Last Things First: Martin Urbano
Martin Urbano is a comedian who grew up in southern Texas on the border with Mexico, but he’s based now in New York City, where he has found much of his success since being named a New Face for Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival in 2017. That includes performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The CW’s annual Howie Mandel Gala, and Will Smith’s comedy showcase for Roku, This Joka. Urbano was part of the 2019 revival of National Lampoon Radio Hour: The Podcast, and has written for both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as well as Danny’s House on Viceland. He also has hosted such projects as “Comedy Amateurclass” for Chris Gethard Presents, and his own brands of game shows, “Who Wants $2.69?” and “Why Would You Ask Me That?” He also played a featured role in This Fool on Hulu as the other Julio. His latest gambit is an “Apology Comeback Tour,” where he somehow manages to cancel and redeem himself onstage within the same hour of jokes. He’s taking the show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, but before that, he sat down with me to talk about his life and the state of comedy today.
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This transcript has been edited and condensed only slightly for your convenience.
Thank you so much for joining me on short notice in the park.
Thanks for having me.
I wanted to catch you before you jet off to Montreal and then Edinburgh. First of all last things first: How does it feel to be going back to Just For Laughs? You've been there before as a new face. What's it like, going back as a less than new face?
First of all, I think it's funny. I just want to say that I asked if you wanted to grab coffee and you said Do you want to do a podcast? So this is our coffee, for the record. I had been wanting to go back for so long. You know, you want to go back. You want to feel like you're doing something good, that they made the right choice making you a New Face. So you know just six years later it finally happened and I'm happy to be doing it.
Does it matter that there's not a televised gala for The CW attached to it?
It's for Canadian TV, which maybe has the same amount of viewers as The CW did?
I do also have to say, right off the bat, the show that you're preparing and taking to the Fringe which I go back and forth between wanting to call it the Comeback Apology Tour and the Apology, Come Back! Tour….
With that inflection, too?
As someone who's branded himself as The Comic’s Comic, your style of comedy definitely fits into my wheelhouse, in terms of comedy that makes fun of comedy or the state of comedy. I imagine that wasn't something that you started out with when you were in Texas. Did you start out as a sincere, just set-up, jokes?
Well, yes and no, like, I think I realized that I was always making fun of comedy because I just listen to so much of it. That's just how my brain works. I would just hear the same setups over and over. I'd be like, OK, what if I use that setup, but then took it dark or weird or whatever. And then my definition of what you know, quote unquote, hacky comedy or bad comedy changed over time into what it is now, which is awesome.
So you're from Brownsville, Texas. Do you still have family, friends there?
Oh, yeah. 98% of my family still lives in Brownsville, Texas.
How do they feel about Elon Musk, living in his rocket debris zone?
Yeah, he blew up a rocket over my town which, I shout out, you know, I respect. That's a bold move. I wanted to be the first guy to blow up a rocket over my hometown. But you know, shout out to Elon. I don't know. Yeah, they say SpaceX has made things weird there. A lot white people in a town that used to be 96% Latino,
Because it's on the border. But were your family or friends not directly impacted by the explosion in the debris field?
No debris field, everybody heard it. The windows shook. And they could see it in the sky. I don't know. I don't live there anymore. Are you still alive? Ok, cool. What else? What else is going on?
I bring it up because you were also part of the Austin comedy scene before it became something else, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan and all of their ilk.
Pre-Joe.
Yeah. So tell me what the Austin comedy scene was like when you were there in the early 2010s?
It was a magical land. No, I don't know. The audiences were cool. Austin had this really weird thing where comedians just wouldn't leave. From living there perspective of it. It was like somebody would win the contest the Funniest Person in Austin contest. They'd stay there for a year. They do New Faces typically, because we would get some New Faces, some JFL bookers come down Austin for the contest. Jeff Singer I think would show up. Shout out to Jeff Singer, former booker of Just For Laughs comedy and current just cool dude, I think? I don't know.
That's probably what led to Martin Urbano having to do an apology comeback tour.
He booked me. So, yeah, they would they would do New Faces, stay there for a year and then they'd eventually move to LA and that happened maybe two times? Maybe three. And then I don't think any of those people who hadn’t moved since then have continued to do stand up comedy in the very literal sense of stand-up. Very funny guy, Ramin Nazer.
Yeah. I was gonna mention Ramin. Lucas Molandes. It really seemed like there was enough of a scene there where people just used that as a home base and maybe they went on the road.
Kinda. There were definitely people who are doing that, but I just find it very weird that a lot of other scenes especially in Chicago, Denver and stuff like that. They would move to LA or New York. And then there'd be a branch there, you know, some sort of like thread, a connection to be like, OK, that's the path. That's what the local comedians could look to to be like, that's the way to do it. But not until like I moved and like, Maggie Maye. When Devon (Walker) moved, you know, now he's on you know, Andrew (Dismukes) moved to LA right before getting SNL. There just suddenly became a big, you know, moment where everybody was moving there. Now Austin's weird, I don’t know what’s going on.
But what was what was your goal when he went to Austin? Was it just, this is the big scene that I'm moving to from Brownsville?
No. Well, I mean, it was bigger than Brownsville. I heard on a podcast, a podcast. Patton Oswalt was naming good comedy. I think it was on You Made It Weird. He said that Austin was a good stand-up comedy town. Like OK, I registered that. And then, Myq Kaplan. I’ve got to talk to him about it, I can't remember if I've been told them already. But I when I watched the Last Comic Standing tour, it was him. Roy Wood Jr.
Mike DeStefano, Tommy Johnagin, and Felipe Esparza.
It was a good show. I like a nice variety of comedy.
No, I thought in terms of Top Fives
It was a solid top five. They were all super nice. Myq was super-duper nice afterwards. Both DeStefano and Kaplan. Roy Wood Jr. was the one who I told that I was trying to do stand-up comedy. I saw them in McAllen, Texas. OK. He’s like, oh, there's a guy in here named Mario Superstar Salazar. Reach out to him. I was like, OK, thank you. And then that's the first guy to put me on stage. Mario Superstar. I just bumped into him at the airport the other day for the first time in years and years. Anyway, and so Myq Kaplan was like, email me. I'm like, OK. And he sent back to such a long in-depth reply. And Austin was a place that he mentioned to so I'm like, OK, two people said Austin. That seems like a good place to go. But I always was like, and then LA or New York after once I get once I get better at stand-up.
But I get the sense that when you were there, it was definitely a time and a place in the Austin comedy scene was keeping it in terms of,
I think it's weirder now.
But in a different sense. Just in terms of the types of comedy you can do, because you weren't in the New York, LA, Chicago, I think you could do different things.
Why do you think you can’t do that here? Or there? I feel like it was a different moments of comedy, you know, different when NerdMelt was a thing. And when like, you know, The Meltdown was a show right there and then Whiplash on a Monday night at midight, the UCB around the block. You know, Night Train in Brooklyn also on Monday with Knitting Factory on Sundays. There was more variety. I think, well, I guess you could see more than straight stand up confessional stuff. And then weirder, one-liner, kind of things like that.
I guess the difference being that if you're doing Whiplash or Hannibal’s show at the Knitting Factory, there was a good chance that there would be industry there. Whereas if you're doing Cap City or Velveeta Room there's no industry there when it's not very satisfied when it's not SXSW or Moontower.
Or the Funniest Person in Austin contest. Yeah, the semi finals round would be judged by like
I judged FPIA.
Did you see me?
No, I was on either side of your tenure now. 2017 and then 2009, were the two times I judged the finals.
I moved here in 2016.
But were you doing this style of comedy you do now? Were you doing that in Austin?
Yes. But again, my my definition of what I was, for lack of a better word, lampooning was a little bit more broad and basic as far as like what I thought was, quote unquote, bad comedy hacky comedy over used premises that I could turn bright and dark and weird,
Kind of like your Jimmy Kimmel set, right?
Yes, basically. Yeah, that was that's a good example of what I had been working on. Like for the last like year I was in Austin, I was basically working on that set, a rough draft of that, and then when I moved here, I thought of that joke where you can't tell what race I am. Because in Texas, everybody knew I was Mexican. But as soon as I got here, I was like, What are you saying? Like alright Tom Thakkar. I just remember him saying that
The comedian formerly known as Tom Brady
That’s right, I think I met him right as he was changing his name. But it's because Tom would also get that a lot too, but and I noticed that getting more and more. And so I wrote that bit. And with that, I was like, Oh, now I have the perfect bit and so I just grabbed that set for one year. And yeah,
I'm sure you know this because of the kind of comedy you do, but one of the debates that gets tossed around a lot is whether a comedian is being sincere when they make really offensive jokes, or when it's just part of the act. A lot of kids want to have it both ways, but can't pull it off.
What do you mean? Give me some examples. Name names.
When comedians are being like transphobic or racist. But then when they get called out on it, they go on just making I don't really think this I'm just making jokes, but because of everything they say when they're offstage, it's really hard to tell unless you're saying Anthony Jeselnik or Martin Urbano. How have you wrestled with that as a comdian?
It's frustrating and I try to take all my frustrations and turn it into the thing that I do onstage because talking about it doesn't really solve anything or get anywhere. But I hope that by making fun of it on stage in a very silly way I can say my piece. If that makes sense. I think I know exactly what you mean. People do that shit all the time. It's so annoying. And you know, first of all, I think it's just annoying when people are like, take everything that everybody says onstage as at face value. I'm like, That's annoying. First of all. There are people lying on every side. Right? Let's get into it. Especially Aziz Ansari’s special Right Now. His apology comeback show. I was just like, it's so weird. He rehearsed this on the road, but he's like pretending it's like genuine, he’s saying it for the first time ever. And I'm just like, this is sick like he's like pretending to laugh or pretending to be sad. Well sure, maybe there's some sort of meaning behind it. I don't know, but I just feel like there's something there that the audience is always going to be just like, Wow, he's really like saying this for the first time and it's like really genuine. I'm like, no! We’re all maniacs. We say our same thing over and over again for night after night. We tweak it. Oh, maybe it should be more sincere here.
Especially if you're filming a special you've been doing it for a year.
It freaks me out how much people are trusting and how much people are lying. Right? So then there's that and then of course, there's also the thing of comedians wanting to be like, Oh, I had a twinkle in my eye or whatever. Chappelle, like, stopped doing comedy, because he's like, I heard the laughs and I didn't like them. And then it's like, oh, now you hear these laughs and like them? You think the audience is like smart now? No.
I don't know what happened to Dave. I've tried to figure out what happened in those years that made him completely flip from the person that he was then.
I think it's money, which he had plenty of then, but I think you know, just money.
Money. Fame. Another thing that happens with with those individuals is they get surrounded by people, they get in their own bubbles,
Of course. Yeah, when you’re hanging out with like, Elon Musk. It's like are you really like
When he brought Elon out at a show in San Francisco and Elon got booed. He was surprised.
Yeah, guys stop booing my friend, Elon Musk.
It runs the gamut from comedians who were going on Netflix and saying they're not allowed to say things anymore when thy got paid by Netflix to say that
I don't get how everybody's not furious at these people to be, like, you're a millionaire complaining that you can't say anything in your special when you have three specials that you have a deal. I don't know how everyone isn't just like, pulling their hair out.
But you're right that the whole lying thing or exaggeration goes to even the littlest things of — I saw this last week — and you're like, you’ve been saying this last week for so long now?
Yeah. And that's why I like and that's why I do the style that I'm doing it and is because I'm like, it's so weird.
I wonder how much this — this thing being us talking on podcast — how much this is impacting that particular problem, because people develop parasocial relationships with comedians via podcast and so they think that they know them. Especially in the podcasts where the comedians are vulnerable and they're talking about their everyday lives in the podcast, but then they go onstage, and they're not that person. They're back to the comedian and the audience can't rationalize the difference between the two. So if you're vulnerable on this podcast, and then you're on onstage being an ass, people are like, what happened to that guy? Or is he both guys? He’s not wearing a disguise or in character.
I can lie here, too. I can say whatever I want. I have my own agenda and feelings about things. And if I wanted to portray myself as you know, it's like, I don't know,
This episode is brought to you by Snopes.com.
That’d be a great sponsorship,
Debunking everything Martin Urbano just said
It's different, because I don't have a podcast. But there are people who have podcasts and then they have their fan base, and they're going on every week and it's like they bring a story to the podcast. And in that story, they're always going to be the good guy. And then people are like, Oh, this person's a good guy. This person's a good guy. Suddenly they go on stage and they're not necessarily — I’m freaking out right now about a giant bug. But also, I talk big, big stuff, but then I get scared about bugs, you know, what do I know? That's kind of a big bug.
How important was getting in line with Chris Gethard’s crew?
It was all part of my plan. See, first,
Did you have a plan when you moved to New York from Austin?
Actually I did. My plan was it was a very vague plan, but it was a three year plan. First year I was just going to eat shit, just eat complete shit for one year and I had to be OK with that.
Are you lying? Or are you being truthful?
This was my plan. Year two shitty bar shows. I better be like doing shitty bar shows at that time. It's gonna suck but at least I'm getting booked for stuff getting some notice. And year three it better start working out. And if it doesn't, by the end of that I have to rethink things. That was my three year plan. OK, I move here instantly get New Faces and Kimmel so you know, but at least I was prepared for
Did you eat shit later?
Oh, yes, I did. I mean, not in the way that I expected. But shit as far as like you get a high. Then you sink down to like some lower points and you're just like, Oh, it's just not working out. I see other people who leveraged the stuff that I did get into bigger and better things and now they're like doing you know. I was on New faces with Taylor Tomlinson, Sam Jay, James Austin Johnson. I think Andrew Dismukes was Unrepped, I think Steven Castillo was Unrepped, and then they got writer jobs for SNL. I think Ramy was one of my New Faces. You look at all these people getting these things and you're just like, man, I'm still working with a moving company.
But all of those people wanted to be on sitcoms or sketch shows. Is that something that you wanted?
YES! Of course! In fact, I probably wanted to do the most at that time. Like I would’ve been happy doing anything at that time. And now I've narrowed it down a little bit, which just made me better for what I do. I've honed in on the things that I think I'd be good at and want to do and excite me. That's probably better for what I do.
I bring up Chris Gethard, because when Chris stopped doing his show, he then decided to turn it over to people that he enjoyed and you were one of those people. And so you got to do the Comedy Amateurclass, which is a spoof of MasterClass which kind of falls in line with this comeback apology tour character. Where you're like, I'm doing comedy, but you’re doing comedy about the idea of comedy.
You know, just a very wide market, very easily marketable idea. I was happy with that. I think I definitely like honed in on some things there. Yeah, Chris has been wonderful to me. Really, what happened was, on my Kimmel set, I had a pedophile joke. Or like I said, I called myself a sex offender. And I thought that was like so funny and so interesting. And then I took a bunch of meetings right after that, right after New Faces and Kimmel.
Because sex offenders are big in Hollywood.
That’s also something I learned.
Oh, right, that was also the same time, right around the time as MeToo became a thing at the end of the summer in 2017.
Exactly. Exactly. So I'm in these meetings and like people are like oh, we really liked your Kimmel set. We liked that bit about how you can’t tell what race you are. Let's make a whole show about that. Im like that's stupid, I hate that, I feel like I said everything I needed to in that one-minute bit. Isn't it cool I called myself a pedophile, though? They’re like, yeah, the Mad Libs. Mad Libs are cute. Anyway. You know you say your mom's a Virgin Mary candle. What if we made a whole show about that? You guys are stupid. This is the worst. And then the MeToo movement happened.
But I noticed so many comics were doing this, like, I'm scared to even you know, sneeze around a woman. And I was like, I heard it over and over and I'm like, Well, my brain making fun of what I consider to be bad comedy, I latched onto that and I was like, surely more comedians, we'll figure this out. I filmed a Comedy Central thing, digital in like 2018, September 11, 2018. with some MeToo jokes. And I was like, Hey, these are probably going to spoil soon. Let me try to get them on tape right now. And then they were like, it's not gonna come out till February of next year. 2019 and I was like, they're gonna age like milk. Everyone's gonna have seen through all these guys are saying that. And then that came out and it was still fucking fresh. Like nobody else had metoo jokes that were in that vein, except Sam Morill and me. Sam and I, once we passed each other, we're just like, Hey, I like your MeToo joks. H was like, I like your MeToo jokes.
What does that say about about the state of comedy, though?
I don't know. What do you think it says? Only now, I think it’s starting to get like a little stale and I'm kind of happy to be like, Well I've been working on it so long. Let me present what I have and tape it and then release it and then move on
I guess my sense is that comedians want to be thought of as edgy without actually being edgy.
Oooh. Elaborate.
We were just talking about comedians saying you can't say anything. But they're not really saying anything. They're not really saying anything they can't say. And when they do, it's all always the same three things. They're not really exploring, they're not really busting the envelope. They're just doing the same rubber stamp thing that they read out of the edgy playbook.
Here's actually how I think how this happens. Comedians end up in these more liberal circles because we're in the arts, as much as some people think it's not an art but don't think it's an art, whatever. That's a whole other conversation, but they are in these art bubbles. So to them, they're like, Oh, I'm actually being edgy and like, against the grain here, when I'm surrounded by all these people who are all thinking the same thing. And all this. But then that's like such a small sliver of all of the country and the world. And everybody else is like, yeah, no, we don't think that. In fact,
Most of us aren't in a writers room.
We're not all doing comedy in Brooklyn. You know? So it's like, it feels so edgy. But really, most people agree with them.
It's the idea that these people are kind of shouting into a void because they think that that's what's going to earn them money.
And it does.
Yeah. But it's fascinating to see someone to see people like lean into this thing. And I don't know if they believed it before. Or they just saw that this was the path.
That is my big question, especially with like that guy in particular. And I'll just say his name, Louie CK. Yeah, with him in particular, and people like that I’m like, how much, how much do they believe it? I think it's got to be a little. I don't think you can just like fully, completely lie and be this like complete character. Because to be that aware, you just have to believe it in some capacity. And then you just have to ignore the parts that make you not believe it. You willfully ignore.
Unless you get to a point where, I've never been radicalized before, so I can't speak from personal experience. But I guess if you're backed into a corner financially, maybe you see this as your only way out?
I've been backed into a corner financially more times than I can count. Granted, I can't count that high because I'm stupid. I didn't go to college. And here's the thing. I have thought about it. I was like what if I just like went with this character but like, did a couple tweaks and was pandering to for lack of a better word alt-right crowd.
You’re doing it, but without the irony.
Exactly. I could make money and I know I could, I can see the path to doing that, but I'm like, at that point, let me just like go back to school and become like whatever. What's the point of doing something that I truly don't believe in in that way?
Right. I mean, there were there were comedians or comedic actors who showed up at the Capitol on January 6 of 2021?
Who did that again? What are their names?
Well, one is Jay Johnston.
Oh, that's right.
From Mr. Show and Bob’s Burgers. It's ironic slash not ironic that he's the bad guy in Bob’s Burgers. But obviously, like people do get radicalized to the point of taking it off stage. So, but not the folks of the National Lampoon Radio Hour.
All right. He is good.
Segues are not just for riding off cliffs. They're also for conversational cliffs. So you were part of the revival of the National Lampoon Radio Hour.
So funny. Yeah, I forgot. I always forget about that.
Eclectic, talented crew.
It was a fun time and a nice paycheck. It just felt like summer camp. There's no way this is gonna get another season. So let's just have fun. And we sure did.
Well, did it end because it wasn't working or did it end because of the pandemic?
It ended because how was anyone supposed to make money doing a sketch comedy half hour radio program with people who are all very funny, but not big names, you know?
Meg Stalter is a bigger name
Now? Sure, but at the time
Cole Escola.
Jo Firestone. Maeve Higgins like, there were lots of funny people who have good followings, but it's like, it’s a sketch comedy podcast. I don't know. To me it was always doomed from the start, but it was actually funny, and maybe the hardest I've ever laughed at a job.
You laughed more than at that job than you did at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon?
Yeah, somehow, somehow with Cole Escola, Jo Firestone as your boss versus Jimmy Fallon. There's just more laughs and fun to be had.
Jo has worked for Fallon. When did you work in Fallon?
Last year.
Oh, so during the pandemic. How did you get in there? First off.
I submitted a packet. So my friends, Nick Ciarelli & Brad Evans. Very funny sketch comedy duo and my dear friends. But at the time we weren't super close. They just saw me at a show. I do the Stamptown show.
Stamptown is who’s bringing you to Edinburgh.
Yes, they're producing my my hour. At that show, I do this thing where, Zach (Zucker) asked me one time, you want to like live review the show. I was like, sure I could try. We'll see how it goes. And it went great. So I just do that kind of like almost every time I do Stamptown, I review it. And I'm like can I do a set this time? He goes no. Watch the whole show. Three and a half hours. Be funny the whole time. Zach, please? Zach stop.!I'll do it. And so one time, that was probably the first time I met Nick and Brad, I reviewed them, and roasted the fuck out of them. And then afterwards, they were like very nice. And they're like if you ever want to, we work at Fallon if you want to apply. I was like, Sure I'll try. They sent me the packet. This was like October 2021. Stand up was kind of like rocking and rolling. You know, I picked back up in May of 2021. I was like, feeling the groove and I'm feeling great about I was like, yeah, let me try for this packet. And I tried for like a day and I was like this sucks. I hate this shit. I was like trying to watch the show, trying to like write jokes. This sucks. Fuck this.
This is no Who Wants $2.69? Planet Scum. Which is what you were coming off of.
Exactly. Very freeing. And I was just excited about stand-up. Sorry guys. I can't do it. They’re like, that's cool. It's open door policy, whatever, OK. Then Omicron hits in December 2021. And that wipes some shit out, like it was like oh, now my next month gigs are gone. And I don't really have gigs on the horizon. I don't have agents at this time. I lost my reps, fired left whatever. At the beginning of pandemic, so I didn’t have agents and I'm running out of money, too. So I was like, I definitely have to apply for Fallon, I kind of just like do it in February 2022. I worked really hard on it. Nick and Brad really helped me out. Gave me some notes. My friend Chloe Radcliffe, who used to work there, also helps me out. A couple other pals. You know, I really work hard on this packet. And I send it out and I don't hear anything back. And so just like, alright, well, that was like my last chance. I don't know what I thought was gonna happen. I don't have money anymore. I need to find a job. But I don't have a college degree or relevant experience. So the job that I did have working for a moving company where I answered emails and helped schedule the moves. I can't lift a box to save my lief. But I reached out to them. And they're like, oh, it's really slow right now. They're also mad because during pandemic, they reached out to me, and I was like, now I'm on this sweet unemployment. I'm not going to do that. And so then they're like kind of mad.
Conservatives were right. You didn't want to work.
Well, I was like doing the game show thing and I was just like, I don't need to go. If I go back now I'll have to be back for a long time and I didn't want to, it was not a good work environment. But I was desperate for money, reach out, they’re like it’s slow right now. There's not really money to be had. Fuck, I need money now. So I just started applying to the only thing I had experience in, in the past: retail. So last year, I got a job. I applied for Target because I used to work at target when I lived in Austin. And they said no.
Even though you had Target on your resume.
That was a blow to the ego. Yeah, it's like I'm less hireable now than when I was 19 years old.
So what's it like to be rejected by Target but accepted by Jimmy Fallon?
Well it's surreal. I ended up getting a job at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on 42nd Street in Times Square. And I worked there for like a month or two.
What was your job?
They had a little cafe. Cafe is a generous word for what it is, basically a slushie seller, and work at the gift shop. And I do this, make the wax hands. Apparently they do this stuff at like fairs, where they like dip somebody's hand into some wax and they take it off, and it's like this like mold of your hand. It doesn't really look like your hand but it's the same size I guess So I would do that. Hundreds of fucking little kids hands just dipping in wax and they’d keep moving their hands. I’d yell stop! I’m miserable. I was going through a breakup. I had no money. I'm just like, maybe this is a sign to quit comedy. And then, I had the feeling. I was like, You know what? I love it here. I’m gonna be OK. Just put my head down. I cannot ask for time off to go and try to do gigs on the weekends. Keep grinding in stand-up just work here as much as I can save up some money. It's gonna be hard. I'm gonna go into debt, which I did for a little bit. And I'm gonna work really hard and and try. I'm committed. You know, I want to make this work. Literally, I had a conversation. I was hanging out with Chris Gethard and some other people at dinner and I told them that, and they're like, good. We're worried about you. But that's good to hear that you have a good perspective. Yeah. I'm feeling all right. Four days later, I get the email. Hey, do you want a job interview for Fallon? Yeah, that’d be cool. I was like nervous for the interview. I'm like nah, there's no way it's gonna work out. But it's nice. At least this is a positive sign. And basically, the job interview was just like so. Do you want this job? Will it work with your stand-up schedule? Yeah, I'll make it work somehow!
Were you on monologues or sketches, or the games?
I was hired to be a sketch writer. And I think that's kind what fucked me. But that was the position that was open. I think I would have been a great monologue writer. In fact, they had me write some monologue jokes and I had a pretty good ratio. I know how to write jokes, but to pitch ideas with all these beats and stuff in the way that Fallon — I just couldn't, I just couldn't latch on to that way of thinking.
So were you just there for one 13-week cycle or
Two. But at the end of that one, they were like, we wanted to fire you after the first but we thought, wow, maybe he can figure it out?
So it was a lot different from the Viceland gig, Danny's House?
Danny's House. Ooh, I was just in DC this weekend. And somebody was like, Oh, we saw that you did something with Danny Brown. So that's why we came to the show. I'm like, Oh, wow. Thank God I include that on my credit list. Actually, weirdly enough, this one I'm going to be actually more careful with what I say, but lot of feelings. I had at Fallon and I felt there too. I will leave it at that. But Danny is really cool. And my friend Tom Cassidy was the head writer there and he was cool.
As you prepare to go to Montreal and then the Fringe and it's your first Fringe.
Yes. First time performing overseas in any capacity.
So obviously, a lot has changed in the six years since you went to Montreal, and dealt with industry folks. Do you have a better sense now of what you want? What your goals are?
100%. I didn't realize anything. I like tell people when they can ask for like, advice or whatever. Man. I love giving unsolicited advice. But when they ask for it, it’s perfect. I should have had other stuff ready, when they kept being like, oh, we like that five minutes of stand-up. What else do you have? And I was like, those five minutes, weren't they good? Oh, so I should have had a script, or a show idea I was really passionate about. Now I have all these things. Or like go and do every single audition and like really take an acting class and do that or like you know something. And I just didn't have any of that. I didn't know. They were like, OK, well keep in touch. But when you have the heat, you’ve got to use it because it goes away.
How much of this new passion for it is because it did go away? Because you did have that period where you're dealing with kids dipping their hands in wax,
That was a very humbling moment.
Going this what my life could be. And I was on Kimmel.
And I had lots of good opportunity since then. Honestly, like when pandemic hit. I was like, when the hoax hit. I was like, Wow, I feel bad. I feel like a loser. And then I had to do my taxes. And I looked at the tax returns from like, the years before, I'm like, oh, there was actually an upwards increase. And it probably would have kept going that way. You know, but then shit kind of like reset everything. So that was like at least good to be like OK, I'm not completely a fuck up. Things were going positively, I just couldn't predict this. And I made some choices that I fucked up, or I didn't do some things. My bad.
And as we've discussed, there's always a chance that you could just radicalize “Martin Urbano.”
We'll see
You could sell out and the comeback tour could lead to a true comeback
This will be interesting to hear in like two months, because in two months, I'm going to know everything I need to know about: Will I continue doing stand-up comedy? If the Fringe gos bad, I might quit. I'm gonna retire like Hannah Gatsby.
I'm a Pablo-matic. What can I say?
How far do you think you can take the current iteration of your comedy? Could it be like Andrew Dice Clay where?
No, no, no. I've already and I've talked about it with people. I feel like this character is just like, so I'm so over it. I mean, I'm not over it because I like what it is. But it's just so hard to like go to shows where people are expecting just like, Oh, are you two dating? Oh, yeah. Oh, man. You know, here's the thing about women and like, you know, when you're having sex and the thing, and then I come up and I'm like, do my schtick? And then I just see people in the crowd just hate it. Especially when it's people who I think would agree with me, and like we would like get along in person and they just like, hate what I'm doing and I'm like, I'm trying to drip it in as much sarcasm and irony and make it as clear as possible and you're still hating it. Or maybe they get it. Like, we get it. We just don't like it. All that, it just hurts my feelings. So if it is well-received in like an artsy festival. That would feel great. That'll be a little validating to what I've been doing. And if it doesn't go well there then I'm like, Well, I was working really hard on this thing that maybe, let's just tape it, put it out there. Five people will watch it and then I move on to the next thing.
Yeah, so either way in two months, it will be rather interesting to check back in with you.
Exactly.
Well, I look forward to checking back in with you then.
Let's do it!
Awesome. Thanks.
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