the election about the power of women and
the ability to make change because we thought Hillary was
going to win, obviously, and when she didn't, I was
crying so much.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
And it was like that thing where it was the.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Cry that was so out of the blue that you
know sometimes when you start crying, you know it's coming,
and just it was that moment that just hit and
came and by lightning.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Yeah, and it was so weird. It was just devastation
that you couldn't put into words. And it was overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
And I remember the next day I had to go
They got me, uh to go moderate the panel. We
were on a boat and so we couldn't go.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
God, that must have felt so dystopian and crazy.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
It was insane.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
We had nowhere to go, and there were people that
were celebrating that he won on the boat, so it
was like totally different.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
It was it was a social justice cruise.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Oh my god, I could then you can't this this
is an episode of a sitcom, Like it was.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
A social justice cruise.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
All of the people of color were on the boat.
We were doing workshops and panels or for rich white
people that were celebrating that he won.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
I could not have done it. I don't know how
you did it. I could not have done it.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
We were in the middle of nowhere, like what you know,
Like it was like and look, and there were people
that were there were people that were all that were
devastated as well that were rich.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
But there were a lot of people that were partying.
And I get taken into the room, into the green room.
We're going to start this panel and Dolores sees me
and my eyes are so swollen. She's like, like, what's wrong?
And I was like, well, you know, like I've been crying.
She's like why what happened? You know?
Speaker 3 (42:42):
And in my mind I'm like, oh my god, like
she doesn't.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Know, and you know, and she was like.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
She was like oh. She's like, this is the first
time your country's broken your heart.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Oh my god. That makes a sob.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
She's like, this is not going to be the last time.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, And she looks over to the other panelists Sonya Sanchez,
this badass black poet, and she looks at her and
she's like, you remember Nixon? And they start laughing, right,
and Deloris is like, Christella, you can be sad, you
can be angry. You go to bed, you cry, you
(43:20):
feel angry, you feel furious. Live with those moments, and
then the next day you wake up and you fight
every time that you think, every time it gets hard,
you remember those moments that you were sad and furious,
and you use it to continue the fight because change
is possible. And I remember after that in twenty sixteen,
(43:44):
that election, I it changed my trajectory forever. And it
was this thing where I took it to heart to
the point that I realized that I needed to figure
out what my life was because I didn't know what
was coming, but I knew that it wasn't going to
(44:07):
be good for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Once it started with like the Muslim band and I
started seeing she's so many minorities struggling. I started thinking,
I can't do stand up right now. And I remember
I emailed my people and I said, I don't want
(44:34):
to work. I don't, I don't I need to step
away because I don't feel like I can be funny
right now.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
And also there weren't a lot of shows. People were
trying to cater to this right leaning, super conservative Like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
That didn't fit me. It's like, why do I want
to be part of this. I'm like, I'm going to
sit it out.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
And I didn't.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
And I you know, it took me about god, I
would say about a year and a half.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
I started working in the community.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
I started doing grassroots, I started working with nonprofits. I
started trying to raise money. You know, I started thinking
what what am I good at? IM like, I'm fluent
in Spanish, I love talking about voter outreach. I want
to make sure that everybody that I can help, which
in the community that I'm from, which is Latino, but
(45:32):
more importantly lower income. Yeah, I wanted to make sure
that lower income people knew that government programs existed.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
I wanted the problem is is that we need access.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
And it was like this thing where the next couple
of years I came back, I shot the second special,
and then with everything happening now the third special that
I wrote, I've been doing and it's about It's about
how in times of struggle we need to find joy
(46:04):
and how even time, and how when we don't, when
we lose the joy, they win, Yes, And you cannot
have them win because they want to see you miserable.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
And yes, will not.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Be miserable because life has already taught you that you
should be miserable. You're expected to be miserable. And I
tell people this at every show. The problem isn't that
you don't work hard enough. The problem is you work
too much. Yes, you work too much, and you don't
allow yourself the chance to enjoy happiness.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Yes, yes, you have to because the joy, joy is
the light. Yes, Like when you think about the teachings
of people like Dolores Glorious Stein. I'm doctor King. Like
the light in the dark is joy, it is community,
(47:03):
It is being in love, it is getting married anyway,
it is being with your family anyway, It is laughing anyway.
It's like whatever thing brings you hope. And you're on
the road doing the job you do. You've launched these
companion shows to raise I mean you've raised like over
thirty thousand dollars at this point with these room temperature shows.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
At thirty dollars a ticket.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's all all like raised, it's all but it's all
community raised. And yes, I actually do it as an example.
To me, it's a long term plan to show people.
It's actually it's weird. It's like to me, it's this
is part of the outreach to teach people how much
they matter. You see the president going into cities that
(47:48):
he didn't win.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
Yeah, you know, it's like and that's it.
Speaker 7 (47:52):
It's interesting, isn't it. And there are cities with black
mayors too. In Yeah, we have to keep saying that
part out loud.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
It's the cities that he didn't win that supposedly needed
so much help.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
They're just out of control, the lowest crime rates in
thirty years.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
That's on the lowest crime rate.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
So it's this thing where with one thirty dollars ticket
mixed with other thirty dollars tickets. The first show we
raised twelve five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
It's incredible at thirty bucks a pop. Thirty dollars.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah, and that just shows you that your thirty dollars
raised twelve thousand dollars. Yes, thirty thousand dollars comes from
thirty dollars a ticket that shows you that change can happen, yes,
at very small increments. And that is what happens when
(48:52):
you vote, if you actually show up your vote with
other votes. I try to describe it as a choir.
One voice is needed with another voice, and together you
make beautiful music.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
And that's what we can do with change.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
It's so cool to see you building an example of
collective power through joy. Yes, I think that kind of
joy that becomes a source for creativity, that becomes a
source for purpose that's so much bigger than just your career.
That is about identity and self like as you cultivate that,
(49:26):
as you push this third special into the world for
us and thank you. We need it desperately. So what
feels like you're work in progress? What are you focusing
on next?
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I actually it's funny. I actually have always said that.
The older I've gotten, I've realized that I really do
feel that I want to be.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
In service to others.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, it is just it's something that I think is
bigger than a lot of things. And I you know,
when I was a kid in fourth grade, I told,
you know, we made a little makeshift year book in
my class and they asked all of us what we
wanted to be when when we grew up, and I
(50:13):
said I wanted to be president of the United States.
Speaker 3 (50:17):
And everyone made.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Fun of me, and there were people that were like,
how are you going to be it? And it was
this thing I was such a I was a nerd.
I loved politics everything and like as a little kid,
and I was like, yeah, you're right, Like I listened
to people and I didn't even follow it. And I've
(50:40):
always said it's like I've always said that I would
be open to running for office, yeah, in the future,
if it was something that was good for the community.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Having worked on elections and I worked on all the elections.
Speaker 3 (51:01):
You know, it's like you see how you see.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
What is needed, and you see, you know what the
work that needs to be done, and trying to find
a way of like figuring out what is the most
effective way that I can use what I'm good.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
At, yes to make change.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Yeah, when we talk about politics, we always talk middle class.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
It's like we need to talk about the people that
are in poverty too, everybody, everybody. We need to be
abusive because the people in poverty also vote, you know,
and it's like we make it seem like they don't,
and it's like that's why they A lot of people don't.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
Yes, we'll be back in just a minute, but here's
a word from our sponsors. And one of the things
I think is so important is beginning to figure out
how to deem miss defy the kind of reality a
little bit for people, because like I try to tell
(52:07):
people all the time, I'm like, look very similarly to you.
I'm like, you know me from TV. You think I'm
living like I don't know, j Lo, I'm not. Almost
nobody is. Almost everyone in our union has to have
a side hustle or a second job or whatever. And
by the way to be clear, I only have healthcare
because I'm in a union, you guys, Like, it's the
(52:28):
only reason I can go to the fucking doctor. Yeah,
And I think, not only do we need to be
more inclusive of language in terms of people that are
on the suffering and the risk end of the spectrum,
we also have to be clear that like the other
end of the spectrum doesn't really look like what you think.
(52:50):
Like everybody's not really doing better than you. Everybody's having
a hard time. And if we all got together and
bargained better collectively, everybody's lives would be a little easier.
It wouldn't be that somebody was like getting one over
on you. It would just be that maybe we could
build a larger middle class again, maybe we could build
(53:11):
more upward mobility for more people, and like people could
live in dignified ways, which seemed much more possible two
generations ago. But that's because the wealth disparity wasn't so bad.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Absolutely, And you know, and I think, and it's weird
because because going back to like a social media, because
it is the way that so many of us see life, right,
you know, it's weird to have this illusion being presented
in social media, it's the worst. You know, Like sometimes
(53:48):
it's funny how the algorithm knows I'm in my forties,
so they try to sneak in what they think I
would like. And it's always like every now and then
it's women with their skincare, right, Oh so much skin care,
so many products that you're just like, I can't.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
I do not have the time to do all of
these steps.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I'm just like, I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 3 (54:10):
Yes, it's like basic, you.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
Know, it's like I but also like you see makeup
and you see I'll see women that you know and
men that like, they'll spill a whole bottle of foundation
on their face for drama, and I'm thinking that that's
expensive bottle, you.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Know, pr.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
But even if it was, it's wasteful.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
It's the illusion that, oh, this is everybody has money.
Look at us. We live in this penthouse and.
Speaker 7 (54:41):
We everybody's couseplaying everyone, And it's just like can we
be can we be vulnerable?
Speaker 2 (54:48):
Is it okay to show people what.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
What we really look like, what we really do?
Speaker 2 (54:55):
You know, people will always tell me, they always accuse
me of getting work done right, and it's like this
thing because the assumption is that at my age, I'm
always getting work done.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
Yeah, and you're like, no, actually, forty is hot. Yes,
it's but I hate to break it to you guys,
like forty is not.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Like there are people that look older in their twenties.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Oh yeah, by the way, I look better. I look
better in my forties than I looked in my thirties.
For sure. In my thirties, I was mad, depressed. I
was in like a bad sitch I and you could
see it on my face. And like, it turns out
happiness looks good on people. Yes, maybe that's the work
in progress. Maybe the work in progress is just to
get more gorgeous as we age because we get happier.
Speaker 2 (55:45):
Actually, that's actually look, I'll sign up for it. I'll subscribe.
I mean, because it's true. It's like, honestly, when when
you think about like the Golden Girls and how they're
in their fifties.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
Insane, I'm like, those are those are seventies year old women?
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (56:01):
Like, what are we talking about? Maybe eighty Sophia, my namesake,
eighty she was in her eighties, That tiny, tiny, adorable
little woman.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Was like someone's great grandma.
Speaker 8 (56:12):
What are we talking about, which, By the way, I
always tell people Sophia was an immigrant, and we never
talked about We never bastardized her immigrant journey anything, because.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
It didn't have to be central to her identity. It
wasn't the only interesting fact about her.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
We knew personality, we knew who she was and everything.
It just so happens that she was an immigrant. And
that's another thing I want to tell everybody. I want
to remind everybody. We get a lot of bad news,
we get a lot of bad taken in. We need
to focus on movement of good too.
Speaker 3 (56:49):
We need to.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
See small ones too, and being hot in our forties
is a good thing.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Just saying let's fight fascism and look great while doing it.
I am like, sign you up, well, thank.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
You so much for today, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
Sweet so you tune
Hey everyone, it's Sophia, Welcome to work in Progress. Hello friends.
Today we are joined by a guest that I have
(00:20):
such a comedy crush on. She is a brilliant comedian
and a trailblazer and a storyteller whose journey honestly reads
like an incredibly powerful underdog tail. Today we are joined
by none other than Christella Alonso. She is one of
the funniest women on stage and on TV working today.
(00:43):
Her stand up specials on Netflix deliver incredibly incisive commentary
on identity, class, mobility, her wild childhood, and she manages
to invite audiences to laugh alongside the deeply human truths
of her Latino culture, social awkwardness, racism, and the randomness
(01:06):
of everyday life. Her first two specials, Lower Classy and
Middle Classy, are about to be succeeded by a third,
and I cannot wait to talk to her about how
she writes about her life and her family, about how
she manages to blend her incredible achievements with really committed activism,
and more. On the subject of her activism, Christella is
(01:30):
doing something really incredible as she has been touring around
the country like so many of us, She's watched these
ice raids happening in our home city of Los Angeles,
and inspired by her mentor and idol, Delores Querta, she
decided to take action. So she started doing shows all
over LA called the Room Temperature Shows Tickets or thirty bucks.
(01:53):
She donates one hundred percent of sales revenue to the
Immigrant Defender's Law Center, which is a nonprofit thatocuses on
defending immigrant communities against injustices, and so far she's raised
nearly thirty thousand dollars. Crystella manages to be such an
inspiring and powerful voice that proves that laughter can drive
(02:13):
meaningful change, and I for one, cannot wait to dive in.
Let's hear from Christella. Do I go to the art,
the rad vintage on AirSign, the fiddlee fig You have
(02:34):
an excellent background here.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I always tell people that my esthetic is like mid
century pee Wee's playhouse.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's you know, it's a lot. I'm a big plant person,
but I love color.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I love it. They don't have legos. I'm a big
lego person.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
My god, me too. Shut up. I won Lego Masters
last year.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Shut up. I am so jealous of you. I am
so jealous of you.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It was the absolute time of my life. And I
looked at will Arnett and I was like, you have
the best job in the world. Like, bro, I don't.
I'm not going to like push you down the stairs
to steal your job, but I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You know that the rumor was that he wasn't doing
the next season, so they're actually they're looking for people.
They were looking for people at all.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So what you're saying is we should be the co
hosts of Lego Masters.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I've actually talked to my manager about trying to see
if we could do it in Mexico, just so I'm like,
I'll speak it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Think that would be so sick.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I'm like in love. I'm so jealous.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I cannot believe, Like, not only did you, not only
are you into Legos, but you won Lego Masters.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Like that's next level And I.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Gotta be honest, It's like after the first two builds,
I was like, we are not going to win, and
I don't know what happened. We just like me and Corey,
we just like stepped up our game and.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
We did it.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
We did it. There were animatronics involved. It was Christmas themed.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And you know what people don't we don't talk about
enough in the Lego world is how your fingers hurt
after like the blocks and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
It's really Yeah, it's also like it's like learning to
play the guitar, but it never gets better. Yes, yeah,
Oh my god, aren't you so excited you came on
this podcast to talk about Lego today.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Honestly, it's one of my favorite podcasts.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I'm so stoked.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
This is it, this is it, but this is how,
this is how it happens.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, well, because also with podcasts, it's like, look, I
was born in the same state every podcast and stuff,
but it's like when you get them, when you get
something different, you're like, let's.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, and here I was going to be like, well,
we clearly have to go to the Rose Bowl together
because I'm a century junkie. But seriously, that actually reminds
me of the point I didn't finish before we discovered
this happy coincidence, which is remember that room raider account
that started during COVID because everyone one of the top
ten I knew it.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
I was like, you must be.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
A ten out of ten on room Raider.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I was actually and it's actually in my old in
my old place, because I I when the pandemic started,
I went crazy. I'm like, let's wallpaper, let's just go,
let's go to town. I started doing renovations, but I
was I was renting, but I did this mid century
kind of like aqua, you know pattern, and then I
(05:46):
had these paintings which I knew people would love. And
you know, once I got the ten out of ten.
And I was doing a lot of stuff with MSNBC
at that time, and people would always recomm and me
to the room Raiders and they're like, look, she's Hall
of Famer now because and I'm such a plant person
that I always had different plants because I was plain.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Oh my god, I love it. It's like and this
week on MSNBC, I've upgraded to a Japanese maple. I
love it. I have to admit, this is going so
great for me because to make a comedian that I
love as much as I love you laugh, I'm like,
I'm crushing.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Obviously you have a new career, like wonderful.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh my god, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I had a tight five You're opening for me, like
it like.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Took me a little while to figure out that my
particular brand of just like neurospiciness, Yes, gives me crippling anxiety,
but also can make me sort of funny. And then
I was like, oh, I think I've found my lane.
And then my mom was like, yeah, why do you
think you were so obsessed with like Jerry Seinfeld and
Murphy Brown and like you love Larry David. I was like,
(07:00):
anxiety comics.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, yes, I have really bad anxiety and people don't understand, like.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You just see you are for me?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Like you are so for me, you said Seinfold.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
When I was in high school, I used to love
like I was the person like he had that book
sign language which was just all of his stand up
and I was like.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Hey, I'm so cool.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I'm just gonna go here while you guys are hanging
out and read about comedy.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
But Marty Brown's one of my favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh, my favorite show of all time.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I talk about it all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I talk about the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Yes
Brown and like the evolution of women me too.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I really think even when I like, when I
started to really know I wanted to focus on theater training,
I think half the reason I wound up. When I
got to college and I was like, Oh, all these
actors are like octoors. And I was like, oh, I
don't know if these are like really my people. I
want to like tell stories, but this seems like a lot.
(07:59):
And I shifted out of the BFA program to do
a double major in theater and journalism. And I'm telling you,
I'm like, oh, it's because I wanted to be Murphy Brown. Yeah, yeah, cool, cool, cool,
But this is actually something and I want to I
want to get to this part. But it's it's something
I've thought a lot about, you know, becoming a fan
(08:21):
of your comedy and then learning about your story. I'm like, oh,
there's got to be something about having women in journalism
idols as young women that primes you to be a
storyteller and an activist.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Absolutely, And actually I think it's really interesting. I loved
theater growing up. I loved it. I wanted to be
on Broadway, you know, Oh it was my dream.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And I remember, you know, I'm in my forties, and
it used to be that growing up. Every night, families
would come kind of pick a network and they.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Would just watch the whole network.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Like that was just and CBS was like my Sunday
because I love murder.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
She wrote, Yes, I got a cute little old lady
solving a murder mystery.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Oh I got sign me up.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
And she's just so perfect and she can't drive like
she's actually, if you think about it, she's almost like
TLC scrubs, but like as she's just always on the
passenger side.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And your incredible, incredible, but she's a scrub. But also,
we don't deserve Angela Lansberry and what do.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
You do with that? Yeah, totally, it's like ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I used to watch Murder sheer and then one night
they didn't show it and they showed the Tony Awards,
and I was like, what is this?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
What is what are all these colors? What is this?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I remember it was the year that Miss Saigon
was new and Jonathan Price was performing. He was doing
the engineer in Miss Iigone, which would now be so
not get cast because he's a white guy playing an
Asian guy.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
But he did a.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Song called American Dream and he's describing American the American Dream,
and it's like colors and costumes and everything, and you know,
being the kid of immigrants, I was just like what
is this? This is like he's talking about like the
country that we're in, and he's talking about how great
(10:20):
this country is and he's singing and dancing, like I
want to do that.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
And I started a theater, but my mom couldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Speak English, so I used to have to translate the
news to her. So as I got really into journalism
because my mom was into the news, she was really
in events, so I had to I had to translate
the news to her. So it was a really weird
kiss met of like journalism theater that I grew up.
(10:54):
And then in high school I started doing uh oratory.
I started writing speeches and like did bait and theater
and all that, and you know, it.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Sticks with you. It sticks with you.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And then I remember I like, look, I love I
love to perform.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I love to act. But once I knew the activism,
the storytelling, once I knew that side and I knew
what it could be, it became bigger. It became a
bigger part for me. It was like I love it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I love and it's just what you know. I hate
social media and I love social media because it's like
same when I was a kid. Yeah, it's like when
I was a kid, I couldn't imagine being so connected.
And you know, when the Internet started, I was like,
oh my god, we're going to be so smart, Like
like you know, it's like remember encyclopedias, they used to
(11:53):
they used to be dated.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
If you had to check.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
One out some there's a chance that somebody checked it out,
or somebody stole it and just didn't know about like Japan.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
If you had to find out about.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
You're like, oh, that issue is gone. Cool.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And then the Internet started, and I love that this
space can exist, spaces like too, where you can actually
talk about your interests and you can talk about what
works and what doesn't, and talk about what's happening in
the world, both good and bad, because we need to
know both good and bad.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, all of it well. And it's really interesting because
you know, we obviously really segued first and foremost over
our shared fandom of building blocks. But the question I
normally like to ask people first, because like you've got
the specials and the shows and the thing like people
know your work. I'm always curious about you and I
(12:54):
And if you got to go back and hang out
with your eight year old self, would you recognize yourself
her like, would you see the woman you are today
and the creative person you are today in that little girl?
And now, given what I know for the first fourteen minutes,
I'm like, hell, yeah, you would, right, I'm.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
The same person, and you know, and it's that thing
where I think, you know, I think that subconsciously, I
always did want to become I always wanted to become
the person I wanted to be when I was a
little kid, and I never let it go.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And it's weird because it's a hard thing because.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Life gets in the way, and then you start forgetting
things that you loved, which in turn changes who you are.
The things that you love, the little hobbies, the things
that you get into, they.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
All create who you are.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
And if you stop, if you just stop doing one thing,
it slowly becomes this domino effect that changes you. But
when I was a kid, I used to love legos,
you know, And it's like, it really is this thing.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
One thing that I think.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I've constantly done in my life is because I have
almost crippling anxiety, you know, and I struggle with depression.
It's like every time that I get sad or stressed out,
I have always gone back to do something that I
did when I was a little kid, because it reminds
me of how happy I was, and it's that thing
(14:30):
that I love, you know, It's like it's a reset.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yes, what are some of those things for you?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You know? I love, Like the lego thing is really
big for me.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I actually like sometimes my brothers used to like we
used to play video games.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
We used to play like the Nintendo, like the original Nintendo.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
So I have the original Nintendo and I will play
the games that I played when I was a kid,
and I love it because the old systems, you can't restart.
Once you die, you die, the game's got to start
all over. And for some reason, it brings that part
of your brain that reminds you of when you were
ten eleven, when life was simpler. And it's one of
(15:14):
those things where you realize that I can get annoyed
about losing the progress of a game, but I also
remember how cool it was that this technology existed when
I was a kid, and it makes me so happy.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
You just have to go back sometimes to capture the joy.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
And I think that as adults were horrible at doing that,
and it's something that I talk about in the special
that's coming out, because it's this idea that we are
taught how to live the wrong way. We are taught
that you have to grow up. You know, so many
(15:55):
of us get told you go to college, you graduate,
you get married, you have the family, you know, blah
blah blah, you get the job. And then I always
started thinking, like, what if you don't want to? What
happens if you don't want to? You know, but this
is life. It's like, but what if it is? Oh?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Why?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It's like, what if you do the thing that you
want to do?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like, yes, say that I didn't have kids, and everybody's like,
but you have to have kids.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
It's like, but no, you don't. What if you don't? Yeah,
what if you don't want them?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You know? It's like, but why don't you want kids?
It's like because I already raised children. I help my
sister raise her kids. So if I don't have the
urge to raise children.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
What if I don't?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
And it's asking those questions that you realize, yeah, you
don't have to.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And now a word from our sponsors who make this
show possible.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
When I turned forty, I realized that I had gotten
to the point where, if I'm lucky, I still have
the exact amount of time that I have lived left.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yes, it's like being a newborn, but with a bank
account and taste.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
It's so cool.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Like I turned forty and I was like, well, forty
was a rough year for me, but forty one was
like the best birthday of my life. And I literally
was like, I've honestly, I don't think I've ever been hotter,
I've never been funnier, I've never been smarter. Weirdly, I've
channeled so much anger at stepshit in the world into
(17:50):
emotional tenderness, Like how's that for a magic trick? Like
I'm great and it's so weird. It's like I look
around and you know, no shade to a teen TV show.
I literally grew up on one. But I'm like, I
want to see shows about us.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yes, yes, Like.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
I love this stage and there it is really weird.
There's something missing. It's like you either have a one
tree hill or you have like an eighty for Brady.
And don't get me wrong, like I die for a
Jane Fonda movie. I love Grace and Frankie, but I'm like,
we're so fun in our forties. Where are our TV shows? Yeah,
that's why we all miss Sex and the City so much. Yes,
(18:30):
it's why we miss Seinfeld.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You're right, And it's weird because it is this weird
thing where you know, there's I remember when, you know,
when I had my TV show, I had created it,
I was writing it. We were auditioning people to play
my sister, and the uh every time that an actress
would come in that was over forty, they would say, wow,
(18:55):
she's she can't she's older, and I'm like, well, because
my SO is older, so I would love an older
actress to play an older sister.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
And they were trying to steer young.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And it's like, no, no, because the most popular shows
of our time all.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Have older people in it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Fraser is an older cast, Golden Girls is an older cast.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Everybody loves Raymond.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Everybody loves Raymond, like everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The Jeffersons, like you know, Mary Tyler, Moore, Murphy, all
of them, they all had people that were older.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
That yes, and you never thought man as a kid.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
As a kid, I could watch Wondree Hill and Fraser
and I didn't I didn't think, why am I watching Fraser?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
This isn't my show. It was just a funny show.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yes, it's that, just like Murphy Brown.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Absolutely, it's like why am I watching Murphy Brown as
a kid and loving it because it's a good show.
And that's what people don't understand. It's like, if it's good,
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's in it, it
doesn't matter what the story is.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
You know, I say this all the time.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
As a Latina, I didn't have a lot of Latino
representation on TV, and I've found the things that spoke
to me because I was looking for connection. And the connections,
you know, you find them in places that you never
thought you know, and it's because of the story.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
That's why the story is so important. I say this
all the time.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
As different as we all, maybe we're all very much alike.
If you can find a stranger from another culture, you
can find so many things in common about everyday life,
and that is why those stories are important.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yes, and you said something about this when you were
you were taught talking about your show, which you know,
for our audience at home, like you made your own history.
It was twenty fourteen. You became the first Latina ever
to create, write, produce, and star in your own primetime
sitcom casual just like dust your I mean, you know,
dust your shoulders, a polytics make your cash. But one
(21:21):
of the things I think is so interesting about it is,
you know, you talked about how your childhood experience, your
lived experience, was so specific to you, but that actually
the more specific you could be in the storytelling, the
more every kind of viewer could relate to it. And
I love I love that because it's kind of like
(21:44):
it's almost like two things that are opposite or true,
that the more unique your story is, the more relatable
it is, even though you would think the more unique
it is, the less people you know.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
When I started doing stand up I was really popular
in the college circuit. I was like one of the
most booked college comics of all time. And you know
it's the number one state that I performed at was Wisconsin. Wisconsin.
I mean, I know Wisconsin. I love Wisconsin. And it
(22:17):
was this thing where people would think, well, why do
you get booked in Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I didn't know there were latinos there, and.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I was like, well, you know, it's just it's where
I get booked, right, but also grows, you know, I
remember one of the appeals was that I would always.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Talk about growing up blue collar.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You know. It's like, you don't have to be Latino
to grow up blue collar, you know. And it was
there used to be a joke that I did about
how in my family, expiration dates were just suggestions, right,
and it's just like women like family with money. The
day the milk exps fires, you throw it out. In
(23:02):
my family, it's like, oh my god, like you gotta
taste it, taste the milk, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And my family it was always will smell it first.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, you know, it's like and it's
it's very specific because the joke I kind of explained
how as the youngest I was always the person that
had to taste everything.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
You know, and it's like this thing where it but
you know, family like people would love like that joke
a lot because it was relatable to them. It was
very specific, and I would paint this picture of how
I would do it, but they had similar things in
their families too, And that just shows you that by
(23:44):
being specific, you're actually being very universal. That's great storytelling,
you know, a great storytelling makes everybody feel like they
could like like they had the same life where similar experience.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, And one of the things I really appreciate about
the way you move your stories through the world is
you've talked a lot about how you grew up, like
you didn't have an easy time. No, And I'm curious,
you know, reflecting back on experiences with poverty on the
time that your mom was undocumented, like things that we
(24:24):
understand in real laser sharp focus right now are so
scary for families in our country. Do you think you
realized how tough it was then or has it come
to really be clarified for you in your adulthood. And
that's part of what you would say fuels your activism
(24:46):
for similar families now.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
You know, I think that when I was a kid,
my I was the youngest of four and we're they're
all like older, so they're like eleven, thirteen, and.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Fifteen years older than I am.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And when I was a kid, they really did such
a great job of shielding me from a lot of bad,
a lot of the bad that I remember my childhood
being so happy. I remember so much laughing, so much joy.
You know, when I was born, we lived in this
(25:24):
abandoned diner. We squatted in an abandoned diner for the
first seven years of my life, and we didn't have money,
and my mom used to borrow electricity from this house
that was next to the diner, and they would let
us use an extension cord and we would power our
diner with the extension cord and she would give them
(25:46):
some money every month. And there were times that we
had no electricity and we used to have this little
radio from radio shack, and we at night was so dark,
my mom would play the radio and we would pick
up stations from like Mexico that she knew, and on
(26:08):
a clear night, and we would just sit around in
the dark, just singing and like really kind of having
like a very sit commie almost. It almost seems so scripted,
this family moment. But it was so happy that I
(26:28):
didn't realize that we had no electricity, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
But it's that thing.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
There were moments I knew that we were poor, and
the kids at school made sure that you knew that
they knew you were poor.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
And there is a moment.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Where I knew, but I was happy and I did
you know, I worked with what I had.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
But there is a moment in my twenties. When I
was telling a.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Story of how I grew up, I was I had
just moved to La I can't remember, but there used
to be a diner around like Beverly Hills, West Hollywood
where the servers were so rude on purpose.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
A becks. They would throw French fries at you. Yes, yeah,
that was the whole shtick. You'd go in to get
yelled at and berated. It was a performance, and they
would like take a dance break on the tables.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I wasn't there, and I'm telling the story about my
childhood and this one guy's like, you're poor.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And the way and like like it was insane.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
It was this moment where that specific story YEA could
not understand. He couldn't understand because he would have never
guessed that I had grown up so poor. You know,
it's this assumption that because you're well spoken, because you're
(28:00):
you know, people think, well, it's weird.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
How class this idea, how class is.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So embedded into our society that they think that this
class system that is kind of invisible but exists is
connected to education.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well, they assume it's connected to your to intellect and worth. Yes,
which is so so weird.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yes, yes, because sometimes people will treat you.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Like because you had no money, you didn't learn the.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Same alphabet, the same math, the thing that anybody else did.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
It's it's really.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Weird here, Like I didn't have to pay per letter in.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
School exactly exactly, Okay, yes, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
And but it was that moment in my twenties, at
that story, at that moment that I realized the of
poverty that I lived in wasn't everybody's experience. And it's
weird because I wasn't allowed to go hang out at
(29:13):
my friend's houses when I was My mom was very strict.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And you know, as a kid, you only know your life.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Exactly, so you think you assume that your life is
like everybody else's life, and then when you go out
into the real world and you meet other people, you
realize everybody has a different life. Right When when I
went to college, I remember there was a guy uh
in my year that was writing out a check for
(29:44):
his tuition, like just flat out all of it. And
I had never seen anyone write a.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Check for that much money and it was and it was.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So nothing to him, and.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I realized, oh wow, like there are people that can
do that. And it was such a weird moment that
you realize, like I have work study, I have the
pel grant, I have, like the the SEO, like the
lower income. You know.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
It was so different, and but then you remember that
you're both in the same spot.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, and that's when I think, I think a lot
of us forget that regardless of where we came from,
we find ourselves in the same spot, you know. So
it's like he can afford it, I couldn't. And we
were both at the same college. And that showed you
that that showed you that there are certain equalizers in life,
(30:51):
you know. But it is this thing where, you know, yeah,
realizing what I've been able to accomplish despite because of
also the way that I was raised and how I
grew up. I also realized that the narrative that was
being shown about my community was so badly written and
(31:18):
people were going with it. Yeah, But it was this
thing where you wanted to be the outlier and show
people this humanity because that is the thing we're very
good at vilifying what we don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Oh yeah, with any community.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
We don't know it.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
So it's like we vilify it because what are we
going to do get to know them, it's easier to vilify.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Them, which is crazy to me. I'm like, I literally
started a podcast so I could hang out with people
I think are interesting who otherwise wouldn't meet. Like, I've
given myself the job of getting to know people because
it's it's the best job I've ever had. And we're
just like out here acting like we don't need our neighbors.
It's so weird to me, and now for our sponsors.
(32:15):
I think part of it for me is, look, I
understand the privilege I was born with being born in
la when I was looking like I look like I
can kind of pass anywhere. You know, you don't get
to not be Latina unless you're like, you know, eating
(32:36):
in one of those by the way, ironically, the way
you talk about growing up, I'm like, yeah, now there's
like Michelin Star restaurants where you eat in the fucking
dark and you're just supposed to trust the chefs, Like okay.
But it's like for me, I sort of have this
really interesting experience stretched across two communities because my dad
is an immigrant who didn't become a citizen until I
(32:58):
was thirteen. My mother was worn here, but my mother's
mother immigrated with her family through Ellis Island, and they
experienced in that generation the backlash against you know, the
Italians and the Irish people that was swiftly swept under
the rug because the really waspy white people were like, Okay, well,
(33:18):
we'll collect anyone who looks white and let them be
part of our community so we can complain about all
the other communities. And I'm like, really, we're we still
haven't gotten the point. So, you know, I grew up
pretty secure, like very lucky. My dad's a wonderful entrepreneur
and artists, but my mom spent a large part of
her childhood in a housing project in the Bronx, like
(33:39):
eating sandwiches when there was no food. Yes, so I
understand our relative comfort, and I very much understood my
whole life and work to still the absolute lack of
comfort that so many people come from and experience every day.
(34:00):
And I remember going to college thinking like, you know,
I have like a pretty nice life.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
When I was thirteen, we like moved into a house
with an extra bedroom, like whooie. And I got to
USC and I was like, oh, there are there are
eighteen year old girls who take a credit card their
dad pays for to Gucci and spend ten thousand dollars
and don't get murdered by their families, like I would
cease to live on the planet.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I was like, Oh, I have like a meal plan
card that my parents got my bed as announcer like
I'm pretty lug and luggy, and I went, oh, and
that's really where I saw, like there's every kind of life.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
What's crazy to me is that generation after generation of
families with stories like my moms with my grandparents and
yours with your parents, we are still doing the thing
where we look at our neighbors like they're not our neighbors,
like they're not like they're the problem instead of a literal,
(35:09):
you know, ruling class trying to become an oligarchy that
uses everyone else as they're underpaid workforce.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
You pull up the ladder.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Oh yeah, and I don't get it. And for you,
I really want to thank you, because not only have
you broken barriers in your community, you've broken barriers for
women in our industry. Like when you win, it makes
it easier for me to win. And you're taking your work,
and you're really creating something out of it. You're doing
(35:39):
these room temperature shows, you're supporting the Immigrant Defender's Law Center,
like you are out on a comedy circuit making people laugh,
and you're also managing to make that activism. And I
want to talk about it because I think so many
people view activism as like hard intellectual sad, angry work,
and they miss that it can be the most creative,
(36:02):
most generative, most affirming, like community experience. And I think you, yeah,
you're like showing that out loud and on the road
right now, and I'm just I don't know. I want
to give your flowers and I want to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
No, I think that you know, there's there's two kinds
of people.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I think that the people that we're talking about that
do pull up the ladder, you know, it's uh, people
forget that they were once where the other people are
that they now do not want to support, do not
you know.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
That they right, it's and it's weird.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
But then there's also the people that come from it
and it is so embedded in them that you cannot
ignore what is happening. And I'm that person, you know,
and it's growing up in a border town in the eighties.
I grew up with with the UH. I grew up
with the immigration rates from the border patrol. So what
(37:05):
is happening in our country right now is old news
to me. Yeah, you know, and I know that people.
I like when people get invested in it. I would
love if people One of the reasons that we find
ourselves where we're at is because people do not know
(37:26):
their history.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
If we knew our history, we would not repeat it.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Yes, that's the same, right we are. Those that don't
know history are doomed to repeat it. You know.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Well, and let's be clear, that's why they're trying to
defund education absolutely so they can keep doing this to people.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yes, absolutely, And it's it's this weird thing where for me,
there is no way that I couldn't be active because,
like with what is happening right now, with Ice coming in,
taking people, kidnapping people, I start thinking, that's my mother. Yes,
(38:09):
and not only that, but like right now, my brothers
and my sister they all live in Texas, and it's
weird to live in a time where you don't know
if they're okay, even though they're citizens. Yes, my oldest
brother became a citizen in twenty sixteen, and we were
(38:30):
talking about how we should check into getting our Mexican
citizenship become dual citizens, and it's just it's this thing
where you're like, this is where we're at.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yeah, Anyway, I think that for me.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Because I'm so specific in my stand up and when
I had my show, it brought in when I started
doing clubs after the show, I started bringing in this
demo that the clubs never didn't really see, which was
a lot of like latinas, a lot of like college educator,
(39:07):
like a lot of college like educated, like recent graduates
or like.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Because the sitcom I wrote was.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
About me finishing in law school, that there were a
lot of lawyers, a lot of professionals that were coming
to the clubs.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
That never went to comedy clubs.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
They didn't know they existed, so they've went to the
clubs because the girl from the show was at the clubs.
And when I started talking about how I grew up,
it resonated with so many people that saw me because
that was their story too, and they liked that I
was showing this smart character that was really trying to
(39:48):
better themselves and like and wasn't you know, wasn't wearing,
It wasn't being very tropy, wasn't being typical, you know,
it was you know in the show, I I was
a big nerd, you know, and I liked being a nerd.
And then after I shot my first Netflix special in
twenty sixteen in August, and I it was right.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Before, right before the election, and I.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Thought, well, you know, we're going to be fine. You
know we're gonna be fine. And I tell this story
all up. But like the Lotus worked as my mentor.
So I've learned a lot from the Lotus, a lot
of community work, everything, all the activism I really learned
from her. And we were together on the night of
the election, and when you know, I was moderating a
(40:38):
panel and I was supposed to moderate a panel the
day after the election about the power of women and
the ability to make change because we thought Hillary was
going to win, obviously, and when she didn't, I was
crying so much.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
And it was like that thing where it was the.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Cry that was so out of the blue that you
know sometimes when you start crying, you know it's coming,
and just it was that moment that just hit and
came and by lightning.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Yeah, and it was so weird. It was just devastation
that you couldn't put into words. And it was overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
And I remember the next day I had to go
They got me, uh to go moderate the panel. We
were on a boat and so we couldn't go.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
God, that must have felt so dystopian and crazy.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
It was insane.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
We had nowhere to go, and there were people that
were celebrating that he won on the boat, so it
was like totally different.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
It was it was a social justice cruise.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Oh my god, I could then you can't this this
is an episode of a sitcom, Like it was.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
A social justice cruise.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
All of the people of color were on the boat.
We were doing workshops and panels or for rich white
people that were celebrating that he won.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
I could not have done it. I don't know how
you did it. I could not have done it.
Speaker 6 (42:12):
We were in the middle of nowhere, like what you know,
Like it was like and look, and there were people
that were there were people that were all that were
devastated as well that were rich.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
But there were a lot of people that were partying.
And I get taken into the room, into the green room.
We're going to start this panel and Dolores sees me
and my eyes are so swollen. She's like, like, what's wrong?
And I was like, well, you know, like I've been crying.
She's like why what happened? You know?
Speaker 3 (42:42):
And in my mind I'm like, oh my god, like
she doesn't.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Know, and you know, and she was like.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
She was like oh. She's like, this is the first
time your country's broken your heart.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Oh my god. That makes a sob.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
She's like, this is not going to be the last time.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, And she looks over to the other panelists Sonya Sanchez,
this badass black poet, and she looks at her and
she's like, you remember Nixon? And they start laughing, right,
and Deloris is like, Christella, you can be sad, you
can be angry. You go to bed, you cry, you
(43:20):
feel angry, you feel furious. Live with those moments, and
then the next day you wake up and you fight
every time that you think, every time it gets hard,
you remember those moments that you were sad and furious,
and you use it to continue the fight because change
is possible. And I remember after that in twenty sixteen,
(43:44):
that election, I it changed my trajectory forever. And it
was this thing where I took it to heart to
the point that I realized that I needed to figure
out what my life was because I didn't know what
was coming, but I knew that it wasn't going to
(44:07):
be good for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Once it started with like the Muslim band and I
started seeing she's so many minorities struggling. I started thinking,
I can't do stand up right now. And I remember
I emailed my people and I said, I don't want
(44:34):
to work. I don't, I don't I need to step
away because I don't feel like I can be funny
right now.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
And also there weren't a lot of shows. People were
trying to cater to this right leaning, super conservative Like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
That didn't fit me. It's like, why do I want
to be part of this. I'm like, I'm going to
sit it out.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
And I didn't.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
And I you know, it took me about god, I
would say about a year and a half.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
I started working in the community.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
I started doing grassroots, I started working with nonprofits. I
started trying to raise money. You know, I started thinking
what what am I good at? IM like, I'm fluent
in Spanish, I love talking about voter outreach. I want
to make sure that everybody that I can help, which
in the community that I'm from, which is Latino, but
(45:32):
more importantly lower income. Yeah, I wanted to make sure
that lower income people knew that government programs existed.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
I wanted the problem is is that we need access.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
And it was like this thing where the next couple
of years I came back, I shot the second special,
and then with everything happening now the third special that
I wrote, I've been doing and it's about It's about
how in times of struggle we need to find joy
(46:04):
and how even time, and how when we don't, when
we lose the joy, they win, Yes, And you cannot
have them win because they want to see you miserable.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
And yes, will not.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
Be miserable because life has already taught you that you
should be miserable. You're expected to be miserable. And I
tell people this at every show. The problem isn't that
you don't work hard enough. The problem is you work
too much. Yes, you work too much, and you don't
allow yourself the chance to enjoy happiness.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Yes, yes, you have to because the joy, joy is
the light. Yes, Like when you think about the teachings
of people like Dolores Glorious Stein. I'm doctor King. Like
the light in the dark is joy, it is community,
(47:03):
It is being in love, it is getting married anyway,
it is being with your family anyway, It is laughing anyway.
It's like whatever thing brings you hope. And you're on
the road doing the job you do. You've launched these
companion shows to raise I mean you've raised like over
thirty thousand dollars at this point with these room temperature shows.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
At thirty dollars a ticket.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's all all like raised, it's all but it's all
community raised. And yes, I actually do it as an example.
To me, it's a long term plan to show people.
It's actually it's weird. It's like to me, it's this
is part of the outreach to teach people how much
they matter. You see the president going into cities that
(47:48):
he didn't win.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
Yeah, you know, it's like and that's it.
Speaker 7 (47:52):
It's interesting, isn't it. And there are cities with black
mayors too. In Yeah, we have to keep saying that
part out loud.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
It's the cities that he didn't win that supposedly needed
so much help.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
They're just out of control, the lowest crime rates in
thirty years.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
That's on the lowest crime rate.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
So it's this thing where with one thirty dollars ticket
mixed with other thirty dollars tickets. The first show we
raised twelve five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
It's incredible at thirty bucks a pop. Thirty dollars.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah, and that just shows you that your thirty dollars
raised twelve thousand dollars. Yes, thirty thousand dollars comes from
thirty dollars a ticket that shows you that change can happen, yes,
at very small increments. And that is what happens when
(48:52):
you vote, if you actually show up your vote with
other votes. I try to describe it as a choir.
One voice is needed with another voice, and together you
make beautiful music.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
And that's what we can do with change.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
It's so cool to see you building an example of
collective power through joy. Yes, I think that kind of
joy that becomes a source for creativity, that becomes a
source for purpose that's so much bigger than just your career.
That is about identity and self like as you cultivate that,
(49:26):
as you push this third special into the world for
us and thank you. We need it desperately. So what
feels like you're work in progress? What are you focusing
on next?
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I actually it's funny. I actually have always said that.
The older I've gotten, I've realized that I really do
feel that I want to be.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
In service to others.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, it is just it's something that I think is
bigger than a lot of things. And I you know,
when I was a kid in fourth grade, I told,
you know, we made a little makeshift year book in
my class and they asked all of us what we
wanted to be when when we grew up, and I
(50:13):
said I wanted to be president of the United States.
Speaker 3 (50:17):
And everyone made.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Fun of me, and there were people that were like,
how are you going to be it? And it was
this thing I was such a I was a nerd.
I loved politics everything and like as a little kid,
and I was like, yeah, you're right, Like I listened
to people and I didn't even follow it. And I've
(50:40):
always said it's like I've always said that I would
be open to running for office, yeah, in the future,
if it was something that was good for the community.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Having worked on elections and I worked on all the elections.
Speaker 3 (51:01):
You know, it's like you see how you see.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
What is needed, and you see, you know what the
work that needs to be done, and trying to find
a way of like figuring out what is the most
effective way that I can use what I'm good.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
At, yes to make change.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Yeah, when we talk about politics, we always talk middle class.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
It's like we need to talk about the people that
are in poverty too, everybody, everybody. We need to be
abusive because the people in poverty also vote, you know,
and it's like we make it seem like they don't,
and it's like that's why they A lot of people don't.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
Yes, we'll be back in just a minute, but here's
a word from our sponsors. And one of the things
I think is so important is beginning to figure out
how to deem miss defy the kind of reality a
little bit for people, because like I try to tell
(52:07):
people all the time, I'm like, look very similarly to you.
I'm like, you know me from TV. You think I'm
living like I don't know, j Lo, I'm not. Almost
nobody is. Almost everyone in our union has to have
a side hustle or a second job or whatever. And
by the way to be clear, I only have healthcare
because I'm in a union, you guys, Like, it's the
(52:28):
only reason I can go to the fucking doctor. Yeah,
And I think, not only do we need to be
more inclusive of language in terms of people that are
on the suffering and the risk end of the spectrum,
we also have to be clear that like the other
end of the spectrum doesn't really look like what you think.
(52:50):
Like everybody's not really doing better than you. Everybody's having
a hard time. And if we all got together and
bargained better collectively, everybody's lives would be a little easier.
It wouldn't be that somebody was like getting one over
on you. It would just be that maybe we could
build a larger middle class again, maybe we could build
(53:11):
more upward mobility for more people, and like people could
live in dignified ways, which seemed much more possible two
generations ago. But that's because the wealth disparity wasn't so bad.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Absolutely, And you know, and I think, and it's weird
because because going back to like a social media, because
it is the way that so many of us see life, right,
you know, it's weird to have this illusion being presented
in social media, it's the worst. You know, Like sometimes
(53:48):
it's funny how the algorithm knows I'm in my forties,
so they try to sneak in what they think I
would like. And it's always like every now and then
it's women with their skincare, right, Oh so much skin care,
so many products that you're just like, I can't.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
I do not have the time to do all of
these steps.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I'm just like, I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 3 (54:10):
Yes, it's like basic, you.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
Know, it's like I but also like you see makeup
and you see I'll see women that you know and
men that like, they'll spill a whole bottle of foundation
on their face for drama, and I'm thinking that that's
expensive bottle, you.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Know, pr.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
But even if it was, it's wasteful.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
It's the illusion that, oh, this is everybody has money.
Look at us. We live in this penthouse and.
Speaker 7 (54:41):
We everybody's couseplaying everyone, And it's just like can we
be can we be vulnerable?
Speaker 2 (54:48):
Is it okay to show people what.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
What we really look like, what we really do?
Speaker 2 (54:55):
You know, people will always tell me, they always accuse
me of getting work done right, and it's like this
thing because the assumption is that at my age, I'm
always getting work done.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
Yeah, and you're like, no, actually, forty is hot. Yes,
it's but I hate to break it to you guys,
like forty is not.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Like there are people that look older in their twenties.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Oh yeah, by the way, I look better. I look
better in my forties than I looked in my thirties.
For sure. In my thirties, I was mad, depressed. I
was in like a bad sitch I and you could
see it on my face. And like, it turns out
happiness looks good on people. Yes, maybe that's the work
in progress. Maybe the work in progress is just to
get more gorgeous as we age because we get happier.
Speaker 2 (55:45):
Actually, that's actually look, I'll sign up for it. I'll subscribe.
I mean, because it's true. It's like, honestly, when when
you think about like the Golden Girls and how they're
in their fifties.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
Insane, I'm like, those are those are seventies year old women?
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (56:01):
Like, what are we talking about? Maybe eighty Sophia, my namesake,
eighty she was in her eighties, That tiny, tiny, adorable
little woman.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Was like someone's great grandma.
Speaker 8 (56:12):
What are we talking about, which, By the way, I
always tell people Sophia was an immigrant, and we never
talked about We never bastardized her immigrant journey anything, because.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
It didn't have to be central to her identity. It
wasn't the only interesting fact about her.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
We knew personality, we knew who she was and everything.
It just so happens that she was an immigrant. And
that's another thing I want to tell everybody. I want
to remind everybody. We get a lot of bad news,
we get a lot of bad taken in. We need
to focus on movement of good too.
Speaker 3 (56:49):
We need to.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
See small ones too, and being hot in our forties
is a good thing.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Just saying let's fight fascism and look great while doing it.
I am like, sign you up, well, thank.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
You so much for today, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
Sweet so you tune
Host
Sophia Bush
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com