Before Felipe Esparza became a star comedian traveling all over the world at his leisure, it was a struggle for the L.A. comic to get around without a car. For years, he got to all his gigs by public transit, hopping buses and trains to local clubs until he could afford his own set of wheels.
That all changed after he won NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” in 2010. He leveled up, began touring the country, then the world, and never looked back. Since his big break, Esparza has also ventured into acting, with roles in such movies as “You People,” “Daddy Daughter Trip” and “Guest House.” He has also appeared on TV shows including “Gentrified” and “The Eric Andre Show.”
His raw, personal narrative-like jokes delve into topics that are dark and taboo, like domestic violence, the sex lives of married couples, drug and alcohol abuse and other dysfunctions growing up in a Mexican family. Esparza also hosts the comedy podcast “What’s Up Fool?” which has been one of the top comedy podcasts for the last 10 years.
Esparza recently spoke with The Times about his fifth full comedy special, “Raging Fool,” which premieres Tuesday on Netflix.
Before he could afford his own car, Esparza relied on public transit for years to get to gigs around town.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Tell us about your new special, “Raging Fool,” and how it differs from your last Netflix special in 2020.
The jokes are different but I’m still dealing with the same topics. Family issues, marriage, drugs, sex, s— like that. But when I filmed my last special, “Bad Decisions,” which was shot in two days — I did one show in English and the next night in Spanish — the timing was unfortunate. It came out, and I was just going to tour, then two days later the COVID pandemic broke out. We had the lockdowns and everything, so that kind of sucked, but it came out online and got a good response from people. But, with my new special, “Raging Fool,” I feel like I get to tour this material now, it’s a fresh start.
You’re touring the U.S. now, as part of the At My Leisure Tour, but last year you were international. What was it like touring outside the country as a stand-up? Did you find there to be any differences in audiences?
Touring standing up anywhere is just fun. I love doing shows. But last year, part of my tour was in England, Dublin, Amsterdam and Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The cool thing is that I would think my audience would change when I leave the country and play different places, but it’s funny how it doesn’t. Just to show you that there are Mexicans, Hispanics and Latinos in all parts of the globe, every major city pretty much at this point. For instance, just two examples: There’s a huge population and community of El Salvadorans in Alberta, Canada, and also in Alexandria, Va., in the States. So yeah, all over there are people who speak Spanish and appreciate the humor I do, and the shows are always fun and we have a good time.
“The jokes are different but I’m still dealing with the same topics. Family issues, marriage, drugs, sex,” Esparza said of his new special, “Raging Fool.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
You made some jokes in your last special about being a vegan, but are you really a vegan?
Yes, I am really a vegan. I’ve been a vegan since 2011. What happened was that I was on the Atkins diet but doing it totally wrong. I was eating nothing but meat and cheese. Tons of just carne asada, carnitas and al pastor, steaks, burgers and lots of cheese. But I f— up by not drinking any water. It caused me some very painful health problems; I had horrible constipation for a week, and so after this episode I just decided to give up all meat and became a vegan. My wife was raised vegan by her mom. But then when she met me, she stopped being vegan, because I introduced her to Jack in the Box and In-n-Out and all kinds of fast food and other junk food. So she wasn’t a vegan anymore.
But then around 2011 I became a vegan once more when I decided to try it and we both have been vegan since. Here in the San Fernando Valley where I live, there are a lot of Mexican restaurants that cater to vegan people. They make vegan meats and vegan cheese. This one spot, El Cocinero in Van Nuys, makes homemade vegan carnitas out of jackfruit and homemade vegan cheeses, all the best Mexican food but with vegan options. Vegan food years ago used to be horrible. You’d eat a head of lettuce, white rice and a sandwich of pickles. My mom was scared when I told her I would be vegan. “Ay mijo que vas a comer?” [What will you eat, my boy?]
Comedy is therapeutic for Esparza: “I am still alive because of my stand-up comedy, for sure. I speak about some really dark twisted stuff in my life in my comedy onstage.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Your wife works with you producing your podcast and comedy specials, so how do you balance family personal time and work?
I don’t know how we balance it but it just happens organically. Naturally, we just make it work. She produces my podcast and also my comedy specials, which is hard work behind the scenes. We’ve been together since 2006 so she saw me and knew me before I won “Last Comic Standing,” and before I was famous. She knows the rhythm of my jokes she helps me write.
Your comedy contains some dark personal stories. Do you find stand-up comedy to be therapeutic?
Oh yeah, I absolutely do. I am still alive because of my stand-up comedy, for sure. I speak about some really dark twisted stuff in my life in my comedy onstage, in the new special and in previous ones. It’s stuff I would not talk about in any other setting unless it was my therapist. Like for example, I do this one joke about how my mom got beat up by my dad when I was younger. It took me a long time to do that joke, but I finally did it in front of my mom and she laughed and I knew then it was OK. It was very cathartic and therapeutic for her to watch me do this joke, it was very powerful. Humor is definitely a lifesaver.
“I think as a comedian, you can make a joke about anything you want. But you gotta be prepared to take the consequences of your words,” Esparza said.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
How do you feel about censorship as a comedian? Do you think comedians have total freedom of speech to joke about any topic?
I think as a comedian, you can make a joke about anything you want. But you gotta be prepared to take the consequences of your words. You can’t forget that part. This one time early on in my career, many years ago, I was asked to do a clean comedy show with no vulgarity, and so I didn’t cuss, but I did some jokes about racism and religion and I said the wrong thing, and it pissed some people off and the microphone was cut off. It had a lot to do with the content, not necessarily just cursing. But it’s important that as a comedian you know the audience, especially when you get hired for private or corporate events. Now, though, if I’m hired or when I do shows, people know when you hire me you get what you get. If you know my shows you know I’m gonna make jokes about drugs, sex, marriage, race, religion and more. I’m gonna use vulgarity. But, as a stand-up comic, I’ve evolved from a one-liner to a comedian that tells stories, and it’s some really dark stuff but it’s all funny.
Do current events and politics play into your stand-up comedy routines at all?
Well, yes, but not too overtly. I don’t like to be way too political, but I do touch on immigration and race somewhat in a soft way to make people laugh. For instance, in this one joke, I mentioned how white people don’t work all month at their jobs, then send money back to Scotland or Ireland. White people don’t have immigrant relatives from Germany or Belgium showing up at their door with blankets saying they need a place to live. If I get people to laugh at some of these topical jokes, then that’s a good thing. I made things funny now, with the current events. One thing we proved in this last election is that you can’t put Hispanics and Latinos in the same category anymore. We’re not all the same brown people. There are some Mexicans that want other Mexicans and Central Americans deported from the country. It’s insane. But overall, I try not to take the angle where I come out saying all whites are racist and kill all white people, because that’s not really funny, there isn’t really a joke there. I try to make little jokes about these topics and get people to laugh.
Aside from your tour, are there any other acting roles or movie parts on the horizon for you?
Oh yeah, I am gonna be on the ABC series “Shifting Gears” with Tim Allen. It’s an episode where I play a mechanic. It’s very cool, because it’s a paying acting gig. … The funny thing is I don’t know anything about tools or cars. Sometimes in Hollywood it’s not who you know, it’s who you smoke weed with in the back of the Improv.