(gentle music) They say it takes 10 years to find your voice in comedy, 10,000 hours, it takes 10 years to find this, and this many years to find that, I think that's ultimately very pointless, but I understand the comfort of it.

I ran into Edgar, who's the director, on the way in, and I was like, "I feel, like, this is a lot of, for what is basically gonna be, like, a couple comedians and, like, an improvised slide show of pictures of underwear."

He's like, "It's gonna be great, there's a lot of buzz."

- [Chad] That's what he said to me, there's buzz.

- There's buzz, hey.

(laughs) - [Chad] There's buzz.

- There's buzz.

How did we get to this current political climate?

They say the signs are everywhere, but where are they?

I'll tell you, Red Cat, they were right here at Ross Dress For Less.

They were right here.

Sounds like a jazz nickname.

- It does.

- Ooh.

Red Cat and Almond Bear Claw.

(chuckles) You know what I feel like?

Like this, there's just not enough content to justify this whole production, like, this is not a show.

And then there's like, all sorts of stuff being improvised.

This is so dumb, and I'm just gonna have to be like, sort of, like, you said, like, this is like 20 minutes and, like, maybe it's interesting, but, like, they might not just be laughing at all.

Now I'm like, actually worried about, like, real problems.

Like, we don't, like, this is not, what is happening?

Like, this is not a show, Chad.

- [Chad] I mean, we stopped (inaudible) yet.

- It's tomorrow.

(people laughing) (people applauding) (traffic whooshing) So I know what you're doing.

- [Habib] What am I doing?

- You're doing that thing that, I've been a journalist, when you interview someone, you just...

If you stay silent long enough, they'll just start talking again.

Not today, Satan.

- [Habib] Today is Friday, November 4th, 12:07.

- (laughing) - Last night, Christina's writing buddies decided I was the enemy.

- They didn't say you were the enemy, they just said, I shouldn't trust you at all, and that documentarians are worse than journalists.

(soft music) I think I've always wanted to do comedy and I just never thought maybe growing up in LA but also growing up poor in LA that just was never, ever seemed like, a thing that, like, real people do.

It's so weird to think about 'cause I never really planned on being an art critic either.

I was offered a job at a gallery, but running a commercial gallery is a lot different from being an art critic.

And I was just, I thought that would be the logical next step is to like, now I have a job in the art world, this is gonna help my career.

But before comedy even entered my mind, it was starting to feel like a conflict of interest.

(car engine rumbling) It was a cool job and I had a company card and I was, like, going to art fairs all over the world and just having a really fun life.

But I'm like, this is not really what's making me happy.

I got fired from the gallery and I took that as, like, a sign of, like, just doing more comedy really intensely.

I started doing standup 'cause it was just more flexible.

So I just googled Los Angeles open mics and I went to the first one that was nearest to my house.

- [Announcer] Christina Catherine Martinez.

(audience cheering) - And then I kept, just kept doing it, I think I went to open mics like, almost pretty much every night for like a year at least.

He sat me down and he goes, "Christina, you know no one has any idea what you're talking about in your standup, right?"

(audience laughing) And then I remember being at, like, an open mic, I think probably in, like, someone's garage and there's like, 12 people there, but they were laughing and I was like, "Oh no, this is it."

(chuckles) Ah (beep) (laughs).

When I first started doing standup, I was so locked into the writing process that I wasn't, wasn't having a lot of fun on stage.

Then I was, like, started doing a bunch of clown stuff and when I learned how to be a little bit more in my body, then I just got, like, just super loose and was like, not writing at all.

- Clowning traditions come a lot out of being in your body and finding the humor that exists within all of us.

- It's this combination of, of like, ranty energy and virtuosic skill based on anyone's specific background, and then it can break into, like, heavy movement and be beautiful dance and be very emotional and then become completely absurd again, and always, like, had an element of danger.

- Standup, so much of it is being vulnerable, but also controlling the narrative.

The audience sees you and they think you're the expert, but when you're a clown, they think you're the novice.

And I think that's why when people get that first laugh off of failure, when they actually have people love them because they're going out there and they're just making a mess, creating chaos, failing at the task that they're chasing, that's a one of a kind rush.

I want you to do this.

I want you to put your feet like this.

Okay, I want you to bend your knees.

Now watch me, I want you to do what I'm gonna do, ready?

That's all you have to do, all right?

Stay with me in your eyes, okay?

(hands tapping) Don't break the cameras, don't forget.

(hands tapping continues) Do you think that was even 4% right?

- No.

- What happened?

- Maybe.

I don't know, I think I'm overthinking what you're trying to teach me.

- You're overthinking literally the simplest physical movement I could possibly give you.

It's 100% great that you're failing, but, like, how can you turn this failure into their joy?

Now imagine you're doing this with an audience, imagine you're convincing an audience that this foolishness, this simple task that you're trying to do has grave importance.

- [Christina] Yeah.

(chuckles) Is this your attempt at clowning?

- This is my clowning attempt, it's my inspiration from the show.

- [Christina] Oh, now, I'm gonna direct you like Chad does.

- Okay.

- As clowns, we can fail upwards, you know, we can keep doing our best, messing up, finding new solutions, even worse than the last solution, and still this audience is cheering us on, the way you cheer on people you love, you know?

That's what we do with our children, that's what we do with our pets.

All these things that make them imperfect and we love them for it.

Not in spite of it, we love them for it because we feel more connected 'cause that's us, right?

That's all of us.

- That was incredible.

(chuckles) Ah, you ruined it at the end.

Bryce is film theory- - No, like, something like sculpture.

- But, like, you minored in old barrels.

- I was an acting major.

- [Both] (gasps) Oh!

- Get over here.

- Quick, yeah, you're on the wrong side of the camera.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Christina] We need to get Bryce into clown.

- Clown was actually my favorite (beep) class.

For my final, I ate a box of tissues.

- [Both] Oh.

- [Christina] That's a pretty good clown bed.

- Yeah, it was pretty nuts.

I brought tissues and I was gonna be blowing my nose, and then everyone started booing me and the clown, the lead clown, was like, "Well, Bryce, they're booing you, you gotta do something different."

And I panicked and just started shoveling them into my mouth.

And then, about halfway through, someone shouts, "They're lotioned!"

- [Both] Oh!

- Which I didn't realize because I was so focused on.

- That's real clown stuff, Bryce.

- Yeah.

It was... - You know that we are, we're clowns.

- You're clowns.

- Yeah.

- Trained clowns.

- Trained.

- Yes, classically trained.

- Do a clown.

- What have we been doing this whole (beep) time?

- Yeah, what the (beep)?

- What do you think this is?

- Jesus Christ.

Are you kidding me?

- What are you?

Oh my God, the world is... - [Both] "Do a clown."

- Let's go home, let's go, let's go home, Jesus Christ.

My whole life I've been told to sit.

(audience laughing) To stay.

And no one just gave me permission to feel.

(audience laughing continues) It's never me, it's never me.

I'm five years old, you know, my career is half over, but... (audience laughing) Which is, it's rough.

(audience laughing) I was working at a startup, it was flexible enough that there was a point in which, like, I was, like, using my PTO to, like, tour and do comedy in other cities.

And there was a point where I just had, like, was able to have a really frank conversation with my supervisor about, like, going down to a halftime position so that I could, like, focus on comedy, and I think that was really surprising to my family.

The startup was also a really good job that I just saw as a day job.

And they were like, "Wait, you wanna do less of that to try to do more of this?"

I think when I said like, "Oh yeah, I'm trying to go part-time at my job in order to focus on comedy."

They were like, "Oh, you're still doing that?"

I don't think any...

I don't think it was real to them until, like, I, like, got on TV or, like, got a manager.

That's not fair to frankly me or anyone who does something creative, that it's not real or valid until it's your income, like, that's bull (beep).

When I was at my most broke and doing comedy, I was just like absolutely at my happiest, that doesn't preclude still my need for security.

But I made a mental note that, like, you have to remember how happy you are right now because this is the brokest you've ever been and this is the happiest you've ever been.

So, like, you know, maybe it's time to rethink my priorities.

Because at the end of the day, I know, I know, I know that I'm a good girl.

(audience laughing) (upbeat music) Ooh!

Ooh!

Hi, Club Tee Gee, how are you tonight?

(audience cheering) No!

I'm kidding, thank you so much for letting me host, I'm not supposed to be here right now, I was supposed to go into marketing.

(audience laughing) I was supposed to do something totally different with my life.

I majored in theater, but then I would go home and I would just staying up in my dorm and market just til like two or three in the morning every night.

(audience laughing) Not counting the pandemic, I've been doing this for six weeks and I'm still trying to find my voice.

Sometimes it comes out as aggression, I'm so sorry.

And, you know, sometimes, it's like, oh, I do like a lot of like abstract things, you know, with my body 'cause my body's my instrument or whatever.

(audience laughing) It's just more like, like a public high school clarinet, you know?

It's um...

It's a little beat, only weird kids' mouths have been on it, and a, ultimately it's owned by the government.

Umm.

(audience laughing) I like the mixed reaction, I like a mixed reaction because it had the structure of a joke, right?

But it was a little sad.

You know, growing up, you know, first generation mixed race immigrant, It's, you know, if you've read any personal essay in The New Yorker for the past 20 years, you'd know it's a lot like being caught between two worlds.

And... (audience laughing) You know, every five or six months, like a white editor from New York holds a knife to my neck and says, "Tell us what it's like being caught between two worlds."

(audience laughing) But it's hard because I do, you know, I don't feel like I belong in either identity, and I remember specifically that, when I turned 15, my mom told me that I wasn't Mexican enough to have a quinceanera.

- [Audience Member] Aw.

- Can I get that louder?

That was really nice.

- [Audience] Aw.

- Oh.

That's better than laughter.

(laughs) And as I got older, I realized it wasn't that I'm not Mexican, it's just that, we... we grew up so poor, they couldn't afford it.

I just thought it was interesting that she used an excuse of not being Mexican as a pretext for not throwing this party.

Because, frankly, I can't think of anything more Mexican than being poor in America.

Wow.

(audience laughing) That was another example of it had the form of a joke and then the content was simply too sad.

(audience laughing) (gasps) Just laugh (beep).

(audience laughing) Oh my God, now you're forcing it, now you're faking it, God!

(audience laughing) (gentle music) One of the most important pieces of advice someone told me, like, early on was that, if you have a bad show, you're only allowed to mope about it for however long the show was.

So, I guess time's up.

- I think Christina has a choice to make when it comes to like stand up and clown, you know, but it's really a personal choice on where she wants her career to go.

Where she's at right now, I do think it's like, if you want your career to look more familiar as a standup, you probably do need to streamline.

But if you're willing to just keep generating brilliant work and keep going to the places that love and adore you, eventually you're just going to have enough gravitational pull, you're gonna have enough weight behind your act and your name that you just write your own ticket.

I can understand her trepidation because sometimes you see other comics following a more conventional route, getting places seemingly faster.

But if you don't get there on your terms, I think it's harder when you get there to then say, "Actually, this is who I am."

- [Announcer] Christina Catherine Martinez.

(audience applauding) - Hello?

Hello?

Welcome to Aesthetical Relations, everybody.

(audience cheering) Thank you.

(audience applauding) A lot of people ask, you know, what is Aesthetical Relations?

And I hope you packed a blanket because Aesthetical Relations is actually a three-day symposium on the work of George Lopez, (audience laughing) often maligned and highly misunderstood Latinx, (audience laughing) I ******* dare you, artist.

But I'm kidding, we're here to, uh, laugh (audience laughing) and have a good time.

So just some housekeeping, this is like culturally like a really important show, so.

(audience laughing) But just make sure if you are gonna use your phone, use the relevant hashtags, #AestheticalRelations, #LosAngeles, where we are right now.

(audience laughing) #Art, and, of course, #Blessed.

(audience laughing) So we are here.

(audience laughing) This is a real photo, I took this photo.

(audience laughing) This is where we are now, this is where we might be soon.

(audience laughing) This is somewhere in between.

(audience laughing) It's a bit banal living through the end of history.

Ah-ha-ha-ha, nervous chuckle, yes.

(audience laughing) And a... it's not... it doesn't have the cinematic feel that it used to, I thought it was gonna be much more "Mad Max" and we'd all be wearing, like, very sexy aluminum foil things, kinda.

(burps) (audience laughing) I was thinking a lot about how, you know, as theorists, which we all are, that we find signs of history in the banal objects of the everyday, and for me, this is really my Paris in terms of critical engagement.

(audience laughing) I mean, I took this photo too.

(audience applauding) This is our historical process.

How did we go from this, to this, (soft piano keys) to this, to this?

So I hope you... (audience laughing) So please bear with me 'cause I really think what you're gonna see next is quite literally the future of comedy.

(soft piano keys) I was...

I'll tell you this, I didn't wanna get personal in this show, but I usually don't like making cultural references in my comedy because I was homeschooled (audience laughing) and I grew up in sort of a conservative fundamentalist evangelical Christian Church, and those two things, (audience laughing) I didn't grow up in a cult per se, but I think the sum of these two things constitute more than the sum of their parts in well a rather cult-like fashion, wouldn't you say so, Jack?

- Anything you say Ms. Martinez.

(audience laughing) - So while you're all out there blindly flailing about in the waves of historical process, I'm just frolicking along the shore, covered in peanut butter.

(audience laughing) But you know, what is, what does this mean?

(audience laughing) It's not easy being me, it's not easy bringing the critical eye to the every day.

And I really did take all of these pictures in the same Ross shopping trip, kind of just really putting those, "Well, I didn't go to grad school, I learned criticism on the streets."

(audience laughing) (gentle bright music) When you see stuff like this, what does that say about historical process?

You tell me.

(audience laughing) (audience applauding) (gentle bright music continues) Ross Dress For Less, that's where you shop for the Mrs, right, Jack?

- [Jack] Every Valentine's Day, Ms. Martinez.

(audience laughing) - You think fitting in is gonna help you?

No.

(audience laughing) You think there's safety in numbers?

No.

(audience laughing) What it... And I will say that Ross Dress For Less can address larger themes as well.

(audience laughing) Some of them will take longer than others, we are not all schooled at the same level and that's okay.

Don't force it, don't feel like you have to make yourself laugh harder to seem smarter than your neighbor.

(gentle bright music continues) (audience laughing) Okay, man, this is still going, this is a mirror, it's a mirror facing the shampoo aisle with an assistance button, like, you don't know how to use a (beep) mirror?

(audience laughing) (audience applauding) (gentle bright music continues) Oh, I don't need a mirror, I have a smartphone with unrealistic images of women.

(audience laughing) (audience applauding) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (people chattering) (gentle bright music continues) (soft music) Well, they say it takes 10 years to find your voice in comedy.

(soft music continues) But I think I can do it in 15.

(soft music continues) (soft music continues)