Ep. 1 | Javi Luna Comedy

Jesus H: 00:00:00 What's going on y'all. Jesus Hilario Hernandez here. We got the first episode here for Corpus Christi originals podcast. And we had the pleasure of having Javi Luna with how they look at Javi Luna comedy as our first guest at LunaVersal comedy, check them out on YouTube. And we're going to be talking about his experience with comedy and being a dad, a father, we get into music, uh, audio books, his philosophy behind comedy, where he's going, what he's been doing. If this is something you want, that you're interested in listening to for this first podcast, stay to, she got a, you have a show coming up soon. Javi Luna: 00:00:35 There's always a show coming up still. Uh, yeah, nothing, nothing here locally. Uh, but yeah, the pretty busy. I'll be in, when does this come up? Jesus H: 00:00:49 I'll probably in the weekend. Javi Luna: 00:00:50 Okay. So if you're listening to it, when it comes out and you're Raleigh, North Carolina, that's where I'll be this weekend on Sunday at a good nights comedy club. Jesus H: 00:01:02 That's what's bro. North Carolina man. Javi Luna: 00:01:05 Yeah. Yeah. It's still, I it's been a few years ago with the pandemic there since I've been out there. But, uh, but I like did a couple of years pretty much since, since probably I think we've, I think we've got to go in 2020. I think it was one of our last stops before we got shut down. So, Jesus H: 00:01:23 Wow, bro. So where are you hit print where y'all, I'm assuming y'all got hit pretty hard, like dude, for real Javi Luna: 00:01:30 Life changing for, for everybody there's guys that just, you know, packed it up. We all, you know, especially if you're, if you are a road comic and which I had just started to kind of really make it full time. Why is that without the side jobs and stuff. And then, you know, your whole calendar gets wiped out. That our weeks they went from, you know, oh, we're not, we're canceling everything from March and April to, uh, we're canceling thing mate, to where can't, where we'll come back in August to everything's done for the year. I don't plan on in like, like within a matter of few weeks you saw your whole calendar disappear, uh, in front of your very eyes. So some guys like myself and cat or family or whatever, you had to go and, and figure out a day job, or try to get on, on, uh, on unemployment or whatever, whatever, you know, it was you're going to try to do. And uh, some guys doubled down, they went to like Tik TOK, grout, and you know, and, and came out of it, came out of this with a bigger following than they ever had. Jesus H: 00:02:40 Wow. That's awesome. Javi Luna: 00:02:42 Like I said, when I say it was life-changing for the comedy industry, like, like it looks completely different, right? Even if you look at like pre pandemic, everything was New York, LA New York LA to now it's Austin spirit. I think that's where that basically half of LA and half in New York moved to Austin. And of course the last two years. So now Austin is, it was already a hot company town, but now it's actually the epicenter of the coffee industry. So the whole landscape of the comedy industry has changed in the last two years. Jesus H: 00:03:17 Wow. Would you say like the, that the jokes, the jokes have changed and I mean, Javi Luna: 00:03:21 How many look at that? That's a, that's a personal, uh, for me, um, the jokes haven't changed, uh, I've change, you know, I don't know how you went through the last two years without, you know, rethinking some shit in your, in your day to day life and how you feel about certain things. No kidding, bro. So, so you know, so I've changed, but not because comedy itself, I think some there's guys out there doing things act same set. They were doing, you know, two years ago. It's fine. And then there's there's guys who have a whole new perspective. So you got something to say. So the thing with comedy, people worry about getting like stagnant and material and shit like that. But thing is if you don't stop growing as a person, like your, your ACO is grow because you're growing and changing. Javi Luna: 00:04:16 So, so yeah, I mean, I don't think I don't buy into the whole like, oh, you can't say this or you can't take that, you know, bullshit it. Cause cause comedy is subjective. It always has been, that's not new. Um, everybody's not for everybody. You're not meant to be that, that, you know, the idea of a, of a mainstream comic, it's kind of dumb, right? Because if you're making, if you're making everybody laugh, then there's something superficial about what you're saying. So even if you're funny to most human, like let's say like the most people say back in the day, Tim out, right in watch back. And then if you go up in the nineties to who didn't watch the home improvement, right. Or something like that. But if you watch this comedy is, is a standup for everybody knows or very niche audience, granted, it's a big cross section of the country, but there's people that don't care for, you know, biggest money-making comics that Kevin Hart there's people, I guarantee you there's people out there that don't think Kevin Hart is funny. Javi Luna: 00:05:31 Right. So what is, so what does funny mean? Well, it's not for everybody. It doesn't mean it doesn't matter how big of a star you get. There's going to be people that don't laugh. Right. Because whatever you have to say, it's not for them. And it's fucking okay. You know? So if, if some, if some conduct offends you or you don't like what they're saying, it's okay. Like they're not working for you. Don't go to the show. You probably weren't going to anyway. I don't care. People like, like you've never heard of this conference before, you know, you know, there's guys like, like our Asia for your like Tony Hinchcliffe. It's like, I guarantee you like half the people that were upset at Tony would never have gone to a Tony and cliff show on purpose. You know, I'm not saying what he said was okay. Or anything like that. I'm just saying, if you knew Tony, if you knew this common, what he said, been fucking surprising. Jesus H: 00:06:34 Well, Hey man, it's kind of like music, like John Rose, I guess. Like some people like country, some people like alternative that makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense. Wow man. So, so you started here in Corpus and I know it's an a, like I heard a podcast you're like, it's, it's difficult to be accepted in your, in your town, but when you go to perform at other places, it's like, they receive you a lot, a lot better. You know what I mean? Javi Luna: 00:07:07 All right. Cause you're not from there. You're, you're, you're important. So, so, so therefore there's something special about you? Jesus H: 00:07:18 Ah, okay. Like fresh meat type of thing. Javi Luna: 00:07:23 Oh, what a metaphor I was, was that just a comedy condo one time. And I posted this picture of they'd given us as like fancy or to me fancy Italian water, like some brand of water I've never heard before now. And not one of the, like, like, uh, mainstream ones that we have here, not boss or anything like that. It was like some type of mineral water. And I posted a picture of it and someone, a parent who lived in Italy on my social media company, she goes, yeah, that's actually a really shitty water. Like no one drinks that no one buys that it's really crap. Jesus H: 00:08:07 That's funny though. Javi Luna: 00:08:08 But the fact that it's important here. Oh, well it's, it's somewhere else. So they brought it in, they shipped it and it came on a fucking boat or something, you know? So it's still sometimes, you know, when you're traveling, they're like, Hey, you have to, they do flu to get here, you know, but then there's other people that are really just behind anything local. So, you know yeah. You know, you know, it's, it's easier on the road because Jesus H: 00:08:41 Right on bro. So you're going to, you're going to be in North Carolina that, um, how do you prepare for a show like that when it's not like over here? You know what I mean? Like, you know, the after like change your jokes around or, I mean, how do you, how you prefer prefer, I mean, do you even prepare, you know what I mean? Javi Luna: 00:09:02 No, no, I don't. Uh, when you're, when you're really young in the game, like it's all pretty much all you can think about, especially when you first start going out. Cause you, cause you believe that and that, and that, and that's a common assumption because it's what makes most sense. Oh, it's, it's different over there. They're different over there. When you start actually traveling, would you find out more and more? Is that where a lot more the same and we believe, you know, and because you, I, you can get in front of a crowd of, of a bunch of different people that grew up in a different region from you that have a very different upbringing. And if what you're saying is true, it's funny because it's true. It's only funny because it's true. Right. So what you're saying does it, isn't this about, um, you know, it's got to have some truth. Javi Luna: 00:10:05 So even if I do a joke about my Mexican family, you know, or whatever, um, that's, that's fine. It's about my family who happens to be Mexican, but it says something about a family dynamic. Right. And it's true, you know? Um, so it doesn't matter if you didn't grow up in a Mexican family, you still grew up in a family, you or you've been around the family and understand that there are different people in the van and play a different role. And it doesn't matter what cultural background you come from. Everybody, every coach has got their version of the crazy, every version got gods of the permissionless cousin, you know, the rowdy one, you know, everyone that I could type just creates a, so you just have to really, all you're doing is just tapping into their, their language, Jesus H: 00:11:01 Humanity like humanity, I guess you can say. Javi Luna: 00:11:04 Yeah. So I don't prepare any more than prepared for every room I go into. Every room is different. Right? I, you can go up four times in the same city and have four different audiences. It's going to be a different makeup of people every single time. Jesus H: 00:11:24 Yeah, man. That's awesome. Javi Luna: 00:11:26 There is no preparing for a show like that. You have to go up there and, and read their, read their faces and decide what they're going to think and what they're not. Jesus H: 00:11:37 Wow, man. That's, that's really deep, bro. Yeah. I was, I was kinda like when I was preparing for this interview, I was like studying comedy. Like what's it like to be a comedian? And then they talk about setting up punchlines and different ways to do a different or whatever. And the one thing that came up a lot was to be a good comic, you know, added on all that theory and stuff. You have to go up and actually do it. Yeah. Like there's, there's no way around being a good comic other than the experience. Javi Luna: 00:12:12 Absolutely. Absolutely. There is no other way. There's no, I mean, are there classes? Yeah. You still got to get up there and do it. Are there books, you can read the fucking books. You still got to get up there and do it. It's all theory until you put it in practice. And I will always told people that and sometimes people think you're like not being helpful or like gatekeeping somehow like peripheral, no one can gatekeep comedy, but like I've had like Elvis just is right on this past weekend. And the guy that produced a show, I think he'd been doing comedy. I think he said like five years, something like that. He remembered when he met me at a park down there righto. And he hadn't started doing comedy yet. And he goes, well, he goes, I remember I asked you, how did, like, what told you that I was becoming in, what should I do? And you said, go do comedy. And he goes, he goes, and I kept waiting for you to tell me something else that you did. And I was like, I was like in what you do in comedy, they go and what are you doing now? Javi Luna: 00:13:40 Yeah, man, the easiest job to get, you know, or the, and the, well, no, let me rephrase it. It's the hardest job to get, to, to get a job where you're actually making money doing it. But it's the easiest fucking one to keep. Cause all you have to do is refuse to stop. Jesus H: 00:14:05 Awesome, bro. You know, some Javi Luna: 00:14:08 Cases are going to be a mind. Jesus H: 00:14:12 Wow man. So yeah. And I was, uh, so you've done, I guess. I don't know. I guess it was just recently, I don't know how recent it was, but you've done baby showers, funerals, sweet 16 birthday and uh, grad parties bro. I'm like, I, I, I never see, I never think of like a standard, a standup comedian at those type of functions Javi Luna: 00:14:34 And the randomness of, of the things that I've been able to been asked to do night, you know, I've been asked to do, uh, the funeral was definitely probably I I've done two funerals. One was a close friend of mine by the way is Dave is, that's why he can get the video taken down. You use my best friend who unfortunately passed away a handful of years ago. And I asked him always to take that video down and he never fucking did. And now, uh, I can't and I don't, I won't, I don't want that. I don't, cause I don't want him to like, I don't want it to end up, like I could report it and ask it to be taken down, but I don't want it. I don't want him to lose this whole channel. It stayed up there for years is to make you want to see some like cringe or the Git go. Because we, he used to drag me into doing these skits with them. I wouldn't post anything on YouTube and to their thoughts and stuff like that, video on that. And that's fine. It can stay there forever. And so if I ever make it in, someone digs it up and it's whatever, you know, it's fine. Um, yeah, but, but yeah. And uh, I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. I started thinking about my home. Jesus H: 00:15:51 It's like, you're doing it out of respect for him. Uh, you know, he passed away and you P you actually performed at his funeral. Javi Luna: 00:15:58 Yeah. Sorry. Yes. So, so w I, we, I did his funeral. Yeah. Wow. Because he, he, uh, he was, uh, he was a kidney patient, a dialysis patient. And, uh, and not a lot of people knew that Georgina and he, that was a promise. I made them, he said, Hey, do me a favor. When he goes, I'm going to die. You know, probably sooner rather than later, and said, you know, when I die, I want you to roast me. I have a full on roast at my funeral at the funeral. I'll throw you a roast. He goes, no, no, no. At my funeral, I want to be there you say, I want to be there. He made me promise that to him. So I had to, it was so hard to, you know, I knew his family. You know, when you make friends as adults, you don't meet their family. Javi Luna: 00:16:52 As often as you do, as you can. Like when you were growing up, you, you, your best friend's family. Right. As an adult kid. So I had met his brother a handful of times. He was a cool dude. And so I had to call him up. I was like, Hey, like, do you remember me? And the guy say, look, listen, your brother made me promise to him to, uh, that he wants to be roasted. He goes, no, no. Yeah. He told me about it. Oh, wow. And I was like, okay, look, I don't want to disrespect your family, but this is like, how can we make this happen? He goes, so, so they did is they went ahead and had like the family portion of the funeral. And then they did like a second hour where they let me and a bunch of other comics to, um, Larry Regan came down from, from, uh, from San Antonio. And he Williams and Mario Salazar came from the valley and rain came as well. And, uh, and we, we broke him, but right there, open casket rose and the funeral, it's actually a funeral. Jesus H: 00:18:03 Yeah. Javi Luna: 00:18:04 So that, I thought that was going to be the first and last funeral I ever been told me that, that, that, that was the last word you're going to do. You know, I would have believed you. And then I had this, uh, this young lady and woman hit me up and she asked if I would be open to the idea of performing at a funeral. And, and I was like, well, I mean, it's really what the person wanted or, you know? Jesus H: 00:18:33 Yeah, yeah. I remember you talking about that in the podcast. You're like, oh, you want me to talk about, you know, you fat jokes out of grad party. Like, that's kinda Javi Luna: 00:18:43 What you want me to say it, and basically what it came down to is it was the, her father had passed away during the pandemic. And, uh, so they didn't get to have a funeral, like, uh, like a property, like this was at the beginning when, when things were really shut down because they weren't able to do, you know, in-person funerals and stuff. And so she goes up so nobody this time, uh, but it was more like a setup. She knows that her father was like at this lively party, always joking kind of guy. And he wanted, she wanted to have more of a celebration of life for him. And he was always joking around. So she thought he would be, uh, he would appreciate the, just the randomness and the funding of having, uh, a comedian there. And she wanted a blonde show. So me and two other comics were not there. We did it. We did a set for the family. It was awkward, but we laugh, you know, and reminded them that this is what the gentleman would have wanted. And, um, you know, we did respectfully, you know, and there was kids there, you know? Jesus H: 00:19:55 Yeah. That's pretty, yeah. That's pretty cool to think of. Yeah. It's pretty cool to think about like, just trying to laugh in those moments, man. Cause it's, and its funerals are sad. It's crazy, man. Crazy. Javi Luna: 00:20:08 And probably this, the sweet sixteens were probably the, uh, the other for me, eh, I'm not the, the, um, I don't know. I don't know what, Y Y Y I don't know where these people get these, these ideas. Yeah. I love this. I love to have the stories. It's always a great story. Jesus H: 00:20:31 Yeah. So now it's going to say, so those, those engagements, what did they help you? So I guess it was during the pandemic, when you, when comics were kind of, out of work, w did that help you get through the Javi Luna: 00:20:48 Party? Private parties helped me tremendously. Pretty much. All of 2020 was almost all I did was private backyard parties. And I was doing like very small gatherings in people's backyards. And then that, that was a big chunk of my work. The 20, 20, 20, 21 was a mixture about half and half, you know, cause everything would be back open up. And, and so we were doing shows, but not at the volume we were doing. Jesus H: 00:21:23 Okay. Yeah. Javi Luna: 00:21:26 You're back pre pandemic. I was on the road probably three weeks, three weeks out of the month. Wow. You know, now, now, now like this past month I've been on the road every month, but it's one nighters, you know, it's going, you go and do a show and you come home and that's what, that's what, but North Carolina, we're going on Sunday, we'll come back Monday, you know? And then we got Macallan the next weekend, five days later. Jesus H: 00:21:54 Wow. Wow. Javi Luna: 00:21:57 But then, you know, March, I don't have too much going on in March until April. I got national, you know, so Jesus H: 00:22:05 Yeah. Nashville Roman. That's nice, man. That's awesome, bro. Javi Luna: 00:22:09 Yeah. That's been a good part to get, to get around the country, but the doing the parties has taught me that you can make funny in almost any situation if you read the room. Jesus H: 00:22:18 Wow. Yeah. And you were saying in, in the, one of the podcasts that at, at those events you're invited and it's not like stand up like at a show, like you're a guest, like you said. Right. So it's like, Javi Luna: 00:22:35 Like I said, very much like how I asked him before, you know, if I was trying to be clean or dirty on this or kind of what your vision for your broadcast was, you know, you want to respect that, you know? Cause you're, you're, it's, it's different. Right. Versus when someone came to see your show or even just to show that you're on, you're coming into the comedian's house, especially if you're going to a comedy club, which is why it's dumb. When people go to a comedy club and get offended, like it's almost like you came to my house, like, you know what I'm saying? This stage on the stage, or now this is my house. Yo, you can fucking Jesus H: 00:23:15 Leave. Get out of here, Javi Luna: 00:23:18 Come to my house and complain about the fuck away. I'm doing shit. Jesus H: 00:23:24 That's funny RO Javi Luna: 00:23:25 You don't got to be here. It's the opposite. Right? Like I'm not going to go to your house and fucking horrible coffee table to the refrigerator. Jesus H: 00:23:38 Yeah. That's cool, man. Javi Luna: 00:23:41 If I got to go number two, I'm going to go down to the stripes. Jesus H: 00:23:48 Wow. Wow. Yeah. Now I just kind of started this podcast just to let, because I want people from Corpus that either live in corporates, live of corporates or whatever, it's just going to share. Just, just share. I want to see where this goes. I mean, you're the first person on here, so I'm just kind of like, right. Where's this going to go? Javi Luna: 00:24:07 Yes, Jesus H: 00:24:07 Sir. You're not Javi Luna: 00:24:12 Going to listen to it. Yeah. Jesus H: 00:24:15 In bro Javi Luna: 00:24:17 For podcast, man. I know how it works. That first, that first episode, all the framings, all the family, I guess it's a weird thing, man. If you're not up, like some people can't like I've had friends, like good friends that are like, man, I want to listen. But I just, I can't listen to people talk for an hour. Something, they need music, they need a video. They need, they need something. So people just get some audio. Some I like, I think people that listen to podcasts are the same people that listen to audio books, you know? So they'll, they'll listen. I have some people that ought to watch the videos and like listen to podcasts. But whenever you post the videos, I'll watch the videos. It's like, okay, well that's cool. Jesus H: 00:25:05 You know Javi Luna: 00:25:06 Like the visual. Jesus H: 00:25:08 Yeah. That's why they, that's why they, like, if sometimes they make podcasts videos, they'll be, they'll make them into clips. Like Javi Luna: 00:25:17 I always got more views on the clips than I ever did. Jesus H: 00:25:19 They're shorter than that. An hour long. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I'm a, I'm an audio listener too, because if I, I I'd rather audio listen than to read a book. So what's Javi Luna: 00:25:31 This one people gonna listen to, man. Jesus H: 00:25:33 Yeah, man. What are you listening to now? Like what's in your audio book right now. Javi Luna: 00:25:40 Good question. You know what, because I don't have an audio book at the moment because I'm not on the road as much as I used to. And that used to be like nine times out where I would listen to my, so I think the last one I listened to was actually fiction. Cause I, I get in these ruts where I listened to a bunch of autobiographies. So like listen to, uh, Matthew McConaughey to lights, like two weekends in a row, two, two on the road was ahead. I had been chosen in Waco and, and that was a long drive too. So I haven't listened to that. And Kevin Parks, uh, I forgot what the name of it was, but one of Kevin Hart's books, um, in that beginning and the following weekend, I went out of town for, for the anniversary, with my wife and she hadn't heard me like, so I listened to it with, you know, uh, but so I sometimes have to remind myself like biographies and shit like that. That's great. But, but fiction is also great too, because, because it uses your imagination a little bit more. You have to kind of like imagine whatever world the fiction writers doing. So, uh, I listen to, uh, to rocket Moise, which is self fiction, but yet somehow, uh, out of my graph as well. Uh it's it's the book that, uh, I don't know if you remember the movie October sky. Jesus H: 00:27:24 Yeah, I think so. Javi Luna: 00:27:30 Like they live in the Virginia, uh, coal mines. Jesus H: 00:27:36 I feel bad about, Javi Luna: 00:27:39 You know, what, it was one of those movies that they could, they could show you it's like, like middle school, like it was maybe PGE. So it wasn't like, yeah, it wasn't super kitty, But it also wasn't remember the Titans because they played the fuck out of that movie. Javi Luna: 00:27:59 I've seen it way too many times. Cause it's like, especially like if you're I was in band. So like, it was one of the few like movies that wasn't a cartoon that they could vote and show you in school. So I was like the movie I like when they would play that one. Cause there was something different. And uh, and so, so, and I had read the book when I was in high school. And so I decided to listen to the, uh, the audio of it and the uh, the narrator. I like what they, they pick a good narrator for audio books. It can make or break an audio book experience Jesus H: 00:28:35 For sure. I listened to the Hobbit, the book. I don't know who didn't he, I don't know who did the narration, but it was good. And there was like, Javi Luna: 00:28:45 Eh, Jesus H: 00:28:46 I don't remember, man, uh, Javi Luna: 00:28:49 Close to 20 hours. Jesus H: 00:28:51 He's not as long as Lord of the rings. It's not that long. It was, it was the habit like the precursor before, uh, the Lord of the rings. Javi Luna: 00:29:01 Not for me. Goodnight. Get into don't come don't come at me. Lord of the rings people. Cause I know you're a passionate fan base. I'm not saying it sucks. I can never get into it. I don't, I don't know enough about it to say, to make fun of it. Jesus H: 00:29:17 I just don't always want my, my brother, the watch you with me homie would always fall asleep, bro. I'm like, dude, this is the good part. This is the good part. But I understand. Well, that's all good. Javi Luna: 00:29:26 I had some friends there and they swore up and down to within a year. You'd like it, you like, cause I like star wars, you know, maybe, maybe that means I'm simple minded, you know, the way I don't offend people like that, like , that's smart enough for a bro. Do that elves. I like side-by-side Jesus H: 00:29:52 Right. Javi Luna: 00:29:54 I like Ender's game and ready player one. Jesus H: 00:29:57 Cool. What about uh, inner, inner stellar? Javi Luna: 00:30:02 I haven't read interstellar. Seen it now. No, Jesus H: 00:30:10 I don't know if it's Saifai it's um, I don't know, but it has to do with like space and stuff like that. Uh, that was pretty cool. All right. Let's uh, so, uh, what year did you graduate, man? You graduate? Where'd you graduate from? Javi Luna: 00:30:23 Um, high school, uh, in corporates. I graduated in 2002 from rain. Jesus H: 00:30:28 Wow bro. Cool. I went to re uh huh. Javi Luna: 00:30:35 I'm getting up there and getting my 20 year we're union bro. Jesus H: 00:30:41 For real. Yeah. No, I think I got you by a couple of years. I graduated in 2001. Maybe like a year or two. I graduated in 2001. Supposed to be two. Yeah. It was supposed to be 2000, but I dropped down. Javi Luna: 00:30:56 Yeah, Jesus H: 00:30:58 I see. Huh? Javi Luna: 00:31:00 When you went back, Jesus H: 00:31:02 I dropped out, went back, graduated from Miller high school. Javi Luna: 00:31:08 Okay. Yeah. Jesus H: 00:31:11 Yeah. I might be I'm I'm probably in a couple of your yearbooks. Should we check it out? Javi Luna: 00:31:16 Probably a little familiar, but, but uh, I was in band. I was in your band. It's that's pretty much your whole life in high school. There's not like you don't end up having too many friends outside. Like I knew people in classes, but like it was always just, everything was just band. So, so there, there was a big school, but, but that's great. You know, the chances of someone dropping out and going, like getting your teams one thing, but actually going back and re-enrolling like, there's this percentage of people that do that. It's just so small. So I used to do a donor vacation. Um, uh, it was one of my, one of my side hustles when I was doing comedy. Not able to do that week at night. Wow. So, um, so yeah, so that's awesome, man. Great. Jesus H: 00:32:10 Uh, yeah. Uh, this guy, Alex JZ Z on Facebook, he was saying that the room was full of banned trophies everywhere. Javi Luna: 00:32:21 Oh yeah. Well, Jesus H: 00:32:24 Yeah. We're live on Facebook. Yeah. His name is Alex JZ buzz on you saying it was full of trophies. I was in sports and you played the sax. I found that out. I was like, oh cool man. That's, that's a kind of a tough instrument, man. You got to get the Amber shirt. Right. And it's not like, it's not like guitar in that. You have to press the strings down, but you have to like lift your fingers up and press them down. You know what I mean? It's kind of weird. Javi Luna: 00:32:56 Um, a lot more key, a lot more key combinations of what we would call them, which is, which is funny to say, what are you doing? I'm figuring my horn and figuring my horn, Jesus H: 00:33:09 Bro. Javi Luna: 00:33:09 My music. Jesus H: 00:33:22 And then I heard you played a guitar. I heard you playing guitar on Instagram. You were playing, uh, uh, let it shine some kind of 90 song on your guitar. You remember that? I was like, oh, he's been a 90 song. He's probably like my age. And I was like, shoot nineties, bro. Uh, uh, Soundgarden Javi Luna: 00:33:43 That's on pretty much my whole youth from the age of nine. I started earlier. I started in fourth grade. What they from like from fourth grade through, through senior year. Jesus H: 00:33:54 So. Wow. Did you, so I guess your parents, did your parents play or, I mean, was there a music and I guess there was music in the house. No. Javi Luna: 00:34:01 Oh no. Uh, my, I had an older brother. I have an older brother, uh, much older than me. And so it's just kinda that thing. Like he played in middle school, high school and you know, little brother wants to do what big brother does. So I had it in my head for a young agent. I was going to play saxophone too. And I'm kind of a snowbird. So when I got, once I got that in the pit, they tried to put me on tuba. Oh Javi Luna: 00:34:35 Yeah. Like I was like nine years old, liking this to go home. My mom got pissed. She's like, fuck. That is for your bag and carry Jesus H: 00:34:42 Yourself, go get a refund. Javi Luna: 00:34:44 Yeah. Go there. And so they put me up because they do some type of like aptitude test to like, see what, what injuries supposedly you're going to be gone. It was like, oh yeah. So the chubby kid just automatically gets the fucking two nickel phone. Uh, I'm not going to say that I was ever great, but I was, I was good. I was decent. Jesus H: 00:35:08 Yeah. That's cool man. That's what's up bro. And so you lie, so you'd like a Chicano rock. Javi Luna: 00:35:16 I think I would have run a favor, having an affinity for oldies in general, do out cha uh, Chicano rock, uh, you know, uh, Freddy, Freddy fender up until more recent stuff. Like it was only boys. Wow. Jesus H: 00:35:33 That's pretty cool, man. So what's the, what's the most recent record that you got? Are you still on that? Are you still on the record? Javi Luna: 00:35:40 I've I've been behaving cause cause you know, I'm a father of three. So I had to, uh, you know, from November, from November, pretty much from middle of October to December, all your money's going towards Christmas and, and my daughter's birthday and all sorts of things. So, so I stopped buying where I could get them because I made a couple of like collector, uh, um, purchases last year that I was like, okay, pump the brakes a little bit. So I haven't, I haven't bought anything lately. Probably the last, the last big purchase was that, that one, a fair defender of trying to see if it was here, close to where I could retort without knocking shit over. Uh, but it's uh, it's, it's gotta be, hold on. Jesus H: 00:36:31 Yeah, if you haven't heard of the Javi Luna, check him out. He's @JaviLunaComedy, uh, and he's on Instagram. He's on Tik TOK. Uh he's on Facebook and check him out. He's got some struggles coming up. Javi Luna: 00:36:44 Okay. When I bought this, it's called the name of the record is, is Eddie Cundall shades. Javi Luna: 00:36:53 And I, it, the guy, oh, we're at a hybrid records. Uh, he had it, he had it priced very competitively for what it was. Um, but it was, it was still a high dollar amount, but it conscious probably could have gone for a little bit more. Can't realize it. That is actually a pseudo name that Freddy fender went under and it's the original releasing of it. So this was, he was just about to get signed to his, uh, to his label, which the name is failing me. I'm not a huge audio file that where I can tell you labels, it's all good, but he w he was about to sign to it. So he recorded this under this pseudonym called any shades. And, um, and then years later the, his label re-released it, but it was fairly fender as Eddie Gomez feeds. So this is one of the original pressings and it was great fucking condition. I've actually gotten a few records up to that. Same ended up in different purchases, got records from the same collector. Cause we got put his little address label on everything on me. Jesus H: 00:38:09 Ah, nice man. That's awesome. It's like one of a kind cool man. That's awesome. Let's see what else I got here. Oh shoot. Yeah. So you got, you got three kids, man. Javi Luna: 00:38:22 Three. Wow. Spread out, spread out though. Divided. I got a 14 year old and eight year old and a three-year old. So all stages of life right now. Jesus H: 00:38:37 Wow. Javi Luna: 00:38:39 Really? My three-year-old has finally knock on wood, kind of mastered her potty training. So, uh, I told, I told my wife, I was like, I've been, I've literally been changing diapers for, for 15 years. I'm sure that there have been some gaps somewhere in between there, but not much because my two owners are boys and boys, boys take longer because I think they were probably like four before the hang Jesus H: 00:39:07 Of it. So they got the baby sister, bro. Javi Luna: 00:39:10 Yeah. Yeah. They finally got the baby sister. Well now my, my boys are from my first marriage, so they have two big sisters at their mom's house. So they went from two, two boys by themselves to like all of a sudden having three baby sisters. Wow man. That's yeah. Their baby sister out. Jesus H: 00:39:31 Yeah. Wow bro. That's tough man. So, and I ha I've heard your wife on the podcast. Awesome. Awesome. Javi Luna: 00:39:38 Yeah. So pocket we're on a hiatus right now, but, but Jesus H: 00:39:41 Coming back, coming Javi Luna: 00:39:42 Back, coming back break because well, one I wasn't on the road. A lot of my, a lot of our topics and discussions would come from, from almost that it wasn't the format necessarily, but the way it was is we were recording when I would get back from the road. So when you were seeing would, and when people tended to like was, it was very much us how we would be having a conversation catching up, how was your weekend? What did you do? Anything interesting happened? And that kind of situation. And, uh, and so since I wasn't on the road, it wasn't, especially during 2020 where, you know, we're, we're literally just here at the house all day. There wasn't a whole lot to talk class. So we ended up taking a hiatus. We made it to like a hundred episode, 120. It was my first episode, my first podcast to ever crossed the a hundred episode mark. So it's definitely coming back. I can't let it go. It's coming back. We're probably going to shorten it to maybe like a 30 minute podcast because I feel like people's attention, you know, is more around that, that timeframe then been in a longer form hour, unless you're going to have like, like super interesting guests like myself, then you know, that people want to hear top longer, you know, 30 minutes it's about good enough entertaining and yet keep their attention Jesus H: 00:41:15 Right on bro. That's awesome. Yeah. So is that, that's your third or your fourth, fourth podcast? Javi Luna: 00:41:21 So, well, yeah, essentially my third and a half I, so my first was back in 2015, I started called the on blast podcast Gomez, who was part of a group, uh, that I was part of and style started along my buddy David and Jacob for three years. Um, how about the slope is a comedy? And then we, um, Jacob at that time, didn't have the time to do a podcast. So Andy and I started one together called the on blast podcast and we made it about a year doing that. And at that point, uh, Jacob's schedule freed up enough with work and family and everything that he would, he, he was ready to join us. So then that became the bottle's locals of comedy podcasts, which did about 75 episodes. Wow. Um, and then, um, they, it just dissolved, uh, the group, the group dissolved, uh, you know, we weren't doing live shows anymore. Javi Luna: 00:42:31 We were always, we were always standup comedians and doing live shows and, and uh, just some people weren't able to keep up with it. I was on the road more, uh, at that time with chingo bling and let comedy jam, which are two tours that I was lucky enough to get signed on pretty early on in my career. And, uh, so, so then that, that, that show just naturally fizzled out. Uh, and then, and then I tried to start one called, uh, take the L a, would that be like three episodes of, and didn't really the format never really solidified and you're putting sure exactly what I wanted it to be. It was, it was supposed to be me like roasting different topical things, you know? And, um, it just wasn't, uh, it wasn't organic happening organically. I felt like it was a little too forced on my, uh, so then, so that, at that point I was like, I didn't want to do another ensemble one because then you're, you know, you run the chance of, of just chemistry scheduling because that, you know, oh, can you record it on Tuesday? Javi Luna: 00:43:47 No, I can't record it. I can do Wednesday. Wednesday is not good for me, you know? And so you're always battling that episodes are coming out late. It's hard to be consistent, uh, take the hour track to do single. And that's tough, you know, anybody that does a single person podcast, I don't know what talent they have that I know, but, but, uh, but they are, they are severely gifted and, uh, I don't have it, you know, I think Carrie, you know, I can maybe carry a live for about 10 minutes and then I'm like, I'm not talking to anybody. So I have no idea. I feel that connection. Like I need that other person there to like, what I saying is funny. Yeah. It's funny. But are you understanding what I'm saying? It's funny. Great. You are staring. So the most readily available, uh co-host was my wife. She's not in the, uh, she's not an entertainer, she's a school teacher. So she, she doesn't, she has no ambition in being in showbiz and that almost makes it better. It is very natural. So, so really what ended up being was this hour long episode of me trying to make her laugh, which is my favorite thing to do. Yeah. So, and just talking about life and whatever we have going on Jesus H: 00:45:16 Kind of helps your material in a way. Javi Luna: 00:45:19 Yeah. Material was born on the podcast. Yeah. Jesus H: 00:45:22 That's awesome, man. That's awesome. So what do you, what do you consider to be a successful joke or a successful show? You know what I mean? Do you think about, like, do you think about it like that? Or how can I make this? Or, you know what I mean? What makes a joke successful? Javi Luna: 00:45:39 Um, ha it has to resonate with people. Okay. I, to me as successful joke is a joke that people will come up and repeat it to me correctly. A lot of people can, can remember jokes wrong. And then when they don't tell the punchline, right. But when they come up and they tell you what made them laugh in the joke, and it's actually the part that you meant to be the most funny. Jesus H: 00:46:15 Wow. That's crazy. Javi Luna: 00:46:17 And that, that to me is a sign of a, of a good joke. And when people remember it, they wait, they take, oh, I said, I said, your joke at, you know, at work, uh, Monday, you know, or it's, you know, it's a sign of, to me, that's sign of strong ragging. Right. And then, um, the other part of it, as far as like, what really tells you, you had a good show is when people want to hear those jokes again and again, you know, w w even if they've heard it, even if they know it, they still want, they still want to hear it again. Jesus H: 00:46:57 Wow. That's awesome, man. So, awesome. So how do you feel, how do you feel about when other comedians steal jokes, whether it's from you or from anybody else? Javi Luna: 00:47:08 Um, I've been fortunate. I don't, at least not to my knowledge. I haven't had anything, uh, directly stolen, like word for word. Um, and I think that's what it comes down to. I think that there's, there's definitely a lot of, of parallel thought. Um, but the problem with that is paramount thought there will be, there will be, uh, similarities, right? You you're talking on the same thing. Maybe even the, the, the punchline is about the same issue or uses, you know, but when it's verbatim word for word, the chances of you writing something line for line, what, what someone else wrote is not very high. Right. So that that's that's, but the problem with that is because parallel thinking does exist. People that don't have any ethics to them can use it as an excuse. Like, oh, no, it's just a similar joke. So you take a joke and just change it. Well, that's not cool fucking either. Right. But how do you, how do you, how do you prove something like that? Javi Luna: 00:48:25 But definitely comedy is one of those things, because it's so hard to get a joke that is reusable. Right. Um, I think that's why comedians are more defensive of it because you, you really have maybe two or three times for someone to hear a joke before it loses its, its shine. You know, because, because it depends on the surprise a little bit, you know? So if so, that's why comics are like, oh, I don't want anybody else doing my jokes because you can burn a joke, you know? And that's why even like comics, some comics don't like touring with it or perform with anybody that does anything similar to what they do in my opinion. Not that I know him personally or anything like that, in my opinion, for a long time comics with dog, uh, George Lopez. Cause he, he never, never toured with a Latino cop. Javi Luna: 00:49:26 Oh wow. And somebody would say, oh well that's because he's not being supportive. Or, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't support Latinos or whatever. Right. But here's the thing like George Lopez was such a huge influence on so many Latino Congressman. Did you know that for a long time? I'm not, not luckily that's not the case anymore. Right. But for a long time you were hard pressed to find a Latino comedian that wasn't trying to sound like George Lopez, right. Or stop or at the very least heavily influenced by him. Right. So why would George Lopez want somebody going out before him? Well, even if you're not doing this jokes, you sound a lot like, wow, man, it's crazy. You wouldn't want that. You know? So luckily he said, that's not the case anymore. You know, that there's, there's a lot of different styles of Latino comedy comics. They happen to be Latino. They fluff, we helped with that a lot. That was his line. You know, I'm not a Latino comedian, I'm a comedian that happens to be Latino. Javi Luna: 00:50:37 And that's been a, you know, even me with me touring with chingo bling, you know, you know, our audiences are probably only 50 to 60% Latino, you know, it's a good, honestly, a good mixture. That's cool, man. So this show, I felt like in the last handful of years, we really started to, to shuck the idea of Latino convenience only perform only 22 Latinos. That's not true. And we don't have just jokes about, about R B as in junk glass or whatever. Like we can talk about other stuff still within the lens of being, being Latino, whatever it might be, make Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, whatever you are. You can still, you can talk about other stuff other than the cultural intricacies. Jesus H: 00:51:29 Oh man. That's, that's mad props to y'all for real man. That's that's uh, just to be able to do that for different audiences from different ethnic backgrounds and just, that's pretty cool. It's like fluffy said it comedian, that happens to be Latino. That's amazing, man. So what's your, um, what's your vision for how the Luna comedy or Luna? I seen Luna Verso comedy. Javi Luna: 00:51:55 Yeah. Different banners, universal comedy. Uh, went back when I was writing more like sketch is kind of like the overall umbrella for Freecom means anything. I produce the podcast, uh, sketches, uh, used to have a web series called Rosa, which was like a, um, was a spoof of Roseanne. Roseanne was a, a Latina from south Texas. And I didn't know, or someone told me, oh, you should going to do a carbon copy of, of, of that. Cause now I wrote original episodes because the whole idea of Roseanne was, oh, this is a lower middle-class white family from Illinois. Wow. So the idea was well okay. And their experiences and the things that they would go through and the troubles that they would go through. So, so my was is no, I'm just going to literally take the idea of, well, what are the struggles that are lower middle class? They, you know, family working class, Latino family from south Texas would go Jesus H: 00:53:03 Through. Yeah. That's awesome. Javi Luna: 00:53:05 And just tell that story. Right. So, so, so we did like three or four episodes of that and those were probably my most successful like web series. Jesus H: 00:53:16 Um, so that's why that's what you, that's why you came up with the universal comedy. Javi Luna: 00:53:21 Yeah. That was one of the first things that, that they, before then it was just like something, I was just like hashtagging or whatever. But that was probably the first thing that I produced. Like, like for like YouTube or long form Actually what led to me writing things for, for other other people. Jesus H: 00:53:41 Yeah. That's awesome, man. So real quick, I, I guess I wanted to talk about like your, your, so you, your background. I had, I had heard in a podcast that you, you went into like theology and what was your major? Your, or your bachelor's degree. Javi Luna: 00:53:57 Yeah, I got my degree. My degree is in theology, which, uh, I don't talk about it like too much because it's, it's almost like it's been done too much. Like Sam Kennison used to be a preacher. Wow. The, the pipeline from, from clergy religious backgrounds to comedy. Yeah. The reason is, is pretty strong. Wow, Jesus H: 00:54:22 Dude, that's Javi Luna: 00:54:24 Unheard of, as PA I've met several other comics that they've had an otherwise religious upbringing wow. To ending up doing secular comedy. Uh, there's a lot of similarities between, um, between preaching and doing comedy. Uh, Jesus H: 00:54:44 And I was going to say that I was going to say that like, you really don't do like, like preaching bids. I mean, I haven't seen, Javi Luna: 00:54:52 I don't do. Jesus H: 00:54:54 That's why I brought it up. Javi Luna: 00:54:56 Yeah. I don't do it just material for that, for that reason, not to say that I ever won't, but, but you know, I, I D I do a couple of like little tidbits about growing up Catholic or whatever, but, but I don't typically, but yeah, I was, I was fairly devout Catholic growing up, grew up in the church. I was an altar server. I was elector played in the choir and very active in the youth through by pat CCD. What I thought I was going to do is I thought I was going to be a director of religious education for like a big dive tickets. Like I had, it's weird to say I had ambitions within the church. Um, I went, I went to, to college to four, four, and I went to St. Mary's university. And I ended up doing a research fellowship at Notre Dame for a summer where I was spending to go for my master's degree. Javi Luna: 00:55:49 And, and things changed. Life changed. My mom got really sick my senior year of college. So I decided to forgo, um, to forego moving away that far away to Indiana and, uh, in my seat. So I had decided I was going to stay at St Mary's instead for my, for my graduate degree. And even in that, by beginning of my senior year, by end of the mixing year, my mom had even taken a turn for the worse. And I told her I was going to move home for a couple of years, um, and spend as much time as I could with her. And then she ended up, um, that thing almost about five years, five more years. In that meantime, I had, uh, I got married, had a child and started a career, uh, with child protective services for the state of Texas. And by that point it was done, uh, by the time my mom was passing, um, I that's how I found comedy. It was kind of how many was my outlet. Jesus H: 00:56:55 So it helped you that that actually like helped you, like helped you get started? Javi Luna: 00:57:00 Yeah. Not, not to be sacrilegious. I'm not trying to piss off their religious folk, but a comedy became my related, you know? Wow. Jesus H: 00:57:09 I mean, you gotta love it, bro. You gotta love it. You gotta study it and they nothing wrong with that, bro. Yeah. That's cool, man. That's cool. Javi Luna comedy. So let me put the tag down their Javi Luna Comedy and check him out. Uh it's crazy, man. Uh, yeah. Yeah. I think that's all I got here. I'm looking at my notes here. Javi Luna: 00:57:36 What is the podcast going to be called? Jesus H: 00:57:40 Originals podcast. CCO podcast. I don't know. You got an idea. Let me, let me know you to have a good Javi Luna: 00:57:45 Acronym. CCO is Jesus H: 00:57:46 Good. Yeah. CCO. Cool. Cool, cool. Uh, yeah man. Chris Farley fat gotten a little cold. I heard that in your podcast. Oh man. That's so, oh dude. Um, I guess, yeah, I guess we can stop it here, man. This was, has been an hour. I appreciate you being on man. Yeah. Javi Luna: 00:58:04 Thank you. Oh yeah. I was a good first guest for you. Jesus H: 00:58:09 Yeah, yeah, no, it's awesome, man. Yeah, there's the hour I've already invited, uh, two other people. Uh, the, one of the ladies she does like tie, dye, tie, dye shirts, Corpus dude. Yeah. That's her awesome. Javi Luna: 00:58:28 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's also one thing, you know, that's changed over the last couple of years, you know, corporate is a lot more supportive of local artists and artisans and entrepreneurs than probably ever before. I think that, you know, it used to be really hard to make it as a local artist and corporate, but, but choruses showed me a lot of love. The people that have seen me and know me, you know, they, they, they, they support, you know, and, and so it has a lot of grades, you know, what you're doing and trying, trying to kind of push other and build up other people that that's great. And like I said, there's lots of people out there that are about that, on that local way on that old bullshit, which is, which is cool. Jesus H: 00:59:16 So Javi Luna: 00:59:18 The show Jesus H: 00:59:19 Myth, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So you got any tags, I'll put, we'll have a Luna or any, Javi Luna: 00:59:26 Uh, I do have a murder if you're down with that originally.com. Uh, I am going to be, uh, filming my first special, uh, and it's some kind of this summer we're still trying to lock in the venue. Um, it's going to be self produced. I've recorded for television about three different times and they never come out. It, uh, that's a different story for a different time. Uh, it's not a simple, it's not an unheard of experience in comedy producing something. And half of it never sees the fucking leg, but they, so, uh, I've decided to put my money where my mouth is and I'm self producing this, uh, gonna have it professionally done and, and going to see you. See what happens with it. Jesus H: 01:00:10 Hell yeah. That's awesome, man. Instead of waiting for somebody to come and get you here, like, dude, I'm here. I'm going to do it myself. Yeah. Javi Luna: 01:00:16 That's the thing. If you're going to do Congress or anything, any kind of art from, from a town that we're not a major market that does insult Corpus, we're not, we're, we're, we're four, four between four and 500,000 people max and spread out at that. And you know, we're, we're not balanced. We're not Houston. We're not Austin. We're not in San Antonio. Uh, so you, so you got to, uh, you gotta make your own noise. You've got to make your own hype a little bit. Jesus H: 01:00:45 That's a solid bruh. That's awesome, dude. Probably be all right, man. I appreciate you coming on. Check this out and I'll just put like, uh, and then when I see you later, man, take it easy. Javi Luna: 01:00:56 Do it with my hands. All right Jesus H: 01:00:58 Later. Bye. All right, yo, there you have it. Javi Luna @JaviLunaComedy. I'll leave his links in the description. We appreciate y'all tuning in stay tuned next week or the next podcast guest. And, uh, appreciate y'all have a good one. Bye.