Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - Felipe Esparza

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Crossing the border, dual language comedy, and winning Last Comic Standing with Felipe Esparza. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David, I don't know if you know this about me, but I've always been a fan of exploring new places, not like you kind of, you know, no, no offense. And one of my best trips, listen up, is when I stayed at an Airbnb, felt like I was living like a local with all the space. You know, hotels can be a hassle room service and then the housekeeper. It's a hassle. So then you go to Airbnb and you can get whatever you want, a little cottage, this and that. It's fantastic.

You have your own separate space. So it's a great product for people who travel. David? Yes, I have friends doing one of these right now. If you have a home, you can Airbnb it. It's fantastic. I mean, to monetize your home when you're not there seems like a good idea. I mean, look, I'm on the road a lot.

I could probably do it. It's something that people can do when they travel, they have extra space or you're at a place, not full time. You come in the winter, you leave in the summer. So that's something you should think about. It's a way to get some extra money. And it's a cool experience. Your home might be worth more than you'd think.

Yep. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot ash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. David, Flipe Esparza is a great stand-up comedian, our guest today, flying on the wall. Good dude. I actually was quite entertained by him. He had a great story and you know, that was one of the ones I have to say I'm not tight with, but I think you had met him

and I was introduced to him through you as far as his comedy. And then when I looked him up, I thought, oh my God, this guy has been around doing great. And it's just one of those blind spots when you're not in the same places as people, but he has a huge career. Huge, huge following. His story is so interesting because he came through the border illegally years ago with his mom and his brother. And I think his brother had to be dressed up as a girl or something. But anyway, his stories of how he got to America and how he started his career in America

and how he's become so successful, it's just a great ride. And he's funny and charming as well. I think you're gonna really like him. Yeah, I had a great time talking to him. He's a good looking dude. Fat matters to anyone, does to me. Does every, every, every people. He's a good looking dude. If that matters to anyone, does to me. Does every day.

He looks very young for his age and he's a great head of hair. We couldn't get over it. Yeah, cool hair and a good attitude and I had a lot of fun with him. So hope you like it. Here he is. Felipe. I just thought of a rich person's metric or people have a little extra money. Either you go to a salon or you go to a barber shop to get a haircut or the haircutter person

comes to you. It's the first sign of having a couple extra bucks in your pocket. Also depending on who you're working with too. Because in Comedy Central, they'll have like a hairstylist. But when you're working with like BET or Def Jam, there's like two barbers there from the hood. There's a barber shop on the set. You don't even know what's going on. You sit down and you hear the comedian go, give me a Chicago fade. I've heard that. And I'm like, give me, I'm like, I'm out here.

Give me a Cholo number five. Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Cholo number five. And you don't get any kind of food product with that. You just get hair done. There's no sense of any sort of food with that. Achoa, to know.

First story is stand up. My hair was really short, like a gang member. It was really short. And then, you know, I used to get pulled over on the way home. So I just started letting it grow. I just let it grow and then I haven't cut it yet. What length is it past gang member? Yeah, when does the length of the hair reduce being pulled over?

Oh, man, you got to be like. Like a blooper. Oh, yeah. I was some fucking speed in here. All right. I'm going to the fucking comedy store. All right. He's aggressive. That blessing. Give me some pickles. You know, it drives me out of my fucking mind.

Me to maids, get a fucking car. I don't need a golf cart. Give me a parking ticket. You fucking meter made me to have. And which that's kind of Bill Barber. I used to do that. I used to do this East Coast standout. But so for our audience,

why don't we just quickly go? Yeah. Who, where you came from and who you are is extraordinary. So we've never had a guest quite with your story. So don't be shy, but you grew up in Mexico and you're made your way to America and you know, you're incredibly successful. You play giant places, have a huge amount of fans. So it's just kind of an American dream, would you call it? Or Mexican dream or what is it? How are you processing?

I got here when I was like four years old or five. My brothers and I with my with my mom, we came here illegally. My father was already here living in America. And so were all my my dad's relatives. They were working for Warner Brothers. It's funny, they all had jobs putting the record inside of the cardboard. They were at the record-pressing company.

Oh, fascinating. the cardboard, they were at the record-pressing company. Oh, fascinating. That's, someone has to do it. Yeah, man, I'll take a look, man. Dude, it's not bad. I'm telling you, Felipe, I used to work when I moved to LA, tried stand-up. Of course, I wasn't doing that well because I'm in Glendale, putting the A-Team dolls

in boxes in a warehouse to send to anyone who ordered one. But it was kind of boring. but every day I'm like, did they want the A-Team actual figure? They also want the headband? Nope, they didn't order that. So I'd have to figure out from the order what they wanted, tape it up physically. So I'm with you, dude.

Geez, I'm just gonna say it, I pity the fool. He pity me for sure. Mr. T. I used to work at the back of North Broadway where the Broadway warehouse used to be. And I used to separate all the clothes hangers, the plastic ones. Oh yeah, you gotta keep them separated.

So I was in a room full of hangers, bro. Like the whole room was hangers. And my friend and I would just get high during lunch So I was in a room full of hangers, bro. Like the whole room was hangers. And my friend and I would just get high during lunch and start grabbing hangers all day. Yeah. Okay. I've had those type of jobs.

They're just mind numbing. You have to do something. We used to take Dexatum to wake up. It was like so stupid, but anything. Did you ever grab your friend by the scruff of his neck and say, we got to get out of here, man. I can't hang here no more. I don't know. I can't do it. I can't hang here. So you, when you came across the border, okay, illegally, I'm not going to judge, you know, came across illegally. How hard was that? And how old were you? Were you scared?

You had your little brother with you, right? Was it scary? We were kids. I don't remember being scared. I remember being caught. And we made it out. Because we made it through the border, like the, it went through San Ysidro, the border.

We made it through there. But there was another checkpoint, like I guess they were there a medic man or something or, but there was like the sheriff, the San Clemente sheriff department, or somebody had a, there was an extra checkpoint that the, that city made. So there were randomly stopping cars

that were on the five south were on the 5 North. Right. I guess. They stopped us and our driver was, he was a Mexican travel agent, a wild coyote. He was a coyote? A traveling coyote. My friend Rodrigo said,

yeah, man, it was a Mexican travel agent. So he was American. They let him go. And my mom and my brothers and I, we got arrested. And my mom was released to go back to Mexico. And then we were released like three hours later. And we crossed the border and we spent another another month, figure out plan B. Then we borrowed our cousins passports. There was two boys and one girl on a passport,

and my mom, my little brother said, well, I guess you're going to have to be potty. Start growing your hair out. What did you do to make him look like his passport photo? Oh man, he had to wear a dress for a whole week just to get in character. Get in character. Yeah man, he went all into it, man. And when we got to a border, they like makeup on him and a little dress.

And they asked him, what's your name? He goes, my name is Patti. And he's gay now, but you know what? He took one for the team. That's all that matters. That was nice. Okay. We'll get, that's a whole other podcast.

Yeah. He's gay now, starting to sleep. Nothing wrong with any of that. But so was he... He's a hard top, by the way. Did you, I mean, you're looking at your mom as the adult and she's like sinking. Are you reading her feelings at that moment?

You know, like, oh shit, we're getting caught. But then really determine a month later, you go back and then you do this thing and now you're in America. Yeah. And? Yeah, when do you figure out like, you've got this gift of gab for laughter? Took a while, right?

And we didn't know everything we did at the back then was bad. Nobody like sat us down and said, hey, everything you did was bad, don't do it again. And we didn't know we were illegal, man. I remember calling kids illegal and I was illegal. I remember telling kids, go back to El Salvador or go back to wherever you came from

and I should be going with them. My mom would just tell her, listen, when you come out of school, don't talk to strangers, don't talk to anybody, just run home. Geez, no matter what you're doing in life, just run back home after. Run back home.

Scary. Wow, how long did that go on, that kind of fear? When did it turn for you? I mean. I don't know, I guess when we were in America for a while and we went back to Mexico to take care of some paperwork and then we crossed the border and we went to... We went back, we crossed the border

and we went to the section for illegal immigrants, but not the deported ones, I guess. And we had Mexican IDs and we filed for green cards right there. How scary. So you went in, it was almost like admitting it. So you're like, here, we're going illegal. It's hard to get back second time, I'm sure. So we had a bunch of, I don't know what we did to,

I know that we had to leave, we had to, we self-deported, I guess, what we did first. We went back to Mexico on our own when we went back. And then I guess a week later, we all came in illegally. How scary though to go back and go, we know once we go back, that could be it. Yeah, I forgot that part. I never mentioned that part about our voyage

that we actually self-reported ourselves. Yeah. And then we decided to come back in the legal way. And what, growing up in Mexico to that age, and then what was your vibe of America? And I kind of want to know, did you go to Disneyland? I mean, what did you, what was it like? Was it- Oh man.

First of all, when we got here, the coolest thing was that the bathroom was inside the house. Our bathroom was an outhouse. And you were... Yeah. An inside bathroom blew your mind. Okay. Yeah, man.

And we could flush the toilet. Do you ever miss an outhouse, Gary? We could flush toilet paper inside the the toilet we couldn't do that and well and some houses in Mexico There was they'll tell you they don't don't flush anything. They're not toilet Literally anything not even poop Anything bro put it in a little pocket Did you yeah, that's funny cuz yeah Did you when did Yeah, that's funny, cause yeah. Did you?

When did you kind of sort of big feel American or you know what was that? We were in kindergarten. We went to went to well. We went to elementary school, kindergarten and. All the kids were speaking English and I was the only one who didn't speak English.

Well, but I I cut out fast I started watching American shows. That's all we watched and we didn't know how to pronounce a lot of words with like They had like a K in the middle for some reason like we don't know how to say bionic or Binoculars or Any any word we would see in the middle like that.

It was hard for us to pronounce because we were, my brother would call bionic woman, but lion woman. So what were you watching? I'm sorry, but what shows? We will watch, we will watch, we will watch all the shows that are on CBS for some reason, man. That channel would come in looking good.

We have no antenna. So whatever channels look good, I guess it was channel nine, TeleMundo, of course. TeleMundo, you can break your television Unplug it and then the mundo will still come on What about what do you people say they learn from watching TV I don't I've been overseas I don't learn anything from watching a foreign language, but it must be easy. I guess to pick up phrases or how do you do that? yeah, we watch a lot of movies. My dad, he like watching movies. So we would go to a driver's a lot. And he like seeing this one.

And Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. Yeah. Charles Bronson. But that was where the beanie just like him, even though he was not a vigilante. And he was looking at the goal. So he was able to do it. Charles Bronson.

I saw it. Yeah. Charles Bronson used to be a big impression to do in the clubs in the seventies. I can't, I never, there were some good ones. You couldn't do it of all people. Well, I didn't get excited about it. I just, I took, by the way, I took basically Spanish for like eight years and all I I know is don't they install a biblioteca? Como esta? Y tu? Muy bien, gracias. That's a lot.

Mucho trabajo. That's mucho. Cause we work with a lot of people from south of the border. They were, they, we have skilled gardeners, all kinds of people. So. Yeah, but I wouldn't take their Spanish for granted

because my dad, he dropped out of school in the sixth grade. So his Spanish is pretty much basically as good as any Americans speak his Spanish. Is it Spanglish? Is that a real thing where it's like sort of a mix? I don't know, man. And where I grew up, they call it Chicanics. The definition of Chicano in English.

Ebonics to Chicanics. Chicanics. Hey man, like hey man, hire the radio. Hire the radio. Yeah. Or they say, oh, they mix English and Spanish. Oh, right now I have, tengo un gran headache. you know what I mean? Big headache, yeah. I know some, look at that.

Being bilingual and working in both languages, which we get to it, first one to do a special on both languages, what can you tell us about English and Spanish? I mean, is one more romantic, is one easier, lands harder, laughs for you when you do your set in Spanish? Or is it just, it's just, oh yeah,

it's something we have no experience with. Some jokes were better in one language and they killed another language. Because the phrasing and the timing in English and Spanish is different, right? I mean. Well, what happened with me was that a lot of the words that I was speaking in Spanish were chicanics.

You know, like words that along Mexican Americans in the Southwest have used that Spanish but when I went to Mexico those words don't even exist in a Spanish language like what I was saying I was saying fix my breaks in Spanish in English and then English in Spanish I would say, I would add an A-S, arreglami brecas. Brecas, it's not even a Spanish word. Oh, it's like a fake word for breaks. I don't know how to say breaks in Spanish, apparently. I was just saying, I know that white people, they add an O after every English word

when they can't, I don't know what to say, like your son-o is not doing his homework-o. You know? Yeah. I did that in Italy. Yeah, people do that. We had AS in the beginning when we don't know English, we're like, esp-rite, you know, or fre-taz.

Excuse me. So then, so I had to go to Mexico and, and um, I started, I actually started off open mic in Spanish first, and I started building up a set. So it got to one hour when I was comfortable in Mexico. Wait, so in Mexico, you're doing a a set, so it got to one hour when I was comfortable. In Mexico, I'm- Wait, so in Mexico, you're doing a Spanish set, basically of things everyone can relate to there, and then you come over after you get it. That's an hour's a lot.

Yeah, I translated my jokes first of the hour in English into like, in their language they could understand. Except some words were play on words. So I had to get rid of the whole joke. Yeah, for sure. And by the way, this is on Netflix right now. It was done 2020, Bad Decisions, English, Spanish versions. Pretty-

Translate this and let's go around. Malas decisiones. Malas decisiones. You know what's funny? When I was in Tijuana, Mexico, pretty. Translate this and let's go around. Maladisic. It's your name. Mm hmm. Malas disunits. When I was in Tijuana, Mexico, a lot of the audience were people that were deported by by all the previous presidents. There's people there that were deported by President Obama. There are people that deported from Bush.

People deported from, um, from Clinton. A lot of Clinton guy members. Is that like a thing? Hey, from what? Clinton? I don't know. Clinton, a lot of Clinton guy members. Was that like a thing? Hey, I'm a Clinton, man. I'm a Clinton, it deported me. You got me. Did you hang out with the people that were deported by your president?

Yes, and I would hung out with a bunch of military marines that were deported during the last administration. Like there's a whole neighborhood with nothing but deportee military people, like people from their fighting career, people who fought in the Gulf War, people who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, but somehow they got deported.

And then get deported after they do that. That's horrible. Well, some of these guys have PTSD so they never really fix their papers. And some of them are not with it, but they're all they were all they were not born in America, but they were promised citizenship. Sure. And some of them didn't they didn't go file. I know there's one one guy that I spoke to he's 74 he got pulled over in Echo Park because there was a shooting in Echo Park and he was coming out of the grocery store where they're getting a milk and the police they held they pulled everybody to the side in that area and they were checking everybody's IDs and he had a he didn't even know he had a he had a deport on

site on his ID so he went straight to Mexico he didn't call his family oh man he was 74 yeah 74 and he thinks he's just he's he's done with all that and then they just didn't seem like the dangers wow what's your advice for people in South for border? Now with Trump in there, stay away, come in, try to come legally. What do you, would you? Oh man, if you're gonna be here in America illegally, first of all, don't hang around with no gang members.

Don't hang around with anybody with a bald head, anybody with a low rider, for work and go straight home. Bring it home, tell your kids too, don't hang around with bad people. writer for work and go straight home. Hmm. Right home. Tell your kids to don't hang around with bad people. Just do your job and just live like a normal citizen. And you know, if you're going to be driving no driver license, man, I will stop at every red light and look both ways. Even the green lines.

So just be boring, be boring and be simple. Be boring and they won't deport you. Right. I mean, ideally, the idea is to get really horrible trouble makers out. Yeah. Yeah, I could see getting caught in a crossfire. Just again. I became a U.S.

citizen in October. Really? Oh, good job. Wow. After all the specials and all the successes still they held you out, you know. You know, Dan, I always say rack them after I say like a 10 out of 10 joke that reminds me of rackets. And if you're shopping while working, eating, or even listening to this podcast, then you know, and love the thrill of the hunt. eating or even listening to this podcast, then you know and love the thrill of the hunt.

But are you getting the thrill of the best deals? Rakuten shoppers do. They get brands they love with the most savings and cash back. And you can too, start getting cash back at your favorite stores like Uniqlo, Best Buy and Expedia. And even stack sales on top of cash back. It's easy to use.

And you get your cash back through PayPal or check. The idea is simple. Stores pay Rakuten for sending them shoppers and Rakuten shares the money with you as cash back. Download the free Rakuten app and never miss a deal or go to rakuten.ca to start getting the most bang for your buck. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N, rakuten.ca.

Some people follow the rules, but where's the fun in that? I'm Soraya, and this is Rule Breakers, the podcast where we celebrate the rebels, the misfits, and the ones who make their own way. Every week, I sit down with the biggest rule breakers in sports, entertainment, and beyond to talk about the wildest moments, toughest lessons,

and why breaking the rules might just be the key to success. Follow and listen to Rule Breakers with Serea, an Odyssey podcast available now for free on the Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. podcast available now for free on the Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. One thing that's kind of interesting, I don't know if you want to go in this direction, but at some point you were kind of seduced by gang life or went in a gang and went through all that. So what was that like? Was it hilarious? Oh, when I was a kid, um, I, I hung out with a bunch of kids that were into breakdancing at the time and then we were, we were, we were going to bed.

We were going to Venice beach and compete with other kids, but I was never good at um, breakdancing, but I was good at shoplifting, you know, me too. I was, I was like in charge of merch. So I was in charge of stealing all the white gloves for people and I would sell them to them. Did you go up? I used to carry the cardboard in my break dancing group. So after break dancing died out

and then crack cocaine moved into our neighborhood. All my friends that is who are the same gang except me. And then they were all like 16 years old, 17. And I avoided them forever. So I turned 19, I was 20 years old. I was too old to be the guy, but they still jumped me in. Oh, you know, it's funny because in this movie, Busboys, when we join to be a busboy, we get jumped in.

And then one time I quit for an hour and I had to get jumped in again. I'm like, I quit for one hour. And they're like, you know the rules. Spade's doing a movie. I had a joke about that when people were leaving California or somewhere else, I said, you're leaving California, you should get jumped out first.

Yeah, see Dana, we know all the movies. I don't know about the movie, his movie with Theo Von is you guys flee to Mexico or something, right? No, we go, we get stuck at the border on the way to Mexico. We try to go to Mexico. We can't get across, so we work at a little restaurant on the border. On the border of America.

And we want to be waiters, so we get job as busboys first to move up in three days, but it takes years because we're not any good. But yeah, everyone there is Spanish. I mean, most of the cast, because we're right there by the board. Should have had Felipe in that movie, man. We should have actually.

I didn't even know about Felipe. We should have, man. He's too busy. So you could have turned it down. It would have been great. So wherever you want to go, but I mean, you're in gang stuff. You get to America. I mean, I just like,

when did you do your first first set in America? Where was it? Oh, it was, um, it was in 1993, probably, or 94 at the natural fudge theater. And, um, it's on Fountain Avenue and Silver Lake. The natural fudge theater. That's across the street from that church that Tom Cruise goes to.

Oh yeah, Scientology. Scientology, I know it well. Yeah. Yeah. That huge building you mean, that monstrosity, huge monster. Yeah, it's right across the street from that. It's a theater, it's called a fountain theater now,

but it was called before it was called the Natural Fudge. The Fudge Packer Studio. It was a vegan, vegetarian coffee shop. I have no idea that it was vegan until after I left. It was an open mic on Monday nights with punk rock music. So they have two comedians go up and then when the comedians are performing, the punk band is behind them setting up their band.

Oh my God. So then like two bands will perform punk music and then while they're taking their shit down, three more comedians were performing. Oh, for the punk audience, which is probably not the best. Yeah, like, Hollywood runaways, like, kids. I think it was 18 and over. It seems like a rowdy crowd.

I met Jamie Kennedy there. Jamie Kennedy, yeah. Great comedy. I met Jamie Kennedy there, Alonzo Bowden, Brian Holtzman. Met a lot of people there. Do you remember that first set? Do you remember what line killed? Did you have a bit that worked or were you humiliated or what was it like? I had a line that killed but it was, it was, oh I said that this is Romeo and Juliet if it was shot in my neighborhood.

Then I pretended Romeo was like a crackhead, like I was shaking with my elbow. I was acting like a crackhead, and I was biting my fingers, and I was looking at the floor like a crackhead does, taking rocks to kill the real. Then I was saying, and I was gonna,

Julia, you fucking bitch! We're gonna fucking party! That one sounds like it would get a big laugh in a rowdy club. It's high energy. Yeah, you gotta laugh there from the people that were homeless. And then the owner of the place, his name was Johnny Roberts. He had a local access show at Tuesdays at 10 PM on Channel 3 on some cable network.

It was just a free public access show. I didn't know what public access was. I didn't have cable. He was talking to me, little kid, that was amazing. I was talking to me both kid. It was amazing I want you to be like my show we tape every every Wednesday morning. It was it's a tape It's a big comedy show. I thought I'd made it right? I thought it'd be like one of those. Yeah I thought it was evening at the Apollo, but it was local access and And I looked at the way other comedian were dressed and I and I went to a thrift store and I looked at the way other comedians were dressed and I

and I went to a thrift store and I bought like a 80s coat a jacket and I'm trying to find a tie to wear like an 80s comic but I couldn't find anything then the guy at the thrift store he said I don't have a tie but try this on and I didn't know what it was then I remember it was somebody told me it was cowdaw. I don't know what, bobo or I don't know what it was. Yeah, it was like a metal thing. I look like Fosse Bear if you were Native American. That's a good look.

So, but that sounds like a big deal though. You're on a TV show, so that sounds like a big deal though. You're on a TV show. It's not a big deal, but in your head, it's a compliment. Like, hey, I did a set. They're asking me to come on this show. We all did that era. I mean, most of us.

You should have a show called Loco Access. Loco Access, yeah. That's not bad. So I met these guys there and then they told me to go to another place that does comedy on Saturday nights called Waldo's Comedy Station. And then that was right on Highland,

on Highland back then it was called Hollywood Hotel. So we did comedy there and then I finally made it to the comedy store. How much longer? Oh, to do audition for Mitzi? How'd that go? Yeah. The original room? Was it Mitzi back then? Yeah, it was five years later until like 1980.

Oh, shit. Or something. Mitzi's still there in her booth. The comedy store is huge. What happened? Not so many people are going to the comedy for back there not like now in our way like now who's dead Those convenience that they should bring their dogs on stage Like if you if you want to be a like, if you stuck around those days, you're probably doing well right now because I remember it was like so many people were getting bumped when I first started off, like really bumped. Like, I remember there was a big showcase and a bunch of comedians.

They were supposed to be seen by Mitzi Shore and she didn't show up. So the showcase was canceled. But there were a lot of people who actually made that trip from other parts of the country. Yeah, sure. To audition, yeah. I'm from Los Angeles, man. I only took one bus and nobody knew what I was doing. But there were people people are from Jersey, they call their parents and, um,

and then, um, the Dice man shows up and does five hours on the stage. They didn't even get to go up. Dice? Andrew Dice Clay? Oh my God. As good as good. I put the stick around on the rise. Yeah.

Oh yeah. This jigsuck in my dick. Five hours on stage. And Yeah. Oh, yeah. We know. Suck in my. Law. On stage and then like five hours. I was waiting.

I didn't leave. Right. I mean, I'll go up. And then after four, I'm out of it. He does for hours. Who? Eddie Griffin. Oh, Eddie Griffin. It's a fucking marathon.

For hours. So it's a nine hour show. You've seen two comics. OK, Eddie Griffin. Is this a fucking marathon? Four hours. So it's a nine hour show, you've seen two comics. Okay, who's next? Yeah, and then at 1.45 in the morning, bro. I go up at 1.45 right before Robert William of Padaya. Oh. Did you say, I only have two and a half hours of material

because I'm new? Yeah. It's like three minutes. Did you? Dude, let's do a side note, Dana. Sure. For the people listening, it's not crazy to think,

because I was from Arizona, and if someone said, Mitzi, we'll see you this Monday, I would fly out. It's too important to have someone in the business see you at Bud Friedman at the Improv. So that's a really, really big deal. I understand why everyone came.

And if she casually didn't show up, what a heartbreaker. And also, we all got bumped up in San Francisco where I started. You know, they'd say Robin's here, the great Robin Williams. And I thought I was going to maybe have a nine thirty spot. And then Robin would do three hours. Oh, I can't believe it. Oh, someone's like, oh, look, oh, spaceship. Look, oh, it's a frisbee.

But anyway, he was brilliant. And he would he would let I call it levitate the room. He would kill so hard that you're like, fuck, I got to work harder. Did you see someone early in that time and went, damn, that guy's or woman is at another level. You have somebody who kind of blew you away and made you want to get better, right? I saw what's his name?

Dane Cook. Dane Cook and Dane Cook world when he when he became kind of at his height. We know so fine. Whatever it was to five. What was it? I don't know the bit, but it looks funny. He's flipping you off. He was very young.

He was a bit about, you know, I don't know how to do it, but he'll be like, you know, how people think they flip you off. Oh, I see. They go fuck you. That's right. Fuck that. It should be a super fuck you. Go so far. Oh yeah. He think be a super fuck you, go, su-fi.

Oh yeah, he think he told us about this, Dana. Yeah, I think he did. Yeah, yeah, he did that. He would storm around the stage. He was super physical, hyper confident, really clear with his jokes. And yeah, he's highly skilled to follow that. Yeah, and I remember people would have a tattoo,

women would have a tattoo on the back of their butt, like a stamp stamp, the Su-Fi. Oh boy. Oh, interesting. I didn't even need any of those, thank God. Did you have women trying to hit on you? I know you're happily married now, we don't wanna go into it,

but some women love funny men. Hell yeah, man. I have people tattooed my name on their back. I'm not even famous. Sure. You had a young lady. You look, yeah. By the way, he looks young. I thought you were like 28 or something.

I had a woman in Las Vegas. She told me to autograph her arm, and she was like 21, and I was like 40. And I, I wrote my name, sloppy on her arm, right? She had a little chubby arm, you know,

it was getting, my pain was getting stuck. Sure, it's hard to do. Yeah, so I wrote Felipe on it, and then later on, she sent me a photo of her in a thong with not showing her boobs, but showing her ass. And then her arm, and she had tattooed right there, Felipe on her arm. She tattooed over your autograph, okay.

Yeah. That's something people do, I like that. You want to bring her home to mom, that's somebody. That's hell yeah, man do. I like that. You want to bring her home to mom? That's somebody, you know, hell yeah. Especially with her next boyfriend. So also, so then you're at least 40. That's your 45. You look you look 27 now.

Yeah, you do look. I'm not 45. I'm 55. Get out of town. I just told Dana you look so young. I don't know. Black don't crack. beige don't age, and white ain't right.

Also I don't drink, so that helped too. Yeah, the booze face, it can really age you. So now, I mean, just because we have limited time, you're doing the clubs. I'm just curious, when's the first time it became your job? Like, okay, I'm a stand up and that's how I earn money. I don't mind any side hustle. How long? Well, I had child support. They were they were coming after me and they were garnishing my paycheck.cks so I was making half. So that kind of helped me decide to quit my regular jobs and I wasn't making no money anymore at my regular job.

So I just went straight to doing stand-up and then like in 96 they were doing this big stand-up show in San Antonio, Texas. Some guy named Jeff Valdez and the owner of the the River Center Comedy Club, Kailene and Jeff Borsha, I don't know their names, but they produced a show for Showtime called the Latino Laugh Festival hosted by Daisy Fuentes and Paul Rodriguez. Yeah. Because they try. Because they try to grab all the Latino comedians they can find. And I was one of the younger ones that actually auditioned for the show and got it. I met comedians there who didn't know we're Latino, like Greg Giraldo and John Mendoza.

Mm-hmm. Was Giraldo? No, all of those guys. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know Greg Giraldo. I was very shocked to see John Mendoza because I always thought he was Irish, but I guess he's Puerto Rican and Irish.

And he was one of my favorite comics. And Paul Rodriguez was the original Latino comic, at least at the improv, you know, he was for the store. It was. It was. The American Express card. What did he bring, a knife with him? Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store.

Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store.

Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store.

Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. Or the store. You can, I think the first one I heard say stuff like that, you can laugh now, but my cousin Julio is stealing your hubcaps.

Yeah. That brought down the house at the improv in 1985. Yeah, man, I remember the first time I saw him was in a glimpse of television. Before I wanted to be a comedian, my dad was like, he would change the channels from CBS, Deuces and Hazards, all the way back to the UHF channel 34. But he could go left, just go left and boom, he's there, right? He's there, boom, he'll be on channel 34. He'd like to bet with us

and he'll turn the knob off to see all the channels so he can see everything we're missing. So I was like Leonardo DiCaprio in that movie pointing like this, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, And, uh, Paul Rodriguez, he was doing, uh, his set, um, on that show, AKA Pablo. He said, uh, the bit was, um, because I remember when my family came over from Mexico, it was 17 of us in an inner tube. And we were singing ain't no stopping us now.

We're on the move. Yeah, he always killed. So, so last comic standing, you make your way, you're going through the clubs, you're doing well, and then something happens. It's a big move, big moment, right? Winning moment. Oh yeah, man, when I won that comic standing,

it was $250,000, and my son's mom fought for child support the next day. Oh, they wanted a little slice. What the vehicle. Mom was standing. She's like, we won. Daddy's funny. We're going to get a swimming pool.

Finally, he's responsible. Yeah. Well, that's a big one to win that. And then Last Come Standing, is that the one, I think Todd Glass, you don't remember this, but. Yeah, man, shout out to Peter Ingalls, the producer of Last Come Standing and Save by the Bell. He passed away, I think, a week ago.

Oh, okay, well, shout out to him somehow. And also, so you get that. Now, what do you, are you immediately a headliner or were you already a headliner? Yes, as soon as I win last coming standing, we go on a 80 city tour all over America. Wow, wow. Yeah, so.

That's tough. We're hitting. And you're headlining? In Goodwood, Pennsylvania, bro. Places I only hear in songs. Yeah, so that's tough. We're hitting you headline in Goodwood, Pennsylvania, bro. This is the only hearing songs Traffic reports so you wait. Yeah, how do you do it? You go with some other with like runners up and you're like the headliner Yeah, although we're other other people that were in the show. I think it was Mike just a final Roy was jr. Mike Kaplan and I think it was Mike DiStefano, Roy Woods Jr., Mike Kaplan, and the other guy who was second place, Tommy Johnigan. We all went on tour.

We all were doing 20 minutes on stage for 80 cities on a tour bus. Was it a bus? Okay, a bus. Wow. Those guys are good too. Does anyone start getting too good on the trip? Like, or do they rotate you or you always have one?

No, everybody, it was the order of how we won. So I was the last. Shit, that's tough. Literally the last comic standing. Yep. Did anyone kill before you? And as you're crossing onto the mic to close the show, they just kind of say to you,

follow that motherfucker. Did that ever happen? Yes. You know what? What was saving me from that was there was an intermission. Oh, okay. Yeah. So my sister, Fano, he was murdering. He passed away also. God bless him. He had HIV and on the show he had HIV also and he was an ex-heroin addict. So he was all messed up. But he ended up, I thought he was my biggest, and he was an ex-hero and addict, so he was all messed up. But he ended up,

I thought he was my biggest competition because he was likable on stage, and his type of comedy is very popular now. So he was doing a lot of dark comedy back then. That's kind of, it's like acceptable now. And he was likable. And I really thought he was gonna win but this guy was murdering bro like he will with this San Francisco we did the film

more I remember him saying I knew a lot of gays in San Francisco but god damn I tripped over a dick on the way in here yeah he was saying stuff like he was saying stuff like stuff like, he would say stuff like, stuff like, oh man, I got into a fight with watermelon guy and he said, fuck you, I'm not watermelon. He goes, I'm Puerto Rican. Listen motherfucker, I'm not anthropology. I don't know what the fuck you're saying.

When you go on these tours, so you get 250 to win and do you get a set fee every night as part of your deal to tour? Or is it party or 250? Cause you guys should make some money. We had, it was 250,000 for the waiting to show. Plus whatever they were giving us to headline was, was 3000 for me.

Some show 3,000 for one show. 3,000 a night? So you're playing pretty big rooms. You're playing theaters. Yeah, that's amazing. Places that are normal comic headlining by himself will probably make 52,000 maybe. Oh shit.

Yeah, so many places were 3,000 theaters, 4,000 theaters, they're all sold out. And you're only getting three, but so they're going to make some money too. Yeah, plus. Normally you'd make a lot more. That's another 240,000 on top of the 250 pre-tax you're looking just south of 500k. Yeah, and also I had a development deal with NBC that went nowhere. Oh, but you get paid up front for that, right?

Yeah. That's nice. It's nicer if they find a show for you, but yeah. That's for the people at home, they give you money up front to hold you for a year to maybe find a show for you, something like that. Yeah, I had a TV deal with a comedian named Dustin Ibarra with ABC and they made a money not to... It's funny, I never thought they'd pay you money not to work and pay you money for saying

no. Yes, they call it a holding deal. They take you off the field. You know, by the way, I saw a little birdie told me a gentleman told me that you had a run in with Eddie Murphy. What was that? What was that about? Oh, man. I was in a set of You People, Jonah Hill movie.

Jonah Hill. Yeah. And Eddie Murphy, we're like, like in a stripper scene in Hollywood, a bunch of strippers. And man, one of those strippers in the movie, an actual stripper, he's gonna give somebody a laptop for two grand on a set when nobody was around. Horny ass bitch. Horny ass bitch. That's a special name.

That's your next special. So Eddie Murphy walks in and he looks right at me and he goes, man, you're a funny motherfucker, man. Now, man, just shit at myself. And I had one line in the movie that I forgot it when he told me that. So, oh, so he knew you. That's great. Yeah, yeah, he knew you. That's great. Yeah, yeah, he's cool.

And then the next day, Tony Hill come up to me. Hey man, wasn't that rad the way Eddie Murphy told you were funny in front of everybody. And then yeah,ultz, he mentioned on his podcast that that was cool. And the director of the movie came up to me and said that was cool. And then the next day he comes back to do the same scene and he tells me hello only. Not everybody, just telling me hello. Whoa.

And then the next day, same thing. Then I'm getting paranoid, you know, I'm like, okay man, you're trying to get everybody in this set to hate me now. Yeah, I'm not liking you already because of this stuff. Hey Eddie, could I get a you're a funny motherfucker? Just to start the day, you don't have to do it, but if I could get a hey, you're a funny motherfucker.

No, you go tell this guy he's okay too. He has like three people that look like him on the set. I don't know, like, he's gotta be nice to everybody. Really? Because of a fear of being shot or something? He's got lookalikes. Yeah, he has a- Like stand-ins and light shot guys. When you read the lines to Eddie Murphy,

like, he's really nice to you, but when it's your turn to get the camera, he leaves, and then you get a stuntman. Oh, you get the other guy. Oh, really? That's kind of a movie star move. Catch you all later. So he gets to do that.

So now we're at a point where this is pretty, you've done a lot since 2017, these four specials in seven years. The current one on Netflix right now, Raging Fool. Fool. And by the way, I just want to ask you something stylistically when it started because I really like the way you move on stage. Like you're telling

jokes and you're moving forward and then you're moving backward. And then a lot of guys go side to side or just stick to the mic. But there's this little kind of physical thing you do, almost like a boxer. You kind of back up, you come in, you land it, and then you do this move back. It's pretty cool to watch. It's a little bit like you're dancing up there. So when did that come in?

Or was it just someone pointed it out to you, or you just do it organically? That move. I was nervous before. Well, when I was on the last common standing, I had a coat with a little tiny tie and I had a pocket. And I used to always hold onto the pocket and move it like this. You know the way Rodney Daniels goes, hey.

I get no respect. I was an ugly baby. I tell you, when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother. Hey! Hey! We love him. So from nervousness you did that and now that you're confident, you just sort of kept it as a signature in a way.

Yeah. And also I try to do it so much because I feel like if I know the joke is funny, I start moving fast, like a pitcher giving away his knuckle ball. Yeah, yeah, we all have our way. David, it's funny when you got a bit in your act that you know is gonna kill or you think it is,

you give a big wind up, doesn't work, you go, what the fuck? I think you stay quiet. You slow down when your punch line is gonna come. I feel like when a big punch line is gonna come, maybe with your perfect timing, you do your standup timing. But I noticed that you start to get a little quiet

and then there's like a big explosion. David will modulate that way and he's never thirsty up there, as the people would say. No, and there's a point where like, I remember watching your young comic show when you're doing the special Yeah, you saw you too, and you had little bullshit seats right here But you were right over there and they were you know, what the fuck they were saying

Oh, he was yelling no war and I was yelling Like there's so many like oh man not as the comic like me like there's so many like, oh man, not as a comic, like me, like, there's so many tags left. There's more to the show you could have done. Oh yeah, I kept going. He takes the shit out of stuff. My favorite one is, oh man, a woman, she was a sharp painter, had what she's doing, dishes.

Six miles away, her daughter is giving somebody a hand job. A hand job. Oh my God, that was time life books. A woman doing the dishes feels a cramp in her hand. I feel like you may have been- That's great. That's a great memory. Good job.

What a memory. I mean, you're kind of maybe influenced by Dave in the sense that you have a high ratio of laugh points and punch lines in your stories. boom, boom, boom, consistently, you know, and David does tell a story but just subtly starts building all the all the punchlines. The most to spit you're doing and you can have little tent poles in it before you get to like the beginning it's keeps him around. That's the hard part though. Like I have one of my specials because I remember I saw a woman with a tattoo and she had a Ouija board tattoo. Like a Ouija board tattoo in her back. And I could just, I was like, Oh man, I can be, well, who am I? What's my name? You got to hold her back. Like, Oh, let me, let's find out a bit.

Let's see who the fuck you are. Why does it have to be bitch, who the fuck you are? Can't be, hi, hi, ma'am, let's check this out. But yeah, that was so good Lord. I don't know. Look at this, I'm looking at it. Well, you did a lot. It's nice to meet you finally. And this is great.

And thank you for coming on. Look at you, you got so much, Ford Specialists is a lot. I remember you, when I remember like when I was bumped out about, oh man, they're not fucking headlining me. Oh, you know when you get, when you go to the 12 year mark when you saw your friends making it and you're not headlining? Oh yeah. Do I remember you said, David, that you go to the 12 year mark, when you see all your friends making it, you're not headlining. Oh yeah. Do you remember you said David that

you had to leave the Tempe improv and go make it so Dan Muir could headline you. Ah, God, the old thing, because I'm from Tempe, it was even more embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes you just don't, but sometimes you think you have longer material and it's not as good. You know, it's, you think you've got an hour

and other people like, I don't think you do. And so, you have to be pretty, you have to be a little harder on your material. So you go, I got a good, because you can do a great hour. And the next time you can do your set, it's like 46 because you didn't get as many laughs. You're like, oh shit, I don't think I have. And the waitresses are putting down the checks.

And you're like, oh, I got one minute left. Wait a second. They're doing math during your closer. It's horrible. The fucking checks. 20%, give it to me, I'll do the math. Checks go out right toward the end of your act. And then you get like a built-in lull

while they try to figure out who's paying for the potato skins. That's a hard one. You gotta get past that when you're headlining. You're like, shit, I gotta stay alive during this. Jesus. For the committee before you, you bring an opener that's a killer.

Oh yeah, they give you an opener and a middle that kills. When you do good as a middle, that was my problem is, I was doing good as a middle going, I could headline and you get, and then I'm following a good middle, which is hard. And also you've got the checks to deal with. And you're like, oh shit, I don't think I'm ready. You realize you picked up more checks at the middle hanging up with a bathroom

than a headline. Oh, that's true. It's gotta hang out. You stand by the door when everyone leaves. Hey, did you like the middle? All right, well thank you, Felipe. Well, just for one minute, because he'll be listening to this. I just we have a mutual friend. So Larry Bubbles Brown, who's the famous San Francisco comedian who I've known for years, really good friends tours with

Felipe offered him a lot of opening spots. And he's someone with a, he sort of plays a sad sack character and after each line, you know, I lost my identity or someone stole my identity. Now they can't get laid. Mwah. Mwah. Mwah. So let me give you, what's your, how do you do it?

How do you do his mwah? Mwah. Mwah. There's another one, I forgot how he says, I don't know, I can't remember his jokes right now. There's another guy that's friends with him. He's from Minnesota and they're kind of like still, he's more darker.

His name is Chuck Bartel. And he's dark. Opens up for Tom Papa sometimes. Oh, Tom Papa. Yeah, but this guy Chuck Bartell. He has no social media that you can't even find him, but he has very dark humor here the trouble he says that. I kicked out of a Chinese restaurant for, oh, I forgot my reading glasses. I went to a Chinese restaurant and they kicked me out for squinting. ChuckBartell.com, check him out. Yeah, find him.

Murr! So anyway, yeah. You know what I mean about Murr? I took him with me to Hawaii, I took him with me to open up in Hawaii at the Blue Note. And the whole time we were there, he had a hernia. Well, he still has the hernia. He's afraid to get surgery, right?

But I'll be with a hernia anytime, mer. I got a mernia. All right, thanks, Felipe. Thanks, Felipe. Thanks for having me. This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review. All this stuff, smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts.

Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss Berman of Odyssey, and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.