The Mexican comedian is bringing his No Borders tour to Australian shores in August for what will be a smorgasbord of laughs.
An interview with Felipe Esparza is actually quite a tricky thing to pull off. Not because he is in any way rude or unpleasant to chat to, he genuinely could not be friendlier.
It’s just because for most of the interview, you find yourself gasping for air between belly laughter breaths.
Dialling in from a boiling Los Angeles, Esparza is the most pleasant face to see on this chilly Melbourne Friday morning. Wearing Dumbledore glasses and with big, bright Jim Morrison hair, Esparza is grinning widely, and for good reason.
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In only a few weeks, Esparza will be arriving down under for his No Borders tour, which will take him to Melbourne and Sydney. Having never been to Australia before, I ask him if he has any pre-conceived notions of what to expect.
“I don’t know much about Australia, just what I see in movies,” he says. “But I’m pretty sure that’s not real.” He’s a big fan of the Australian TV series Underbelly: “I saw a lot of cannabis and thought, I gotta go down there”.
So while he’s here, he’s keen to fully immerse himself in Australian culture. He intends to walk the streets and really get a feel for the country. Unlikely to taste any of our meat delicacies given he is a proud vegan, he retorts “if they have vegan koala bears, I’ll eat them”.
Whilst Australia’s relationship with Esparza is in its early days, Esparza’s relationship to comedy is not.
Driven into the craft after coming out of a drug rehabilitation centre in his 20s, he found solace in his local library and tried to gain an understanding of comedy’s mechanics. “I was in a drug rehab for a year and a half. When I got out, I went to a library and got a book on comedy writing step by step and then learned how to write jokes.”
With the foundational ability to tell jokes (a slight help to comedians), Esparza got to work. He tried to play as many gigs as possible wherever he could. “There’s a magazine called LA Weekly that shows everything entertainment. So, I looked up comedy and found open mic nights. Then I went to this club that was music and comedy and whilst the punk bands were setting up, I’d do stand-up in front of them”.
There he met many up-and-coming comedians, including Jamie Kennedy of the Scream franchise who was “living in his car at the time”.
Throughout this early period, Esparza grafted and learnt the tricks of the trade, eventually refining his skills. Once he got to the point where he had learnt enough, he decided to try something greater. This was auditioning for the comedic reality show, Last Comic Standing. Speaking of this time, Esparza says “I had auditioned in previous years but did not make it through. But this time, I made it all the way to the end and I beat everybody.
“I won $250,000. But the next day my son’s mum filed for child support. She became the last baby mamma standing.
“I used to be a horrible person. I used to sell marijuana to my son’s mum’s new husband. And then I would take his money and give it to her as child support. It was my 420-pyramid scheme.”
Such is his skill of taking dark moments of his life and turning them into moments of levity, the entire interview with Esparza is peppered with one-liners that would make even Ricky Gervais blush.
Esparza’s life has a chequered track. He and his family of nine tried to illegally migrate into the United States three times before they eventually got in.
“My experience as a Mexican man who migrated illegally with his mother brings about a different experience to a lot of other comedians. I had to run home every day because we were illegal. The experience I have as a kid – growing up in a crazy home with seven kids and two working parents – I had a lot of time to do comedy because we were bored a lot”.
He became influenced by the likes of Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby. These influences can clearly be seen within his work.
“My material is mostly partying and drug use. I remember one time I was doing cocaine off a woman’s breast. But when I sobered up, I looked and realised it wasn’t cocaine, it was her deodorant”.
For Esparza, comedy comes very naturally. He barely even tries to be funny and I end up cackling throughout the interview. As a means to catch my breath, I tried to pepper in a few more banal questions, like what people can expect from his upcoming Australian tour.
“People can expect to laugh their arses off. When you see me you don’t just see a comedian, you see a friend, neighbour, or some crazy person you grew up with, or your sister’s ex-boyfriend, or your mum’s ex-boyfriend, you see someone who you can relate to. You’ll know someone like me.”
Esparza will also venture into body shape, relationships, cheating and various other aspects of culture, in addition to the “lots about drugs”. Critics have labelled his comedy as irreverent. Would he agree? “I’d have to look up what ‘irreverent’ means first.”
Esparza’s shows are taking place on August 3 in Melbourne at the Comics Lounge and August 7 in Sydney at the Comedy Store. Tickets for Esparza’s Sydney and Melbourne shows can be accessed here.
