On a recent Saturday night on Sunset Boulevard, a pair of black 1940s low-riders guided the diverse, sold-out crowd into the Comedy Store. Cypress Hill hung out in the green room. Los Angeles photographer and director Estevan Oriol oversaw six cameras and the taping of George Perez’s debut hour special, “Misunderstood,” presented by Foos Gone Wild.
“There were no fights,” Perez enthuses. “And,” with the mark of a successful Perez show traditionally measured in beer sales, “they sold out of 805s, Coors Lights and Peronis!”
Originally from Orange County (“the Republican L.A.,” he calls it), Perez’s material combines deeply personal narrative with sociopolitical insight. Before releasing “Misunderstood” in 2025, he headlines New Year’s Eve at the two-year-old Stand Up Comedy Club. He’s already working on new material for the occasion.
“That club has my culture all around it,” he says of the Bellflower venue. “Mexicans walk there; they don’t even drive. It’s by houses, apartments, by downtown, and every time I go there, it sells out. And I don’t even do Friday and Saturday. I do Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I love that club. I love the crowd. It’s dark and comics like to hang out.”
In Orange, Perez adored Cheech and Chong and was joking for his family by age 13. Later, he kept his construction co-workers cracking up. A girlfriend dragged him to an underground Wednesday comedy show at a Fullerton club called Rio. He recalls the warm-up comedians on the show being pretty corny. Toward the end when a headliner put his roasting skills against anyone in the crowd, Perez took the challenge.
“Prison was the best thing for me; it humbled me,” he says. “There’s no more fighting. There is only using your words,” Perez said.
(Estevan Oriol)
“I went up there, I beat him, and I got the itch that day,” he recalls. “Then the next day, I quit construction.”
The show was hosted by Edwin San Juan (“SlantEd Comedy”), who mistook Perez for a ringer. The two remain close to this day. Perez recently bought a swap meet bootleg DVD of the 2001 evening labeled, “George Perez’s first time doing comedy.” Within eight months, he made his television debut on “LATV Live,” the primetime flagship series of L.A.’s first bilingual station.
Early grinding involved “the craziest s—,” including shows for 30 people at tweaker houses where his cousin sold meth and a spot called the Wild Coyote, “the Mexican Apollo” where Felipe Esparza, Gabriel Iglesias and Ralphie May hung out. He started setting up chairs and doing bringer shows at Casa Latina in Rosemead. A year later, he was hosting to 300 people every Tuesday as well as doing spots at the Hollywood Improv. Whatever the venue, Perez knew tickets had sold well when venue managers laughed, “The Coronas are done! You did your job!”
Audiences and industry reacted with surprise. “You thought [I] was going to talk about drive-bys, tortillas and lowriders and [I’m] up there talking about Shakespeare,” Perez says. He subverted stereotypes about growing up in the streets, got deep about being a young dad and discussed politics as a lifelong local.
Perez appeared on MTV, Showtime and Comedy Central before a previous version of his life caught up to him. Before comedy, he had been a gang member since seventh grade. There was vandalism, carjacking, gun charges and a steadfast refusal to walk from fights. Perez was a felon at 18, the same year his son was born.
Nearly two years later, he recalls, “The guy that I beat up sees me on MTV’s ‘Yo Mama,’ and he’s like, ‘That’s the guy that beat me up!’ ” Then the gang unit raided the strip club he was DJing at. “I fight it, I lose, and I’m in prison. There’s no more freedom of speech. So the comedian is completely gone. I’m now in survival mode.” He did three years.
Guards remembered seeing him perform at the Ontario Improv. Everyone knew he was on TV. He did perform inside sometimes, including for the warden and 500 inmates.
Most tattoos he sports today, he got as an inmate . He hid tobacco up his ass in a latex glove so he could sell it. He also saw riots, an OD, murder and fights, during one of which he lost a tooth. He continues experiencing nightmares and PTSD. When he got out in 2009, he met iPhones and his new baby daughter.
“Prison was the best thing for me; it humbled me,” he says. “There’s no more fighting. There is only using your words. It showed me discipline and being sober in there, I got to look outside myself and realize all the people that I hurt, that love me. I learned in prison when you make a mistake, you confess to it, you fix it and you grow.”
Fifteen years later, Perez’s credits include Netflix, HBO and the film “Taco Shop” with Carlos Alazraqui, Esparza and Brian Huskey. He records his first-hand “George Perez Stories” podcast and YouTube videos in a studio wallpapered with every vinyl comedy album he can find. His own January 2024 vinyl album “This Cholo Is Crazy” even featured sketch and music.
“I mean, you can’t cancel me. I went to prison for three years when my comedy was in its prime, came out and I’m doing better than I was before,” Perez said. “I’m not looking to be on a sitcom. I want to be an artistic comedian.”
(Estevan Oriol)
Something else had happened that he didn’t address for years. “I dig deep,” he says of the impetus for “Misunderstood.” “I had a son that passed away because the babysitter left him in the tub.” He wasn’t allowed to attend services. Following three years out on parole, he tangled with cocaine. “Drugs would numb me and I wouldn’t think about my son and the bad things that have happened to me in my life, friends that I’ve lost.”
Today he continues to be more honest about past tragedies and new growth than ever. At most, there’s a little tequila now and then to celebrate. His time in prison, journeys with addiction and struggles with mental health; all of it part of Perez’s artistic expression. “I just started writing. I’m no longer up there going, ‘Latinos make some noise!’ It’s, ‘This hurts, and I have to find a way out.’ It’s personal.”
“I mean, you can’t cancel me. I went to prison for three years when my comedy was in its prime, came out and I’m doing better than I was before. I’m not looking to be on a sitcom. I want to be an artistic comedian. When someone sees me onstage, like, ‘This guy looks like me. He’s gone through the same thing I’ve gone through.’ That’s what I want to accomplish.”