November 21, 2024 • 56 mins
In this heartfelt and hilarious episode, I sit down with the Bronx's own Mark Viera, a powerhouse comedian with Puerto Rican roots. The Latin Prince of Comedy opens up about his bold decision to pursue comedy full-time, shares the deep pain of losing his son, finding true love later in life and dives into the quirks of everyday Latino life—especially the wild things women do that men could totally live without! Join us for laughs, love, and real talk as Mark takes us through the highs and lows of his journey.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Today, we're bringing you some major laughs with a comedian
who's been lighting up them stages and screens with his
hilarious takes on Latino life, from his Puerto Rican roots
in the Bronx to becoming one of the most relatable
voices in comedy for US Latinos. Mark my words, get
ready to laugh and get in your feelings with the
Latin Prince of comedy, the hilarious Mark Vieira.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I feel like I'm gonna have such a good time
during this interview with you.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I know you are.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Mark via is here with me today, Rikua from the
Bronx that has made it far and wide and who
happens to be one of my husband's favorite comedians.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
When he heard your name, he.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Said, you know the gosh you know, you know him,
I know kom.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You know the comedian. He's still stupid, like.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
He's another Puerto Rican but he's from Brooklyn, and he
was just like, you know who he is.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I was like, Okay, calm down. He's like, he starts
telling me all your jokes.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Remember he's the one that gave the two the two cakes. Yeah,
it's crazy because I would react the same exact way.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
You know, damn.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Doing too much would pictures? Right? Don't you want to see? Dude,
you want to see? I got you.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You want to see flames flame, Yo.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's gonna be flaming. It's gonna be It's gonna be
flaming when you get that.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know what's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
We were actually watching and mark my words, like just
right before this interview, and I was like, come coming.
I'm like, you know you could put this in in
this in the studio, you can put you can keep
watching it and this. He just loves comedy and he
loves you, like totally. I guess he feels you guys
are the same age, and I feel like you're battling
the same exact things.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know, you're both trying to stay young.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yes, who isn't though? Who isn't you know what I mean?
Like we're all conscious that the grades is setting in.
You know, as fit as I try to be, I
know that there is a level that then I'm never
gonna hit again. Like I've been learning my lesson, Like
this year has been a year of lessons because more
(02:21):
than an ever, I've hurt myself in the gym, like
and now I got to take like two weeks off
because I'm like, yeah, Bruto, your meal. Why did I
have to try to lift the whole thing? Yeah? Yeah,
it got hurt now, But in my head I feel
nineteen sometimes, right, and then i'm and then I try
something nineteen and then I get hurt, and then I'll
(02:43):
be like, damn, I fifty one? Like fifty one girl Doly.
First of all, you didn't have to say it like that, but.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well no, because the comedy special you were saying, I'm fitffy,
I'm like, wow, how long?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
How was this that he already turned fifty one?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Because we did that a year ago. It takes time
to get these things out. But yeah, so one just
turned fifty one like a couple of days ago. So chill.
So it wasn't be like damn right, you was like
definity what already like?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But you think it's new and it's like you was
already how you just told me you're fifty on.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
The video on the video. Yeah, So it's it's a lesson,
you know, it's just a lesson. And in humble, I
think as you turn fifty, you just got to be
more humble. You gotta be more like Trunkilo, Like, Okay,
go to the gym, but now I do more elliptical
than anything like that's where That's where I start, and
that's where sometimes I do the elliptical and I leave
(03:37):
because I'm like, I'm gonna get hurt. So I'm just
gonna do this little elliptical.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Try anything else, You're gonna get hurt. I'm safe, are
you elliptical?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I hate my life sometimes because I'll be watching the
young dudes go crazy. But then I'm like, yo, I'm
good because at least I'm going home, you know, and
I'm not hurt.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
They have that big tire in your gym. They have
it in my gym. The tire you can flip. I'm like,
why is this here?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And I don't don't touch the tire. I'm good. I'm
gonna touching of tires. I'm good for the Bronx. We
we we touch tires. So I'm like, I'm good. You touch,
you steal, That's what I'm saying. I've touched, Like, why
am I a tire in the gym? For what I see?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You've been using the exfoliating soap on the head, the
skin is gleaming.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Look at them. Look at that. I have a I
have a true I have like a skin. You know,
little program I do at night. I buy all the
right things I gotta. I got a woman that like,
you know, very natural, very holistic, you know, very whole food.
She's like making sure she's thirty eight. She's thirty eight, so.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
So she's like.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Seram with the hylouronic. I know all about that girl loouronic.
At night, i'd be like that made up. Look at that.
Let's I go to the bed and I'm oily. You
gotta see me just gleaming right when I come to bed,
I like I put a mole like being shiny.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You gotta watch the pillowcases in the morning, don't you.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
I gotta let it dry before I gotta let it.
I gotta settle it.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You're like, you know those little fans that women. Don't
get me started because let me go back and forth
about the skin.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Oh believe me, I know, but I'm telling you it
is even transcended. Like like I swear, please, I don't
want people to hate me. I'm from the Brons, and
I you know, I do a joke about this. I'm
like I'm so ivory soap. Like I am so ivory soap.
I used to use I resoap as a kid. And
you don't know, you don't know no better. You just
use the soap that's in the in the shower, you
know what I mean. But there's no soap like ivory soap,
(05:41):
because that soap drives you out so much. That soap
takes every ounce of oil off your skin, and you
look like you took a shower and chalk.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You are that ashyest, Like, give me an idea here, Mark,
give me an idea my manda oily skin.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
They still make it ivory. They make it. They you
might have to take a Dolorean and go eighty eight
miles an hour and go back to like nineteen eighty
two together.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But I promise time travel to go get the soap
for this man's skin right now.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yes, but I am so I have this. You know
this new thing, This is the new thing. This this
is like as of like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Put me on.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Jeez, I'm using a toothpaste now, okay, because I'm I'm
Colgate like all day, you know what I mean. And
everybody says, oh, you got that Colgate smile, right, remember,
like everybody used to say that, oh my god, you
got that Holgay smile. But I'm using this thing called
Rise Well. No floride has nothing but minerals, a healthy
stuff for your teeth. And I looked it up like
(06:43):
I did my homework. My woman was like, I'm telling
you this is better than floride, you know. And when
I looked it up, man, all the dentists are saying
it's better than a fluoride toothpaste, and I was like,
I was like, listen, I'm fair. Women know everything that is.
That might be the name of my new special, because
it seems like every time she tells me some stuff
that I just don't be. I don't sometimes be like
(07:05):
this ain't true, Like I've been using breast coke like
my whole life, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you're making life.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
See what I'm saying. Who is she?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
She's even transferred over to me, right.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Like who's sent her here? You know what I mean?
I was happy with cogate, but now I'm buying twenty
dollars toothpaste because it has the minerals. I'm like better King,
soy Joe? Who is this guy? You know this kid
from the Bronx. I used to brush my teeth with Twizzlers.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Listen. I used to brush my teeth with sugar.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I used to brush my teeth with soap. When there
was no toothpaste. I used to get the Iriy c
iri solt as many uses.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Now you driving it now the iris yo.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You take the toothpaste and you rub it on the
on the iriy soap like that, and look, and I'm
telling you I used to swear to God when we
didn't have toothpaste. Remember when the toothpaste, we used to
cut it open to get whatever was left in there.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
See at the bottom, right at the bottom.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You cut it open, you put your two your two
person and get a better.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right whatever comes next, I would tell you exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Not everybody has that same upbringing. But I'm telling you,
when that two page ran out, I was out there
hooking that up from the bottom, cutting that open whatever
needed to happen. And when that ran out, I.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
So you see the every so followed away?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Are you you remember? Mom used to like you were
like I do that already, lady, letting me something else?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Even your teeth got dry, no saliva, I read so
Salif like this.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
The road, how do you laugh for your own jokes?
I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I'm sorry, I'm so stupid. That's so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
No, it's it's amazing that you find yourself so funny
and so because I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Because because what's so funny is you don't believe No,
you don't believe me. But this is like, this is
my true story, Like this is the Like I'm laughing
because I'm embarrassed a little bit, but it's the truth.
We used to We used to just make it up
as we went along, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'm afraid to ask. What else did you make make
up as you went along?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
In your house?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's easy. There was always some packages of kool Aid
or even the knockoff kool Aid from like the ninety
nine cents to a kool Aid that was just colored
sugar and so yeah, even sugar, you know what I mean.
I was a super Yeah, that's it, like it was.
(09:44):
These are rough times, man, these were rough times. Girl.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'm telling did you make did you tang sandwiches? We
used to make?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I never had a tang sandwich. I don't think I've
got a tang sandwich because at least we had like
like we had like peanut butter and jelly, but we
didn't have like the real peanut butter and jelly. I
had the peanut butter and jelly that was mixed in
one bottle. See that.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I don't like that it becomes such a mess.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Like only the first person to use it gets to
experience the niceness of that product.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
That whoever makes Goober great because that's the name of it.
Whoever makes that product should riten now because thank you.
Because only when you that fresh open is does it
look the second you make one sandwich, it looks like
bawmy though in there? Does you open it and you're
like the who did this to the people for jelly?
(10:37):
It just looked gross. But I'm telling you that that
was my life, Like that was my real life. So
I'm just telling you this is what we did, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So yeah, you see, I'm like, I gotta I gotta
give myself.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We're having too much fun, right, we.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Support the comedian we're supposed to.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You're a comedian. I've done a comedian. I'm supposed to.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You're not. You're coming up with good ones, just like me.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So what's your beef with the lashes, because I sometimes
have beef with some slashes, but beer's.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Because they're not necessary and they're expensive, well that they are,
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It just it's just we just you don't like when
we wake up and we have like massive drag drag
queen lashes on a wake up.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
No, not attractive.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
No, I've seen every iteration of lash, and I gotta
tell you it maybe maybe first day, second day, third day. Yeah,
they put a third date on the endo, like when
when two or three stop falling and it looks like
a parking space and you got or you know, I've
seen it with your Michigan clubs. I've seen what I
call like because again I'm from the Bronx, imna use
(11:45):
a term maybe that not everybody uses. I've seen I've
seen gully eyelashes where gully like they're just hanging. It
looks like it looks like a caterpillar is trying to
leave and you're telling the caterpillar the table yeah stay
because I'm not ready, and and it's just hanging. I've
seen that, and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Okay, you're like no, but you.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Gotta understand, like we're guys and all we know how
to do with things with that information is say something's
wrong or we laugh art. Either way, we're in trouble.
You got a spite on your face. It's gonna bite you.
You don't know what to say. You don't know what
to say, you don't know what to do. So I
(12:32):
don't have beef. I just have advice, which is okay.
That's how I feel. If you're a single woman, you
do whatever you gotta do to be to be the
prettiest girl in the you know, in the box, because
you're looking for a man to pick you. But if
you got a man, a good man that loves you,
fair in the morning, fair when you're sick, not you know, yo,
(12:53):
the whole thing. Listen, don't when you know what I mean,
then then don't do the lashes because for me, that's
a waste of money. And I always say, you want
to make sure your man doesn't think you're getting pretty
for somebody else. You got to be careful. Is a
fine line between getting pretty and making your man feel
insecure that you're getting pretty for somebody else. You don't
got to do that, baby, I love you, You don't. You
don't got to add that you don't got to. You
(13:14):
don't have to make those changes. I know you want
to feel pretty for you, but know that I think
that you're perfect without all the nonsense. But I'm just
a dude, and I know I gotta be careful when
I say that. But I do say that from the heart,
you know, I really really do. I don't. I feel
like women who are showing younger women like daughters to
to fake you know, fake eyebrows extensions, you know, fake
(13:36):
boobies and all this other stuff. I find that to
be a hard lesson for a young lady because then
they feel like they can't love themselves with what God
gave them. So but again, I'm just a dude. If
I was a dad, I would have an issue. You know,
I don't have daughters. I only had sons, so i've
you know, I've never had to had that conversation. But
at that dad a daughter, I would be careful with that,
you know what I mean with with the role model
(13:58):
that you don't understand you are as a into your daughter,
you know.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Defense so we do a lot of make jokes though no,
you do you make jokes. I was just like, I
had to bring it up, but I thought that was
just so hilarious. I feel like a lot of the
men that I know always say, you guys do so
much that we don't care for, and the lashes is
always top of the list, and I was like top of.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
The list, you know, you know, I also do a
joke about the lips right because you see you see,
you see plump lips and then you see it overdone. Well,
you know where someone has gone has gone way too far,
And I'm just like, see, way too far is the problem,
because now you go from looking better than you did
to looking worse than every and that you gotta like
(14:41):
I'm just trying to say, like, as a guy, now
now now I'm ashamed because when I walk into the
room with my woman and her lips are devastated because
she went she went too far, she did too much.
Now we're now we're sort of the point of laughter
and conversation between groups instead of like, oh my god,
(15:01):
sit down.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You know, Marcus like Maripos, give my mark, Give.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Many many men, give mebody. I want to know what
you don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
You don't want to tell me booty, booty is your booty.
Don't need to no need no, no, no, no need
to add so much booty. You know they don't fit nowhere.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Mark said, listen, no gulosaurs for me.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Can you can you can you share that information with people?
Like you know, I was watching and I don't want
to give anybody shout outs, even though we gave some
(15:52):
shout outs here, the people that didn't deserve it because
they ain't helping to pay the bills. But I was
watching the show yesterday and this lady was like, her
boobs look like but each one was two basketballs big,
and I was just like, see, at some point, you people,
people fall in love with the surgery, the process, the attention,
the you know, some people fall in love with that.
(16:13):
They don't they're not even in love with themselves. They're
not even in love with themselves when they're done with
the surgery. They just love the process of I'm gonna
spend money and I'm gonna get somebody's gonna look at me,
somebody's gonna take pictures of me naked, and they're gonna
tell me what they see and what they could do.
And it's like it's like taking your car to get
new rims and a new tint, and you're gonna it's
just a it's a mind game.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You say your car, You're like, I'm gonna get rams.
I'm gonna get these spinners everywhere pictures.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh yes, said Mufflin. Oh yes, said Mufflet you know,
it's a it's a weird thing, you know what I mean,
it's like a weird I don't know. So again, I
don't have I really don't have opinions. I feel like
I fifty one. I feel like I have advice because
I've been a dude for.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So long that jokes. The advice comes.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
In the form of jokes because.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
He's like, I'm going to disguise the advice as a yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
But I also, you know, it's funny because people are
listening to me when I do my jokes. I want
to say things that are true, and you do. You
don't want to waste my time, you know, and I
want to waste my time out there.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
And it just seems very very relatable.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
When you talk about, you know, your family, when you
talk about your woman, I'm like, what does she think?
Does she like getnad like? What does she say when
you bring her up in comedy? When you mentioned, you know,
things that happen in your life. Does she care?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
She doesn't know. She doesn't because she understands that that's
how I. She understands that that's how I that's how
I look at the world, this is how.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
This is no but this is just how I process information.
You know, I process it and then it for me,
everything goes through a comedy filter. Everything, So, whether it's death,
whether it's happy stuff, you know what I mean, hard
stuff like when we are you And she's making a
brilliant point about how insufficient I am at understanding English
(18:05):
and the language that is a woman's language. You know,
I'm a dude. All I can do is learn, That's
all I can do. I always tell her, I came
to you willing to grow, and a lot of men
are not. You know, they know everything.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I come to you in experience. You did not come
to this woman in experience.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Hell no, No, I came to her experience, but experience
only in failure. Really, you know, I came to her
experienced in failing. Yeah, I listen, Yeah, I don't. Men
are stupid when it comes to love. We don't get it,
we don't understand it, we don't know how to do it.
We don't have healthy relationships with our dads that can
teach us to show us the right way. You know,
(18:48):
it's unfortunate, But I'm learning about love at fifty. I'm
learning how to love at fifty. I don't know how
to do this, you know. You know, people are going
to be people. You're going to be yourself. But beingvulnerable
in a position to love somebody the way you should
love them, the way you should want to love them
is that's a new level for me. I don't. I
don't know this. I have no this is I'm breaking
(19:09):
new ground. I'm real honest, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
But it's you know, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It's like you didn't leave this earth not knowing how
to love and not understanding, you know, love thoroughly. Yeah,
this is a blessing that you're getting now, you know.
And you're saying I'm.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Absolutely how to love. I don't. I don't, you know,
And like I said, everybody swears they they are like
perfect at this, that they are like, I'm so good
at this. What do you think? I'm not not loving
me enough? You know, I didn't love me enough. And
if you don't love you enough, impossible to show someone
how to love you the right way. You got to
(19:43):
love you the right way before you can have a
healthy relationship so that you can tell the person in
your life you know how to love you. Here's the
here's the here the requirements here are the general you
know do's and don't you know what I mean? But again,
I think at twenty you don't know yourself well enough.
You know, I don't even know at thirty, So I
think it takes time for you to be with yourself.
(20:04):
See a lot of people, you know what's funny, A
lot of people are in relationships because they want to
be in a relationship. They don't need to. They're not
good at it, they're not healthy at it. They're just
like they just like being in it.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
You know me, Right now, I'm like, no, no, no, I'm serious,
no no, no, I'm only talking.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I'm only talking about me. But if it opens, but
if it opens the door for you, just have a
sit down conversation with your man about where is he
in his life? Where is his self love? Where is
his then that's beautiful because at least you you're maybe
you're doing something you've never done before. Maybe you're going
to hear something you've never heard before, what you know. Yeah,
but me and my woman, we legit. We have like
(20:41):
quarterly conversations about meeting, expectations, meeting. She's Cuban and Italian,
so she's you know, she's killed a few people on
the Italian side.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I'm sure that's dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I'm so scared, so.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Gorgeous, but I fear for you. But sleep a knife
under your pill.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I am so scared. If I'm blinking twice, so please
get help.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I can tell you keep looking to the side. I'm like,
she must be right there.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
You just making sure that people aren't. You know, people
are nosy out here anyways. But yeah, I feel, honestly,
and I feel like I feel happy to be this
me in this relationship, you know what I mean. And
that's that's different too. I was in a you know,
I was married, and I was in a very very
toxic marriage, you know, very toxic, very very Nothing was
(21:29):
good about it. Nothing was good. The only thing that
we ever did good was we had kids, and we
loved those kids, you know, But we didn't love ourselves
and we didn't so we couldn't love each other. There's
there's no way there was the soil was bad, so
nothing good can grow from that?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Was that a relationship that started in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
It started in the Bronx. We were you know, we
were in our we were kids, you know, we were
just about twenty one, twenty two years old. And then,
like I said, I was still you know, I was
still womanizing. I was still like, you know what I mean,
and I you know, just this, like I said, the
soil was bad. You can't you can't have healthy in that.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
You just can't. Nothing was going to grow, I know, anything.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Nothing, nothing, nothing soil is bad. It's if it's tarnished,
if it's no good, you know, you you gotta figure
that out. But but you know, you know, we had
a surprise baby. So what I mean is, you know, unplanned,
and we just went from there again at twenty what
do you do? You learn? You learned? So I was
learning how to be me and me as a dad
(22:28):
and me as a provider and me as the head
of the household. Means too much. It was too much.
It was too much. And there's and then in that
is resentment. You know, she resented me. I resented her.
So the soil was bad, you know, And as much
as we tried it is, so you know, it was
just doomed from the start.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, sometimes and nothing. But you know what, I'm glad
that you don't know. You're happy, you're healthy, and you're
learning how to love the right way, and that's it.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
That's it, and uh like, And the truth is you
should be learning every day, a little bit more by yourself,
a little bit more by your partner because you're growing
and you're evolving every day and so is he. So
you have to be like like clay. You know, you
can't be a brick. You have to be clay. You
have to be a little bit more appliable, a little
bit more mouldable, flexible, mouldable, you know, baby, you know, baby,
(23:20):
I want to open a business. I want to I
want to try skydiving. Baby, I want to, you know,
do this or that. The person who says, ah, to
look at it, I said not. You know that resentment.
I resent you for not supporting me, for not for
not you know, telling me, go ahead try it? You
know you want to you know, shit, you want to
open up a business, you know, to cleaning pool? Go ahead, bro,
(23:41):
I never heard that before. But if that's what you
want to do valet. You know, let's go get the equipment.
How much is it? You know, what is your business plan?
That should be the things you know. But but people
are so like you just want to waste money. And
then women are you know, and men are different. You know,
men sometimes have ideas that women have a base of,
like you're just going to take money away from me.
(24:02):
And I wanted to go on vacation and I want
to get these booths and I want to go exactly exactly,
And so to me, there's there's so much value in
learning and being open to that. And I feel like
I feel like this woman is you know. When we met,
I told her, I said, I'm ready to learn, you know,
I did my I met her. I met her at
(24:24):
a comedy club in West Palm Beach. That's why I
live in Florida now. I met her in Palm Beach
and I moved down from New York to Florida to
be in the audience. She was an audience.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Oh what are the odds? Was she really close to
the front road?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Nope, nope. I did my show. I did my show.
And when I was selling my merchandise and doing the
meet and greet after the show, she came and she
bought a shirt and we took a picture and then
she was, you know, talking to me about things, and
I told I said, unfortunately, there's a long line, you know,
and I got to attend to the line that is here.
But I told her I'll reach you for Yeah, I'm sorry.
(24:56):
That's business comes first. And I was very business and
I said, if you would like, I can meet you
next door and we can have a drink there in.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
About you quick with it. You set up a date
and I'll see you in thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Thirty forty minutes. Let me take you out of my
business money, West pomp Beach, listen, yep, West pomp Beach.
I said, the bag comes first. Let me get this
bag and then I'll meet you over there.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
And she said, I.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Now cut two, cut two. Four and a half years later,
she sells the merchandise. I never touch it. She sells
all my merchandise and and we sell I almost sell
sometimes just as much merchandise as I make at the
comedy club.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So we've added different designs, We've added so much stuff
because of her. And like I'm here in Chicago, and
she's here with me because we're business partners, you know,
we we I do the shows, She takes care of
the merchandise. I take care to meet and greet, and
it just works effortlessly, you know, and she sees my vision.
As I told her, I said, one day, I want
to live off my merchandise. Do you want to save
(26:03):
and invest my comedy money? You know?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Do you feel like she elevated your career.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
That's a good woman right there.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Absolutely, because her demands need to be met. Her demands
for me to want to be a better businessman have
to be met. And so I'm always thinking of a
better way to approach comedy from the business perspective because
I'm so I'm so in love with creating that I
got to take time to, you know, to look at
(26:32):
where I'm going, not just create the funny and go
to comedy clubs and in the green room laughing like
I gotta. I want to create a space where I
know exactly where I need to go with this, with
this money. You know where am I going?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
What's next?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And you know what I commend you, you know, as
a Latino and as a man and as a Latino
man from the Bronx to allow a woman to come in,
you know, and help guide you and help elevate your career.
You know, that takes a lot, because I know that
sometimes Latinos can be rec systems of like no. You know,
so I respect you, and I commend you for that.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Thank you, thank you, and listen. It really does. Sometimes
it can be a point of contention because we don't
always agree, but I understand that she just wants the
best for us as.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
A team, and that.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Is so sometimes listen, yeah, it's it doesn't so we
don't argue. I just tell her sometimes back off. You know.
Sometimes I gotta tell her back off. And you're coming
into I don't know you're coming in. You're coming into hard,
you know, because the comedy and the world that I've
created I created on my own. You know. It's not
like it's not like somebody was like, oh, let me
(27:41):
write this for you or let me do that. No, no, no,
I started this grassroots. I started this, you know, humbly
for Yeah. I help. I don't write for others. I
help people write material. I do my best to help
anybody that I see that's worth it. I always try
to help them with material always.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And reverting a little bit for the I know that
when you started doing comedy you were working.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Where did you work. I'm so curious about this. What
was your occupation.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
So started? No, no, no, it doesn't make sense. So when
I first first started doing comedy, I was an assistant
director in a hospital.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Talk to me because I'm from New York.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I was in North Central Bronx Hospital on Gunhill Road,
and I was the assistant director of safety management. So
I helped with all the fire drills. I put everything
they did, all the scheduling reporting, I reported all the
safety issues construction stuff. So I had gotten certified to
do that and was one of the only people certified,
(28:42):
you know, to do so. So I like created a
little space for myself where people would want me, and
I went from I went from North Central Bronx and Jacoby,
but Jacoby hated me because I was very strict, so
I just stayed at North Central.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I thought you were going to say, because I was
always making jokes, not that you were very strict right there.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, it was weird. I was very like I would
go on construction site and be like, can't do that.
Shut it down. Can't do it. You know, somebody's gonna
get hurt. I was. You know, that was my profession.
That's what I did all day, you know. So yeah,
that's what I did, man. I And then I went
to Saint Barnabas Hospital where I became the director of
not only safety, but two other departments as well. So
(29:21):
I was doing very when I quit my day job
to pursue my dream. I was actually doing very well.
You know, I was doing very well for myself. I
have a great, great, great job. I'll forget it. You
have no idea, you have no idea. Petrified. I was,
like I was, you know, I was just I was mortified.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how
to do it. The beauty is that I had I
(29:42):
had my own shows that I was producing on my
own and all of the money from the tickets was
coming to.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Me and other comedians or was it your shows?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
No, it was my show. I produced it and I
booked the other comedians, you know what I mean. So
let's say my show. My show at that point was
bringing in about four thousand dollars in one night, and
but I had to pay the bills. I had to
pay for the flyers, I had to pay for promotions,
I had to pay for the comedians. So at the
end of it, I made about three thousand dollars. But
that was one night, its exactly. So I'm thinking, shit,
(30:14):
if I could make you know, if I could do
four or five, six, seven, eight times a month, we
make it real money, you know. Whereas whereas in the hospital,
they told me what I was going to make, they
told me what I was going to sow. They my
my every two week salary. Although it was, you know,
good a good living at the time, I couldn't make
one hundred dollars more or two hundred. Didn't work like that.
(30:34):
I was in a managerial position where you get paid,
where you get paid whether you work eight hours or
if you work thirty eight hours, it's the same number,
you know. And so I just I just fell out
of love with knowing that I could make what I
want to make instead of making what they want me
to make, you know, because I felt like they were
controlling me, you know, and I hated that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
How did you do it?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Did you just like say, Okay, today's the day I'm
just going to walk in and tell them I'm never
coming back like how do you? Because I know a
lot a lot of people that are super unhappy with
their jobs. They have what we view as really great positions,
but every day they tell me I don't want to
do this, I don't want to be here. And they
work in radio, and they work in record labels and
(31:28):
they work in media companies and they're miserable and they're like,
this is not my dream. How did you put this
together and say today is the day?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
It really it wasn't. I gotta be honest. It wasn't
like I was like, all right, Friday is the day.
I kind of put a plan together, and what I
did was, you know, I produced. I started to produce
more shows so that I knew that I had some income, okay.
And then when I finally was like, yeah, planned the
money first, and then I was like, all right, I'm
(31:58):
expected to make let's say five thousand this month in comedy.
That's enough to pay my bills and to do what
I gotta do. So let me see if my job
will give me a raise, you know what I mean,
and match that number that I was making as a comedian,
you know what I mean. So that's how I looked
at it. Let me bargain, let me tell them that
I'm you know, I'm on the market, free agent, and
(32:20):
I'm looking for a better contract, you know. And but
but I also said, if they lobo me with some crap,
I'm out. I'm done. And that exactly how I did it.
Is it? They literally came back. I gave them. I
wrote down a number, and I said, this is what
I need to continue working here, because you have me
running three departments. I'm the director of three departments and
(32:40):
you're paying me for the one and that's unfair. I'm
here late, I'm here early. I can't do this and
at this number. They literally came back after a day
and they said, we can give you a three percent raise.
And I said, three percent doesn't cover anything, zeros, it's
a few hundred dollars more a paycheck. You know. It
wasn't suffice. And I said, okay, great, thank you, thank you.
(33:02):
And uh the next day, following day, I came in
with my you know, I at that time I had
I had worked there five years. So I gave them
five weeks notice. I said, you know, I'm gonna give
you five weeks notice. Let you guys know, and they
kept me on for another month as a as a consultant.
So I got you know, I gave them five They
kept me on for four more weeks, and so it
(33:24):
just it just uh, it was the scariest, most harrowing
time in my life. Nothing went as planned.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was just gonna ask you that, how was it.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
How was let's say, the first year that you decided
to follow your dream full time.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
The first six months forget the year. The first six
months was like gonna throw up every day, missing you know,
missing my mortgage payment. You know, the whole everything started
to everything started to crumble. And I was able to
a man, I'm honest, I was able to borrow from
Peter to pay Paul just to get me through to
the next big event, big show where I could pay
(34:00):
people back, pay my mortgage, you know. So I'm grateful
that I was able to check on some of my
mortgage at the time. They were doing it to the
back end. And that was Obama. Obama did that. He
was like, you know, because the recession as other stuff. Yeah,
I got, I mean, that was great. And so listen,
the whole point is, this is my point of the journey,
(34:21):
making that sacrifice though, to leave that job in the
monkey suit, with the suit and tie and the shoes
and the sabatos and the meetings and the boardrooms. Like
making making the decision was supposed to be hard because
if it was easy, I would not have I would
not my comedy game would not have risen, my comedy
(34:42):
you know, vocabulary, my comedy intelligence would not have grown
if everything was coming easy. Because it was hard. I
was like, I'm not, I can't be funny. I gotta
be funnier, not just funnier than me. I gotta be
funnier than that comedian is getting the money then that
comedian like, I gotta be the funniest every show, every show,
I gotta I gotta command, you know, command them people
(35:06):
to want to know where am I going to be next? Damn?
That dude was hilarious. Wazy, Yo, When can I see
you again? I want the audience to come to me
and go, can you have a business card? Yo? You
know what I mean? And that's the kind of set
that I still have, still want to have till this day.
Once you build that sort of attitude that you want
to slay like ortre the audience a comedy that never
(35:28):
goes away. It should never go away. It should never
it should never be like you should never relax, you know.
You know, and a lot of comedians fight because they
start to make money and then they become lazy in
that attitude. You see them sitting on stage, you see
them not putting in that effort. Why I got to
come a couple million? Then they think that that's what
matters when you go out on stage. None of that matters.
(35:50):
The only thing when you get on matters. When you
get on stagees, are you still funny? Can you still
rip this when you get on? That's it?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Can you make me laugh?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Thank you? And the point? And I love it. That's
the other thing. I love to make people laugh favor.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
And I laught loud like I am that person that
is like when I love people, it's like loud. I'm like,
this guy is good. And I grew up on you
know what I'm saying, Like I grew up Eddie. You
know what I'm saying, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pry like these
were all my comedians, Like my father was a comedy
buff and so with my husband.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So I know a good comedian when I see.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
One, absolutely, Yeah, yeah, my favorite.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Who's your favorite?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Eddie? Eddie's my favorite of all time, just favorite of
all time. Eddie was charismatic, talented, daring, talk about his family.
I just love all of that. I just love all
of that. You know. He reminds me to be funny
every day.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
And there's so many different people, like, you know, you
have Chappelle, then you have Bernie mag You know what
I'm saying that you have given hard like everybody has
their own own little like. But yeah, yeah, I feel
I feel like that's the first comedian that I probably
ingested fully because my father was completely obsessed with him.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah. She I didn't know out of the comedians I
was watching on TV were comedians. So you don't watch
a show like Chapeline, you know, hold these people were.
They were comics. They were comedians in their countries, they
were comedians where they were from. They were doing stand up,
and then they were doing these characters, you know, and
so all these you know I am. You know, now,
(37:21):
looking back, I'm like I was surrounded by comedy, you know,
I was just surrounded by funny because I would watch
it in English and then in Spanish. I was in
love with Saturday Night Live. I was in love with,
you know, all the things with Jerry Lewis, movies and
Avidan Costello. Like I was just I don't know. I
saw my grandmother laugh and I said, that's what I
want to do. I want to make Mammy laugh whatever that,
(37:41):
whatever they're doing, I want to repeat that. And that's
what That's how it became funny. You know. She was
my testing ground for my for the jokes, you know,
because I was just I would eave that because I
would just repeat ab and Costello. I would repeat Jerry
Lewis and I would do thems in the faces and
throw myself on the floor and my grandmother would be
fitcing on our pants. I would be like and be like,
(38:02):
I got it. I got that thing. Later on, when
I started doing comedy, I was like, I was I
was born for this. I was built for this.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
You know, I love this, this conversation and you know
this conversation is good. I love comedy. I love your comedy.
I'll say that much. I'm like, all right, this, this
guy is funny. This guy's funny because I am I'm
the wife that walks around the house like that guy's
not funny.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
That guy's not funny. Turn that off.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I don't like those jokes, but you know, when he
watches you, I'm like, Okay, he's funny. And even now,
because I like, you know, I like watching whether it's
a movie, whether it's music, whatever, it is, just ingesting it,
like right before my interviews and we're watching Mark my
words and I'm like, Wow, this is funny.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I can't wait to get on there.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, you got to see one of the other ones.
I have another one that I did. I think you
and your husband will enjoy it. I talk about which you.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Know it's because I feel like I've been watching your
stuff all week long.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
There's the There's the one where I have like a
really navy navy blue blazer and I think a black
T shirt where I talk about the pet neal and
Thanksgiving that we call sons Giving. I watched and that one,
to me, that one is sort of my favorite because
I did. I was just talking. I was just talking
about being.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
You were talking, and you were talking about people bringing things.
You're talking about different things that you talk about.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
That person that wants to take three tup awaars only
brought a bread.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
You're like, yo, you an Italian and you're talking about
the Italians said, let me, nobody makes me more mad
than people want to bread or people that want to
bring soda.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I'm like, you're coming to things.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Palid or salad, like nobody's eve in the salad, comere yo.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
And then they're like they got like six plates with
aluminum foil. You and they're like, no, this is because
though he works tonight and you don't have fool so
I'm gonna bring one to you know, they got names
they put they get a marker and put names. You're like,
you got six plates.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
It's like halfway through the theater and you see mad
platos with peal in the corner.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
It does a plat.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
Damn. Yeah, you took all the mac and cheese and
people are still they still want to eat us a second,
you know. So I love that one, but I kind
of there's one that I hate. But that's because it
was pandemic. I was because I was just going through
so much because of the pandemic. No, no, no, I was
just the attitude. But that one, like, weirdly the audience
loves it.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I think they can feel it, you know, Is this
the one?
Speaker 3 (40:26):
This is the one I think it's called After the
Pandemic or something like that. It's the special in there.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I'm gonna yeah, it's a great. I just have like
a great T shirt and I'm like yelling. I'm like
peenage just suck and I'm.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Just like very oh my god.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Like I watch it, I'm like, what you're going to
have like a buzz of vein? Bro like but each one.
What's funny about comedy is you see it when I
watch myself, I know where I was mentally, and I
know why it comes off that way. You know. The
pandemic puts so much pressure on us the artists that
we didn't know what to do. We didn't know what
to do. And then I'm in New Jersey and an
(41:04):
audience that didn't want to listen. They were like talking
and yelling, and my camera crew was already there, so
I was like, o key boy, Joe, I'm just gonna
pour it on. And what they recorded was some of
it is brutally honest and good, but a lot of
it I'm like, no, Mark, that's way too farward.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
You know, you were like, where again, where what has
been your best audience?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Like what country, what city?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Where did you get the best response that you were like, Yo,
these people love me.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
So I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna say this. It's weird
the audience. I don't pay time. I don't. I can't
pay attention to the audience too much because because I
gotta do it got weird, Like yeah, but it's like
I gotta forget that because I because sometimes I do
two shows a night, three shows in a night, so
my memory has to be super short. So but the
(41:54):
ones that stand out stand out stand out. Houston, Texas,
like Texas, Houston, Texas. I didn't show and they stood
for five They stood so long that the club goes.
You gotta like, they're asking you to do more time,
more jokes. They were like, can you do more time?
And I go yeah, And the audience would not leave.
They were standing in their by their seats and applauding
(42:16):
and clapping and screaming that. I went back out and
I did another five minutes and they stood again for
another five minutes. I was like that, And sometimes it
happens with the audience. You just you become one and
you're no longer an audience and a performer. You're just
a thing and it's happening in real time, and it's
what comedians chase every night. We chase that what, that
(42:36):
that feeling and that thing every night. So it weirdly,
but I would say I owe Houston so much because,
like I said, I think they showed me that I was.
I was the funniest, you know what I mean. Like
they they told me, Bro, we've seen comedy, but we
ain't seeing comedy like yours. And I love that. I
love when you when you when you know you're different
(42:59):
than everybody else. Because there's Fluffy and there's George Lopez,
who I love, and there's you know, how am I different?
And so I love I love to know that what
I'm doing is not only acceptable and accepted and loved,
but also admired and you know, and people are legit
laughing like legit laughs.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You know we are when it comes to these comedy superstars.
I'm talking Kevin Hart, you know what I'm saying, These
people that are just like wow, like comedy royalty. What
do you think about our Latino comedians as far as
getting to that you know, peak, that mountaintop, the way
that they've been able to do with black comedians.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I think, Look, I think a perfect example is like
a George Lopez. George's Yeah, George to me is is untouchable.
You know, he's untouchable. He is there, He's the leader because.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
We need another as Latino, we need another list.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Not only am I saying yes, but I think George
would say yes. He's a good friend of mine and
you know we yeah, we've worked together in the past,
and and uh, you know I I absolutely every day
I admire what he's done for me. You know, like
he showed me that being myself is all you need
to be. Just be yourself, now, can you got to
(44:14):
make yourself funny? You can't be not funny. You can't
just go up there and tell you know, there's a
lot of comedians, you know, being honest, and they're telling themselves,
but they're not very funny at it, you know, whereas George,
this dude is on another level. Man like, this dude
is insanely into me, top five of one of the
funniest people to ever do stand up comedy ever, just
so funny. So I admire that, and so I believe
(44:35):
that his new show is doing very very well. My
sister Celeni's Leva, who plays the wife his ex wife, selenisays,
my girl again, one of my best friends in the world.
And I can say nothing about George accept great things.
So I am I'm I'm that his lead that I'm
the next person to, you know, to tell Hollywood that
(44:57):
our stories are our stories are important, especially the you know,
the Caribbean Latino that is very very underserved and very
very not heard. And our stories haven't even been told yet.
And I would love to be the ambassador of our stories.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
We got to get our Mount rushmore of our comedians. Man,
that's one thing.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I advocate for our people, for our visibility, for our shows,
for our movies. It's just something that is just you know,
we can't just advocate for it. We have to consume it.
And I tell people all the time, if they make
us a movie, we got to watch it. If they
make us a show, we got to watch it.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Absolutely. Yeah, we got comedy special.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, let's put it out.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Yes, we got to support it. We got to show love.
You know, I've always done that, especially like the New
York you know, film festival, comedy festivals. You know, we
have to participate. Yeah, we have to participate. We have
to you know, show love, you know, share it whenever
they post, like all those things important, you know. But
I think that's where we I think that's where the
disconnect is. But I think that we need to we
(46:06):
we the community. We need to teach people, like like
I'm doing a podcast listening to it, like, and.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
You know what this podcast is for Latino It's like
iHeart Radio has what's called Michael Duda, which is a
podcast network that is just for Latinos. We have Eva
Longoria Cheeky's am Like, what we're building here is for
us by us, remember book, but we're doing it for
the Latinos man. Like honestly, I am, you know, at
(46:33):
the forefront of our movies, our books, and our voices.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
They have got to be heard.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
And that's why I was so exciting, you know that
I was gonna get to talk to you today because
I'm like, you know, we have to give our people
a platform. We have to promote our comedians, our writers
or factors. I was talking to Lisa, Lisa and she
was talking about she has a movie coming out, and
I said, when that movie comes out, we're all going
to get behind it. We're all going to push it
to it because it's the only way, it's the only
we can't complain that we don't get movies and then not.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Go to them and not and not push them and
not represent them and not talk about them, you know,
and or grade them or give it your your honest
opinion like that, you know, tell tell tell people what
it is good about?
Speaker 1 (47:06):
What's up with acting? For you? Talk to me?
Speaker 3 (47:09):
You know, I am, I'm I don't act, So it's
not like you know, I'm currently working on seven movies
and look, I'm a.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Funny that it's just like I feel like on screen
it would just translate or it's different.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
I'm more I am. I think I'm more television because
stand up, stand up, stand up, make is this stand
up is what I do with this year, you know,
And television is vary from here up and movies are
your whole body and all this other stuff. So I
don't think I could be bad at either one. I
don't think i'd be bad at either one. And in
the acting that I've done, I feel like, you know,
(47:46):
there's a that's a that's a completely different muscle that
to work. You know, it's it's not the same. But
I'm I would love to do more stuff, especially in
the comedy arena. But yeah, like I but I want to,
you know, want to write. I want to write for
us because I write all this comedy, like, I want
to write for us, perform for us, so that that
would be the goal, you know that my average. Yeah,
(48:11):
we've read. I've written so many shows and I've gotten
so close. Man, I'm I'm you know, I'm spearheading bringing
Chico and the Man back and giving Freddie Prince all
his love and making making him proud, but making it
more today, you know, making it about social media and
all the social you know craziness that we're going through
(48:33):
and uh and but but reprising it in a way
where Latinos can be proud to to watch see themselves
laugh at ourselves. You know, I don't see why that
would be a bad thing. So I've I've been pitching
this now since the pandemic.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
You know, did you watch Dolores Road?
Speaker 3 (48:48):
No? I did not.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
If you get if you get time and you're on
a flight and you can get to it's just you know,
it's right here, it's in New York.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
It's Puerto Ricans.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
It's Latino is a little gory, and yeah, it was
just an amazing, amazing show. And that was like the
last show that I thought. I felt like, wow, I
really really connected with that show.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I was like, it was good. Watch it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
I felt like Webber wrote it did an amazing, amazing job.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Oh that's great, Okay, I will check that out.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
He's like, listen, you'll be giving movie recommendations.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
That's a show. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love
it absolutely.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Listen. Listen. I'm gonna I'm gonna play dumb because I don't.
I never heard of it. You know, it was never
thrown in my direction. I just.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Catch it.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
You're gonna love it. This Brique was this Dominicans. There's drugs,
and it's brand new. It's just probably like last year.
That's probably why you haven't heard about it. But you're
gonna love it. And you can be like, where's season
number two? I want to even though we're kind of
serious right now, I want to get a little more serious.
I saw that it was just the anniversary of your
son's passing. Yes, and I want you to tell me
(49:52):
everything I would have loved about.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Mark junior, Mark Junior was the best of the best
of me, you know, the best of me and his mom,
you know, and you know he was smart, like much
smarter than his dad. He's just brilliant. He but he
was not as rough. He was very gentle. And even
(50:16):
though he was this big guy, this you know, two
hundred and forty pounds powerlifter, bodybuilder guy, that wasn't that
wasn't his persona. His persona was that of a kitten.
You know, it's very huggable, very lovable, very gentle, a
gentle giant. And you know, one year, you know, two
(50:37):
years of missing the what had become of us? You know,
because when you're a dad and you're a parent, you
are a parent. You know, you're always teaching, you're always straightening,
you're always correcting. But when they get older, they just
become you hope, they become cool, awesome, calling you for
no reason, giving you advice, you know, asking you how
(51:00):
your day went, or putting a smile on your face
when you're having a really bad day. And you know,
at twenty six, he was you know, we transcended father
and son and we just became training partners in the gym.
You know, we became like friends, and you know, like
he was like my guy. You know, it just became
my guy. Like we talked three four times a day,
(51:21):
asked me did I eat? What did I eat? How
did I cook it? He was, Okay, you're going to
make it for me down. I'll make it when you
come down to Florida, like you know, and I would
fly him down anytime he wanted to. And he was
just he loved Danielle, you know, so much that it
made you know, a lot of people they don't you know,
you never see yourself in the position where your kid
has to meet someone else up outside of their parent,
(51:44):
other parent, you know, but Mark made that that process
so easy. He he met Danielle and he loved the
way she loved me, and he instantly fell in love
with her for that, you know, and that yeah that
you know, that made that made the new relationship everything.
He just made it easier because he was just like,
you know, every time he talked to her and she
(52:04):
was like, oh, me and your dad went here and this,
and he would just be like, oh my gosh, she
loves you so much, dad, And I'd be like yeah,
and he you know, to the point where they started
to have their own awesome relationship. And again, you can't
pray for more than that. Like, you know, he would
call her and ask her about girl advice. You know,
well he'd be like, oh my god, I met this
(52:25):
girl and she wants to hang out like and then
you know, Danielle would be like, oh my god, Marky,
like but is she worth it? Like you know, is
she good? Like you know, it was just good.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
I'm happy Danielle got to meet him and got to
you know, develop her amigh and he left us. But
thank you, thank you so much for sharing about margin.
When I saw the post, I was like, I want
to know about him, I said, you know, because sometimes
people you don't they they don't exist here in the
physical world anymore, but they exist forever in someone's heart
(52:54):
and in someone's soul.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yeah, I want to hear what he was Like.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
I saw the pictures, I saw the video, but I
was like, yeah, there's probably so much more than I
don't know about him.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
But thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
The best of the best. That's that's really how I
want to how I always want to present him and
talk about him. He was the best of the best.
More I wish all parents could have a kid like
my son Mark just a beautiful soul, a beautiful spirit.
He loved animals. If an animal was stuck in it,
he didn't care, he would help it. He would stop
his car if it was freezing outside and cross a
(53:26):
deer from one side to he just on. He was
just a good soul, you know. And a lot of
people they got to deal with kids that don't want
to talk to them and hate them and all, you know,
you know, and I feel I feel like, wow, what
a what a lottery ticket to hold? Is the one
where my kid, like he really really loved his daddy's
(53:47):
so much. It was you know, that's you know when
I cry, and I cry so much, I cry because
I miss that. I miss that. I miss being you know,
I miss being somebody's hero, like that someone's look up to,
someone's you know, we used to work out together. His
friends be like, Marky, what you're doing Today'd be like, Oh,
I'm doing chest with my dad. And they're like, that's
(54:07):
your dad. What the holy hell? Like drinks all day?
You know, Like, but I'm just saying, like my lifestyle
is the gym. Like my lifestyle is like the gym
and protein smoothies, and you know, I'm still I'm still
like I told you from the beginning, like I'm still
wanting to do the things that keep keep me feeling young.
(54:29):
You know. So those things made me feel great, and
I you know, he he, you know, he wanted me
to stay there. He wanted me to be young forever.
You know. So he was always let's go to the gym, dad,
let's go look out, you know, let's go do this.
Let's let's go race cars and the go karts, and
you know that that kind of that kind of guy,
you know, video games with me.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
He'ever take care of yourself because I want you to
last forever.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
I feel that he was exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yeah, yeah, thanks so much for sharing, and thank you.
You know, it's been a great conversation. I know that
you're in Chicago. I know you're traveling, and this is
not going to be the last conversation we have. I'm
always down in Miami.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Yes, we're going to look you up there.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
It's it feels like I might be around at that time.
Madania Beach has the most beautiful sunrises ever that I've ever.
Speaker 3 (55:13):
Oh my god, those beaches die all.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
The time, I'm like, yo, the most beautiful sunrise is
I caught the Mandania Beach.
Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yes, you ain't lying. That's my coast. That's where I live.
And I tell you that I, me and my women
we try once a week to go you know, earth ourselves,
getting the fan, getting that water and just connect with
the earth and take deep breasts and meditate and just connect,
you know. And it's it's been helps me, helps me
a lot.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
That's amazing. Speaking about connecting. You better make that connecting flight.
Speaker 3 (55:44):
Yeah, well I'm here.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
It was really amazing talking to you. Mark.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
I feel like this is the beginning anything that you're
working on. Please feel free, you know, to share.
Speaker 3 (55:58):
Cannot wait so.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
That we just sport, we can amplify and we can
make sure that what you create for us Latinos, not
only do we consume it, but we share it and
we uplift it.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
I need that. I love that word amplify. That's what
that's what's missing, the amplification of all the great things
that we that we put out no universe. So my
special Mark my Words is out on Amazon Prime. So
I want everybody to check that out and just do
me a favor. Man, watch my stuff and laugh. Yes, yes,
thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Grasiers Come Again is a production of Honey German Productions,
in partnership with Iheart's Microtura podcast network
Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Today, we're bringing you some major laughs with a comedian
who's been lighting up them stages and screens with his
hilarious takes on Latino life, from his Puerto Rican roots
in the Bronx to becoming one of the most relatable
voices in comedy for US Latinos. Mark my words, get
ready to laugh and get in your feelings with the
Latin Prince of comedy, the hilarious Mark Vieira.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I feel like I'm gonna have such a good time
during this interview with you.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I know you are.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Mark via is here with me today, Rikua from the
Bronx that has made it far and wide and who
happens to be one of my husband's favorite comedians.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
When he heard your name, he.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Said, you know the gosh you know, you know him,
I know kom.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You know the comedian. He's still stupid, like.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
He's another Puerto Rican but he's from Brooklyn, and he
was just like, you know who he is.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I was like, Okay, calm down. He's like, he starts
telling me all your jokes.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Remember he's the one that gave the two the two cakes. Yeah,
it's crazy because I would react the same exact way.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
You know, damn.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Doing too much would pictures? Right? Don't you want to see? Dude,
you want to see? I got you.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You want to see flames flame, Yo.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's gonna be flaming. It's gonna be It's gonna be
flaming when you get that.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know what's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
We were actually watching and mark my words, like just
right before this interview, and I was like, come coming.
I'm like, you know you could put this in in
this in the studio, you can put you can keep
watching it and this. He just loves comedy and he
loves you, like totally. I guess he feels you guys
are the same age, and I feel like you're battling
the same exact things.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know, you're both trying to stay young.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yes, who isn't though? Who isn't you know what I mean?
Like we're all conscious that the grades is setting in.
You know, as fit as I try to be, I
know that there is a level that then I'm never
gonna hit again. Like I've been learning my lesson, Like
this year has been a year of lessons because more
(02:21):
than an ever, I've hurt myself in the gym, like
and now I got to take like two weeks off
because I'm like, yeah, Bruto, your meal. Why did I
have to try to lift the whole thing? Yeah? Yeah,
it got hurt now, But in my head I feel
nineteen sometimes, right, and then i'm and then I try
something nineteen and then I get hurt, and then I'll
(02:43):
be like, damn, I fifty one? Like fifty one girl Doly.
First of all, you didn't have to say it like that, but.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well no, because the comedy special you were saying, I'm fitffy,
I'm like, wow, how long?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
How was this that he already turned fifty one?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Because we did that a year ago. It takes time
to get these things out. But yeah, so one just
turned fifty one like a couple of days ago. So chill.
So it wasn't be like damn right, you was like
definity what already like?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
But you think it's new and it's like you was
already how you just told me you're fifty on.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
The video on the video. Yeah, So it's it's a lesson,
you know, it's just a lesson. And in humble, I
think as you turn fifty, you just got to be
more humble. You gotta be more like Trunkilo, Like, Okay,
go to the gym, but now I do more elliptical
than anything like that's where That's where I start, and
that's where sometimes I do the elliptical and I leave
(03:37):
because I'm like, I'm gonna get hurt. So I'm just
gonna do this little elliptical.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Try anything else, You're gonna get hurt. I'm safe, are
you elliptical?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I hate my life sometimes because I'll be watching the
young dudes go crazy. But then I'm like, yo, I'm
good because at least I'm going home, you know, and
I'm not hurt.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
They have that big tire in your gym. They have
it in my gym. The tire you can flip. I'm like,
why is this here?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And I don't don't touch the tire. I'm good. I'm
gonna touching of tires. I'm good for the Bronx. We
we we touch tires. So I'm like, I'm good. You touch,
you steal, That's what I'm saying. I've touched, Like, why
am I a tire in the gym? For what I see?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You've been using the exfoliating soap on the head, the
skin is gleaming.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Look at them. Look at that. I have a I
have a true I have like a skin. You know,
little program I do at night. I buy all the
right things I gotta. I got a woman that like,
you know, very natural, very holistic, you know, very whole food.
She's like making sure she's thirty eight. She's thirty eight, so.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
So she's like.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Seram with the hylouronic. I know all about that girl loouronic.
At night, i'd be like that made up. Look at that.
Let's I go to the bed and I'm oily. You
gotta see me just gleaming right when I come to bed,
I like I put a mole like being shiny.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You gotta watch the pillowcases in the morning, don't you.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
I gotta let it dry before I gotta let it.
I gotta settle it.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You're like, you know those little fans that women. Don't
get me started because let me go back and forth
about the skin.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Oh believe me, I know, but I'm telling you it
is even transcended. Like like I swear, please, I don't
want people to hate me. I'm from the Brons, and
I you know, I do a joke about this. I'm
like I'm so ivory soap. Like I am so ivory soap.
I used to use I resoap as a kid. And
you don't know, you don't know no better. You just
use the soap that's in the in the shower, you
know what I mean. But there's no soap like ivory soap,
(05:41):
because that soap drives you out so much. That soap
takes every ounce of oil off your skin, and you
look like you took a shower and chalk.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You are that ashyest, Like, give me an idea here, Mark,
give me an idea my manda oily skin.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
They still make it ivory. They make it. They you
might have to take a Dolorean and go eighty eight
miles an hour and go back to like nineteen eighty
two together.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But I promise time travel to go get the soap
for this man's skin right now.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yes, but I am so I have this. You know
this new thing, This is the new thing. This this
is like as of like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Put me on.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Jeez, I'm using a toothpaste now, okay, because I'm I'm
Colgate like all day, you know what I mean. And
everybody says, oh, you got that Colgate smile, right, remember,
like everybody used to say that, oh my god, you
got that Holgay smile. But I'm using this thing called
Rise Well. No floride has nothing but minerals, a healthy
stuff for your teeth. And I looked it up like
(06:43):
I did my homework. My woman was like, I'm telling
you this is better than floride, you know. And when
I looked it up, man, all the dentists are saying
it's better than a fluoride toothpaste, and I was like,
I was like, listen, I'm fair. Women know everything that is.
That might be the name of my new special, because
it seems like every time she tells me some stuff
that I just don't be. I don't sometimes be like
(07:05):
this ain't true, Like I've been using breast coke like
my whole life, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you're making life.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
See what I'm saying. Who is she?
Speaker 1 (07:15):
She's even transferred over to me, right.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Like who's sent her here? You know what I mean?
I was happy with cogate, but now I'm buying twenty
dollars toothpaste because it has the minerals. I'm like better King,
soy Joe? Who is this guy? You know this kid
from the Bronx. I used to brush my teeth with Twizzlers.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Listen. I used to brush my teeth with sugar.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I used to brush my teeth with soap. When there
was no toothpaste. I used to get the Iriy c
iri solt as many uses.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Now you driving it now the iris yo.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You take the toothpaste and you rub it on the
on the iriy soap like that, and look, and I'm
telling you I used to swear to God when we
didn't have toothpaste. Remember when the toothpaste, we used to
cut it open to get whatever was left in there.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
See at the bottom, right at the bottom.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
You cut it open, you put your two your two
person and get a better.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right whatever comes next, I would tell you exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Not everybody has that same upbringing. But I'm telling you,
when that two page ran out, I was out there
hooking that up from the bottom, cutting that open whatever
needed to happen. And when that ran out, I.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
So you see the every so followed away?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Are you you remember? Mom used to like you were
like I do that already, lady, letting me something else?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Even your teeth got dry, no saliva, I read so
Salif like this.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
The road, how do you laugh for your own jokes?
I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I'm sorry, I'm so stupid. That's so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
No, it's it's amazing that you find yourself so funny
and so because I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Because because what's so funny is you don't believe No,
you don't believe me. But this is like, this is
my true story, Like this is the Like I'm laughing
because I'm embarrassed a little bit, but it's the truth.
We used to We used to just make it up
as we went along, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I'm afraid to ask. What else did you make make
up as you went along?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
In your house?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's easy. There was always some packages of kool Aid
or even the knockoff kool Aid from like the ninety
nine cents to a kool Aid that was just colored
sugar and so yeah, even sugar, you know what I mean.
I was a super Yeah, that's it, like it was.
(09:44):
These are rough times, man, these were rough times. Girl.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'm telling did you make did you tang sandwiches? We
used to make?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I never had a tang sandwich. I don't think I've
got a tang sandwich because at least we had like
like we had like peanut butter and jelly, but we
didn't have like the real peanut butter and jelly. I
had the peanut butter and jelly that was mixed in
one bottle. See that.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I don't like that it becomes such a mess.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Like only the first person to use it gets to
experience the niceness of that product.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
That whoever makes Goober great because that's the name of it.
Whoever makes that product should riten now because thank you.
Because only when you that fresh open is does it
look the second you make one sandwich, it looks like
bawmy though in there? Does you open it and you're
like the who did this to the people for jelly?
(10:37):
It just looked gross. But I'm telling you that that
was my life, Like that was my real life. So
I'm just telling you this is what we did, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So yeah, you see, I'm like, I gotta I gotta
give myself.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We're having too much fun, right, we.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Support the comedian we're supposed to.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You're a comedian. I've done a comedian. I'm supposed to.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You're not. You're coming up with good ones, just like me.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So what's your beef with the lashes, because I sometimes
have beef with some slashes, but beer's.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Because they're not necessary and they're expensive, well that they are,
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It just it's just we just you don't like when
we wake up and we have like massive drag drag
queen lashes on a wake up.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
No, not attractive.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
No, I've seen every iteration of lash, and I gotta
tell you it maybe maybe first day, second day, third day. Yeah,
they put a third date on the endo, like when
when two or three stop falling and it looks like
a parking space and you got or you know, I've
seen it with your Michigan clubs. I've seen what I
call like because again I'm from the Bronx, imna use
(11:45):
a term maybe that not everybody uses. I've seen I've
seen gully eyelashes where gully like they're just hanging. It
looks like it looks like a caterpillar is trying to
leave and you're telling the caterpillar the table yeah stay
because I'm not ready, and and it's just hanging. I've
seen that, and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Okay, you're like no, but you.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Gotta understand, like we're guys and all we know how
to do with things with that information is say something's
wrong or we laugh art. Either way, we're in trouble.
You got a spite on your face. It's gonna bite you.
You don't know what to say. You don't know what
to say, you don't know what to do. So I
(12:32):
don't have beef. I just have advice, which is okay.
That's how I feel. If you're a single woman, you
do whatever you gotta do to be to be the
prettiest girl in the you know, in the box, because
you're looking for a man to pick you. But if
you got a man, a good man that loves you,
fair in the morning, fair when you're sick, not you know, yo,
(12:53):
the whole thing. Listen, don't when you know what I mean,
then then don't do the lashes because for me, that's
a waste of money. And I always say, you want
to make sure your man doesn't think you're getting pretty
for somebody else. You got to be careful. Is a
fine line between getting pretty and making your man feel
insecure that you're getting pretty for somebody else. You don't
got to do that, baby, I love you, You don't. You
don't got to add that you don't got to. You
(13:14):
don't have to make those changes. I know you want
to feel pretty for you, but know that I think
that you're perfect without all the nonsense. But I'm just
a dude, and I know I gotta be careful when
I say that. But I do say that from the heart,
you know, I really really do. I don't. I feel
like women who are showing younger women like daughters to
to fake you know, fake eyebrows extensions, you know, fake
(13:36):
boobies and all this other stuff. I find that to
be a hard lesson for a young lady because then
they feel like they can't love themselves with what God
gave them. So but again, I'm just a dude. If
I was a dad, I would have an issue. You know,
I don't have daughters. I only had sons, so i've
you know, I've never had to had that conversation. But
at that dad a daughter, I would be careful with that,
you know what I mean with with the role model
(13:58):
that you don't understand you are as a into your daughter,
you know.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Defense so we do a lot of make jokes though no,
you do you make jokes. I was just like, I
had to bring it up, but I thought that was
just so hilarious. I feel like a lot of the
men that I know always say, you guys do so
much that we don't care for, and the lashes is
always top of the list, and I was like top of.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
The list, you know, you know, I also do a
joke about the lips right because you see you see,
you see plump lips and then you see it overdone. Well,
you know where someone has gone has gone way too far,
And I'm just like, see, way too far is the problem,
because now you go from looking better than you did
to looking worse than every and that you gotta like
(14:41):
I'm just trying to say, like, as a guy, now
now now I'm ashamed because when I walk into the
room with my woman and her lips are devastated because
she went she went too far, she did too much.
Now we're now we're sort of the point of laughter
and conversation between groups instead of like, oh my god,
(15:01):
sit down.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You know, Marcus like Maripos, give my mark, Give.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Many many men, give mebody. I want to know what
you don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
You don't want to tell me booty, booty is your booty.
Don't need to no need no, no, no, no need
to add so much booty. You know they don't fit nowhere.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Mark said, listen, no gulosaurs for me.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Can you can you can you share that information with people?
Like you know, I was watching and I don't want
to give anybody shout outs, even though we gave some
(15:52):
shout outs here, the people that didn't deserve it because
they ain't helping to pay the bills. But I was
watching the show yesterday and this lady was like, her
boobs look like but each one was two basketballs big,
and I was just like, see, at some point, you people,
people fall in love with the surgery, the process, the attention,
the you know, some people fall in love with that.
(16:13):
They don't they're not even in love with themselves. They're
not even in love with themselves when they're done with
the surgery. They just love the process of I'm gonna
spend money and I'm gonna get somebody's gonna look at me,
somebody's gonna take pictures of me naked, and they're gonna
tell me what they see and what they could do.
And it's like it's like taking your car to get
new rims and a new tint, and you're gonna it's
just a it's a mind game.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
You say your car, You're like, I'm gonna get rams.
I'm gonna get these spinners everywhere pictures.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh yes, said Mufflin. Oh yes, said Mufflet you know,
it's a it's a weird thing, you know what I mean,
it's like a weird I don't know. So again, I
don't have I really don't have opinions. I feel like
I fifty one. I feel like I have advice because
I've been a dude for.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So long that jokes. The advice comes.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
In the form of jokes because.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
He's like, I'm going to disguise the advice as a yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
But I also, you know, it's funny because people are
listening to me when I do my jokes. I want
to say things that are true, and you do. You
don't want to waste my time, you know, and I
want to waste my time out there.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
And it just seems very very relatable.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
When you talk about, you know, your family, when you
talk about your woman, I'm like, what does she think?
Does she like getnad like? What does she say when
you bring her up in comedy? When you mentioned, you know,
things that happen in your life. Does she care?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
She doesn't know. She doesn't because she understands that that's
how I. She understands that that's how I that's how
I look at the world, this is how.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
This is no but this is just how I process information.
You know, I process it and then it for me,
everything goes through a comedy filter. Everything, So, whether it's death,
whether it's happy stuff, you know what I mean, hard
stuff like when we are you And she's making a
brilliant point about how insufficient I am at understanding English
(18:05):
and the language that is a woman's language. You know,
I'm a dude. All I can do is learn, That's
all I can do. I always tell her, I came
to you willing to grow, and a lot of men
are not. You know, they know everything.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I come to you in experience. You did not come
to this woman in experience.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Hell no, No, I came to her experience, but experience
only in failure. Really, you know, I came to her
experienced in failing. Yeah, I listen, Yeah, I don't. Men
are stupid when it comes to love. We don't get it,
we don't understand it, we don't know how to do it.
We don't have healthy relationships with our dads that can
teach us to show us the right way. You know,
(18:48):
it's unfortunate, But I'm learning about love at fifty. I'm
learning how to love at fifty. I don't know how
to do this, you know. You know, people are going
to be people. You're going to be yourself. But beingvulnerable
in a position to love somebody the way you should
love them, the way you should want to love them
is that's a new level for me. I don't. I
don't know this. I have no this is I'm breaking
(19:09):
new ground. I'm real honest, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
But it's you know, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It's like you didn't leave this earth not knowing how
to love and not understanding, you know, love thoroughly. Yeah,
this is a blessing that you're getting now, you know.
And you're saying I'm.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Absolutely how to love. I don't. I don't, you know,
And like I said, everybody swears they they are like
perfect at this, that they are like, I'm so good
at this. What do you think? I'm not not loving
me enough? You know, I didn't love me enough. And
if you don't love you enough, impossible to show someone
how to love you the right way. You got to
(19:43):
love you the right way before you can have a
healthy relationship so that you can tell the person in
your life you know how to love you. Here's the
here's the here the requirements here are the general you
know do's and don't you know what I mean? But again,
I think at twenty you don't know yourself well enough.
You know, I don't even know at thirty, So I
think it takes time for you to be with yourself.
(20:04):
See a lot of people, you know what's funny, A
lot of people are in relationships because they want to
be in a relationship. They don't need to. They're not
good at it, they're not healthy at it. They're just
like they just like being in it.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
You know me, Right now, I'm like, no, no, no, I'm serious,
no no, no, I'm only talking.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I'm only talking about me. But if it opens, but
if it opens the door for you, just have a
sit down conversation with your man about where is he
in his life? Where is his self love? Where is
his then that's beautiful because at least you you're maybe
you're doing something you've never done before. Maybe you're going
to hear something you've never heard before, what you know. Yeah,
but me and my woman, we legit. We have like
(20:41):
quarterly conversations about meeting, expectations, meeting. She's Cuban and Italian,
so she's you know, she's killed a few people on
the Italian side.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I'm sure that's dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I'm so scared, so.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Gorgeous, but I fear for you. But sleep a knife
under your pill.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I am so scared. If I'm blinking twice, so please
get help.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I can tell you keep looking to the side. I'm like,
she must be right there.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
You just making sure that people aren't. You know, people
are nosy out here anyways. But yeah, I feel, honestly,
and I feel like I feel happy to be this
me in this relationship, you know what I mean. And
that's that's different too. I was in a you know,
I was married, and I was in a very very
toxic marriage, you know, very toxic, very very Nothing was
(21:29):
good about it. Nothing was good. The only thing that
we ever did good was we had kids, and we
loved those kids, you know, But we didn't love ourselves
and we didn't so we couldn't love each other. There's
there's no way there was the soil was bad, so
nothing good can grow from that?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Was that a relationship that started in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
It started in the Bronx. We were you know, we
were in our we were kids, you know, we were
just about twenty one, twenty two years old. And then,
like I said, I was still you know, I was
still womanizing. I was still like, you know what I mean,
and I you know, just this, like I said, the
soil was bad. You can't you can't have healthy in that.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
You just can't. Nothing was going to grow, I know, anything.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Nothing, nothing, nothing soil is bad. It's if it's tarnished,
if it's no good, you know, you you gotta figure
that out. But but you know, you know, we had
a surprise baby. So what I mean is, you know, unplanned,
and we just went from there again at twenty what
do you do? You learn? You learned? So I was
learning how to be me and me as a dad
(22:28):
and me as a provider and me as the head
of the household. Means too much. It was too much.
It was too much. And there's and then in that
is resentment. You know, she resented me. I resented her.
So the soil was bad, you know, And as much
as we tried it is, so you know, it was
just doomed from the start.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, sometimes and nothing. But you know what, I'm glad
that you don't know. You're happy, you're healthy, and you're
learning how to love the right way, and that's it.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
That's it, and uh like, And the truth is you
should be learning every day, a little bit more by yourself,
a little bit more by your partner because you're growing
and you're evolving every day and so is he. So
you have to be like like clay. You know, you
can't be a brick. You have to be clay. You
have to be a little bit more appliable, a little
bit more mouldable, flexible, mouldable, you know, baby, you know, baby,
(23:20):
I want to open a business. I want to I
want to try skydiving. Baby, I want to, you know,
do this or that. The person who says, ah, to
look at it, I said not. You know that resentment.
I resent you for not supporting me, for not for
not you know, telling me, go ahead try it? You
know you want to you know, shit, you want to
open up a business, you know, to cleaning pool? Go ahead, bro,
(23:41):
I never heard that before. But if that's what you
want to do valet. You know, let's go get the equipment.
How much is it? You know, what is your business plan?
That should be the things you know. But but people
are so like you just want to waste money. And
then women are you know, and men are different. You know,
men sometimes have ideas that women have a base of,
like you're just going to take money away from me.
(24:02):
And I wanted to go on vacation and I want
to get these booths and I want to go exactly exactly,
And so to me, there's there's so much value in
learning and being open to that. And I feel like
I feel like this woman is you know. When we met,
I told her, I said, I'm ready to learn, you know,
I did my I met her. I met her at
(24:24):
a comedy club in West Palm Beach. That's why I
live in Florida now. I met her in Palm Beach
and I moved down from New York to Florida to
be in the audience. She was an audience.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Oh what are the odds? Was she really close to
the front road?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Nope, nope. I did my show. I did my show.
And when I was selling my merchandise and doing the
meet and greet after the show, she came and she
bought a shirt and we took a picture and then
she was, you know, talking to me about things, and
I told I said, unfortunately, there's a long line, you know,
and I got to attend to the line that is here.
But I told her I'll reach you for Yeah, I'm sorry.
(24:56):
That's business comes first. And I was very business and
I said, if you would like, I can meet you
next door and we can have a drink there in.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
About you quick with it. You set up a date
and I'll see you in thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Thirty forty minutes. Let me take you out of my
business money, West pomp Beach, listen, yep, West pomp Beach.
I said, the bag comes first. Let me get this
bag and then I'll meet you over there.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
And she said, I.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Now cut two, cut two. Four and a half years later,
she sells the merchandise. I never touch it. She sells
all my merchandise and and we sell I almost sell
sometimes just as much merchandise as I make at the
comedy club.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So we've added different designs, We've added so much stuff
because of her. And like I'm here in Chicago, and
she's here with me because we're business partners, you know,
we we I do the shows, She takes care of
the merchandise. I take care to meet and greet, and
it just works effortlessly, you know, and she sees my vision.
As I told her, I said, one day, I want
to live off my merchandise. Do you want to save
(26:03):
and invest my comedy money? You know?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Do you feel like she elevated your career.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
That's a good woman right there.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Absolutely, because her demands need to be met. Her demands
for me to want to be a better businessman have
to be met. And so I'm always thinking of a
better way to approach comedy from the business perspective because
I'm so I'm so in love with creating that I
got to take time to, you know, to look at
(26:32):
where I'm going, not just create the funny and go
to comedy clubs and in the green room laughing like
I gotta. I want to create a space where I
know exactly where I need to go with this, with
this money. You know where am I going?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
What's next?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And you know what I commend you, you know, as
a Latino and as a man and as a Latino
man from the Bronx to allow a woman to come in,
you know, and help guide you and help elevate your career.
You know, that takes a lot, because I know that
sometimes Latinos can be rec systems of like no. You know,
so I respect you, and I commend you for that.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Thank you, thank you, and listen. It really does. Sometimes
it can be a point of contention because we don't
always agree, but I understand that she just wants the
best for us as.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
A team, and that.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Is so sometimes listen, yeah, it's it doesn't so we
don't argue. I just tell her sometimes back off. You know.
Sometimes I gotta tell her back off. And you're coming
into I don't know you're coming in. You're coming into hard,
you know, because the comedy and the world that I've
created I created on my own. You know. It's not
like it's not like somebody was like, oh, let me
(27:41):
write this for you or let me do that. No, no, no,
I started this grassroots. I started this, you know, humbly
for Yeah. I help. I don't write for others. I
help people write material. I do my best to help
anybody that I see that's worth it. I always try
to help them with material always.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And reverting a little bit for the I know that
when you started doing comedy you were working.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Where did you work. I'm so curious about this. What
was your occupation.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
So started? No, no, no, it doesn't make sense. So when
I first first started doing comedy, I was an assistant
director in a hospital.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Talk to me because I'm from New York.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I was in North Central Bronx Hospital on Gunhill Road,
and I was the assistant director of safety management. So
I helped with all the fire drills. I put everything
they did, all the scheduling reporting, I reported all the
safety issues construction stuff. So I had gotten certified to
do that and was one of the only people certified,
(28:42):
you know, to do so. So I like created a
little space for myself where people would want me, and
I went from I went from North Central Bronx and Jacoby,
but Jacoby hated me because I was very strict, so
I just stayed at North Central.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I thought you were going to say, because I was
always making jokes, not that you were very strict right there.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, it was weird. I was very like I would
go on construction site and be like, can't do that.
Shut it down. Can't do it. You know, somebody's gonna
get hurt. I was. You know, that was my profession.
That's what I did all day, you know. So yeah,
that's what I did, man. I And then I went
to Saint Barnabas Hospital where I became the director of
not only safety, but two other departments as well. So
(29:21):
I was doing very when I quit my day job
to pursue my dream. I was actually doing very well.
You know, I was doing very well for myself. I
have a great, great, great job. I'll forget it. You
have no idea, you have no idea. Petrified. I was,
like I was, you know, I was just I was mortified.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how
to do it. The beauty is that I had I
(29:42):
had my own shows that I was producing on my
own and all of the money from the tickets was
coming to.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Me and other comedians or was it your shows?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
No, it was my show. I produced it and I
booked the other comedians, you know what I mean. So
let's say my show. My show at that point was
bringing in about four thousand dollars in one night, and
but I had to pay the bills. I had to
pay for the flyers, I had to pay for promotions,
I had to pay for the comedians. So at the
end of it, I made about three thousand dollars. But
that was one night, its exactly. So I'm thinking, shit,
(30:14):
if I could make you know, if I could do
four or five, six, seven, eight times a month, we
make it real money, you know. Whereas whereas in the hospital,
they told me what I was going to make, they
told me what I was going to sow. They my
my every two week salary. Although it was, you know,
good a good living at the time, I couldn't make
one hundred dollars more or two hundred. Didn't work like that.
(30:34):
I was in a managerial position where you get paid,
where you get paid whether you work eight hours or
if you work thirty eight hours, it's the same number,
you know. And so I just I just fell out
of love with knowing that I could make what I
want to make instead of making what they want me
to make, you know, because I felt like they were
controlling me, you know, and I hated that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
How did you do it?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Did you just like say, Okay, today's the day I'm
just going to walk in and tell them I'm never
coming back like how do you? Because I know a
lot a lot of people that are super unhappy with
their jobs. They have what we view as really great positions,
but every day they tell me I don't want to
do this, I don't want to be here. And they
work in radio, and they work in record labels and
(31:28):
they work in media companies and they're miserable and they're like,
this is not my dream. How did you put this
together and say today is the day?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
It really it wasn't. I gotta be honest. It wasn't
like I was like, all right, Friday is the day.
I kind of put a plan together, and what I
did was, you know, I produced. I started to produce
more shows so that I knew that I had some income, okay.
And then when I finally was like, yeah, planned the
money first, and then I was like, all right, I'm
(31:58):
expected to make let's say five thousand this month in comedy.
That's enough to pay my bills and to do what
I gotta do. So let me see if my job
will give me a raise, you know what I mean,
and match that number that I was making as a comedian,
you know what I mean. So that's how I looked
at it. Let me bargain, let me tell them that
I'm you know, I'm on the market, free agent, and
(32:20):
I'm looking for a better contract, you know. And but
but I also said, if they lobo me with some crap,
I'm out. I'm done. And that exactly how I did it.
Is it? They literally came back. I gave them. I
wrote down a number, and I said, this is what
I need to continue working here, because you have me
running three departments. I'm the director of three departments and
(32:40):
you're paying me for the one and that's unfair. I'm
here late, I'm here early. I can't do this and
at this number. They literally came back after a day
and they said, we can give you a three percent raise.
And I said, three percent doesn't cover anything, zeros, it's
a few hundred dollars more a paycheck. You know. It
wasn't suffice. And I said, okay, great, thank you, thank you.
(33:02):
And uh the next day, following day, I came in
with my you know, I at that time I had
I had worked there five years. So I gave them
five weeks notice. I said, you know, I'm gonna give
you five weeks notice. Let you guys know, and they
kept me on for another month as a as a consultant.
So I got you know, I gave them five They
kept me on for four more weeks, and so it
(33:24):
just it just uh, it was the scariest, most harrowing
time in my life. Nothing went as planned.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was just gonna ask you that, how was it.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
How was let's say, the first year that you decided
to follow your dream full time.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
The first six months forget the year. The first six
months was like gonna throw up every day, missing you know,
missing my mortgage payment. You know, the whole everything started
to everything started to crumble. And I was able to
a man, I'm honest, I was able to borrow from
Peter to pay Paul just to get me through to
the next big event, big show where I could pay
(34:00):
people back, pay my mortgage, you know. So I'm grateful
that I was able to check on some of my
mortgage at the time. They were doing it to the
back end. And that was Obama. Obama did that. He
was like, you know, because the recession as other stuff. Yeah,
I got, I mean, that was great. And so listen,
the whole point is, this is my point of the journey,
(34:21):
making that sacrifice though, to leave that job in the
monkey suit, with the suit and tie and the shoes
and the sabatos and the meetings and the boardrooms. Like
making making the decision was supposed to be hard because
if it was easy, I would not have I would
not my comedy game would not have risen, my comedy
(34:42):
you know, vocabulary, my comedy intelligence would not have grown
if everything was coming easy. Because it was hard. I
was like, I'm not, I can't be funny. I gotta
be funnier, not just funnier than me. I gotta be
funnier than that comedian is getting the money then that
comedian like, I gotta be the funniest every show, every show,
I gotta I gotta command, you know, command them people
(35:06):
to want to know where am I going to be next? Damn?
That dude was hilarious. Wazy, Yo, When can I see
you again? I want the audience to come to me
and go, can you have a business card? Yo? You
know what I mean? And that's the kind of set
that I still have, still want to have till this day.
Once you build that sort of attitude that you want
to slay like ortre the audience a comedy that never
(35:28):
goes away. It should never go away. It should never
it should never be like you should never relax, you know.
You know, and a lot of comedians fight because they
start to make money and then they become lazy in
that attitude. You see them sitting on stage, you see
them not putting in that effort. Why I got to
come a couple million? Then they think that that's what
matters when you go out on stage. None of that matters.
(35:50):
The only thing when you get on matters. When you
get on stagees, are you still funny? Can you still
rip this when you get on? That's it?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Can you make me laugh?
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Thank you? And the point? And I love it. That's
the other thing. I love to make people laugh favor.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
And I laught loud like I am that person that
is like when I love people, it's like loud. I'm like,
this guy is good. And I grew up on you
know what I'm saying, Like I grew up Eddie. You
know what I'm saying, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pry like these
were all my comedians, Like my father was a comedy
buff and so with my husband.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So I know a good comedian when I see.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
One, absolutely, Yeah, yeah, my favorite.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Who's your favorite?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Eddie? Eddie's my favorite of all time, just favorite of
all time. Eddie was charismatic, talented, daring, talk about his family.
I just love all of that. I just love all
of that. You know. He reminds me to be funny
every day.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
And there's so many different people, like, you know, you
have Chappelle, then you have Bernie mag You know what
I'm saying that you have given hard like everybody has
their own own little like. But yeah, yeah, I feel
I feel like that's the first comedian that I probably
ingested fully because my father was completely obsessed with him.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah. She I didn't know out of the comedians I
was watching on TV were comedians. So you don't watch
a show like Chapeline, you know, hold these people were.
They were comics. They were comedians in their countries, they
were comedians where they were from. They were doing stand up,
and then they were doing these characters, you know, and
so all these you know I am. You know, now,
(37:21):
looking back, I'm like I was surrounded by comedy, you know,
I was just surrounded by funny because I would watch
it in English and then in Spanish. I was in
love with Saturday Night Live. I was in love with,
you know, all the things with Jerry Lewis, movies and
Avidan Costello. Like I was just I don't know. I
saw my grandmother laugh and I said, that's what I
want to do. I want to make Mammy laugh whatever that,
(37:41):
whatever they're doing, I want to repeat that. And that's
what That's how it became funny. You know. She was
my testing ground for my for the jokes, you know,
because I was just I would eave that because I
would just repeat ab and Costello. I would repeat Jerry
Lewis and I would do thems in the faces and
throw myself on the floor and my grandmother would be
fitcing on our pants. I would be like and be like,
(38:02):
I got it. I got that thing. Later on, when
I started doing comedy, I was like, I was I
was born for this. I was built for this.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
You know, I love this, this conversation and you know
this conversation is good. I love comedy. I love your comedy.
I'll say that much. I'm like, all right, this, this
guy is funny. This guy's funny because I am I'm
the wife that walks around the house like that guy's
not funny.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
That guy's not funny. Turn that off.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I don't like those jokes, but you know, when he
watches you, I'm like, Okay, he's funny. And even now,
because I like, you know, I like watching whether it's
a movie, whether it's music, whatever, it is, just ingesting it,
like right before my interviews and we're watching Mark my
words and I'm like, Wow, this is funny.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I can't wait to get on there.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, you got to see one of the other ones.
I have another one that I did. I think you
and your husband will enjoy it. I talk about which you.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Know it's because I feel like I've been watching your
stuff all week long.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
There's the There's the one where I have like a
really navy navy blue blazer and I think a black
T shirt where I talk about the pet neal and
Thanksgiving that we call sons Giving. I watched and that one,
to me, that one is sort of my favorite because
I did. I was just talking. I was just talking
about being.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
You were talking, and you were talking about people bringing things.
You're talking about different things that you talk about.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
That person that wants to take three tup awaars only
brought a bread.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
You're like, yo, you an Italian and you're talking about
the Italians said, let me, nobody makes me more mad
than people want to bread or people that want to
bring soda.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I'm like, you're coming to things.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Palid or salad, like nobody's eve in the salad, comere yo.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
And then they're like they got like six plates with
aluminum foil. You and they're like, no, this is because
though he works tonight and you don't have fool so
I'm gonna bring one to you know, they got names
they put they get a marker and put names. You're like,
you got six plates.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
It's like halfway through the theater and you see mad
platos with peal in the corner.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
It does a plat.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
Damn. Yeah, you took all the mac and cheese and
people are still they still want to eat us a second,
you know. So I love that one, but I kind
of there's one that I hate. But that's because it
was pandemic. I was because I was just going through
so much because of the pandemic. No, no, no, I was
just the attitude. But that one, like, weirdly the audience
loves it.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I think they can feel it, you know, Is this
the one?
Speaker 3 (40:26):
This is the one I think it's called After the
Pandemic or something like that. It's the special in there.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I'm gonna yeah, it's a great. I just have like
a great T shirt and I'm like yelling. I'm like
peenage just suck and I'm.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Just like very oh my god.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Like I watch it, I'm like, what you're going to
have like a buzz of vein? Bro like but each one.
What's funny about comedy is you see it when I
watch myself, I know where I was mentally, and I
know why it comes off that way. You know. The
pandemic puts so much pressure on us the artists that
we didn't know what to do. We didn't know what
to do. And then I'm in New Jersey and an
(41:04):
audience that didn't want to listen. They were like talking
and yelling, and my camera crew was already there, so
I was like, o key boy, Joe, I'm just gonna
pour it on. And what they recorded was some of
it is brutally honest and good, but a lot of
it I'm like, no, Mark, that's way too farward.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
You know, you were like, where again, where what has
been your best audience?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Like what country, what city?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Where did you get the best response that you were like, Yo,
these people love me.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
So I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna say this. It's weird
the audience. I don't pay time. I don't. I can't
pay attention to the audience too much because because I
gotta do it got weird, Like yeah, but it's like
I gotta forget that because I because sometimes I do
two shows a night, three shows in a night, so
my memory has to be super short. So but the
(41:54):
ones that stand out stand out stand out. Houston, Texas,
like Texas, Houston, Texas. I didn't show and they stood
for five They stood so long that the club goes.
You gotta like, they're asking you to do more time,
more jokes. They were like, can you do more time?
And I go yeah, And the audience would not leave.
They were standing in their by their seats and applauding
(42:16):
and clapping and screaming that. I went back out and
I did another five minutes and they stood again for
another five minutes. I was like that, And sometimes it
happens with the audience. You just you become one and
you're no longer an audience and a performer. You're just
a thing and it's happening in real time, and it's
what comedians chase every night. We chase that what, that
(42:36):
that feeling and that thing every night. So it weirdly,
but I would say I owe Houston so much because,
like I said, I think they showed me that I was.
I was the funniest, you know what I mean. Like
they they told me, Bro, we've seen comedy, but we
ain't seeing comedy like yours. And I love that. I
love when you when you when you know you're different
(42:59):
than everybody else. Because there's Fluffy and there's George Lopez,
who I love, and there's you know, how am I different?
And so I love I love to know that what
I'm doing is not only acceptable and accepted and loved,
but also admired and you know, and people are legit
laughing like legit laughs.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You know we are when it comes to these comedy superstars.
I'm talking Kevin Hart, you know what I'm saying, These
people that are just like wow, like comedy royalty. What
do you think about our Latino comedians as far as
getting to that you know, peak, that mountaintop, the way
that they've been able to do with black comedians.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I think, Look, I think a perfect example is like
a George Lopez. George's Yeah, George to me is is untouchable.
You know, he's untouchable. He is there, He's the leader because.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
We need another as Latino, we need another list.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Not only am I saying yes, but I think George
would say yes. He's a good friend of mine and
you know we yeah, we've worked together in the past,
and and uh, you know I I absolutely every day
I admire what he's done for me. You know, like
he showed me that being myself is all you need
to be. Just be yourself, now, can you got to
(44:14):
make yourself funny? You can't be not funny. You can't
just go up there and tell you know, there's a
lot of comedians, you know, being honest, and they're telling themselves,
but they're not very funny at it, you know, whereas George,
this dude is on another level. Man like, this dude
is insanely into me, top five of one of the
funniest people to ever do stand up comedy ever, just
so funny. So I admire that, and so I believe
(44:35):
that his new show is doing very very well. My
sister Celeni's Leva, who plays the wife his ex wife, selenisays,
my girl again, one of my best friends in the world.
And I can say nothing about George accept great things.
So I am I'm I'm that his lead that I'm
the next person to, you know, to tell Hollywood that
(44:57):
our stories are our stories are important, especially the you know,
the Caribbean Latino that is very very underserved and very
very not heard. And our stories haven't even been told yet.
And I would love to be the ambassador of our stories.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
We got to get our Mount rushmore of our comedians. Man,
that's one thing.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I advocate for our people, for our visibility, for our shows,
for our movies. It's just something that is just you know,
we can't just advocate for it. We have to consume it.
And I tell people all the time, if they make
us a movie, we got to watch it. If they
make us a show, we got to watch it.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Absolutely. Yeah, we got comedy special.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, let's put it out.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Yes, we got to support it. We got to show love.
You know, I've always done that, especially like the New
York you know, film festival, comedy festivals. You know, we
have to participate. Yeah, we have to participate. We have
to you know, show love, you know, share it whenever
they post, like all those things important, you know. But
I think that's where we I think that's where the
disconnect is. But I think that we need to we
(46:06):
we the community. We need to teach people, like like
I'm doing a podcast listening to it, like, and.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
You know what this podcast is for Latino It's like
iHeart Radio has what's called Michael Duda, which is a
podcast network that is just for Latinos. We have Eva
Longoria Cheeky's am Like, what we're building here is for
us by us, remember book, but we're doing it for
the Latinos man. Like honestly, I am, you know, at
(46:33):
the forefront of our movies, our books, and our voices.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
They have got to be heard.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
And that's why I was so exciting, you know that
I was gonna get to talk to you today because
I'm like, you know, we have to give our people
a platform. We have to promote our comedians, our writers
or factors. I was talking to Lisa, Lisa and she
was talking about she has a movie coming out, and
I said, when that movie comes out, we're all going
to get behind it. We're all going to push it
to it because it's the only way, it's the only
we can't complain that we don't get movies and then not.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Go to them and not and not push them and
not represent them and not talk about them, you know,
and or grade them or give it your your honest
opinion like that, you know, tell tell tell people what
it is good about?
Speaker 1 (47:06):
What's up with acting? For you? Talk to me?
Speaker 3 (47:09):
You know, I am, I'm I don't act, So it's
not like you know, I'm currently working on seven movies
and look, I'm a.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Funny that it's just like I feel like on screen
it would just translate or it's different.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
I'm more I am. I think I'm more television because
stand up, stand up, stand up, make is this stand
up is what I do with this year, you know,
And television is vary from here up and movies are
your whole body and all this other stuff. So I
don't think I could be bad at either one. I
don't think i'd be bad at either one. And in
the acting that I've done, I feel like, you know,
(47:46):
there's a that's a that's a completely different muscle that
to work. You know, it's it's not the same. But
I'm I would love to do more stuff, especially in
the comedy arena. But yeah, like I but I want to,
you know, want to write. I want to write for
us because I write all this comedy, like, I want
to write for us, perform for us, so that that
would be the goal, you know that my average. Yeah,
(48:11):
we've read. I've written so many shows and I've gotten
so close. Man, I'm I'm you know, I'm spearheading bringing
Chico and the Man back and giving Freddie Prince all
his love and making making him proud, but making it
more today, you know, making it about social media and
all the social you know craziness that we're going through
(48:33):
and uh and but but reprising it in a way
where Latinos can be proud to to watch see themselves
laugh at ourselves. You know, I don't see why that
would be a bad thing. So I've I've been pitching
this now since the pandemic.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
You know, did you watch Dolores Road?
Speaker 3 (48:48):
No? I did not.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
If you get if you get time and you're on
a flight and you can get to it's just you know,
it's right here, it's in New York.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
It's Puerto Ricans.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
It's Latino is a little gory, and yeah, it was
just an amazing, amazing show. And that was like the
last show that I thought. I felt like, wow, I
really really connected with that show.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I was like, it was good. Watch it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
I felt like Webber wrote it did an amazing, amazing job.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Oh that's great, Okay, I will check that out.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
He's like, listen, you'll be giving movie recommendations.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
That's a show. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love
it absolutely.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Listen. Listen. I'm gonna I'm gonna play dumb because I don't.
I never heard of it. You know, it was never
thrown in my direction. I just.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Catch it.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
You're gonna love it. This Brique was this Dominicans. There's drugs,
and it's brand new. It's just probably like last year.
That's probably why you haven't heard about it. But you're
gonna love it. And you can be like, where's season
number two? I want to even though we're kind of
serious right now, I want to get a little more serious.
I saw that it was just the anniversary of your
son's passing. Yes, and I want you to tell me
(49:52):
everything I would have loved about.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Mark junior, Mark Junior was the best of the best
of me, you know, the best of me and his mom,
you know, and you know he was smart, like much
smarter than his dad. He's just brilliant. He but he
was not as rough. He was very gentle. And even
(50:16):
though he was this big guy, this you know, two
hundred and forty pounds powerlifter, bodybuilder guy, that wasn't that
wasn't his persona. His persona was that of a kitten.
You know, it's very huggable, very lovable, very gentle, a
gentle giant. And you know, one year, you know, two
(50:37):
years of missing the what had become of us? You know,
because when you're a dad and you're a parent, you
are a parent. You know, you're always teaching, you're always straightening,
you're always correcting. But when they get older, they just
become you hope, they become cool, awesome, calling you for
no reason, giving you advice, you know, asking you how
(51:00):
your day went, or putting a smile on your face
when you're having a really bad day. And you know,
at twenty six, he was you know, we transcended father
and son and we just became training partners in the gym.
You know, we became like friends, and you know, like
he was like my guy. You know, it just became
my guy. Like we talked three four times a day,
(51:21):
asked me did I eat? What did I eat? How
did I cook it? He was, Okay, you're going to
make it for me down. I'll make it when you
come down to Florida, like you know, and I would
fly him down anytime he wanted to. And he was
just he loved Danielle, you know, so much that it
made you know, a lot of people they don't you know,
you never see yourself in the position where your kid
has to meet someone else up outside of their parent,
(51:44):
other parent, you know, but Mark made that that process
so easy. He he met Danielle and he loved the
way she loved me, and he instantly fell in love
with her for that, you know, and that yeah that
you know, that made that made the new relationship everything.
He just made it easier because he was just like,
you know, every time he talked to her and she
(52:04):
was like, oh, me and your dad went here and this,
and he would just be like, oh my gosh, she
loves you so much, dad, And I'd be like yeah,
and he you know, to the point where they started
to have their own awesome relationship. And again, you can't
pray for more than that. Like, you know, he would
call her and ask her about girl advice. You know,
well he'd be like, oh my god, I met this
(52:25):
girl and she wants to hang out like and then
you know, Danielle would be like, oh my god, Marky,
like but is she worth it? Like you know, is
she good? Like you know, it was just good.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
I'm happy Danielle got to meet him and got to
you know, develop her amigh and he left us. But
thank you, thank you so much for sharing about margin.
When I saw the post, I was like, I want
to know about him, I said, you know, because sometimes
people you don't they they don't exist here in the
physical world anymore, but they exist forever in someone's heart
(52:54):
and in someone's soul.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yeah, I want to hear what he was Like.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
I saw the pictures, I saw the video, but I
was like, yeah, there's probably so much more than I
don't know about him.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
But thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
The best of the best. That's that's really how I
want to how I always want to present him and
talk about him. He was the best of the best.
More I wish all parents could have a kid like
my son Mark just a beautiful soul, a beautiful spirit.
He loved animals. If an animal was stuck in it,
he didn't care, he would help it. He would stop
his car if it was freezing outside and cross a
(53:26):
deer from one side to he just on. He was
just a good soul, you know. And a lot of
people they got to deal with kids that don't want
to talk to them and hate them and all, you know,
you know, and I feel I feel like, wow, what
a what a lottery ticket to hold? Is the one
where my kid, like he really really loved his daddy's
(53:47):
so much. It was you know, that's you know when
I cry, and I cry so much, I cry because
I miss that. I miss that. I miss being you know,
I miss being somebody's hero, like that someone's look up to,
someone's you know, we used to work out together. His
friends be like, Marky, what you're doing Today'd be like, Oh,
I'm doing chest with my dad. And they're like, that's
(54:07):
your dad. What the holy hell? Like drinks all day?
You know, Like, but I'm just saying, like my lifestyle
is the gym. Like my lifestyle is like the gym
and protein smoothies, and you know, I'm still I'm still
like I told you from the beginning, like I'm still
wanting to do the things that keep keep me feeling young.
(54:29):
You know. So those things made me feel great, and
I you know, he he, you know, he wanted me
to stay there. He wanted me to be young forever.
You know. So he was always let's go to the gym, dad,
let's go look out, you know, let's go do this.
Let's let's go race cars and the go karts, and
you know that that kind of that kind of guy,
you know, video games with me.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
He'ever take care of yourself because I want you to
last forever.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
I feel that he was exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yeah, yeah, thanks so much for sharing, and thank you.
You know, it's been a great conversation. I know that
you're in Chicago. I know you're traveling, and this is
not going to be the last conversation we have. I'm
always down in Miami.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Yes, we're going to look you up there.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
It's it feels like I might be around at that time.
Madania Beach has the most beautiful sunrises ever that I've ever.
Speaker 3 (55:13):
Oh my god, those beaches die all.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
The time, I'm like, yo, the most beautiful sunrise is
I caught the Mandania Beach.
Speaker 3 (55:21):
Yes, you ain't lying. That's my coast. That's where I live.
And I tell you that I, me and my women
we try once a week to go you know, earth ourselves,
getting the fan, getting that water and just connect with
the earth and take deep breasts and meditate and just connect,
you know. And it's it's been helps me, helps me
a lot.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
That's amazing. Speaking about connecting. You better make that connecting flight.
Speaker 3 (55:44):
Yeah, well I'm here.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
It was really amazing talking to you. Mark.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
I feel like this is the beginning anything that you're
working on. Please feel free, you know, to share.
Speaker 3 (55:58):
Cannot wait so.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
That we just sport, we can amplify and we can
make sure that what you create for us Latinos, not
only do we consume it, but we share it and
we uplift it.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
I need that. I love that word amplify. That's what
that's what's missing, the amplification of all the great things
that we that we put out no universe. So my
special Mark my Words is out on Amazon Prime. So
I want everybody to check that out and just do
me a favor. Man, watch my stuff and laugh. Yes, yes,
thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Grasiers Come Again is a production of Honey German Productions,
in partnership with Iheart's Microtura podcast network
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