Comedian Rick Gutierrez has a great friend in fellow funny guy Gabriel Iglesias and once you get these two together, well you can tell that they are more like brothers than pals. And speaking of their partnership (not in that way folks, minds out of the gutter please), on June 14th (10pm ET/PT) NUVOtv will premiere “Gabriel Iglesias Presents Rick Gutierrez: I'm Not Mad. I'm Just a Parent.” This incredible hour showcases Gutierrez's hilariously entertaining thoughts on too many topics to name and before Rick's upcoming special airs, we were fortunate to get these two characters on the horn to tell us all about it.
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OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): OK so how did you actually meet?
Rick: I met Gabriel in San Antonio at a Sí TV taping. Sí TV is now NuvoTV so it's actually ironic that we've now come full circle. So we went to Denny's afterwards and we were just kind of giving each other accolades to each other and talking. We were having a man moment I guess. [Laughs.] So he tells me if I'm ever in LA I can come down to his place and after I got separated from my wife, I threw all of my stuff in my truck and went out to LA on a whim. I knocked on his door and I was like, hey man remember when you said if I was ever in LA I could hit you up? [Laughs.] I spent two years on his couch after that. So it was really cool because I mean, what would've happened if he wasn't home?
Gabriel: Yeah if I wasn't home, who knows where he would have wound up!
Rick: Yeah I would have been like a puppy! The dog pound would have picked me up and euthanized my ass!
That's such a romantic story you guys. Not the puppy part, but the couch part. I bet it was a pullout couch. So cute…
Rick: It was a big leather couch and I'd have my arm over the top of it like it was a big ass woman. I have a thing for big women and hey, I'm not ashamed of it!
Gabriel: Yeah, that's the reason I keep my hair short!
Big women and leather couches. I'm making notes. So Rick, I know you come from a large family. Is that where you pooled a lot of your humor from?
Rick: If you have more than one sibling then it's not a family, it's an argument. The biggest influence on me was my dad because he was really funny. He was our critic and he had humor in his intelligence because he was a really smart man. My grandfather was a very humorous man too. He was a migrant worker that only came to our house three months out of the year and during that time, he would do the craziest stuff I've ever seen a man do. He would always crack jokes, watch wrestling, he would be drunk half of the time, and he would always try to give me advice in Spanish but I couldn't even speak Spanish! He was great!
I saw your special and I loved that your material is really relatable. You also come across as a funny but hard ass kind of dad in your set. Do your kids have an opinion on what you say about them on stage?
Rick: Well I'm not really talking about them, I'm talking about everyone's kids. It's like every generation before would work, they'd cook, and they'd be like, you don't even know what it is to work with your hands. When I grew up you had to work and get smart, go to college and get a job. I think we've just gotten to the point where the kids these days are just getting lazy. They want the best clothes but they don't want to work for their clothes. All of these things that I went through I'm just coming forward with it and people are agreeing with it. I think parents are trying to be politically correct with their kids and it's bullshit! I'm not going to sit there and talk to these kids, I'm going to tell them! Clean your room, do your homework, shut the fuck up…that kind of stuff!
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Hilarious and so true. Do tell then, in this world where everyone seems to be “PC policing,” did you feel like you had to edit yourself for TV?
Rick: Gabriel let me have free reign over my show. He just told me to watch the F-bombs.
Gabriel: Yeah that was pretty much it. I just told him look, you're hysterical and since this is going to be on TV, just drop the F-bombs and you're going to be OK. Do you even say shit in this special?
Rick: I think I said shit a few times. [Laughs.] But it was common courtesy to not say fuck because he liked the material and wanted me to go for what I know. I'm not politically correct because I'm an old dude and I don't care. When people say, “you can't say that,” I just say shut the fuck up. It's called freedom of speech and I get to exercise that every time I'm on stage. I don't have to be PC, I'm a comic. I'm supposed to tell you the real deal. Gabriel is the same way. His new movie that's coming out is the most honest material that I've ever seen anyone do. It's amazing that he got it all out there and didn't have people look at him differently. To me, that's what being a comic all is about. We practice one of the last forms of free speech and if you don't like it then move, Get out of my way!
I hear ya. While we're on the topic of “The Fluffy Movie” Gabriel, did you film it in several cities or did you do it all in one shot?
Gabriel: No we did it all in one shot. All of the material was stuff that I had been working on for the last year and a half. We lined up a nice big show, put the cameras in action, and we caught magic! It comes out July 11th so we're really excited.
You've done a bunch of movies and since there's so much freedom in doing stand-up, do you ever find it difficult “sticking to the script?”
Gabriel: It really is difficult and it is challenging but I make it happen. That's why I love stand-up so much because to be able to go up on stage and speak your mind, there's nothing like that in the world. But entertainment is entertainment so when they want you to do something different, you've just got to adapt to it.
OK so last thing and I'll let you boys go. Can you both give me the first joke you ever told so we can see how you've grown?
Gabriel: The very first joke I said was, and I was 10 years-old so keep that in mind, why does the chicken cross the road? To check out the chicks. You know what though? At 10 years old I still think I killed it. Since then I've written a couple of other funny ones. [Laughs.]
Rick: Mine was, do you know why Mexicans never get affected by UFO's? They never go to the light because it might be the immigration department.
Wow haha, you guys are so fun. Is there anything else you want to cover that we didn't talk about?
Gabriel: We're good but by the way, great interview. You're fun, it was very nice.
Rick: Yeah you don't know how many bad interviews we go through. Thank you for being a great interviewer.
Gabriel: We do a lot of them so anytime we get to be entertained by the interviewer, it's alright. We really do appreciate it!
OK I will be keeping those statements in because you know, maybe a gal can get a raise or something…
Catch “Gabriel Iglesias Presents Rick Gutierrez: I'm Not Mad. I'm Just a Parent” Saturday June 14th (10pm ET/PT) on NUVOtv and check out “The Fluffy Movie” on July 11th. For more info, visit Facebook.com/FunnyRick and www.FluffyGuy.com. You can also follow them on Twitter: @ComicRick and @FluffyGuy.
See also:
Steve-O Found a Way to Work Manginas Into His Stand-Up Comedy
10 Douchiest Guitarists of All Time
10 Douchiest Drummers of All Time
Follow us on Twitter @OCWeeklyMusic and like us on Facebook at Heard Mentality and follow the author on Twitter @AliNotAlli.
Ali Lerman knows much about comedy, basketball, and celebrating Wu-Tang Wednesday. She’s been writing for sixteen years and still calls her mom with grammatical questions.