SPEAKER_01 0:00

I didn't grow up with my father and I was very resentful about it because I grew up with a single mother in Woodburn. I have my own kids and I love my kids to death. I can't imagine my life without them. Like, how can my dad continue to live his life and not even think about me? But then when I started comedy, I was like, how funny would it be to say, hey, I have two kids. Now I know why my dad left.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hey there, and welcome to the Woodburn Podcast, where we believe every story matters, and every neighbor has something worth sharing. Um your host, Gilbert Lopez. I'll be sitting down with local business owners, community leaders, and hometown heroes right here in Woodburn. You'll discover amazing people in your own backyard. And if you're more connected to the community we call home, make sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Woodburn Podcast to be the first to know about new episodes and announcements. Welcome back to another episode of the Woodburn Podcast. Today I'm sitting down with someone who grew up here in Woodburn, graduated from Woodburn High, and has been performing stand-up comedy across the West Coast since 2018. He opened for one of the biggest comedians in the country, Ralph Barbossa, and performed at the Hilliam Comedy Club. Now he's coming back home to headline what could be Woodburn's first comedy show. Everybody, please welcome Armando Santoyo.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Hello, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Thank you for stopping by, bro. This is an honor. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I want to shout out to your buddy Ray. He's the one that reached out to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yeah, thanks, Ray.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

We're going to start off with some icebreakers.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Alright, icebreakers.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Let's do it. Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Michael Jordan. That was easy.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah. Favorite comedy movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Super bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Favorite restaurant and Woodburn. Shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

So I haven't been in Woodburn for a while, but when I was a kid, it was Luis's.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

What has been your favorite place that you're performing?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So far, it's been Olsen Run and Eugene, Oregon.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Who is your favorite comedian?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Damn. That one's hard. There's a lot of them. I want to say top of the list would probably be Rapaboza, Stavros, Dan Soder, Theo Vaughn, George Lopez. It could go on forever. I feel like there's so many on the list. Dave Chappelle, Felipe Sparza. Okay. He was I feel like his jokes are so smooth. They're just so easy. It's so fun because he seems like he's such a fun guy. Gabriel Inglesius, he's a goat. I feel like he could do anything. I just always hated it because people always say, like, hey, you're kind of like fluffy because I'm fat, you know. And I was just like, I'd kind of resent that because I'm like, hey, I'm not fluffy. But yeah, man, I'm just a fan of comedy. So it's like there's a lot of comedians. Betty Murphy. I like people that could write a good joke and entertain people. I'm just a fan of comedy. What got me into comedy was actors like Jack Black, Conan O'Brien. I like that he could just riff. I was talking about Conan O'Brien on the way over here. I like how he could just do bits all day. I think what got me into comedy was just acting, like comedy movies like Pineapple Express, Seth Rogan. Those kind of movies.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Let's talk about that. Tell me more when you first started. Who was the first person that said, hey man, you can probably be a stand-up comedian? Like who planted the seed in your head?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

I felt like a lot of people used to say it. I just didn't know what the route was. And it was so simple that I was such an idiot. I didn't know that it was so easy. I remember they're calling me a comedian from doing one mic, and I was like, Oh, that's like I already got my degree in comedy, like it was that easy. I just had to do one mic. I had the owners of the comedy club saying, Oh, this is our new comedian, Armando. I'm like, holy shit, like I got the title already. I just started, I literally did one mic two months ago. But yeah, it's like I didn't realize that it was so easy to get in, and I didn't understand what the route was. Like you mentioned that I started in 2018. Literally, the first mic that I did was it was an open mic poetry night that I did at a place called The Space in Salem. I literally went behind a lady that did a poem about her friend that died from cancer. Oh, I know it's not funny, but it was funny to me because follow-up. Yeah, I followed her, she cried the whole time. It was a sad story about her friend dying, and I go up there and start talking about my business. It was really humbling. It was crazy because at that moment I realized that even with her going up there and talking about her dead friend, and then I was able to break the tension. I was like, Oh, I have a chance. And it was through the awkward silence that I was like, Oh, I kind of like this. I have the video of the first time I did it, and it's very awkward. I think I have my jacket hood over my head because I'm uncomfortable. I don't know. It's weird.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Walk me through that. What was going through your head when you were walking on stage?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

I was having a panic attack. Okay, I was having an adrenaline rush. I had a jacket on, which was weird because I was really hot. Also, I had a sweater underneath. When you're doing comedy, you're supposed to hold the mic. Yeah. And then since it was a poetry night, they didn't expect people to hold the mic, so they had it wrapped around the mic stand. I spent the whole five minutes unwrapping this mic off. You just see me unwrapping it and talking at the same time. I was like, everything the lady said, because I had her give me this fake intro about all the stuff that I haven't done yet in comedy. And yeah, it was very embarrassing. Yeah, I made a fool of myself and I made people laugh. And my wife recorded the whole thing, and I looked like an idiot. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Fake it till you make it, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, and then yeah, I did that one. I did that place twice, and then had enough guts to go to the actual open mic at the time in Salem. It was called the Capital City Comedy Club. And I did my first mic there, and nobody even wanted to talk to me. I think I did a couple times, and I just felt kind of discouraged because I didn't realize at the time when you come in there, you're like, hi, my name's Armando, you know, like kind of like a dork. And these people see so many open micers that show up, yeah, and toe bomb on stage and then never show up again, so they don't get attached to anybody because so many people pass through. Yeah. So I understand where they're coming from. Even now, I'm kind of like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna see you again, so I don't get attached, but at the time it just felt discouraging. So I stopped going for a while, but then people were like, hey, what are you up to? I was like, I'm doing stand-up, and then after a while, my wife's like, Hey, you keep telling people you're doing stand-up, you haven't done it for a couple months. I was like, I know I better get back to it.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Sounds like she's one of your biggest supporters.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I want to say that she was one of the first people I mentioned it to her. I was like, Oh, I always wanted to do a comedy movie. She goes, That's weird. You're not doing anything. You're not doing anything that's you're not acting, you're not doing anything that's like that. That just came out of nowhere. And I was like, No, I was like, I found out we want to be in comedy movies, you should do stand-up. And then she started right away, literally, as I told her that she bought tickets for stand-up. Actually, she took me to an improv show, which was really lame for me because I wanted to watch stand-up, and the improv show was so boring because I didn't understand it. And then she took me to the first one was Angela Johnson, which she was really funny. It was like all the way in Eugene. Then she took me to another comedy show in Helium. She was always encouraging me to do it. I don't think I would have kept doing it if she didn't push me. I think now she regrets it.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

No, no, I'm just kidding. I'll talk you shit. Well, we all need a good support system.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, she's definitely been very supportive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

But take me from the beginning. When did you realize you were funny?

SPEAKER_01 7:49

To be fair, when I first started, I thought I was very funny and that none of these people respected me. You know, so I'm like, they don't know what funny is. But then but then after a while, you know, you start like getting serious about it. You're like, oh, maybe I'm not, maybe I'm not funny. And then I think that's when you become a professional, when you realize it's not as easy as you think it is. And then now I think I bomb all the time. I have people tell me, like, oh man, like you're amazing. And the whole time I'm fighting my demons in my head, and I'm like, oh dude, you totally you bombed that whole time. I used to get off and be unprofessional. I used to be like, What are you talking about? Like, I did horrible. And I stopped doing that because if the audience or the people that you got paid to entertain come up to you and they're like, hey man, I enjoyed your set. Yeah, you need to be like, I appreciate you. Thank you for coming out. Because you owe it to them to be thankful. So I'm very professional about it now. But I used to be like, I almost shook people and be like, What are you talking about? Did you see this part? You know, but it's like music. Nobody knows when you hit the chord wrong. Because you continue like a pro and you finish the song out, and nobody notices well, you notice it. Yep. You know, because you're a perfectionist. But so I realize that they don't know when I say a word wrong or when I mess up a joke because they hear the punchline and it sounded like it went good. Or if somebody talks over the joke, I continue and they don't realize that the joke was messed up. I gotta be a pro and just keep going. I mean, now I'm harder on myself because I want to be funny, I want to be the best to myself. I'm gonna be funny, you know what I'm saying? And it's hard I think it's hard. It's hard.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

I wouldn't be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, you earlier you asked me, hey man, tell me a joke. I'm like, it's not that's not how it works. You know, like I gotta go off of my intuition and I can't just on the spot.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah, we were taking pictures, just trying to make conversation.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah, you're like, tell me a joke right now. Why did the chicken cross the road? Yeah, dance clown, dance. You know, like that's all that's all I hear when people like tell me a joke, it's like dance clown, dance. Can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

But tell me about your inspiration. Where did your comedy come from?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Just life experience. One of the first jokes that I ever wrote that really hit hard. It was really dark. I didn't grow up with my father, and I was very resentful about it because I grew up with a single mother in Woodburn. We actually grew up we're from California. Okay, me and my brother, but my mom came to Oregon because that's where her mom was at, our grandma, and we didn't grow up with our dad. I have my own kids and I love my kids to death. You're you're a parent, right? It's hard for me to not have an example of what a father figure is, and then you have your own kids and you're like, hey, like, I can't imagine my life without them. Like, how can my dad continue to live his life and not even think about me? But then when I started comedy, I was like, how funny would it be to say, Hey, I have two kids, now I know why my dad left. That that was the first joke that I wrote that got a big pop, but it's not true, it just sounded funny. Dark humor. It's dark humor, yeah. And it was like it was such an easy joke, and I was afraid for my kids to hear it, but they heard it and they thought it was funny. And I still say that joke once in a while because it's like the first joke that I wrote that was so simple, and I've never heard anybody ever say a joke like that. Yeah where it was just now. I know what because I was able to talk about the dark stuff about how I felt about my dad, but also my kids. I still do dark jokes about my kids, but same time it's like I tell my kids, I'm like, hey, I'm up there to talk shit. I love you guys. There was times where I got one kid that deals with mental illness, and they heard a joke and they confronted me about it. I was like, Oh really? I was like, that's not the reality that that joke was written out of a punchline that I heard and I thought of, but it's not based on reality. I was like, I'm just here to entertain people. I feel a little bit defensive, like, hey, maybe you shouldn't come to the open mics or the shows. You know what I'm saying? It's hard because I need material. And my wife too, what I'll do now is I'll tell her a premise and I'll say, This is the premise. How can I say the joke where it's not gonna punch down on you, but I get the punchline that I want because I gotta talk about my life, or else I don't have no material, you know? I can't talk about a fictional life that I don't have. There is a little bit of exaggeration though, because I think I talk a lot about marriage. We've been together for 12 years, and to pretend that everything's just happy all the time, that's a lie, you know what I'm saying? So it's a struggle, but it's fun to talk about our struggle because some of it is funny and some of it's dark, you know what I'm saying? Where my wife always says until the wheels fall off when I was like, Okay, well, we got three wheels. Like, if we want to be honest, we got three wheels. Sometimes she even says in percentages, it's not always 100%. And I was like, Well, what's percentage of today? She's like 20. You know, and then like one time I made her mad, I was like, Hey, what percentage am I at today? She's like, Zero. I'm like, she I can't work with zero, you know, but she's still here.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

That's awesome, brother. How long you've been married for again?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

You said we've only been married for uh five years. Okay, yeah, yeah, but we've been together for 12.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

I was stocking your IEG. You got married in Vegas, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, no, we did our wedding renewal in Vegas. Yeah, yeah. We did it a five-year. I do a joke. I was like, usually people do it at 10, but we don't know if we're gonna last that long. You know, like no, uh, so I've been married three times. This is my third marriage. I used to be in a church and they late they make you marry everybody you banged, so I got married when I was young twice. Which should have just been like two-year relationships, but yeah, that didn't work out. But I learned a lot. I made her wait seven years before I proposed. She was the one that had to pay the price, but she stuck around.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

How'd you propose?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

It was during the pandemic, she was ready to leave. She goes, seven years is too long. No, just playing. I kind of was like, I don't think I'm ever gonna get married because of you know, like I definitely have to deal with a lot of the shame of the other failed relationships, but we work so good together, man. It's like the most grown-up relationship I ever had. I've never been with another partner that works hard or harder than I work. She's self-driven, she's gone through college, she's like a business lady, you know what I'm saying? Like, but we get shit done. Ever since I met her, I just felt like my life's always been up, you know what I'm saying? Like I said, she's always been supportive. When I met her, I was living on the floor of my mom's one-bedroom apartment, you know what I'm saying? I remember living on my mom's one-bedroom apartment and her being like, Hey, we're gonna hang out in Portland and stay at a hotel. I'm like, I don't have that kind of money, and she's like, Don't worry about it. And I'm like, also, I'm a dad, and I got two kids. I kind of lied to her. I said, Hey, I got three roommates when I met her. And she's then later she's like, You motherfucker, she's like, You got three roommates, you met your mom and your two kids. I was like, Okay, so I didn't lie, but it was kind of a lie. Yeah, I was living with my mom and my two kids, but it was great. I met her and her family loves me. Her mom loved me right away. Everything about her, it just made me become a better person, and I learned a lot about myself, but also there's a lot of healing that I had to do, and it was great. So when she was ready to cut out because I wasn't ready to commit, I was like, hey, I don't think I'm ready to lose this person. I think the pandemic kind of put everybody's perspective different too. I think I was already ready to commit, I just wasn't being honest with myself. I thought I had more time, so I was like, it would be cool if I did it in November or December, and it wasn't gonna happen in my timeline when it had to happen in her timeline. So she had a talk with me, and I was like, holy shit, well, my timeline's not gonna work. So I basically was like, hey, I made it sound like it was a mental crisis. Okay, and I got nobody wanted to get together because of the COVID, yeah, but I got as many people as I could together to at her mom's house, telling her that I was having like a crisis, and I proposed to her in the backyard, and she was shocked. Her whole face turned white because she literally didn't think that I was gonna propose to her, but I already had the ring, so I was like, Yeah, I just need you to wait like two or three months, but yeah, we got she said yes. Yeah, she did. Awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

So I saw that you opened for Ralph Barbosa. Yeah, tell me about that.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, man, that was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, so my comedy's journey's been crazy. I don't know how things happen. There's a lot of things happen by chance, and a lot it has to do with the work that you put in. Um I told you earlier I don't really have online presence because I didn't put a lot of effort. Ray's actually kind of helping me with that. We're building right now, we're trying to do videos and stuff. I've been a private person, which is a bad. I should have probably put a lot of work in during the pandemic instead of playing Warzone, you know. But I just didn't know what where my energy was going during the pandemic, and I didn't really know where my life was going. But basically, every time in comedy, when I put my effort into something, I try to make things happen, it doesn't happen for me. So I literally was trying to make things happen by writing letters to people or like DMing people and all this stuff, and it was not happening, right? Okay, and this is nothing to do with Rob Babozo, it was like something else. I was like, There's something else that's coming through Salem. I need to DM this person because I want to be on that show, and it didn't pan out, and then also I did a competition in Portland and I toy didn't even pass the first round, and I was having a what do you call it? Like a poor me session with a friend, another comic. Okay, I said, Hey, I'm not having a great day, and maybe I'm being kind of a wuss or I mean a bitch about it or whatever, and I'm like, Am I being too much of crybaby about it? And he goes, No, he goes, That's part of our journey, just keep your head up. And as he's telling me this, another person hits me up and goes, Hey, you doing anything this weekend? I'm like, No, I don't have any shows this week. And he goes, Hey, how do you feel about opening up for Ral Baboza? It was this weekend for three days. I was like, I almost said, Are you fucking playing with me right now? I didn't say that because I was unprofessional, right? This is a club hitting me up, so I was like, Yes, absolutely. I would love to I would love to open up a Ral Baboza. So I I I was like, Yes, I I would love to open up for Ral Babozo. And I messaged them, but at the same time, I'm like, hey, so after being a little whiny little crybaby, guess who gets to open for Rob Baboza? And my wife literally I messaged her right away and she was tearing up because it's a break, it's a big deal for me, because it's like, you know, like I said, he's on top of my list of people that you would love to work with, and he was great. He his people were great, his team was great, the club was great. I had anxiety about the show, but as soon as I walk into the club, the owner was like, Hey man, as soon as my boy told me that he had you in mind for this show, I was like, Hell yeah. When I was like, he was glazing me up, and I was like, Okay, I shouldn't have been anxious about it. And then as soon as I met Ralph, he was just like, Hey man, thanks for doing this. And then I hung out with this friend Hyman and then the other people that I met. It was great, it was a great experience. Well, you said three three days? It was three days, five shows. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it was a ride.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

How do you prepare for that?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Just have a nervous breakdown before it even starts and pray that your heart doesn't give out. I don't know. It's like I literally had a nervous breakdown. I hate that my body does that because I have a heart condition. I was like praying, don't give out on me right now. Like we could I almost called up Ray and said, Hey man, you might have to drive me to the club because I don't know if I could drive. Because I literally was freaking out. My body was recovering just from Thursday. As soon as I got to the club, the anxiety that I have on stage, that's the fun part. That's like jumping out of an airplane or the kind of adrenaline I like. But the nervous breakdown of nobody's gonna like me, I don't like that kind of anxiety, you know what I'm saying? But as soon as I got there, everything was like how it was supposed to be, just getting the reassurance, but also it's all because of the work that I did, and I didn't have to do anything, I just had to show up, I had to be available. And like I said, every time I put an effort into trying to make things happen, it never works out. But as soon as I relax and let the universe do its thing, it always hands me gold nugget.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Well, you put into work.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Yeah, I just gotta be ready.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Now tell me about the up-and-coming comedy show in Woodburn.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah, man. Ray Ayala I always say his name wrong. Ayala. Ayala. Ray Ayala. Now, my boy Ray, I met Ray through another competition that I didn't win. That he said I should have won. He's he was around, you know, and then I saw that he was a videographer. He wanted to produce a show, and he was asking me for advice. He also said he wanted to put me on it, and I got together with his peeps that are helping them produce it. And I sat down with the owner of which you also sat down with Chava. Chava. It was the most organized. They had a spreadsheet, everything, and I was just like, this is overboard. A lot of the guys that I see produce shows, like, you don't even find out till the day of what how much time you're doing and how much you're getting paid. And even right now, like you know, there's still tickets that need to be sold. Hopefully, you'll post our QR code, a ticket link. But we're doing pretty good on ticket sales right now within most shows, but we're trying to be proactive about it. But it's on August 29th. We got all Latino Act. Ray basically passed around and try to find people that he liked from other shows that he saw. He's trying to put together a good show. Chava's spot, Cabron's. They have really good food and drinks. We're trying to give people good value for their money, but also entertainment. Yep. And we're trying to bring people to a good spot, but also support local business in Woodburn. It means a lot too because it's cool to come back to Woodburn like this. Last time I was in Woodburn, I went to one of the local bars here. I'm not even gonna name it. I thought it'd be cool to be like, hey, I went to Woodburn with you guys. Just wave at somebody, and it's like the respect I get is like they kind of roll their eyes and look away. I'm just like, holy crap! Like, not not even in my whole town do I get any respect, you know. I'm like, you you're from Woodburn, dog. Why you got such a big head, you know? But I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

So not even a high, hey, not even like what not even like a what's up, man.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

I must have been annoying in high school, but I don't know. I feel like someday there's gonna be a day where they're like, Oh, hey Mondo, and I'm gonna do the same thing, like holding back, Ray.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Tell me about the tickets because I was talking to Shava, he said they're limited to fifty people. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Yeah, so right now that it is limited because it's a small space.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Most places though, it is limited. I do a lot of shows where it's fifty to eighty people, and it just has to do with the space because if you put more than that, you're not gonna be able to fit. And also There's fire code. If it does good, you could do two shows or more shows. But this is the first I'm sure they just started with 50 just to see how it does. We're not gonna oversell, we're not gonna be like, hey, let's start with 150 and then sell 25. Right. I think 50 is good. I just did a winery and it was 60, and it was a nice group. People go over there, they buy wine, they sit down, there's Lamborghinis everywhere. It's like chill. Like I said, it's not that kind of comedy.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

So what can people expect when they show up to the comedy show for this one?

SPEAKER_01 22:59

When you show up to a comedy show, there's definitely kind of rules. I want you to have a good time, but like don't get shit faced. Yeah, don't heckle. If we're interacting with you, it'd be cool if you interact back. Just don't be a spectacle. Like, let us do our thing and just come and be fun. It does suck to go to a show and have a big audience, and then the audience doesn't even laugh. You know what I'm saying? And I've seen that before. And then they afterwards they'll come up to you and they're like, Oh my god, you're so hilarious. I'm like, Really? I didn't even hear you make a noise. Because some people don't know how to act. Even my wife says, Hey, only because I didn't aha doesn't mean I didn't think it was funny. And I was just like, Well, we need something.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

But some people don't even laugh, they just clap, and you're like, Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Okay. I just want to touch base about humor in general. Yeah. What was the name of that movie? Patch Adams.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Patch Adams.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Do you know what I'm talking about? No.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

How come I can't think of it on my no?

unknown 23:49

Patch Adams.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

You went too white for us. Not just saying I'll see that. I'll just say that. I don't even know. Patch Adams.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

The reason I brought it up is because this guy in the movie is a doctor. He uses humor to heal little kids.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Oh, so that's Robin Williams. Remember, he was like dressed like a clown sometimes. Yeah. Or wear a clown nose.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Because laughter will heal. So can you talk about that? The art of comedy.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah. I do agree that comedy heals. I think I did watch it. I just couldn't picture it in my head. Like even Ray was like, What? I remember somebody showed up to a comedy show, and then like first five seconds, I was like, Where are you guys coming from? They're like, Oh, my mom just died. So then I started talking about my dead grandma. I was trying to make it funny, but they started crying a little bit. But then I was like, one of the funny stories was that my grandma, when she was alive, she was skinny and we're all fat. And I remember I asked my cousin, I was like, Hey, how come we're all fat and grandma's skinny? And they're like, Have you ever seen her eat her own food? I was like, No, she's trying to kill us. And that was a joke, but the lady just started crying because she thought like that was funny. She was thinking about her mom that just died. But I don't know, man. I do think comedy heals. And like I said earlier when I was talking about my dad, I deal with a lot of childhood stuff. Even in my 40s, I'm dealing with a lot of trauma from my childhood. And I think a lot of people use it for therapy and stuff. I think I'm just trying to talk it through. I like going into the dark stuff. I try to talk about uncomfortable stuff, but I'm hoping that I could come out of it where I make people feel good about it. Like if I just go to dark stuff and it just stays dark and nobody everybody comes out uncomfortable, and if we don't ever get to the point where everybody comes out feeling good, then I didn't do my job. You know what I'm saying? I like watching scary movies. You like watching scary movies? No. No? Okay. How about you, right? Like watching scary movies? When I was younger, I could watch a scary movie, go straight to bed, it's fine, right? Really? Now as I'm older, now that I think about death more, I'll watch a scary movie, but I'll make sure that I wash it out with a funny movie afterwards. So I'll watch a scary movie and then I'll put on like I love you, man, or something funny afterwards or The Office and try to wash it out. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm like, oh, we're gonna end on a positive note. We're not gonna go straight to bed after watching obsession or something like that. But you don't like scary movies, dog? I don't. I feel like scary movies are like almost like comedy. You're pushing something. I feel like obsession was comedy almost. Like it was borderline comedy. Have you ever did you watch weapons? This is a spoiler, but there's a part where the lady breaks a stick and she turns people into almost like slaves and uses them as weapons. And there's a part where she uses one of these guys as weapons against the other guy, and the guy keeps throwing him across the room, but he keeps coming back, and he throws them like a hundred times, but the guy keeps coming back. It was funny, it was like a bit, but I don't know. It's only funny to me because I can't hear nobody laughing on to listen to this podcast later and be like, nobody gets it, just me. It's it my wife's like, nobody's gonna get it, just you. And so I joke to myself.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

How was it growing up in Woodburn?

SPEAKER_01 26:44

It was nice. I mean, it was nice when we had a house when my mom was married to the white guy uh before she lived in a duplex. When we came to Woodburn, we lived in James Street apartments, and we came from California, and it was very dangerous in California. Felt like where we came from. We came from South Gates, and our mom did not leave our site when we're in South Gates, right? Like everything, I just felt like everything was dangerous in South Gates. Like everything we did were monitored the whole time. People were dying in our little cul-de-sac. Our cul-de-sac was so dangerous. Like fires, some kid almost died from a parking lot fire. Some kid got hit. Some kid was riding a bike in the cul-de-sac, and some van tried to cut through the cul-de-sac and ran over a kid in a bike, and they didn't even stop and just rolled this kid in the axle or whatever. And my mom's like, he looked like your little brother. And uh, so like we weren't even allowed to ride bikes anymore. Like when she left my dad, we came to Oregon. We came straight to James Street apartments, which is like right next to Abby's Pizza. Okay, and that's where my grandma lived in those apartments, and it was like literally every family there was Mexican, like it was literally like little Mexican, like and then like the first thing that I remember that would like stood out was like our aunts and our mom would drop everybody off at 5 30 at grandma's house, and then we would have to walk to the bus station by ourselves with our cousins, and I was just shocked that all of a sudden I was unattended by my parents. I was like, whoa, what we go by ourselves, like I was just like, all this freedom, you know what I'm saying? Like, we're we're crazy, dude. Like, I remember we were pissing off the old people because we're running on their lawn and playing tag, and they had to move the bus station to the Legion Park because we're messing up these people's lawns by playing tag on it and stuff. So we moved our bus station further to Legion Park so we wouldn't mess up their yard. It was crazy because we're wild. Because it's like the first time we're free. And then my mom got married like a couple years later to this white guy, and then we ended up moving. I think it was Jana was the street, and it was East Woodburn. And yeah, we lived there for I think we lived there for seven years, and it was nice. It was like we had like a little house, and then they got divorced, and we ended up moving to a duplex in Hardcastle. And that's the first time that we had drive-bys. Yeah, it was crazy. I was like back to the ghetto, dude. Yeah, there's like drive-by shootings and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Wrapping up, where do you see yourself in five years?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Five years. Hopefully, my kids are graduated by then, and then I get to pursue it full-time. Uh, hopefully, my wife's like in charge of a corporation and I could take it full time. Five years, man, I gotta do the math. That's 13 years in the comedy that I do the math right. Yeah, dude. I mean, so I'm already past that Olsen runs. Okay. I found out that I'll probably won't ever get past that helium because I'm not a Portland local. And I don't know if I'm ever gonna move to Portland. It's pretty saturated over there. I think there's 50 working comics in Portland, so Eugene's probably a good spot for me. I already have dibs on any Latino comics that pass through there. They don't get as much comedy as you think, so it's like as soon as I get there's availability, I get called. Other things is I gotta hustle. Like I just got a call to go do Seattle, it's wineries, bars, and stuff, and I just continue to work. But yeah, I mean, Ray's helping me build the online presence right now. We're building from the ground up, and I'm hoping that if I could get a following, hopefully in five years, if we could reach 10 to 20,000 to even at one point if we could reach a hundred thousand, then I could start touring on my own. No matter what, it's gonna be grinding and just getting out there and doing the work. Put aside all the old jokes that I'm doing and start like another hour of new jokes, and also I want to do a little bit of clean stuff where I could do clean material, but also venture out on other material. I want to be universal on my material where I could do anything I want. Yeah, just be funny, and then hopefully, like I said, one day do some kind of acting.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

There you go. And then wrapping up, what is your final message for the people listening?

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Chase your dreams, even if you're in your forties, it's never too late. Take care of your family and don't ever leave your kids. Just always believe in yourself, even if your Latino family thinks you're weird. Yeah, just believe in yourself and continue to do what you're doing and love what you do.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Love it. Hey, you're an inspiration to a lot of people. Thank you, man. Bro, from Woodburn to highlighting all these comedy shows. And Ralph Barbosa, you open for him. Yeah, dude, somebody from Woodburn was able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

That's insane. That's pretty cool. I want to showcase more people that are talented like yourself. And there's so many people that came out of Woodburn that we never heard about. I just want to appreciate for being here.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, man. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

I'm excited for the comedy show here at Cabron. So seats are limited. Buy your ticket, and we will see you at the next one.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

All right, brother.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Thank you, brother. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Well, that's the wrap for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Woodburn Podcast. If you enjoyed it, share it with a neighbor and make sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Woodburn Podcast. Until next time, stay safe and watch out for those muffles.