WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 742 - Chris Garcia

Episode Date: September 15, 2016

Comedian Chris Garcia thought his upbringing was fairly typical as the son of first-generation immigrants, with stories and experiences that paved the way nicely for a career in comedy. But Chris tells Marc that a recent trip to Cuba and the discoveries made there changed everything he knew about his family, particularly his father. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category.

And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talked to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck

tuckians what the fucking east does what's happening i'm mark maron this is wtf my podcast welcome to it nice to have you. How are you? Let's just talk about you for a second. What's happening? Everything okay? Uh-huh. Oh, really?

Well, that's good. Oh, it's not good. Sorry, I misunderstood the tone. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, that's bad. I don't know how I... Yeah, I'm an idiot. No, I'm sorry for not being more sensitive. I just, I don't, I don't know you that well and you sound excited, but now I know that you're really upset. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry. Oh, oh, but it's better. Okay. So that's better.

Yeah. Good. Well, that's good. It's nice that you have a few things in your life that, you know, you can at least fall back on as being okay and not just that one thing but that'll get better right oh you don't know well maybe it will hopefully it will right uh-huh okay well we'll see what happens but yeah i mean i i would just uh you know keep doing what you're doing right and if it's not hurting you you know only you can know anyway i hope that conversation was enjoyable for you i enjoyed my side uh what's going on this is the first day back in the garage that's right i talked about re-watching the sopranos which i'm still doing and it seems like a lot of people are doing it that's the weirdest thing about serendipity or coincidence

or things that are beyond coincidence somebody told me that stern had talked about re-watching it and then other people were emailing me and they're like, well, I just started watching it too. I mean, I don't know what's in the air, what's compelling those of us who share that impulse to go watch The Sopranos again. Maybe it's some type of stability. Maybe there was a time where every Sunday we would look forward to that thing and it gave us stability knowing that we would be jarred and excited to watch The Sopranos. I don't know, but I can't stop watching them. I'm happy I am. Though it has triggered some things.

It's triggered some things. What can I tell you? Today on the show, Chris Garcia is here. He's a comedian. He's opened for me before. I enjoy his comedy. He's very funny. He's got a new album coming out called Laughing and Crying at the Same Time.

Actually, it's available. I'm just getting this in. Just in. It's now available, but it's going to come out on vinyl on the 30th on root beer colored vinyl. He'll be here soon. I would like to mention

an old friend of the show, an old buddy of mine, Mike Doty, has a new album coming out called The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns which is apparently a quote I said on this show while trying to kick nicotine gum happy to help out Mike I'm glad you got a record coming out it comes out October 14th

and the first video for the single I Can't Believe I Found You in That Town, premieres today, today, if you want to watch Mike Doty's video, on the music website, Brooklyn Vegan. Head over to brooklynvegan.com to check it out and pre-order Mike's album wherever you get music. Passionate guy, that Doty. You might know him from the old days in Seoul, coughing. But he's a worker. shit good good songwriter good singer good guitar player all the shit is good there right all my tour dates are up all the ones that have been rescheduled are now up at wtfpod.com

the wilbur coming up quickly next weekend, September 24th. I don't know. I believe there's some tickets for that late show. Campbell Hall at UCSB in Santa Barbara, October 21st. Go grab them. Largo here in LA, October 22nd. I think there are tickets. The Ice House, October 23rd in Pasadena.

Yup. Carnegie Hall. They're going. Few tickets left. I would do that if you're going to do that. November 19th at the James K. Polk Theater in Nashville, Tennessee. The Vic Theater in Chicago, December 3rd. So what's been going on since I last talked to you? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That's what's been going on. I went over, did a wardrobe fitting, did some pictures, did some camera tests for the shoot for the show Glow for Netflix. Had to shave off a little bit of my shit. So now I look like a stranger in the mirror, but that's good.

I need to look like a stranger to myself to become the stranger that I will become that has some similar things that I do. Very exciting. Saw Alison Brie, met a lot of the other people, the other actors. Going to be exciting. I went to the set. I saw the set. It's very exciting. All of it's very exciting. I read the first two scripts. I'm thrilled. And then last night just spiraled just fucking went right down the goddamn self-toilet unbelievable i'd forgotten what it felt like to just fall without a net into the never-ending pit of insecurity can i do this did they pick the right guy oh no and then hey why don't why don't we look up some psychiatric diagnoses to see maybe what maybe you're even worse than you thought why don't you beat the shit out of yourself for a few minutes about what you ate when you were away why don't you do a little of that

why don't you do it all at once have the initial bit of insecurity as opposed to excitement for the new job why not go the other way why not instead of going like this is gonna be great looks fun everybody's excited i'm excited no let's go like i can't do it i'm not the guy what i'm not good at anything jesus what am i even fucking thinking why am i even a comedian why do i do a podcast acting that's ridiculous who am i who am i who am i really man just plummeting plummeting down the beautiful pit of self into the pure, damp darkness. What got me out of it? I don't know. I pulled it together. I realized like, hey, this is a symptom. It's an old fucking symptom of my brain. I'm excited. I'm going to do a great job. The character is good for me. And I don't have any major psychological problems, but I do underestimate how emotionally fucked up I am. I like to play that down by not thinking about it. That's one way to handle psychological problems.

Hey, you know, I got these problems. Let's not deal with them and not think about it. What do you think of that idea? Sounds good to me. You sure you don't want to take another flight down the pit nah now let's watch the sopranos good idea so my dad right he was up there i told you he was in rochester and look you know i've i've let a lot of stuff go. I understand who he is. I know what the deal is. But when I'm freaking out, it all leads up to it. You know, I spent two days hanging out with him on and off. And that just kind of fucks the wiring up a little bit. He is who he is.

There's nothing I can do about it. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at in my life. And I was sharing that with him about all the things I'm doing and the new show and he was like you know he he said he was proud of me and then after this big long conversation you know about maybe a half hour later in the car he goes uh you know that uh what's that kid's name the Facebook guy Zucker Zuckerberg yeah how Yeah, how do you do that? How do you come up with something like that? And in my mind, it didn't feel like an innocent question.

It felt like a giant eraser. It just felt like, you're not that guy. He figured it out. You're doing a lot of stuff but that zuckerberg right and then he talked about uh you know winning the lottery that kind of stuff but i tried to just stay in my own shit stay detached from his shit and enjoy my little old dad he's becoming a little old dad having some trouble with the stairs that kind of stuff

there's no joy in my heart there's no glee in my tone but life will humble you and then I got this email the dad stuff always gets me you know it's just subject line thank you

dear Mark I just wanted to take a second to write and compliment you on the recent interview you did with billy crystal i had the pleasure of listening to this talk while driving from chicago to michigan where i was going to hook up with some family for a small vacation at one point in the trip we were all in my father's car on yet another long drive across the peninsula when my dad asked me if I had anything good to listen to. I told him about your recent conversation and since he too is a big Billy Crystal fan, he told me to put it on. At first, I couldn't tell if he liked it. My dad will give a pilot quiet to things he doesn't really enjoy and for the first few minutes, he seemed to be doing just

that. Now you think right here he could insert, but I fast forwarded through the intro, but no. He said, but then Billy started talking about the intro, but no, he said. But then Billy started talking about the draft lottery and how he was so lucky to get a high number. My dad started reminiscing almost immediately about his experience during that very night, an experience he had never spoken of before. He told me how he was 18, a freshman at Penn State, watching terrified with all the other guys in their common room. Penn State watching terrified with all the other guys in their common room. Most of them, including my father, were not called till late, but he went on to say that his friend from childhood had his number called in the first 100, and just a year or so after that lottery, his friend was killed in Vietnam. Needless to say, your conversation was very thought-provoking,

and it enabled my dad to tell us about a part in his life that I and even my mother and my aunt, who were also in the car, had no idea about. It was a very moving moment. And I feel that it brought me closer with my father. So for that, I say thank you. Keep up the great work. I love listening to the podcast. And I hope to see you the next time you're in Chicago. Boomer lives.

Chris. I'll tell you, man. That makes this the best job in the world. It really does. It's great to hear that, you know, something that we put out there and that conversation provokes other conversations. I just...

Beautiful. Got a little choked up when I read that the first time chris thanks for sending it now another chris is on my show right now chris garcia very funny comedian uh who talks about his father as well a lot in a very touching way his album comedy i'm laughing and crying at the same time is now available and it's going to be out in root beer colored vinyl on september 30th that will include a digital download with a bonus track. You can also go to chrisgarciacomedy.com for his tour dates. This is me and the lovely Chris Garcia. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost,

almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls? Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age.

Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that.

An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. See ya. I think that the first time I met you was at Rooster Teeth Feathers.

Yeah. You were featuring for me or doing guest spots. Was that the week I was there with Seroff? No. It was you, me, and Sam Morrell. Right. Who was that guy? He was like an East Coast guy? He's a New York guy.

He's great. Yeah. Is he around? Yeah, he's around. He's doing super well. He is? What's he doing? I don't know.

He's always like, he's like a Comedy Central guy. He headlines around. Uh-huh. He's on TV and stuff, and he's really funny. He's like one of the New York guys that are kicking butt. But that was the first time I met you. You were there. I thought you were odd.

You had a weird energy. You seemed sweaty to me uh you had a guitar and you used that but i thought it was funny i thought it was very funny i enjoyed your act but i couldn't get a handle on you i thought you were some you were just an odd sort oh that's you were kind of like i didn't know if you were gay or weird or you know like you didn't know how to talk really you thought i was that oh that's great i uh that i put that off uh i remember you being grumpy and you were pacing around and you'd stop every once in a while you'd be like you're a san francisco guy and i'd be like yeah you go oh okay and then you'd walk away and then you'd come back and you're like you're gonna play guitar like yeah and he's like hmm all right and then uh you walk away and then you'd come back and you're like you gonna play guitar like yeah and he's like

hmm alright and then you're like have fun you told me you told Sam he's like you're gonna go out there

and do your New York shit and Garcia you're gonna go out there and do your sweet sensitive Latino thing I guess yeah

I was right I thought it was I interpreted that as a compliment I sound like I nailed it yeah you did good was that the week. I was right. I thought it was, I interpreted that as a compliment. I sound like I nailed it. Yeah, you did good. Was that the week where I was all mad about the sound system? Yep, you were very mad about the sound system.

Oh, and I forced them to change it, and they tried to adjust it, and it sucked more. Yeah. But I heard that they went out and got a whole new system since then. Yeah, because of you. They did? Yeah, they did. I think the very next day they got a new system. Does it sound better? Have you been up there yeah i don't remember the sound

quality being that bad to begin with but it sounded good it was bad yeah so what is the story now now you just auditioned for snl because i know i got a text from you okay what happened with that i don't know it's uh i haven't heard anything yet. But yeah, they flew me out there. What was the process? How did it happen? Well, they asked my manager for me to submit a tape of characters. Do you have characters? Yeah, I do characters and stuff. You do?

Yeah. Like what? Me and Singer do that show, Underbelly, where we do characters and stuff. So you have a bunch you've invented? Yeah, a bunch of characters. What are their names? There's Manny. Manny, he's from Ecuador. His father's a toucan and his mother's a witch. He's just like an odd little guy.

And I do a bunch of different characters. Wow. I had no idea. You do impressions? Not really. I do... In the thing I did Pablo Escobar reviewing Narcos, the TV show, and that was fun. But I'm not really an impression guy.

So they flew you out. They flew me out. Yeah. And since I, you know, the tape, I was like, I have no chance of getting this. I'm just going to have fun. Right. I wasn't even going to do it because I was like, I'm leaving for Cuba on my honeymoon tomorrow. I don't have time for this. And I was like, just put together and they liked it and then they brought me in

to audition at ucb and i was like i have no chance right and you know people were like other people backstage doing push-ups and shit like and all hyped really there was that going on there was that and i was like i got no i'm not even a ucb guy this oh my god people doing warm-up exercises in the dressing room. Singing and stuff. Really? Yeah. People were getting their game.

This is a lot of people's dreams, and they were really psyched. And I just was like, I have no chance. I'm going to have fun. And then I had fun. And they called me and said they wanted me to fly out and go for it. And, you know, you did it. Yeah, but it go for it and uh you know you did it i think yeah but it was different not really but so you did it you went to the studio i went to the studio i tried not to get psyched up about it and just have fun but like i was like oh my you know you put you up

right across from 30 rock yeah and all this stuff and i was you know i just got a little i started getting like pumped up right like it's like it was a big thing so i went for a run in the rain i was like i gotta run and uh i started thinking about i was like i was getting i was trying to find mental leverage and i was in like just running through the rain rocky style and i was thinking about i was like my dad was a fucking political prisoner for two years in cuba and my family thinking about i was like my dad was a fucking political prisoner for two years in cuba and my family lives there i'm not scared of this canadian fuck like these guys motherfucker cannot scare me this is nothing this is a privilege and then i ran through the rain and the first thing i see in central park is jose madi it's like the statue

of like the cuban he's like the cuban abraham lincoln he's like the national hero right and i see it as a sign oh yeah it's all going crying and shit and i'm like i like i run up to the statue and i like put my hand on it i'm like oh and uh i but at that time i was like uh i'm not i'm not playing it cool anymore like i am not having crying in front of the statue i just got so pumped and touching the statue for good luck because you thought that all things were moving your way. That cannot be a coincidence that I end up in front of this statue of Jose, what's his name? Mati. Mati. Yeah. And then I went in and tried to have fun and it was all right. Yeah. How'd you do in the room? It was good. Yeah? Yeah.

They try not to laugh and stuff. Yeah. But I got some chuckles and it's intense. Yeah. They make you wait for a little while. You saw Lorne sitting there? Saw Lorne and the crew. I think he was there.

It's just a blur. People are just like 30 feet away and these little rafters and they have their little note books and stuff. It's horrendous. So I don't know. It's horrendous. I don't know. It's not in my hands. I had fun. It'd be cool if I got it.

Maybe one day I'll tell my kids that I got to audition for it. You're already planning that story? I'm already planning that story. You're going to do a rough version of what you just did for me now? Yeah. All the signs were there, but he let you down. Jose, what's his name? Jose Mati. Jose Mati let you down.

Yeah. You disappointed the entire country of Cuba. My family, everybody. I could have been another national hero. Yeah. Yeah. There could have been the Chris Garcia statue. The first Cuban on SNL.

Would you have been? I think so. I think there's only been like Horatio Chilean. Is he Chilean? Yeah. And Fred's Venezuelan. Right. Half Venezuelan.

Right. So you would be representing Cuba. This would be a good move politically, I think. I think I could make the change. Yeah. I could be, you know. It'd be a good thing for Cuba if you got SNL. Oh, it would be huge for both.

I could be like Rocky in Rocky IV. You would be the wall coming down. Yeah. Oh, that'd be great. I don't know if that would be. So, but where were you born, dude? I was born here in LA in Englewood. Really?

Yeah. And both your parents are Cuban? Both my parents are from Cuba. How many siblings you got? I got an older sister. She was born in Cuba. Really? Yeah.

So I'm the first one in my family born here. And yeah, my sister's older than I am because my parents, they just didn't have a kid for a while. In Cuba, like right after they had her, things got tough and then they moved to Spain and they always thought about moving to the United States. So they held off. Was Spain easier? Is that an easier move? I mean, why Spain? Well, yeah, it was an easier move to go into a big, yeah.

My dad is an exile, and he was pretty much kicked out of Cuba, so that's where he went. During the revolution? That can't go that far back. How right? He wasn't in the mid-60s? No, it can't go that far back. How right? He wasn't- No, my dad-

Not in the mid 60s. No, it was like the late 60s. Yeah. And- Here, move that down a little. Here we go. And bring it back in. Late 60s.

There you go. But I actually just learned a lot of his backstory that I was not ever really kind of told by my family. Because you just went to Cuba. Because I just went there. Well, I want to get to that. Okay, we can fill in the backstory. What was the story that you got as a kid?

So you're growing up in Inglewood. Yep. How did you end up in the Bay Area? Are they still here? Yeah, my parents are in LA. Okay, so that was your own move. Yeah, yeah. I lived in Inglewood and then Westchester for a couple years.

Westchester, New York? Westchester, LA. Just right next to LAX. That's where I grew up. And then my parents, they lost their house. And so they moved to North Redondo, like to an apartment in North Redondo so I can go to a school in Manhattan Beach for high school. So you had the beach. Redondo's a nice beach.

Yeah, it was nice. Yeah? Yeah, my parents, yeah, they moved to North Redondo so I can go to school in Manhattan, a school called Mira Costa. Uh-huh. And since my dad was out of a job, he was in the adult ESL program. What's ESL? English as a second language.

Uh-huh. So my dad was in the bungalow across from my classroom. And so my dad went to school at the same time as me for my first year at that school was that embarrassing or nice uh that was pretty embarrassing oh really because he was just always there like i i was in did you eat lunch with him i did not eat lunch with him he tried iced your dad i was a teenager wow yeah i would i did not eat lunch i tried to avoid it and So like, so like other kids are like,

is that your dad? And you're like, no, yeah, but it's all right. You just saw him eating by himself. Pretty much. I don't know what he did for lunch,

but I was just in that, in those bungalows for homeroom, like second period. And then after that, I was just off to my other classes. You were out. Yeah, I was out.

But I would see him every morning. You didn't go to school together? Yep. Sometimes. He took you to school. He'd would see him every morning. You didn't go to school together? Yep. He took you to school. He'd yell at me and stuff and embarrass me. And he tried to get super involved, like with baseball, he got super involved. Because, you know, it's like a Cuban pastime. And I didn't make, my sophomore year, I didn't make JV.

I made Frosh Soft. Yeah. And my dad was so pissed off about it and he straight up was like you didn't make it because because you jerk off too much he was like you masturbate too much and he's like you got nothing left in the tank and uh nothing left in the tank and he totally called me on it and it was kind of true like I was just like jerking off too much. How did he know? They know, huh? Yeah. Small apartment. He was waiting. He was waiting to turn that on you.

Yeah. Did you do that in front of people? No. Oh, yeah. That's good. I didn't declare it in front of my biology teacher. Well, what was his job? What did you know about him in terms of what was the family mythology of why he had to leave cuba um i the mythology was that it was really tough for him for being not communist and he was sent away to um

to work in some fields yeah and then uh because he wasn't communist and he was separated from my mom and my sister who was like a year or two old. And then after that, he was like kicked out of the country and he like moved to Spain. That was a story. That was a story. And what was his occupation when you were younger? A machinist. So he worked like at aerospace jobs and stuff like that.

And even though I think it was frustrating for him because he was really smart and kind of like an engineer type, but he came to America as like 37, like his late, like mid late 30s. So he was just like, he just got factory jobs as a machinist and just worked as a machinist the rest of his life. But by the time you started high school, he'd been out of work and he couldn't really speak English or what? Yeah, his English wasn't strong. Like he came in his mid 30s and he just hit the ground running and just started working immediately. So he spoke with broken English

and it was always trying to figure out a way to like, he's very ambitious and he put a lot of that into me just to focus on me to have a better life. But he, um, uh, he was always trying to like, you know, hustle, get a better job and stuff like that. So while he had unemployment or whatever, he's like, I'm going to try to improve my English to get a better job. And your mom did what? My mom was an electronic assembler. She was a factory worker. She'd do whatever. She was a person.

If you see a keyboard that says inspected by number 35, that was my mom. She was number 35? inspected by number 35. Oh, yeah. That was my mom. She was number 35? My mom was number 35. And she did that pretty much her whole career. They were both factory like blue collar. Wow. Did your dad work over at LAX at all? No, he didn't work at LAX, but he worked at like those aerospace companies over there

like McDonald Douglas and Northrop and Rockwell and JPL. Like he bounced from place to place uh-huh and as the economy got worse in the 90s a lot of those jobs went to like overseas yeah and so jobs like more manual stuff like machinists those jobs got disappearing pushed out started going like you know right being made by robots right so he had a very skilled trade um that just started right yeah and when you were like younger was baseball the thing you wanted to do robots and stuff. Right. So he had a very skilled trade that just started to disappear. And specific, right. Yeah. And when you were younger, was baseball the thing you wanted to do, or were you just doing that? Oh, I loved baseball. Yeah? What position were you? Pitcher, first base, and

right field, all the left-handed stuff. Uh-huh. And I wasn't very athletic, but my dad is a badass, and at a young age, I already how to like bunt and throw a curveball and like big baseball guy big baseball guy who was your team i'm a dodger guy yeah yeah so i grew up with the dodgers like hometown kid yeah i just grew up you go over to watch the games i would go to the games another kid watch fernando and like steve sacks all the like the 80s yeah so all right so you're going to baseball games you're an la kid are you like do you have friends do you have a car are you going into hollywood or when do you start getting interested in um you know fucking your life up with show business as a little kid yeah just like

uh being a latchkey kid and how much older is your sister 12 years oh my god do you know her um i know her pretty good not like uh someone that's my age, but we've gotten closer and closer. But by the time I was eight, she was out of the house. Right. She was married already. Wow. Still married? Still married.

That's good. Yeah. Nieces and nephews? I got nieces and nephews and everything. Oh, you're like a regular guy. A regular dude. Yeah, maybe that's what I was sensing when we were working together. Like, what's wrong with this guy?

Yeah, what's wrong with this dude? Looks like he had a pretty good family. Yeah, maybe that's what I was sensing when we were working together. Like, what's wrong with this guy? Yeah, what's wrong with this dude? Looks like he had a pretty good family. Yeah. So when you were young, you started moving towards? Yeah, I was just like class clown. Like, I was always, even when I was in a Latin school, I stuck out because I was light-skinned. Or when I transferred to other schools, I had a funny lunch where my parents spoke funny and we had a shitty car.

So it was always kind of an outsider. Yeah. What kind of car? My parents had a Gremlin. They had a Nova. They had like a bunch of old, now cars that would be kind of cool. Novas are pretty cool. People hot rod those things.

Yeah. So that type of you know american car yeah good american car the gremlin was an odd grandma dodge dart oh yeah those were pretty the people like those too yeah because you make them go fast too i think right you can make those go fast the nova is what people love or am i thinking of uh yeah chevy nova you could turn those out yeah those are badass yeah so all right so you kid. I'm that. I'm just the kid that's, you know, I'm hanging out and all my other, like, I went to a Catholic school in Westchester when I grew up in Englewood, which is Westchester's little, at the time was like a better neighborhood and my parents didn't want me to go to school in LA, USD

anymore. And so I went to a school in Westchester and all this like immigrant kids were just like, it was the kids that had mustaches in fifth grade or hanging out like the you know me and the Palestinian kid and the Lebanese kid and the Italian kid and the Filipino kid. The Russian kid? There was a Russian kid and it was just us and our little UN that we had in the corner and uh and it was you know it was the same kid for same kids for like a long time same 30 kids in the same school And it was the same kids for a long time, same 30 kids in the same school.

But it was mostly like a one-hour. So you're always isolated with those kids? No, I mean, they ended up being okay, but I found out that my way to assimilate and become friends with people is to be the funny kid. Right. And so I looked back. I was at my mom's house looking through storage the other day,

and I found a yearbook from when I was in second grade. And it was signed by Sister Perpetua, like the nun that said, to Chris, the comedian. Oh, really? I was just like always either because I was- That was a nice way of saying you were a pain in the ass. Yeah. A very nice Irish Catholic way to say that I was a pain in the ass. But I think because also I spent a lot of time at home by myself when my parents were

at work. I was just watching, you know, the Cosby show and just watching. I love Steve Martin and all that stuff. Were you watching those afternoon talk shows or was that before your time? I watched some of those. Yeah. But it wasn't really super nice. Well, yeah, but they weren't featuring comedians then.

Like there was that gap. You were probably too young for like Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas and all that shit that I saw when I was a kid. I guess it was Jenny Jones. I think she was a comedian. She was a comedian. Yeah. I think she was from Seattle. I don't know what happened to her.

I don't know. She was kind of a comedian. Yeah. I'd always see her pictures at comedy clubs. I never saw her perform or anything. Yeah. And she did a talk show, though, like Phil Donahue style. Yeah, on like channel, not one of the major networks.

She was like channel 13 or 11 or something. How's your Cuban? My Cuban? Yeah. My Spanish? Yeah. Oh, it's great. Yeah?

Yeah, it's- All intact? All intact. Is that straight up Spanish or is it Cuban Spanish? I'm not being condescending. No, no, that's fine. Cuban Spanish is a little different. It's faster. It's very loud. Yeah. It is it Cuban Spanish so I'm not being kind of no no that's fine uh it's Cuban Spanish is a little different it's faster it's very loud yeah it is very loud Spanish a lot of slang yeah and you only pronounce like half the word and so sometimes uh so when I was there at

first uh it took a little getting used to I was like okay I have to really turn it up and by the end it was fine but at the beginning i was like oh yeah it was really got the intonation going really got the intonation because i wanted to because it was like you know i think was it second nature in a way i mean what did you grow up with that or were your parents sort of like trying to to speak english my parents i mean i always spoke spanish at home and i still speak spanish with my family except for my sister. And they're not super kind of flamboyant. They're not like that.

They're more mild-mannered. My dad's like a hot-blooded Cuban type of guy. Yeah. But he's not loud and obnoxious. He's not out in the street playing dominoes? He's not out in the street. Is that wrong? No, no, no. That's cool. But he's not out in the street playing dominoes? He's not out in the street. Is that wrong? No, no, no. That's cool.

He's like more, he's not like super Miami. You know, Miami's like more flashy and everyone. My dad's like, you know, he's an engineer type and stuff. You have to understand the only images I have of Cuba are like people smoking very large cigars and playing dominoes in the street. Yeah.

Does that happen there? Yeah, people are smoking cigars. People are playing dominoes. Yeah. People are driving happen there yeah people are smoking cigars people are playing dominoes yeah people are driving old cars right because i i almost went we were trying to plan a trip i don't remember which woman it was with but uh but before i i guess it's now getting a little easier but you know when we were looking into it you had to fly through mexico from mexico city or somewhere yeah and then you know it was very vague about whether or not about renting a car but whether there was lights about where you stay like it was not like as as interested as i was to maybe go there before

it opened up it seemed like it wasn't going to be an easy trip uh in terms of getting there and i'm not you know i i can handle a lot but it it just sounded like, oh, I don't know. I've traveled with you. Where did we go? We went to, I remember we just went around the Midwest and stuff. We went to Cleveland and Minneapolis and Chicago. Yeah, you did all those shows with me. It's not easy traveling.

You know, there's always, it's a little complicated. No, no, no. With you, it's easy to travel. Yeah. In Cuba. Yeah. traveling you know there's always it's a little complicated no no no with you it's easy to travel yeah in cuba yeah it's like it's not things are never there's a lot of bureaucracy yeah yeah there's a lot of like uh almost like secrecy like it's hard to get an answer a straight answer from someone because it might affect somebody else you know so you're like you ask someone like hey how much is a cab to Malacong or something? They'll be like, I really don't know.

And you're like, oh, you really do know. You just don't want to say the price because someone else might try to get a different price out of you. And then you're the person that snitched on what the right price is. So you got to ask a bunch of people sometimes to be like, hey, how much is this? And they're like, I don't know. Somebody's like, oh, it could be 20. And you're like, it's not fucking 20. It's like five. So it sounds like a little bit of aggravation

no well it's it's just different way out aggravation i was just like it's just a little more complicated than it is here all right so now you're like in high school you're watching tv you're doing this shit how do you end up in the in the bay area how do you end up committing to to comedy and and uh you And when does that start? I mean, class clown business. I was class clown. I finished school in Manhattan Beach, and then I went to community college for a couple years. And then I went to Berkeley to finish off the rest of my education.

So you really locked down, huh? You got community college, and you locked in. Your grades in high school were okay or not good enough or what? Yeah, they were fine, but I just couldn't really afford. And I wanted to go kind of do a better school than I could have. Right. Because I think after a couple of years, at first I felt a little lost in high school and then I was like, oh, I can do this. I did Model UN and that was big on me. With all your old friends that you came up with? Yeah, yeah. We just took over the world in these simulated debates. And it made me kind of, I traveled a little when I did Model UN and I went to Georgetown

and Berkeley to do these debates. And I was like, oh, I could, I can roll with these kids. I could. And be in front of people. I could be in front of people. Those early debates were like early standups. Yeah. I'd just be like the funny. And you'd write it write it all out and write it all out and do little routines

and like win debates like i was a decent i was a good debater and i don't know anything about structured debate yeah i didn't really either well you just you make your point they make their point you answer back they answer back and then you see you talk you start a delegation and you like figure out little ideas with other countries like oh that was the com that was the the un part that was debating yeah right and you'd go up and you'd you know and have a position paper and you'd read your statement and stuff like that you never thought about getting into politics or service i did at that time but that was just i don't know youngster stuff. But so I was like, oh, I could. And then I remember I did a debate at Berkeley and I was like, this is where I want to go.

What was it about Berkeley? It was just cool. Like it was, you know, my parents are very conservative Cubans, like a lot of Cubans are. And Berkeley is the opposite. Right. Of that. Conservative what? With like Catholic conservative?

Yeah, they're religious. They're just a lot of Cubans come from Cuba and they're like, you know, communism, socialism, no thank you. Right. I'll just be the opposite of that. Right, right. They're good people, but that's how, you know, they're more on the Republican side. So conservative, like fiscally conservative? Fiscally, you know.

Real pro-capitalism? Yes. My dad was just like Ronald Reagan all the way. Make your own way. Make, like even, you know, space industry and, like, that stuff kept my dad in business because he, you know, made parts that went in the space shuttle or were part of, like, you know, naval ships. It's like he worked in that.

So he was like, he was USA all the way. And he felt that connection. He felt that. Like, you know, when the shuttle went up, he was like. Oh, yeah. I remember when I was a little boy and the Challenger happened, and it was really hard on him because he took so much pride in working in aerospace and stuff like that.

And he would tell me when he was a kid in Cuba that he would stare at the stars and think about space. Really? And think about and know that we can go up there. Well, they find out now that the guy you know someone tried to rally against that one of the engineers knew that the seals wouldn't hold at a certain temperature it was really only oh crazy oh dude the guy i think he might have just died but it was a burden on him his whole life he tried to argue he knew that the seals like they

couldn't take off in the temperature they were taking off and because the seals would not tolerate it and he told them that and then he was voted down yeah and they fucking just winged it and blew those people up yeah

it was one of those stories and he he lived with the burden of of of not being able to convince wow

like he stood his ground but it was not enough to make them not send it off. Oh, that's nuts. Yeah. Yeah.

I heard on NPR. Oh, of course. Yeah. Well, it wasn't your dad's fault is what I'm saying. Oh, no. Thank you. Yeah. It had nothing to do with whatever parts he made.

It'd be great if it was. It'd be horrible. This is what I'm here to talk to you about, Mark. Oh, no. No, no. I'm going to break big news. So you're up at Berkeley at the hippie school. I'm at the hippie school.

Hippie Ivy League school, right? I don't know. Is it? No, it's not Ivy League. No, it's not. It's a good one. It's a good school. Yeah.

And so I went there. I was also in love with a girl that went to school in Portland, like a high school sweetheart that went to school in Portland. So I was like, well, Berkeley's closer. Were you going up there, too? Yeah, I would go up there and go back and forth. got my heart broken I started a bunch of shitty bands what'd you oh you play guitar in bands really guitar and sang really yeah so that was like what I saw and what you still sing about I haven't seen you with the guitar in a while yeah um the La Bamba joke

is that on the record it's on the record okay with the guitar no guitar no really interesting it shows no guitar anyway it was hard to let it go is that what happened no it was like uh it was a phase that i went through because i didn't i started uh stand up with no guitar and then i was like oh i'm gonna just play try to integrate it yeah many a person has tried that yeah you few keep it in yeah hard to transcend the uh the uh the reputation of the guitar yeah don't want to have the uh i don't be the guitar no one wants to be the reputation of the guitar act. Yeah. Don't want to have the- I don't want to be the guitar guy. No one wants to be the guitar guy.

But everyone's like, oh, well, I guess he's doing guitar now and then. Yeah, he's the guitar guy. Who's Chris Garcia? The guy with the guitar? Oh, God. Nothing. He closes with that guitar bit. Ugh.

It was a phase. No, I had good jokes. I had good stuff that came out of that. No, I liked it. I liked it. So you were playing in sensitive emo punky bands? A band called Love Minus Zero. What?

I know. It's a Dylan song, you know? Yeah, yeah. It was very emotional. I also was a creative writing poetry major, so I was pouring my heart out into poems. See, this is what I felt for me. That's what it was. You felt this little heartbroken kid.

Yeah, it wasn't the normal guy. I was like, this guy's got some heaviness. Seems sensitive. Yeah, that's what I felt. Yeah, I'm a sensitive guy. We all are. But I'm not like a cry baby. I don't wear it.

I don't know that week. I do cry. I thought you might cry that week. But I'm not a wimp. But I am sensitive. No, no. Like, you know, who week. But I'm not a wimp. But I am sensitive. No, no. Like, you know, who am I? I'm a pretty big pussy.

But, you know, we ended up working together. We traveled together. You opened for me. We were in Cleveland together. We had a nice conversation. Were you there for that? Oh, yeah. Remember when we sat there?

That was an amazing moment. That was really cool. Right, because you and I performed in the same theater complex that dennis miller and bill o'reilly did a show like literally down the hall and we were out front i was smoking a cigar you were you were smoking cigarettes you still smoke no and uh that guy sat next to us and he had gone to the o'reilly thing and i chose not to bring politics into it and he just laid out his life for us it It was this interesting Southern life. He was a vet, right? He was in Vietnam, wasn't he?

Yeah, he was in Vietnam. And like, he just like, and we, you and I had that realization that if I brought politics into it, we would have not had that conversation. Yeah, we would've been just pigeonholed. The guy's like, oh, that guy's an asshole. Right, and it was just this beautiful kind,

it was moving in a way. It was superhuman. Yeah, and he seemed to get emotional too about talking about this stuff. It was superhuman. Yeah. And he seemed to get emotional too about talking about this stuff. It was pretty wild. Cleveland's interesting. It was cool. And it was like, it felt so symbolic.

We're just sitting on a bench in the middle of the Rust Belt. That's right. Talking about America. Not talking about politics, but- Talking America. Yeah. All right. So you're in Berkeley.

You're being a poet. Yeah. So you studied poetry, creative writing? I studied poetry and creative writing. Did you publish some poems? I had some stuff and like i i worked at the literary magazine like i was like a editor like an entertainment editor or some sort of editor dude this is what i'm telling you you saw you see me in you yeah i mean i was

the editor of the literary journal i wrote poetry i was uh you know i was that guy killed that part of me me too we didn't though we really didn did i tried i burned those moleskins but i thought did you yeah i found some poems recently when i was looking through stuff and taking it pretty seriously pretty serious yeah i never understood that because i wanted to do poetry too but there's you couldn't pick something with less of a future you know comedy has more of a future like you know it's like if you're going to be a poet you probably got to stay in academia yeah and you got to publish poems that are only important to the other other poets and a few people that read poetry still it's so insulated and precious i think it's important i like reading good poetry uh occasionally yeah

but uh but i i don't know what the future is in it. My parents never were like, you shouldn't do that. But I can't imagine them sacrificing everything. You didn't feel the weight of it? No, I didn't really feel it. Because I was in academia. I was really pursuing this. And you graduated from Berkeley? Yep, I graduated.

It took me a while. I didn't do it in two years. I took some time off and went back and finished. When did you start stand-up? Because I think stand-up's a reasonable extension of poetry. Yeah, I think so. Well, I did poetry slams. I would do funny poetry slams.

I know. And then I went through a big phase. Did you ever go up against Jamie Kilstein? No, I did not go up against Jamie Kilstein. I did go up against this guy, Bo Sia, who's a great, he's still like a good poet guy that I looked up to. But there was like a big scene in Oakland and Berkeley at the time. And that's another taste.

I think I was always kind of skirting standup, but didn't do it. I was in bands. I did poetry. I took an improv class in college. And while I was there, the director of the science theater, there's a public science center. And the director was like, hey, we have a children's theater. Would you like to be one of our improvisers? And so I got a job doing improv for little kids.

Oh, how was that? About the brain. It was really cool because I was just like 20 or something. Because I was just like 20 or something. And all the other improvisers were like seasoned Bay Area improvisers and actors who had like a good day job with benefits. So they were all really talented. And I was like the new kid that was- Who were they? Did you know any of them from television or anything?

No, but they were all like working professional actors that were like part of companies and stuff like that. And so I did improv about the brain in this troupe called the Brainiacs. And we would, you know, do outreach at schools for like an entire auditorium. Oh, really? Yeah. And I would present science shows and like dress up like a wizard and like do like science performances for kids. Good Samaritan, good hearted guy.

Yeah. Teaching the kids. But then that was also stand up. Right. Like a 45 minute routine of me like you know putting an onion and some liquid nitrogen and like you being like what's gonna happen kids and the kids are like yeah and like me rallying these kids and you know so you got to do all the experiments and make smoke i did this i made the smoke i put the kids on the vandegraaff generator where their head

hair would stick out and stuff and it was was like a 45-minute science comedy routine. And then you have that nice relationship with kids. Yeah, with all the kids. Yeah. And so that was nice. And then eventually I was like, I have to do stand-up. Like, I just wanted to. And then I...

What was the slam audience like? Because a lot of those people do funny shit. A lot of snapping. Oh, really? A lot of that. A lot of head nodding. But you got some good laughs, yeah i got a lot i just did uh for that sort of thing i didn't pour my heart out or do any political causes deliver the good yeah i was a silly yeah um so that was fun so i was like

oh i love i've just always liked being the class clown and center of attention from debate to poetry slams to music to everything and And I was like, well, obviously. Final Frontier. Is stand up like my childhood dream is the thing I really want to do. Really? Was it? Yeah, since I was a little kid. Why?

Who'd you watch? Steve Martin was like it. That was it? That was it. Because I was just a little kid alone in a room. My parents were gone. And I would just watch like Wild and Crazy Guy and clips like I just had like a bunch of VHS tapes.

Yeah. When I was a kid, I loved Gene Pompa. Like. He's great. I used to love Gene Pompa. I was a kid. Hey, little bear. Yeah.

Hey there, little bear. Why the long face? Like that joke. And like that joke about his boyfriend's dad. And be like, your toothbrush tastes weird. And I knew he was like a latin guy yeah and i was like oh this guy's like a weird latin guy yeah not i mean he doesn't make a huge deal out of it he does talk about it but above all he's a weirdo and i was like this guy

it was like my hero and so i really know that uh i when i first started comedy i sent him a message on face on my space and i was like hey i'm doing a show in la this is going to sound odd but you're Does he know that? When I first started comedy, I sent him a message on MySpace. And I was like, hey, I'm doing a show in LA. This is going to sound odd, but you're my comedy hero. Would you do the show? And he was really flattered. And he ended up, he couldn't do it for some reason. But I don't think I've actually ever come across him.

I've never really seen him since then. I haven't seen him lately either but i definitely liked watching him oh so cool and he had that weird thing he did with his mouth to kind of like i've only seen a couple of guys do it it's like you know he'll deliver a line and he'll kind of half smile you know like he does this like oh yeah he's about to laugh at himself like it's a charm thing yeah but he knows he's like kind of shy it's like he's embarrassed and he's about to laugh because he made a funny right but he's not gonna give it right but it's a charm thing yeah but he knows he's like kind of shy it's like he's embarrassed and he's about to laugh because he made a funny right but he's not gonna give it right but it's a device it's a total device and i don't know if he if he i'm sure it just happened naturally yeah but i've

only seen a couple of guys do it rick avilis used to do it also latino well rick avilis was a street performer and then he became a stand-up he was in ghost the movie ghost he was the the scary guy the murderer and ghost oh wow yeah that guy yeah he passed away no and uh his brother's a stand-up too but he was another guy who did that thing with his mouth and i always remembered it because it was a way it was an interesting thing because it makes the audience want to laugh yeah it's an interesting thing and and i always liked watching gene and then he started wearing hats I remember Gene before the hat and then he wears the hat. He's a hat guy now. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know where he's at. He used to be an improv guy. I see his name around. I just don't roll in the same circles. Oh, you got to go meet him. I got to. You got to tell him that. I've never heard his name come up.

Yeah. Especially someone's comedic hero. That's a very flattering thing. Yeah. That he was the guy. And there's another guy,vares guedes who's like a straight-up cuban comedian that just had uh he has like 40 records in right cuba and my parents and i would listen to it all the time driving to my sister's house like they would

just listen to stand up in the car uh-huh wherever we whenever we drove somewhere and delivery what was it different i mean like how how does cuban comedy work um it was like jokes like set up punchline like one-liners some of them were like street jokes that he just used in his act sure but his timing is like impeccable even if you don't i was imagining i listened to it recently i was imagining what it would be like if i didn't understand it and it would it seems like it would still be funny because just the intonation in his voice and it's just so classy and you could just the timing of it is just like so perfectly it was like stand-up so it wasn't um broad like uh character driven stuff oh no he it was like about it was stand-up about life and life as being a cuban like he has this famous joke that i love

that my dad would tell all the time he's like so uh fidel just decided when they're gonna bury his uh what he's made his funeral arrangements already in case he dies if he they're gonna bury his feet in wherever he's like matanzas because that's where he took his first steps they're gonna bury his heart in havana yeah because that's where he poured out his heart and he just like went through his whole body and was like and and they're going to bury his ass all over the country because he shit all over the fucking thing. Like he just had like jokes like that. We're like, whoa, that's like a heavy political,

like a good, it was like, you know, he delivered it way better. But the punchline was like, oh, that's a good one. So he didn't live in Cuba. No, he left. And so he would do comedy in like Miami and New York and stuff like that. But he had like over, I think 40 records.

Wow. But my parents had them all I think, 40 records. Wow. But my parents had them all. Oh, wow. And we would just listen to them and like, it was super- As a family? Live performance. It was like a live stand-up record. And you do that as a family?

Yeah, we'd listen to it in the car as a family and just like crack up. And my parents, my mom's very funny. And like, it's like a funny- Oh, that's sweet. It's like a funny family. Yeah, yeah. So that, just like like i think maybe subconsciously i was like well this is what i do when i'm a latchkey kid alone it and when i'm in front of

the other kids at school i'm starved for attention i get laughs there my family when we're together on these car trips that are nice we're listening to comedy it's just comedy is just always there well how did you start stand-up in the, you started in San Francisco at the Punchline? I started, yeah, I mean, that's the home club. That's where everyone goes every Sunday. Right. All the young comics. To wait it out?

Wait a year for a spot. I didn't know that until recently. Yeah, everyone just, you got to sit in the back. I talked to Ali Wong. Oh, yeah, we started the same month. Yeah, and I had no idea that was the system because when I came to San Francisco, I was already kind of established, so I didn't have to come up through that.

But I had no idea that you had to wait for a year, that Molly made you wait for a year. Yeah. I think it's a good, I thought it was a good way to like- And you just watched. You just watch and sit there every Sunday, and finally, like, you get the courage to talk to Molly, and as a young comic, it's very intimidating. She's intimidating as an old man. Yeah, she's a badass. Yeah.

And so I was like, you know, hey, I've been, my name's Chris. I've been waiting for a year. She's like, okay, well, I've seen you around, so I'll let you know. And you're like, and then you just sit and wait. But were you doing comedy other places? Yeah, I would do all the mics and stuff. The Brainwash Cafe is where everyone starts. Right.

And then, you know, it's a laundromat. Yeah, I remember it. It sort of came to be when I was there, like in the early 90s, I think. It's been around forever. Yeah. The guy, Tony Sparks, who runs it, he's like really passionate about it, really great to young comics. Yeah.

And that's where you start. And then you do, at the time, there's the Mott Cafe, which is like this other, it's like in the Mission. Yeah. And there's like a bunch of, a luggage store, which was like some weird art space on Market Street. It was all really kind of dingy places, but at the time it was like Moshe and Weinbach and Shang Wang and Louis Katz and all these people that I really admire. What's Louis up to?

He's, he just got a job writing for a show in New York, I think just last week. Oh, good. He was here for a while, and he just moved back to New York. Okay. Yeah, no, I always liked Louie. All right, so you come up through the ranks there, and that's when I met you, I guess. Yeah. Not that long ago.

What is it, five years ago? About five years ago. It was just a couple years in. And then you have this amazing break in your career. Your dad gets Alzheimer's. It was the best career decision I ever had was convincing my dad.

How is he? Good, thanks for asking. He's hanging in there. He's safe and he's in a home and he's being taken care of and stuff. It never really ever gets better, but it'll plateau for a while. And right now it's like he's just kind of calm

and um hanging out yeah yeah it's you know it's tough but yeah he's uh he's he's here yeah he's here he's in long beach that's where his home is and do you go see him a lot yeah i go to see him on the weekends for like every other weekend i go visit him and stuff with your mom uh sometimes with my mom sometimes not but my mom's there all the time. She's there like four or five days a week. Hard. Yeah. But it's amazing how dedicated she is to him and how sweet he still is to her.

He still carries her purse and stuff. Oh, really? Even though he doesn't always know it's her, he's still. Yeah. The habits are deep. My mom always says, you can tell which husband here was a bad guy which guy was cheating like she could always tell she's like that guy like and she points him out she's like he tried to grab me like she's always like very she'll say

stuff like that about the other uh dementia people the other guys like she'll be like that guy trying to grab my ass that guy trying to grab my ass this guy uh-huh and uh i mean she can she's kind of she likes the attention but like she's like dad is always very like he's like a good yeah guy you always tell like he's polite and sweet and stuff it's still hard huh yeah it must be hard but uh but it's nice everyone shows up and you know i i don't i can't imagine what that's like really to to watch the memories go. But yeah, it's not,

especially cause my dad had such a vivid memory. He's an amazing storyteller. He could put you right in the place. He could talk about anything. Like he was very well ready to talk about like Celtic folklore or something and just tell a story and he'd like put you right there. You tell a story about when he's a kid, all these things. And,

and that's just gone now. And so I... How do you frame it? Just that sometimes this happens as a natural course for life for some people. And, you know, you just kind of accept it, I guess, huh? That what? Alzheimer's disease? Yeah.

It's a terrible disease. It's like, you know, there's no solution to it. Yeah. And unfortunately, a lot of people get it. Yeah. And just people don't know how to fix it. Yeah, yeah. It's like, nope.

It seems like people don't care about old people. But you still enjoy the time with him. Yeah. And now I feel like it's weird, but it's like a very calm time. And we're very, I'm just, I just want to hang out with him. Right. Even though he doesn't know who I am anymore. Right.

Like, I just like, I'll try to dance with him or sing with him or like tickle, just to get any emotion out of him is kind of a beautiful thing. Cause it's just in one little moment like that could just like make an entire four hour visit or something. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a connection. Yeah. It's a connection of any sort, you know, like before I got, I got married in October and I went to talk to him before even he's really, I, he doesn't really, sometimes he'll remember me and like smile or something, but I just went there and cause he didn't come to the, he couldn't come to the wedding. I just went and I just had, I just talked to him. I was like, Hey dad, I'm getting married.

It's going to be awesome. Thanks for showing me how to be a good guy. Like all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I started bawling. Yeah. And he just like hugged me and patted my back and tried to force my mouth into a smile.

Yeah. And it's, it was just, and I, you know, put a smile on my face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was beautiful. And like just a moment like that is just, it's all, it's, you know, it's very beautiful and I'm lucky yeah where he could show up on an emotional level you know that's deeper than the memory yeah right totally and and uh your wife um where did you meet

her uh we met in San Francisco we uh we were co-workers and uh we met where uh we worked at rooftop comedy uh where she um she was like a editor and producer and then i was just like the home page uh guy that i would like pick the clips and stuff like that we met each other there so you're in comedy yeah in comedy yeah yeah and so And that was when they had the big nationwide network of cameras. Yeah, they had that. They still do that? I think they kind of changed. I think they're more into, I don't know, they've changed.

I think they've rebranded themselves, and I think they're trying to produce shows. Yeah, I think they're partnered with Audible or something. Yeah, with Audible and stuff. I just learned that today. Yeah. Or yesterday, yeah. So now, how's marriage going? Good? Yeah, it's awesome. Are. I just learned that today. Yeah. Or yesterday, yeah. So now, how's marriage going? Good?

Yeah, it's awesome. Are you going to have a baby? We're, you know, in a couple years. Oh, yeah? Yeah. We're going to enjoy being- How old are you? I'm 38.

Uh-huh. And right now, we're just going to enjoy being married for a little bit. Yeah. And I'm going to keep on making some traction in the comedy world. Sure, man. And then- Well, you've done my live show. a little bit and I'm gonna keep on making some traction in the comedy world. Sure man. And then I'll be on TV. Well you got the, you know, you've done my live show,

you know, you did a live WTF and you work with me on the road, you make an appearance in my special more later. Yeah. And Ira Glass heard you on my show I imagine and then put you on his show. Yeah. And got you a bigger audience.

Always swooping, you know. I think he does sometimes but that was a good venue for you that this american life yeah it was really it was a really nice and special it's like the thing i'm just so proud of that yeah yeah got you a lot of attention i imagine i think you know some people notice it got attention for people like all over the world right like whose you know parents have dimensions like sure. It got a lot of, like, hundreds of messages from people that were really touched by it. Oh, yeah.

It was nice not to feel so alone about it. And also to find the humor in it and be, you know, to balance that humor with the emotions, I think probably provides people who are in the same situation with a lot of relief and the freedom to maybe look at it a little differently. Yeah, I think so. That's kind of the point of it, I think. I'm not going out to do that, but I think that's what it does for me.

Right. You've got to process it in the way that you do it with your creativity and also to sort of balance the emotions of it. Yeah. And so to make it funny and to find those moments balances it out yeah and it's very powerful shit man soothing yeah yeah so this uh trip to cuba was a honeymoon it was a honeymoon prolonged honey like uh like you waited i waited uh oh yeah i waited a couple months to do it it was my parents my mom was not happy about it initially she was because no they've never gone back to Cuba. I've never been to Cuba. And they have the anger about it?

Yeah. They just don't want to go. They had a terrible time there. Right. Even though they have all their siblings and family there, they were just like, don't do it. But then I was like, well, you guys went on your honeymoon there. I want to go honeymoon where you guys honeymooned 50 years ago. Good sales pitch. And I want to get the family history while I still can because dad can't give it to me. Right. So I'm going to go on this like pilgrimage and stay with our family there. Yeah.

So that's what I did. So we went and we stayed. We went to Havana and we stayed with my family for like half of the trip. Really? And I got to meet my whole family that I had never met before. Was traveling there easier because you went right at this time? No, it's easier. Well, because of, I mean, I can go straight there and some people can, but we just flew

from Miami to Havana. Oh, because you're a Cuban citizen? Because my parents are from Cuba. I could just travel there. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, good. So it was easy.

Uh-huh. And who were you with, your aunt, your uncle, or who? We stayed with my dad's sister, and then we eventually met up with my mom's sister. But yeah, we met my dad's sister for the first time. And they're all there, but your mom stays in touch, right? Yeah, they stay in touch. It's like they send them packages all the time. They send medicine and money, and they write each other letters, and they talk on the phone.

And stuff like that's become easier over the years. At the beginning, they would send packages that wouldn't arrive. My dad would get heated on the phone and yell about communism. The phone call would drop, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But now that things are a little easier, they can call more and send letters. Did you meet cousins that you didn't know about? Yeah. Most of my family's in Cuba, and I met everybody.

For the first time? For the first time. And it was so cool. My aunt is 70. She's so smart and so classy, and she's a lot like my dad and i look just like my dad so she just started bawling when she saw me because i'm the age that my dad was when he left basically and so it's like seeing him she hadn't seen him in person in you know since the 70s wow and so she sees and it was like, I cried every day for one reason or another,

just like sheer pride. I heard all these stories from my aunt. Like, I told my aunt, I was like, Mom says that Dad was the best dancer in the neighborhood. Like, she always talks about how good of a dancer Dad was. And she was like, my aunt was like, no, he was a fucking weird dancer. He was like the weirdest dancer.

And she started making fun of him. I was like, oh, my mom just had the hots for my dad. You're right. And maybe he was unique. Yeah. If he was a fucking weird dancer he was like the weirdest dancer and she started making fun of him i was like oh my mom just had the hots for my dad you're right and then maybe he was unique yeah if he was a weird dancer yeah he stood out yeah and then i met my cousins they're all you know they're all really i i didn't know how poor my family like my parents always guarded me from i just didn't know how poor my dad was and i got his whole story and I was really blown away by how incredible of a journey that he's made from being like a street kid oh really coming all the way I learned yeah I just my aunt like I knew some of the story but uh like my my dad I never heard my dad talk about his dad before I didn't even know I didn't even know my grandpa's name at all.

And so I was like, what's your dad like? And she was like, and she showed me a picture, and he was like very dapper, and he was a swindler. He was like a con man. And apparently he was like kind of a party guy and loved the nightlife. And he would take my grandma out and they'd go out and have a night on the town yeah and he didn't really care for his kids didn't really care for my dad so they would like my grandma would give or my grandpa would give uh my dad and his sister like robitussin or like like um to knock him out knock him out yeah and

then one day uh they you know they knocked him out and i think my grandma left the iron on and like started a fire while they were out partying and my these two little kids woke up to like a fire in the house and that's like one of their earliest memories oh my god yeah fire and then but uh he was just like he was just like a you know womanizer my dad's dad was a womanizer. This is like pre-Castro. This is pre-Castro. This is Bautista. When it was big party time. This is big party.

American companies were coming. Sherman Williams Paint Company came to the island. And my grandpa was like, okay, I see how these motherfuckers work. And he faked a workers' comp claim, took them for a whole ton of money, and then was like, peace out to my dad and aunt and grandma, and left Cuba, just abandoned them and went to Mexico, where he eventually started a baseball team. Like, he owned a baseball team.

He was just like, he was like, fuck this. I'm out. And just left. And as a result, it left my, my, you know, my dad and his family like on the streets. Wow. And they just couch surfed. Uh-huh. From their entire youth. And that's how my dad eventually met my mom is like, he would like stay on their couch or like stay with their family and stuff.

But like my dad was very, like they were very poor. Uh-huh. And I didn't know about, I didn't know like they just never had a home. Wow. And then my dad, there was this time at the time teenagers would in Havana

would do this thing called Alphabetisad, which means they would, they would go to rural areas and they would tutor rural kids how to read. They would teach the kids on plantations and stuff like that, just in the country, teach them how to read. And so my dad went and did that and they get paid and my dad opted to send the money back to his mom so she could get an apartment.

Right. And so he also worked and made money at that time and he sent it all home and after like three months after he was gone he came home and his mom had spent all the money oh my god and so my dad was like oh fuck and so he got so mad that he just ran away yeah and lived in a convent for a year wow it's like a teenager uh-huh and then the nuns were like, they're like, you're a very bright young man. You're in a very terrible situation. And they got him to go to this fancy boarding school in the outskirts of Havana in Guanabacoa,

which was like a really good school. And then he just went to school there. And he didn't have to worry about where to live and stuff. And then he got out and uh he you know finished school and his sister had a boyfriend or a husband at the time who made earrings he was like an earring maker and a jeweler who was making a ton of money yeah and my dad was like huh you're making a ton of money making hand making these earrings and stuff. And he saw that other people were making a bunch of money.

And so my dad was like, I'll make an earring press. So he created an earring press that eventually a bunch of jewelers in town started using and buying from him. And my aunt said that, you know, her husband was balling. He was making like 80 bucks a week. And my dad at that time was making $200 a week. Like he was rich. Right. For the first time. Yeah. And so he was like, he's, you know, he saved up. He did that for a while.

Yeah. And then he was like, that's it. We're blowing this place. We're leaving Cuba. And he's just married to my mom. Was Castro in by that point? Castro was in. This is the late 60s. Right. And my dad... So everything changed. Everything changed. And this jewelry press business had to be on the down low.

Had to be on the down low. Everything's on the down low. So it's illegal. Right. But he's still doing everything. There's a whole secret economy on the side in Cuba. It's all, you know. So my dad's balling, makes this money he goes to the government he's like hey i'd like to leave he presents his papers to leave cuba and they're like no um you're a traitor you're not a part of the communist party you're like a catholic fuck you and so they take him and they send him to the sugar cane fields where he was in solitary confinement pulling sugar cane like these sugar cane camps. Yeah.

Where he pulled sugar cane, you know, sun up to sun down for two years. Oh, my God. And like he was put in solitary confinement and he was like, like tortured. He was given electroshock therapy. And like, I'm curious to see what other, what resulted with other people at that time. Because people like my mom suspects that my dad got Alzheimer's at an early age because of all the electroshock therapy. No kidding.

And stuff like that. And so. So your mom knew about all this? Yeah. My mom knew about that stuff. You didn't. No, they just said like, oh, they sent dad away to this work camp. Right.

For two years. Right. But he was, you know, he was away from his wife and his new daughter. And he was like, his hands are still scratched from pulling cane all day. Wow. He was like a hundred pounds when he got out. Yeah. And then after two years, and that was a place where Catholics wentolics went non um they sent homosexuals there it was

this uh concentration camp it's like a concentration camp yeah and that you know he was there i mean 67 like late yeah maybe 67 to 69 or something like that he was just in this and he came out emaciated and i didn't know when i was a teenager i was like dad you're crazy like i didn't know that because of this my dad had suffered like ptsd and stuff like right right and so then he goes you know he does that for two years and he's like hey i want to leave i like he still wanted to leave cuba and they're like sure you can leave but you gotta leave your wife and your daughter behind so my dad left and went to spain and he worked all over Spain. He worked on like tow trucks and engineering projects, construction, like all this type of stuff. And then made enough money to kind of bribe or like send my mom and sister to Spain. And then they lived there for a couple of years.

And then they came here? And then they came here. Oh my God. So now after this trip, you go sit with your father, and you are the container of this history. Yeah. And it's so heavy. It's so, I just look at him, and part of me is almost grateful that he can't remember some of this stuff

because it's so bad. Even after he came to the United States, he had such a tough time because he was like, I'm in America. Let's do this. And then he was just like, you know, working. Right. In a factory. Doing nothing.

And he had a tough time. And he was like, he was put in an institution for like a couple months because he just had a breakdown. Really? Because he was like, I can't fucking catch a break. Wow. Because his whole life, he's just just you know yeah i think about like the old man in the sea when i was right i was there there's uh you know the old man they call him a salau it's like the unluckiest of the unlucky yeah and i think about that wow um but

then i also think about how my mom is like the like so valuable to him. Like she's so amazing and so beautiful and so funny and so kind. And it gives me a lot of hope because just about love and humor. She's so funny. Take this guy who's kind of at, you know, so kind of sad about things and just cheer him up and him being nice and grateful to her. It's, you know, they've been married for over 50 years and they've gone through all that shit. And they've known each other since they were like 15 years old.

And she's still there for him. And she's still there for him. And when he can, he's there for her. Is there a feeling that there's something peaceful about where he's at now sometimes? Yeah, a little bit. Because he's mellow. Because he would blow up all the time. And now I get it. But I didn't get it at the time when i was in junior high and my dad we moved to west

chester to this house and he was trying to put together a laundry he was trying to make the laundry room and he fucked up and he destroyed the fucking thing with a hammer he just took the whole thing down and i was like why is my dad like this and now I know and I like regret that I like at the time I probably don't know how would I would have acted knowing this information I was in high school just like a fucking teenage asshole but like now it just I have so much empathy and respect and admiration for him yeah you know well it's glad that you get to own that and and show up for him now yeah you know there was probably nothing you could have done then necessarily. Yeah.

Did you try to humor him? Is that where you sort of got, when he started knowing you were funny, was your relationship with him frightened or did you try to humor the situation? That was more my mom's thing. She was like, you know, they spoke their own language. Right. You know, it had nothing to do with English or Spanish, but they just like, she would just like, just really charm him and like put a smile on his face. And that was their thing. I was more of like a, I know I talk about my dad the most, but I was like more of a

mama's boy where she just like idolized me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was, you know, Latin mom stuff. Probably protected you a little bit too. Protected me a lot from knowing all this stuff. Yeah. Because I was such a sensitive kid. Yeah.

And such a cry baby. They're like, you can't handle this information. we're just not gonna tell you that we're just gonna pretend we're like all the other kids in your school right and also from his rage i would imagine yeah or his volatility yeah and he never he never once he never hit me on anything like that frustrated yeah he was just frustrated um i remember when i was a kid in high school my dad asked me to make a resume for him because he was like i don't i just need a fucking job like he had trouble finding jobs and so i made a resume on like bright blue paint i didn't know how to fucking make a resume but i like made a like probably some shitty font like big fine just tried to make it stand out yeah and i went to fucking to fucking Kinko's to like print it out.

And I brought it back. And my dad was like, what the fuck is this thing? And the way he thinks, he's just like, you did this so I wouldn't get a job. And then I took the resume. I wiped my butt with it and I threw it in his face. And the fact that I am alive to tell that story is like says something really nice about my dad. Like he should have beat the shit out of me. He should have fucking pounded me into the ground

and he was just like, all right, cool. I guess I'll make my own fucking resume, you ungrateful piece of shit. But, you know, I just really lucked out. Yeah. Even though, you know, my parents, you know, they went through a lot, but it was all for me and I really appreciate it. And how great would it be if a kid with this life story ended up on Saturday Night Live? Right.

You hear that? So you go to Cuba and you have this amazing experience and you learn all these things about what you come from and the hardships your father went through in this very dramatic painful story of transcendence and and then you go back and do the snl audition yeah and i'm like oh man this is a piece of cake i mean it's not but i'm like oh this i'm gonna be scared of this my dad was in a fucking sugar cane concentration camp for two years and i'm gonna be scared of 12 white people with clipboard right boards right so get the fuck out of here right so that would be like that explains the moment we talked about at the beginning where you're at that the reason why

jose manny matty matty jose matty like it meant something to you yeah i was like i really felt like it was like that rocky moment or like, I don't know, Superman. You know, when he leaves. I am my father's son. And I'm like, yeah. Like, it really felt like a big, like, almost like even like a Lion King moment. Sure. Just being raised on the cliff or whatever.

Now they're making you wait as that moment dissipates. Yeah. You think waiting in a green room for two hours. Sugar cane concentration camp. I'm not scared of you. Been flying me out to New York, putting me up. Oh, I'm so scared.

Yeah. Really suffering. Yeah. Oh, man. But whether I get it or not, it's just a privilege. Yeah. I mean, I just have a privileged life. You do, man.

Yeah. I'm just a lucky guy. Sure. And to have that framework now, given what your father went through, it's a real gift, buddy. And I'm glad you got a nice wife and that, you know, I think that having all this information is only going to make you, you know, like a deeper person in terms of like, you know what I mean?

To process that and to, you know, come out the other side with whatever childhood memories you have, but then to sort of like see him in this whole other way is really a gift. That's going to resolve things for you too. I think so. Yeah. It's a very inspiring me, inspiring. It's given me a lot of hope and it's given me an inspiration to be a better

person. Right on, man. Well, thank you for talking, Chris. Yeah. Thanks,

Mark. That was me and Chris Garcia. I like him very much. And now I want to go to Cuba. Now I'm going to be one of those guys, though, that's sort of like, I should have went to Cuba before it became regular. I could play, I guess. I could could play i'm not feeling very confident today for whatever reason but um i'll play some guitar because i know i know so many of you are just hanging hanging out away from me to play my shitty guitar Thank you. Boomer lives! Anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats.

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