By: Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/17/2024 – The Academy Award-winning character actor Edmund Gwynn, best known for his portrayal of Kris Kringle in the iconic Miracle on 34th Street, may have put it best when he said, with his final living breath, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”
If you ask Jesus Trejo, he’d agree, and his PBS series, “Roots of Comedy with Jesus Trejo” is as fine an illustration of that adage as you will find. Trejo, himself a stand-up comedian from Long Beach, CA, takes a look at six comics performing in their individual home cities over the course of the six-part series, which premieres on broadcast TV on Friday June 21st.
Along his journey, Trejo visits six U.S. cities – Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles, CA and Chinle, Arizona – where he meets with six rising comedians who explore the mosaic of our nation through the lens of stand-up comedy.
The series is executive produced by Trejo, Juan Devis and Danny Lee, and is co-produced for PBS by PBS SoCal and BIPOC-production studio CALICO, in association with the National Multicultural Alliance.
Trejo sat down for an exclusive one-on-one with The Hollywood Times recently. He said the idea for the series blossomed out of the desire to help audiences better understand the humor and its origins from six remarkable comedians.
Click below for our exclusive interview:
“The idea of the show is that every joke can be traced back to community, and we see some really fun jokes,” he said. “It was really cool to be able to give the viewer the context of each specific comic, but also you get to understand the joke better when you can trace the joke back to community.”
“We got to meet family, we got to hang out where they are from.”
The comics – Ali Sultan from Minneapolis; Vanessa Gonzalez from Austin; Eeland Stribling from Denver; Tatanka Means, from Chinle; Adam Pasi from Portland; and Sierra Katow from L.A. – represent a diverse cross-section that Trejo felt best represented the class of comics currently working around the country.
“There were so many comedians to choose from,” Trejo said. “We had a long list to choose from, but ultimately, we landed on the list that we felt was diverse and just amazing. Their stories were so awesome. We fell in love with them. We hope the viewer is able to fall in love with them the way we did.”
Trejo, who currently is a staff writer for Hulu’s “This Fool” and also hosts “Tacos Con Todo,” a web series in which he navigates the LA taco scene with celebrity guests. Trejo said it is more than just material or personal charisma, it comes down to the comic’s ability to bring his authentic self to the stage.
“I think that equation is different on a case-to-case basis when you look at a standup comedian,” he said. “Everybody thinks they can do comedy, including myself. I am still trying to figure it out. It’s a never-ending thing. You take risks, but ultimately you want to bring your authentic self to the stage and when you’re able to do that, I think the percentage of charisma versus material just depends on the person.”
“Some people are able to bring themselves completely to the stage. That’s all charisma,” he said. “And the material just comes out naturally. Some comics are off the top, more improvisational, some people are more sit-down-and-write-the-joke. Some people are autobiographical, some people are more observational. I think there is an infinite number of ways you can spin that equation.”
Trejo is also an author of two upcoming children’s books, was named in “Variety’s Top 10 Comics to Watch” in 2017 and is a paid regular at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
In the end the common thread that links these six very funny, yet very different people are their ability to bring that authentic self to the stage every night.
“Every single one of these comedians have dedicated their adult lives to that commonality, that all of them were able to be themselves on stage,” he said. Adding, “that there is no such thing as the perfect stage.”
“We were able to get a slice of life out of so many different places, and the place where all the variables align doesn’t exist,” he said. “Ultimately, you show up and you are your authentic self.”
“Roots of Comedy with Jesus Trejo” is funded by grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Wyncote Foundation and the Frieda Berlinski Foundation. The first two 30-minute episodes – with Sultan and Gonzalez – will air back-to-back on Friday, June 21st with two more on June 28th (Stribling and Means) and the final two on July 5th (Pasi and Katow).
Check local listings for times and PBS channels. For more information, check out the show’s website.
