Why The Gentleman Jerry Rocha Is Not Into Gentlemen's Magazines

There's a lot to be said about being a gentleman when it comes to comedian Jerry Rocha. Before his special “Gabriel Iglesias Presents: The Gentleman Jerry Rocha” airs this Saturday October 17th, we gave him a jingle to see exactly what we would be signing up for. From his definition of the word he put in his special, to nudes, Twitter, acting comics, and friendship, we hit him with it all and since he passed our test, we'll for sure be tuning in. And after you read this, we think you'll want to also.

OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): Your press release says you're a gentleman depending on how you define the word “gentleman.” I'm gonna need to know how you personally define the word “gentleman” so I can properly form an opinion.

Jerry Rocha: I mean, it's kind of a joke because when I was a kid, one of the wrestlers that was popular was “Gentleman” Chris Adams. I thought that was such a cool name so I always wanted to name a stand-up special that. Also, I talk about a lot of irreverent things and there are a lot of tragic dating stories in there too so I thought it would just kind of fit perfectly.

]

OK I get that, I'm with you. So how long did it take you to nail down the material for your special?

Well, I put out a CD called “Take That, Real Dad” on iTunes and it has been out for about a year and half so I was already working on a new hour when I was doing a few shows with Gabriel. He just kind of asked me if I had another hour ready to go and I did actually! So really it took about a year of just working on it and constantly tweaking it. I'm just really fortunate that when Gabe approached me I was already ready like, let's do this! He actually requested a couple of jokes that were on my CD so it's kind of a nice little mix of stuff from the CD plus a lot of new stuff.

How did you and Gabriel hook-up?

We met because Cristela Alonzo had known Gabe and she kept telling him about me. Then Alfred Robles, who also tours with Gabe a bunch, had seen me at some shows and pushed that along. I guess they just kept bugging Gabe and he saw a video of mine on YouTube and really liked it. So we met at a show in Hermosa Beach and he was like, “I want to put you on my Comedy Central show.” So that's how it started! It's like a dream come true for a struggling comic. You just want that one major player to go, “Hey! I like you!”

That's so true too and there is so much competition with comedy and especially in LA, you're competing with people who really only want to be on TV. It's like, it's not so much about the art of stand-up at that point.

You're so right. A lot of comics don't really know about stand-up comedy. Just like what you said, they're in some other avenue and their manager or agent told them to try comedy because it'll help with their auditions. Then they get up there and you're like, you don't even belong here. Name one good George Carlin theory. You can't! Get out of here! Stand-up is the only place people do that. Anyway…sorry, you got me going on that.

No it's all good! I could rant on it all day, believe me. I also do think it's funny that a pretty faced actor will not only do stand-up but also steal your groupies.

[Laughs.] Right? It's like, come on man! We don't need that! It's hard enough for a comic to get laid and now there's a TV star taking any possible backstage action? Fuck man, they get enough of it. Leave some for everyone else.

Awww, so sad. Speaking of sad, regarding Playboy cutting out the nudes. Does this bum you out or do you think it's finally time?

It goes both ways for me because it is a bit archaic. I've honestly never been that big into porn just because I'd rather bang a chick than watch anyone do it. You know, I read this quote that was so great from a Playmate from the 60's or 70's and she was asked if she felt disgusted because what she does objectifies and exploits women. She said something like, “No. You know who is being exploited? It's the morons who buy these magazines thinking that they have a shot with me.” It really put a whole new spin on it for me. It just seems with magazines and newspapers, on-line is taking over. You would think that Playboy would go even more all in on-line.

Right? And who waits a month for a new magazine to come out? I'm surprised it took this long.

[Laughs.] Yes! There's a million Reddit pages that you can find anything, why do you even need a magazine? [Laughs.] Can you even imagine that one guy who has to wait a month just to jerk off? That's crazy!

I bet he lasts forever though. OK last thing I swear. I noticed on your Twitter you were discussing the scent of your balls and I believe you thought you had a spelling error in it, but you didn't. Then you rewrote it with a spelling error in it. On purpose or not?

Did I really? Oh thank you, I really need a ball tweet editor. This is good, I need to get on that! [Laughs.]

Haha sorry, I just needed to give you shit.

Oh god, what is wrong with me? No pun intended but, I really dropped the ball on that one.

I think you meant the pun on that one and with that, oh boy people are going to be tuning into your special now! I think you just sold it with that.

[Laughs.] Oh shit that's great. Look, watch the special though. Go watch it, go love it, go check me out, and please let me know the next time I fuck up on Twitter.

Be sure to tune in for “Gabriel Iglesias Presents: The Gentleman Jerry Rocha” premiering this Saturday (10/17) on Fuse TV at 10pm. Fuse TV is also letting Gabriel take over the channel for a full weekend of all things Fluffy. For more info on his weekend picks, go to www.Fuse.TV. For more info on Jerry go to his website www.JerryRochaComedy.com, become a fan on Facebook, and follow him on Instagram and on Twitter @RochaComedy.

Follow us on Twitter @OCWeeklyMusic and like us on Facebook at Heard Mentality and follow the author on Twitter @AliNotAlli.