Comedian Angelo Colina Doesn't Care if You Don't Speak Spanish

by Agueda Pacheco Flores

For English translation, click here.

A ngelo Colina no le importa si no hablas espaol

El comediante venezolano tiene una presentacin casi agotada en el Tacoma Comedy Club.

por Agueda Pacheco Flores

Para sorpresa de ngelo Colina, su show para el 1 de marzo en el Tacoma Comedy Club se agot en diez das con meses de anticipacin. Aadi una segunda fecha, el 29 de febrero, para que ms personas tuvieran la oportunidad de verlo.

Si no has odo hablar de Colina y su ascenso a la popularidad, probablemente es porque no hablas espaol. Su circuito de stand-up del ao pasado, "Gente Funny", que recibi reconocimiento por NPR, es subversivo y se burla de la experiencia compartida de ser latino (inmigrante, primera generacin o cualquier cosa intermedia) en los Estados Unidos. Los chistes que cuenta, como cuando se fue de Colombia para evitar ser discriminado por ser venezolano, solo para llegar a Estados Unidos y ser discriminado por ser mexicano, son un guio de ojo tanto a la gran mezcla de nacionalidades latinas en Estados Unidos como a la experiencia muy comn de ser estereotipado por racistas que carecen gravemente de conciencia cultural.

Mientras caminaba hacia Madison Square Park en la ciudad de Nueva York, Colina le dijo al South Seattle Emerald que simplemente es ms fcil explicar los matices culturales de la latinidad y cmo se superponen en su propio idioma.

"No tiene mucho sentido que yo haga un chiste del acento de la gente del norte de Mxico en ingls", dice. "Es muy limitante".

Incluso el pblico hispanohablante es diferente del pblico gringo ms hegemnico, segn Colina, quien dice que los latinos son muy educados. "A m me da risa tener que explicarle a algn comediante angloparlante que en la comedia en espaol hay menos gente interrumpiendo un show".

Antes de subir al escenario, Colina era profesor de ingls y bastante joven. Con solo 17 aos, dice que se vio obligado a encontrar formas de hacer que sus alumnos escucharan.

"Yo tena casi la misma edad que ellos, y realmente buscaba una manera de que me prestaran atencin, que aprendieran y que la clase fuera divertida para ellos, as que busqu ejemplos que dieran risa. Ah fue que comenc a agarrarle amor a eso", dice, mientras un msico callejero toca El Padrino en la trompeta en el fondo.

Rinde homenaje a su poca como maestro con su mercanca Gente Funny, que presenta frases como "I don't import", y "When it touches, touches", malas traducciones de las expresiones "no me importa" y "cuando toca, toca".

Despus de ser profesor, a Colina le tom tiempo encontrar su lugar como comediante. Cuando estaba en Colombia, el stand-up simplemente no tena una escena adecuada, al igual que su ciudad en Venezuela antes de eso, pero una vez que se mud a Utah, donde vivi durante dos aos, comenz a probar la comedia, primero en ingls. Encontr una escena adecuada una vez que lleg a la ciudad de Nueva York, donde tiene muchos amigos comediantes. Todava espera poder convencerlos de hacer comedia en espaol.

"Esta es mi opinin, pero en ingls uno tiende a inventar ms, uno se puede ir a lo irreal o a lo fantasioso. Por eso un sketch de Saturday Night Live puede tener un cangrejo que es mesero", dice. "Mientras que en espaol, contar la realidad ya es absurdo, contar la realidad de cualquier minora va a ser absurdo y ya es ms fcil conectar".

Si bien los comediantes latinos en el mundo del espectculo no son nuevos, su comedia nunca ha superado por completo la barrera del idioma. Tomemos como ejemplo el especial de stand-up de George Lpez de 2004, "Why You Crying?", que se basa en gran medida en la educacin cultural de Lpez, pero solo presenta algunas palabras en espaol ocasionalmente. Luego estn los comediantes hispanohablantes que son importantes en sus pases de origen, pero que no tienen un gran alcance en Estados Unidos, incluso aquellos con especiales de comedia de Netflix, como Carlos Ballarta.

"Me ha llegado mucha gente que nunca ha visto stand-up en espaol, que no ha conectado con el stand-up en ingls, o que no conecta con algn comediante de su pas de origen, porque habla de cosas de su pas de origen y ya ellos tienen mucho tiempo afuera", afirma.

En realidad, Colina es un pionero y, adems, popular. Su gira actual, ngelo Colina en Espaol, comenz a principios de febrero en Queens y cuenta con ms de 20 shows en todo el pas, incluso en Tacoma. Colina dice que su objetivo no es unir a la comunidad latina, pero por inercia, sucede. De hecho, dice que nunca ha ido a una ciudad porque le dicen, "Aqu hay muchos latinos", sino que cree que siempre hay latinos. Solo es cuestin de si ese lugar tiene una cultura de comedia para ellos.

En cierto modo, Colina es como el Bad Bunny de la comedia: se niega a encajar en la industria de la comedia y obliga que lo acepten por completo simplemente para demostrar que s es Gente Funny.

"No le vas a decir a Bad Bunny, oye, puedes hacer 'Callata' en ingls?'"

Foto principal: Los boletos para el evento de Angelo Colina en el Tacoma Comedy Club para el 1 de Marzo se agotaron, pero quizs todava haya boletos para el evento para el 29 de Febrero. (Foto cortesia de Angelo Colina)

Comedian Angelo Colina Doesn't Care if You Don't Speak Spanish

The Venezuelan comedian has a nearly sold-out set at the Tacoma Comedy Club.

by Agueda Pacheco Flores

Much to Angelo Colina's surprise, his March 1 show at the Tacoma Comedy Club sold out within 10 days after months of anticipation. He added a second date, Feb. 29, to give more people a chance to see him.

If you haven't heard of Colina and his rise to popularity, it's probably because you don't speak Spanish. His stand-up circuit last year, "Gente Funny," which got a nice shout-out by NPR, is subversive, poking fun at the shared experience of being Latino — immigrant, first gen, or anything in between— in the United States. Jokes that recount leaving Colombia to avoid being discriminated against for being Venezuelan, only to arrive in the U.S. and be discriminated against for being Mexican, is a nod to both the salad of Latino nationalities in the U.S. and an all too common experience of being stereotyped by racists who severely lack cultural awareness.

While walking toward Madison Square Park in New York City, Colina told the South Seattle Emerald that it's simply easier to explain the cultural nuances of Latinidad and how they overlap in his own language.

"It doesn't make much sense for me to make a joke about the accent of all Northern Mexicans in English," he says in Spanish. "It's really limiting."

Even Spanish-language audiences are different from the more hegemonic gringo audience, according to Colina, who says Latinos are very polite. "It makes me laugh when I explain to an Anglo-speaking comedian that there's less heckling at shows."

Before Colina took to the stage, he was an English teacher and a fairly young one. At just 17 years old, he was forced to find ways to make his students listen.

"I was nearly their age, so I noticed how they could pay attention and learn was for the class to be fun for them, and for me, it was looking for funny examples that would make them laugh, so that's how I fell in love with this," he says, while a busker plays The Godfather on the trumpet in the background.

He pays homage to his time as a teacher in Venezuela with his Gente Funny merchandise, which features sayings like "I don't import," and "When it touches, touches," which are the badly translated Spanish sayings "no importa" and "cuando toca, toca."

After teaching, it took a while for Colina to find his footing as a comedian. When he was in Colombia, stand-up just didn't have the right comedy scene, same with his town in Venezuela before that, but once he moved to Utah, where he lived for two years, he began trying comedy in English initially. He found the right scene once he got to New York City, where he has plenty of comedian friends. He still hopes he can convince them to do Spanish-language comedy.

"This is just my opinion, but in English people tend to invent more, lean toward the unreal or fantastical, that's why a Saturday Night Live sketch can have a crab that's a waiter," he says. "Meanwhile in Spanish, telling the truth is already absurd, telling the truth of any minority is going to be absurd and easier to connect with."

While Latino comedians in show biz aren't new, their comedy has never completely crossed the language barrier. Take George Lopez's 2004 stand-up special "Why You Crying?" which takes heavily from Lopez's cultural upbringing, but only features the occasional Spanish word. Then there are the Spanish-language comedians who are big in their home countries but don't have a great reach in the U.S. — even those with Netflix comedy specials like Carlos Ballarta.

"Many people have come to me who have never seen stand-up in Spanish or can't connect with English-language stand-up, or don't connect with a comic from their country because they talk about stuff from their country," he says, "but they've been out of their country for a long time."

In reality, Colina is a pioneer, and a popular one at that. His current tour, "Angelo Colina En Espaol," kicked off in early February in Queens and has more than 20 shows across the country, including Tacoma. Colina says his angle isn't to unite the Latino community, but by virtue of inertia, it happens. In fact, he says he's never gone to a city where they tell him "there's a lot of Latinos here," on the contrary he believes there's always Latinos, it's just a matter of whether that place has a comedy culture for them.

In a way, Colina is like the Bad Bunny of comedy, refusing to make himself fit into the comedy industry, forcing it to fully embrace him only to prove that he is Gente Funny.

"You're not going to tell Bad Bunny to do 'Callita' in English."

📸 Featured Image: Angelo Colina's March 1 show at the Tacoma Comedy Show is sold out, but there may still be tickets available for the added show on Feb. 29. (Photo courtesy of Angelo Colina.)