More often than not, people find themselves laughing the hardest at things that might be considered controversial, uncomfortable or even taboo. It takes a certain talent and a lot of unfiltered honesty to pull that off, and that’s why we have comedians like Felipe Esparza.
There’s nothing clean about comedy when Esparza takes the mic. It’s blunt, lived-in and soaked in the kind of pain most people would rather forget. He brings it all out—family trauma, addiction, bad decisions—and somehow, makes you laugh without hating yourself for it.
“In my last special, called Bad Decisions, I talk about domestic violence and spousal abuse,” he says. “I never thought about how I could make that funny ... but if you make it funny, that means you’re moving on.”
The laugh might come after a pause, or maybe even a wince. But when it does, it hits harder because it’s real.
Esparza headlines the MGM Grand on September 12 and 13, part of his At My Leisure WorldTour, a fresh hour of new material. No recycled sets. No autopilot. If he’s doing a theater, it’s because he’s ready to deliver.
“I’m not comfortable going back on the road with the same material,” he says. “I start the tour with a whole new hour.”
Raised in Los Angeles by Mexican immigrant parents, Esparza’s comedy walks a tightrope between the personal and the universal. He talks about growing up poor, getting high, getting sober and watching his mom laugh at the darkest bits. “I did the [domestic violence] joke right in front of her at a show in New York,” he says. “I flew her out and got her a hotel too, though, so that kind of helped.”
Storytelling is the backbone of his style, not tight setups and clever callbacks. It’s actual stories, tangled and weird and oddly familiar. A joke about the contrasts of Latino immigrants compared to white people is a home run. Esparza centers on the practice of Latinos sending money back to family in their homeland. He jokes that you don’t hear about white people sending funds “back to Scotland or Ireland,” or extended family from Germany or Belgium coming to the States and needing a place to stay. Latinos with firsthand experience get a kick out of this bit, and so does everyone else.
Offstage, Esparza’s world is quieter. He lives with his wife, Lesa ODaniel Esparza, their two dogs and a rabbit. She helps direct and produce his specials and often hears new material before anyone else.
He’s also deep in the podcast game, with What’s Up Fool?, the history-focused History for Foos with comedian Butch Escobar, and a new one with his wife called Do You Even Binge? “We talk about Wes Anderson films, Coen Brothers, and we’re gonna touch different type of genres and films,” he says.
Esparza has been doing this since the ’90s, long before hour-long specials and sold-out theaters. He’s not chasing fame. He’s chasing the truth. And if that truth happens to involve conspiracy theories, Catholic guilt or general trauma, all the better—if he can crack a joke about it.
“I don’t want to be a person that’s pissing everybody off onstage,” he says. “I want to be the guy that makes fun of things in a way where you’ll think about it when you go home.”
Felipe Esparza September 12, 9 p.m. (& September 13, 10 p.m.), $79+. David Copperfield Theater, ticketmaster.com.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
