By Jennifer Russo

So…this Mexican guy walks into a comedy club, right?

It sounds like the beginning to your typical ethnic joke, but in fact this Mexican guy really did walk into that club. He walked in with a staggering walk, crazy undone hair, and a thick accent. Felipe Esparza took the “Last Comic Standing” television audience and judges on a journey through the streets of his Cali hometown, introduced them to his family, and gave them insight into his culture ~ all without leaving the stage. And it paid off when he took the show’s title and made it a reality. Though it seems to be easy for him, he actually has spent a month practicing five minutes worth of material for a comedy routine, talking to himself in the mirror and testing his jokes out on the guinea pigs that pop their heads into the little comedy clubs. According to Felipe, he has learned “far more from bombing than killing.” He says the hardest thing about performing on “Last Comic Standing” was figuring out which jokes to tell and how to keep them to the three minute limit. “I like to take existing stereotypes and let the audience figure out the joke themselves. For example, instead of saying ‘I live in a Mexican neighborhood and there are taco trucks everywhere,’ I’ll say, ‘There’s a new restaurant in my neighborhood, and it’s parked in front of my house.’ If you’re too obvious, it takes away the surprise.” One of the best experiences that came from “LCS” was looking at his networking sites and seeing other people comment with one-liners from his last set. “That’s such a good feeling to see that people liked it enough to put it there. Everyone has been very supportive”, he tells Pulse.

All kidding aside, support has come to Felipe in many different forms. He tells Pulse that at one point when he was a teenager, he became totally lost. He experimented with hard core drugs and hung out with a lot of people who were into gangs. He lost his dream of being a comedian and felt he had nowhere to turn. That’s when Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who runs an establishment called Homeboy Industries, stepped in. When Felipe was only 20 years old, Father Boyle put him into rehab and helped him to get a job. “Homeboy Industries came in and took me out of the street,” Felipe tells us. “No one knew where I went. I just disappeared. It’s like being in a witness protection program.” Felipe plans to take some of his winnings from “Last Comic Standing” and make a donation to the organization which helped him get back on track.

Now that Felipe has won the title of Last Comic Standing, he hopes to have a one hour show that will run in both English and Spanish. He tells Pulse that there are a lot of comedians from other countries who speak Spanish who sell out rooms and he’s never heard of them before. He’d like to be the American who does a Spanish routine and be able to sell out those same clubs. He said that performing on and winning “LCS” has been “…amazing ~ I still can’t believe it. Yesterday the bus driver even let me ride the bus for free!” Bravo Felipe, Bravo.

Want some more info on Felipe? Check him out here: www.felipesworld.com and www.myspace.com/whatsupfool.

And be sure to catch him at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester as part of NBC’s ‘Last Comic Standing’ Live Tour on September 24. www.thehanovertheatre.org.

Would you also like to learn more about Homeboy Industries or make a donation? Head to www.homeboy-industries.org.