'Jesus Trejo: Stay At Home Son' Preview: Comedian’s nervous tic, cackle and crude humor make him endearing
In the 2017 ‘Ten Comics to Watch’ list, published annually by Variety, Jesus Trejo found himself sharing the stage with names as big as Tiffany Haddish and Hasan Minhaj. Quite an achievement for a stand-up comic who hadn’t achieved a lot of mainstream success so far. Trejo was a regular at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, but that did not mean national (and international) fame.
Three years later, Trejo is all set to have his first hour-long stand-up special. Showtime’s ‘Jesus Trejo: Stay At Home Son’ -- a name that has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic, the comic has admitted -- will see Trejo make a full house at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood laugh as he takes the audience on a journey of identity and family.
For artists of color in the U.S., identity is inexplicably inseparable from family. We’ve seen stellar examples of this in Hasan Minhaj’s special ‘Homecoming King’, or Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series ‘Master of None’, or even Kumail Nanjiani’s film, ‘The Big Sick’. Trejo’s special, in that sense, doesn’t explore a new theme. That is, however, not to say that Trejo is likely to make stale jokes. His show is slated to revolve around that of a sole caretaker for his elderly parents, the life of a first-generation American born to Mexican parents, and more.
That is most certainly unique in itself. As is Trejo’s style. The comic has a harsh voice, a fidgety presence, and his performance -- as can be seen on many available short sets of his on YouTube -- is freckled with short bursts of loud laughter from the comic himself. It’s almost like a nervous tic, but it makes the performances endearing. Isn’t it always great when you can tell that the performer loves his own jokes? It feels more like an easy, one-to-one conversation than a meticulously prepared and choreographed stage performance. And that’s always comfortable to watch.
While Trejo told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) in a recent interview that his material for the special is fresh, and that his existing material on YouTube would not feature in this show, his old shows may just prepare you for what to expect.
Trejo’s jokes on his family are lovably crude. In one famous joke that he’s repeated in several sets, he talks about his grandma being a mother to twenty children. And he makes a meal out of painting a vivid picture of his grandma popping children left, right, and center, assigning them to chores almost immediately. In all the performances of this joke on YouTube, he never fails to get a laugh.
It’s a joke on large Mexican families and how children are raised in a certain environment, under certain conditions. And while that joke is not going to be on the new set, it sets a kind of tone for what is to come. Will his jokes on his parents be crude? Most likely. Will they also be hilarious, and in a certain way, telling of a culture, telling of a kind of environment that would be relatable to many, particularly Latinx viewers? Most definitely.
‘Jesus Trejo: Stay At Home Son’ will premiere Friday, May 29, At 9 pm ET/PT only on Showtime.