As Cristela Alonzo tells us, she has a deep appreciation of stand-up comedy. She was the kid that would sit in front of the TV and just study stand-up and comedy in general. She may have grown up in Texas where she spoke Spanish as a first language, but that didn’t stop her from laughing at comedians like Steven Wright.
All those years of studying comedy so closely have certainly paid off. When you watch Cristela onstage, even if you don’t know much about what goes into structuring a joke, you can see from a mile away that there is someone who understands and deeply appreciates the art of crafting a stand-up set. It’s apparent from the moment she steps onstage that she puts everything she’s ever wanted to do into her comedy. And as she tells it, everything she’s done on TV and in movies all comes back to stand-up.
Cristela Alonzo has a new Netflix hour out with Middle Classy, which is a follow up to her previous special for the streamer, Lower Classy. While the special as a whole is solid, one of the greatest testaments to it is a bit she tells about getting COVID on her birthday. That day also happened to be when she was supposed to tape this special. Obviously she had to postpone it. And she wound up taking what is clearly a pretty sad day in her life and gain a brand new 10 minutes from it when she finally taped the special a month later. If that’s not turning lemons into lemonade, we don’t know what is.
We recently spoke with Cristela about her new hour and why it took as long as it had, how it came to be that she talked about getting COVID onstage, having every stand-up set she’s ever performed on tape, being influenced by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, the thing she’s proudest of, and more.
First off, it’s been a few years since your last special came out. So I’m so glad we get a new special from you!
Thank you. What’s funny about it is for years people kept asking me “When’s your next special?” And I’m like “Whenever I feel like the hour’s done.”
Did it take a little longer this hour?
No. You know what it was? It’s kind of like a band with their first album, where it takes a long time to get to that first hour, to that first album. And then you have the follow up. For me, I wanted to go live life so I had things to talk about. And I just wanted to take my time because I feel like a lot of people put out specials more often, on a frequent timeline. But I can’t do that. I like to craft them and I like to take my time. And for me, stand-up is such a love of mine that I like making sure that it’s at the point that I want it to be. And even then, it’s never done.
Absolutely. I actually appreciate that more when someone does take their time.
Yeah. Because you realize, for me, if you wait a while, there seems to be more of a theme and more attention of what you want. It doesn’t have to be connected necessarily, but you know what you’re saying and why you’re saying it. So for me, that’s something that’s very important.
I was working on this hour and then the pandemic happened and I didn’t do anything. Then the moment things opened up, I was like “Let’s go back to work on this hour again.” So you know, it slowed me down as much as it slowed down everybody else in this world.
And when that happens, did you find yourself having to reshape things after the pandemic? Did it take a while to find the rhythm with the hour again?
You know, I didn’t think so. Here’s the thing. You’re rusty when you start. But what helped was the audiences were so happy to be outside that they were actually just great audiences. We were all in the honeymoon phase of being outdoors. They were like “Talk about anything! Thermometers. We’re in it. Let’s go! We loving having a two item minimum right now!”.
It was really great. I think for me, I also have this thing – ever since I started doing stand-up, like my first set -, I have recorded every set I’ve ever done. And I do it. It’s an audio recording. And I do it because sometimes you don’t know what comes out, how you say it, what word you say differently, anything. So if there’s a joke I think is different, I go back and listen to it. So what I did, I went back and listened to the sets I did, leading up to the beginning of the pandemic, and I just listened to them and got myself reacquainted with it. But I have like all my notebooks from when I started, I have all my audio recordings. I just kept them.
I love that you still have everything. That’s incredible!
It was just a habit. Because for me, it was always like “What happens when you have that set when you just sort of riff off something and you can’t remember it or capture it ever again?”. And I’m like “That’s never going to happen.”
Honestly, it’s kind of weird to see the notebooks. You see each notebook and you realize how much of your life is in one notebook. It’s like keeping a diary, but you get paid for it. (Laughs).
You can’t beat that! I want to bring this up. You were originally supposed to tape the special on January 6th of this year, which is your birthday. However you wound up testing positive for COVID that morning, and you talk about what happened onstage. So it’s incredible that, even though COVID prevented you from taping the special, you still got 10 minutes out of it.
Oh absolutely. I cried when I got COVID, because I was the person that was so careful that you wanted to know how it happened. I wore masks, I didn’t talk to anybody, nobody came to my apartment. I was isolated. And when I got it, I was like “What is going on?? We’re all weak! We’re all susceptible.”
But I remember, it really was that day, when all of that happened with the police and the Netflix gift. It was so ridiculous to a stupid level that I was telling Page Hurwitz – who directed the special because she’s a dear friend of mine – what happened with the cops, and she couldn’t stop laughing. And she was like “Stop! Stop! You gotta do this in the special.” Normally, I wouldn’t even consider it, because it JUST happened. And it’s like [not having] the time to craft it and everything. And she was like “If not now, when? Just do it now, because it might be dated when you work on it later on.” And I thought “Well, I’ll try to put this together.”
And I was so happy I did. Because it was so recent, it was so raw. I loved the results of it. It was so wild. And it’s been one of those things where, the month before, my car got broken into. They stole my notebook. All of my jokes were in it. I’m a creature of habit. I always write my jokes out in pencil or pen, and then once I feel like there’s a good version of it, I put it into my laptop on like a main file. So it hurts me. And then my car got broken into, two days after it got broken into the first time. And I thought “Wow. This is a really bad string of luck.” Then I got COVID two weeks later. And it’s like “My God. Does anybody want me to do this stupid special?”. (Laughs). I was like “I’m sorry. At this point, I need a sign that I should not cancel this.” But I’m glad I didn’t!
So happy you did. So once you have a month turnaround before taping the special, did you have enough time to go to clubs to work out the new 10 minutes?
Yes. What I like to do is, I try to hit different rooms across LA that I know have different demos. That’s the thing. You’ve got to go out of your comfort zone. You’ve got to go into rooms where you know they might not laugh, because that’s how you get the laughs. So I started hitting up a lot of my friends who were doing local shows in like bars. Anything I could find. I just started going up. You take the notes up with you, you read it, and you’re like “I don’t know if this is funny.”
The first night, I just told the story as it happened. And it got enough response to where I thought “Okay, well Page is right. I can build on this.” And after that, it was just me tightening until I had it for the special. I like working out the jokes. I like working out the premises. I like doing the work. For me, it’s part of the fun.
It’s just one of those things. It’s so fun to see something come from truth, and then own it and edit stuff out and add things to it that still sticks with the truth and heightens it. And then you realize “Oh man. I love that people are laughing at my misery. (Laughs). It’s amazing. It makes you feel so good, actually.
Jumping around a bit. What were your thoughts when you first saw the mural from your special?
I saw the mural with the artist there, which was a rarity. She came out to deliver it. I hadn’t seen it and they hung it up. And when I saw it, I was standing with her. It was so emotional for both of us, because she was seeing one of the biggest pieces she has ever done hanging, and she knows it’s going to be featured on Netflix. And I’m seeing it and I’m thinking “How on Earth did I get here? To see this gorgeous painting?”.
The only thing that sucked is it was gorgeous, and then after the special, it’s like “What do I do with it now?”. It’s in my garage. It’s folded up. I don’t know what to do with it!
Another thing from your special I can relate to is not understanding why TikTok is a thing. Because I’m right there with you.
I mean, I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what it is. Because it’s everything! Sometimes you see a video – I don’t look them up but my friends send me videos – you could see a video with a great recipe. Then another one it’s someone wearing great outfits with a silly song in the background. Then another one it’s like a dog that did something cute. Then another one is people yelling at each other. It’s so weird. And it’s like “What is this? I had MySpace! What is this??”.
Well I hope now you know that bit from your special will probably wind up on TikTok.
(Laughs). You know, I actually have an old joke from my half hour on Comedy Central, which I shot I think in 2011 or 2012 that went super viral on TikTok. Like super viral. It was a little quick joke about eating chicken. The whole idea was, when you hate someone, everything they do just pisses you off. Like “Look At that bitch eating chicken. Why are you eating chicken, bitch?”. And that was the joke.
It went viral on TikTok. And no one told me. It wasn’t until months later that a follower told me on Instagram. I looked it up, and my audio has been shared millions of times. And the downfall of TikTok is that’s great, but no one credited me so I had no idea that I was actually relevant on TikTok.
Something you did at the Netflix festival recently was an event with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. What was that experience like working with those two?
Let me tell you. I’ll be really honest. I was thrilled. The moment I got the call asking me to be on it, I don’t care what they wanted me to do. I could’ve been stripping and I would’ve said yes, just to be on that special. But the timing of it, honestly, was I had just finished shooting my special when I got asked to be part of this special. So in my mind I thought “I just burned my hour. What am I gonna do on the special?”. (Laughs). So luckily, we edited the special and I knew what I was going to do and what I wasn’t doing. Immediately I went out and started working that set around town to prepare for it.
But you never think you’re going to be part of something with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. I was lucky enough to get a picture with them at the end of the night. And I thought “Life made. I have to print it up.” There’s very small photos that you take that you want printed. That’s one of them for me.
Were they influential on you in any way?
They absolutely were. Lily Tomlin for me was always someone I remember loving as a kid the fact that she did characters. And the characters were specific, but they very big. But they were honest and they were real. I remember seeing The Incredible Shrinking Woman so many times as a kid. I remember seeing 9 to 5 so many times as a kid. My mom and I used to love that movie because it was a comedy with women being funny.
And you could tell my mom really clicked with it. My mom couldn’t speak English. So she only understood a lot of the physical aspects of it. And that made me realize how physical that movie was, where the women were actually allowed to be physical comics and just do it. It’s this thing where they hang up Dabney Coleman and they rip things up. And I remember seeing that movie and thinking “What a funny movie.” And the trio with them and Dolly was so great. And they just worked well together. The premise of the story about quality and everything. As a girl watching that movie, how could you NOT be influenced by it?
Speaking of influences, I know you also did a podcast for Netflix called The Hall, where you got to do a deep dive on the careers and influence of Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, and George Carlin. Tell me about how that came together.
You know for me, one thing that I can always say is that for years, the people that I’ve met in stand-up comedy – people like Jay Leno and Arsenio… We all work together at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, which just reopened. So we all see each other there. And when I met them, they would always talk about how it seemed that I really loved stand-up. A lot of people said I have a classic love of stand-up. I love stand-up. I love TV. I’m the person that studied growing up. So when the podcast came up, the production company had worked with me on other projects and were like “We think this is the perfect person.” They came to me and asked me if I wanted to do it, and I said “To talk about stand-up with comics and other people? Yeah. Sign me up.”
It was this thing where when we started making this list about people we wanted to interview, it turned out that I knew so many. So when we were talking, I would just hone on what it is about people that appealed to different people. But also, everybody’s different. So you have to learn to talk to people and get them to speak about what they’re interested in. Because for me, I interviewed Ron Howard. And Ron Howard isn’t a stand-up comic. But what we talked about was the history of multi-cam in television. And we talked about Happy Days and Mork and Mindy, which was Robin Williams’ big debut. So it was really interesting. But I was lucky enough to love multi-cam so much that I was able to talk with him about that and really have this ability to get along with him and talk with him and have him tell me the story of Robin’s first day on set.
But then there’s others. I interviewed Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith is telling me about George Carlin. And we bonded over the fact that we were both raised Catholic. And we talked about Dogma. So it was so exciting to talk with Colin Quinn, Jay Leno, Melissa Rivers. All of these people and have this history. I think it was a really cool way to show appreciation to them. I feel like in this business in general, we always have to tell each other how important their contributions have always been to everything and what we do, because sometimes we don’t get that. It was also how lovely it is to spend some time with people who have the same interests and same love and talk about how you both love the same things for different reasons.
I was talking to Rick Overton about Robin Williams, and we started talking about how much I love the movie Popeye. And Popeye is the lost nugget to Robin Williams that people don’t think about very often. But it’s a great movie! So the podcast is great. We broke down the four so it’s Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. So we talk about their lives and what they did and how influential they were. But what I learned from all of them was they were influential, but they were special because they were themselves. That is a constant thing that I strive [for] that I respect in stand-up comedy. When you can be yourself. That’s what I respond to.
I could talk about classic stand-up for hours.
Oh, I’m the same way! It’s one of those things when you love it as a kid, you don’t know why you love it. I couldn’t explain why I loved it. When I was a kid, my favorite comic was Steven Wright. I couldn’t understand it. My family couldn’t understand it. I was on the southern Texas boarder right next to Mexico. Spanish is my first language. And here I am, loving Steven Wright. That’s just what happens with people. Sometimes you fall in love with comedy, you fall in love with stand-up, and you just let it be part of you.
I love that. The last thing I’m gonna ask is, out of everything you’ve done, is there anything in particular you’re the proudest of?
Oh. That’s a great question. I’m going to say, as of now, I think doing Cars 3 for Pixar. I was brought on as a small part. And the part grew more as I told Pixar about my childhood stories. And they ended up taking my childhood stories and crafting the character Cruz Ramirez into what it became. And I loved it because I remember the first day it came out and they put my character’s picture on the sign at California Adventure where it’s “Welcome to Cars Land” and my character is there. And I remember getting sent pictures from a long line of Latino families that were waiting in line to take their picture with the new Latino car.
And I will never forget that. And to me, it’s one of the greatest things because Pixar was such a delight to work with. But also, Pixar caters to people of all ages. And also, I know that my stand-up got me noticed by Pixar and that’s why I got it. So it’s a culmination of everything I love.