Comedian discusses importance of having ‘a voice’

Named as one of “Variety’s Top 10 Comics to Watch” and “One of the 50 Comedians You Should and WILL Know” by Vulture.com, Cristela Alonzo has had a whirlwind year. She is the co-creator and star of the ABC television sitcom Cristela and also serves as a co-producer and a writer on the show.

She also has released her first stand-up CD, Some of the Hits, through Comedy Central and will be making her feature film debut in the upcoming Angry Birds movie. In addition, Alonzo has appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Chew, Conan, and as a guest cohost on The View.

Alonzo spoke to the Banner recently about her comedy influences, diversity in television and who makes her laugh today.

You’ve had a whirlwind year. Have you had any time to enjoy the success you’ve had this past year?

CA: Not at all. I feel like it’s something that you maybe celebrate after the fact. Where I’m at right now, considering the way that I was brought up, having the opportunity just means that you have to work really hard to keep that opportunity going. It’s not about really taking inventory about what’s happening. It’s just to kind of make sure that it doesn’t stop or you try your best not to make it stop.

When you worked at the comedy club in Dallas, do you recall what it was that first inspired you to do standup?

CA: I was always doing stand-up. What the Improv did was teach me that it was a job. I didn’t know you could do that. I would see it growing up and I would hear it growing up. It’s such a weird job that I didn’t know how people became comics. It wasn’t until I started working at the club that I realized that people would go around the country telling jokes every week. I thought “Oh, my god this is interesting.” This is what I want to do.’ I got to see some amazing comics back in the day and for me, it’s come full circle.

Out of all the comics that you saw there and growing up, would you say any one of them influenced you or inspired you in any way?

CA: There were a couple that inspired me for different reasons. People always say that Richard Pryor is a really big influence on them and I agree. Richard Pryor was very important to me because he had such a hard childhood and so did I. When I heard him do his stand-up, when I heard him do his set, I related to it and it made me feel that one day I was going to be able to talk about my childhood. He was so great and so unique and his life was original and distinct to him in creating his voice, that when I saw his stand-up, you actually heard him talk about things that maybe people considered sad and turned into a funny thing. Richard Pryor was very important to me.

Ellen DeGeneres was very important to me. Ellen actually taught me how absurd you can see things in everyday life, the absurdities. She can make you laugh by telling you the story about her thinking that she was going to be raised by wolves. It made so much sense. You’re thinking, “Oh, my god.” The fact that she could be so great in the mundane, I always found that so inspiring.

Stand-up has been a great source for you to express yourself. If you hadn’t been able to do stand-up how would you have been able to express your stories growing up?

CA: It’s never occurred to me. In order to do this job and have a chance to be successful at it you have to only want to do it and never think about ever doing anything else. For me, I’ve never thought about anything else. I always thought that I would keep trying until it hit. One of the reasons why I started doing stand-up was because I used to do theater and I was a woman of color and they told me years ago that, you know as a Latina, if I did Chorus Line and Westside Story, I was done. There weren’t opportunities for Latinas. I started doing stand-up because I wanted to write stuff myself. I wanted to make sure that I got the job and I knew that in order to get a job I had to create everything myself. I wasn’t going to let anybody else create it for me. Really, being a woman of color and trying to get a voice in this industry that’s what really propels me to do my standup and tell the story.

The word diversity is being thrown around these days on television, especially with the success of shows like blackish and Empire. Does that create any more pressure on you, for the show, and what you’re doing?

CA: We’re at this time where finally people are noticing that not everybody is the same color. And it’s so fantastic. It’s 2015 and it’s like they just realized that “Wow, we all don’t look alike.” I feel now that this is a great year. For me, ABC did such a great job of having Fresh Off the Boat, blackish and me on the line-up that I feel like it’s a step forward, but at the same time, yes, I think that with Latinos, especially with my show, I get so many people saying, “You represent the culture, you represent this. If you’re representing the culture, I have to tell you Latino moms are not like the mom on your show. Latinos don’t do this. Latinos don’t do that.” You get criticism, you get praise. I always tell people, especially Latinos who criticize the show, which are very small in the numbers, “The word Latino covers a lot of different countries and I can’t represent different countries. It’s impossible. I can tell you that my mom is like that.” I wish that other moms weren’t like my mom. My mom is a very strict woman and I have to show her like that because that’s who she was. Because there are so few shows that have diversity, I think minorities want to support these shows to keep them on the air. I tell everybody that if a project fails, the industry thinks “Oh, the audience doesn’t want to see it,” and then they won’t give another person an opportunity for another five years. It’s stressful and you hope you do it right but in order to do it right, I feel like that you just have to be honest.

As far as stand-up who makes you laugh these days?

CA: I love Chris Rock. …That’s actually one of the reasons why I like to talk about race and about social issues that I deal with on the show, because of him. I think that what he does in his stand-up is, he gives people a voice that somehow wouldn’t have a voice. He represents a group of people that I think my show does, that have never really had a chance to be heard until recently. Chris Rock, I love. Gabriel Iglesias is one of my best friends. I love him to death. He’s in the Latino community and not only in the Latino community, he’s surpassed it. He’s global now. He’s the nicest guy ever. When you see how hard he works, when you see him travel the country, travel the world, having people from around the world laugh at what he does is so inspiring. My favorite part of the show is when they announce him, when he walks on to the stage and the crowd is with you. For me, when you see the crowd so excited to see the performer come out and they give a standing ovation, it’s such a weird, magical, powerful feeling, because you realize that his voice is important to everybody in that room. I think Chris Rock and Gabriel Iglesias are very important.