Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Erik Rivera

Erik Rivera is paving the way for the next generation of up-and-coming Latinx comedians ready to deliver the laughs. It’s a responsibility that Erik doesn’t take lightly, knowing firsthand how powerful representation is, and it’s why he’s so passionate about advocating for new and existing voices in his community. Pop Culturalist caught up with Erik for an insightful conversation about his journey in the industry; his HBO Max special, Super White; and why artists need to support other artists.

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts and comedy?
Erik: I was always intrigued by it. My father, growing up, would let me watch old comedy specials like Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. I’m not trying to make this an origin story like, “That’s when I knew.” Because I didn’t. When you grow up in a Latin household with a mother who immigrated here for a better life, comedy is never one of the choices they have for you.

I remember growing up, my mother was like, “You’re going to be a doctor! You’re going to be a lawyer! That’s it.” You couldn’t try to sneak in any other profession to her, like “Oh, I want to be a firefighter.” She’d smack you. Be like, “No, no, doctor. Stop it.” I was always intrigued by it.

The first comedian that ever resonated with me isn’t a traditional stand-up. That was John Leguizamo in Mambo Mouth. It was the first time I saw someone of my skin tone, someone of my cultural background, up on stage captivating an audience.

But still, I didn’t think anything of it. I wasn’t like, “This is a career I could pursue.” It wasn’t until I was in college. I went to Pace University in New York and I joined the student board and I was in charge of doing the social events. One of the events I got to do was right after 9/11. I came up with the idea of doing comedy relief shows because I knew everyone on campus was dealing with the effects of what they had just witnessed as a country.

I submerged myself in comedy. That was my way of coping with everything. I was going to comedy clubs every night because I loved the art. Then one day, it all clicked for me. I was like, “I want to try this.” And I did. I went to an open mic and jumped onto the stage. I never looked back.

PC: That might be the answer to the next question. When you look at your career, who or what has had the biggest influence?
Erik: In my family, anytime we got together, it was always survival of the fittest. We’d all tease each other and make fun of each other. Everyone was fun in my family. So that was an early influence.

John Leguizamo was definitely a huge influence to me because culturally I related to him. You don’t realize as a kid what that does to you when you see somebody that you can relate to and what impact that has on you. That’s why I’m constantly harping that we need more representation on TV and screen.

I have kids now. My oldest is seven. I remember a couple of years back taking him to see Coco with his cousins. My wife happens to be White, so his cousins are these little White girls—blonde, blue eyed. To them, the movie didn’t hit as hard as to my son, who at one point turned to me and said, “Dad, he looks like me.” Now, if you thought you cried at the end of Coco with the grandmother, I was bawling the entire movie, once he said that to me. It was over for me.

PC: What has that meant to you, paving the way for this next generation?
Erik: Just like the impact John Leguizamo had on me, I hope that one day I can have the same impact for someone else who’s thinking about doing stand-up comedy or even thought about doing it. When I first told my mother I was going to do stand-up, she gave me the silent treatment for a full year. She wouldn’t talk to me. Arts isn’t something that we encourage kids to do. So number one, I hope to have an impact on anyone who’s coming up and wondering if there are any successful Latinos out there doing stand up. I hope that I’m one of the new wave of comics that they can look to. With my platform, I want to try and help other comics as well.

I was proud that I got to start the first Latin showcase night here in Los Angeles. There hasn’t been one in five or six years. I created Brown-Ish at the Laugh Factory where I go to spotlight and showcase other Latin comics and try to show the world that there’s more than just Gabriel Iglesias and George Lopez, not to knock them. They are legends. But after that, the general public doesn’t know anybody else. They don’t know about Orlando Leyba who’s also on HBO Max. He was the first guy to do a half-hour special that opened the door for myself to do a half-hour special on HBO Max. We got to keep that momentum going. We got to keep opening that door for other comedians.

PC: Was it ever a scary prospect to pursue a career that you didn’t have the support of your parents? Have they come around, given all of your success?
Erik: Yeah! When I was in college, I felt like I was wasting my time because I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t know what I was going to do with that degree. I felt like I had found exactly what I was meant to do. So for me to sit down and tell my mother like, “Hey, remember that dream you had of me being a doctor or a lawyer? I’m going to do stand-up comedy.” It broke her heart. She had the dream of coming to this country, busting her ass, and giving me a better life, which she did.

My mother’s Guatemalan. Where she’s from, she doesn’t understand what stand-up comedy is. It’s not an art form there, or it wasn’t at the time. It’s an American art form. So for her the only way she could translate that or relate to that was like, “I came to this country at nineteen. I worked all these awful jobs. Now my son is going to be a clown.” [laughs] I was like, “No, no, no, I’m not a clown. I tell stories that make people laugh.” She was like, “Mijo, that’s a clown.”

She was the hardest person to tell. My father secretly loves stand-up. But in front of my mother, he couldn’t say that. When she was like, “Look what you’re doing to us.” He had to agree, “Yeah, we’re so disappointed.” Then when she’d leave the room, he would be like, “How is it? What’s happening? Who have you met?” He was very excited by it, but he couldn’t publicly support me on that.

PC: Having been part of this industry for the past fifteen years, has anything surprised you?
Erik: I try not to let anything surprise me. I know that sounds like a cop-out answer, but everybody’s journey is different. I feel like if you try to look to other people and go “Oh, that should be my journey,” you’re going to be disappointed. You’re going to be surprised. Because you take somebody like Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle hit when he was eighteen. Then you take somebody like George Lopez. He didn’t get his sitcom deal until he was forty. So I won’t say there have been any surprises just because everyone’s journey is different. You also have all these different platforms now. You could create a show for Netflix or create a show for HBO Max or Hulu or do a show on YouTube. Some of these YouTubers are making millions of dollars. So everybody’s journey is different. I try not to go in with any expectations, so I don’t get surprised.

I will say the one thing I’m still frustrated by is Latinos, we make up a large portion of the population and we’re still not seen on television. Every year we hear Hollywood saying, “This is a year we want Latin shows,” and we’re still not seeing them. That gets frustrating for comedians like myself and other Latin comics because it’s like, we know the stories need to be told. We know people want to hear the stories. I saw the response when my special dropped.

PC: Speaking of your special, tell us about the inspiration behind Super White.
Erik: Super White is me explaining to the world that we come in different shades. I feel like when Hollywood does do these projects, what happened to them is they fail because they’re whitewashed so much. They create a stereotype of what they think Latinos are. That’s why they fail. Hollywood quickly points the finger like “Oh no, it’s because the Latin people didn’t show up.” Well, no, if you gave us the option of eating at our mom’s house, who’s going to make a traditional Latin meal, or Chipotle, we’re going to go to our mom’s house. We’re not eating at Chipotle because it’s whitewashed. So for me, Super White was like “I’m here to show you that I’m not the stereotype.”

My wife happens to be White. I talk about me secretly loving Whole Foods. I’m American, so it’s showing the world that we come in different shades. We come in different varieties. Our plight isn’t the same plight that Hollywood keeps trying to sell us. Not everybody has a border crossing story. Not everyone is fighting gentrification. Not everyone has trouble with the language. That’s not a knock on the people that do, but there are different shades to it. Super White is my ode to hey, there happens to be a large population of American-born Latinos, like myself, and this is what we go through.

PC: You talked earlier about creating your own content and showing representation. When did you realize you wanted to use your platform to do that? How did you discover your voice as an artist?
Erik: It’s funny because I have a lot of new comics or people thinking about doing comedy and they’re like, “We shouldn’t be doing too much. Should I be trying to find my voice?” I’m like, “In the beginning, you don’t know what your voice is. In the beginning as a comedian, you’re just trying to be funny.” Then your voice happens to come. One day, it’ll all click for you and you’ll go, “That’s where my voice is.” I have a one-hour special on YouTube called I’m No Expert. That was my first special. If you watch that, I’m still trying to figure it out. Then if you watch the HBO one, you hear that more defined voice where you go, “Oh, that first special, he was still trying to figure that out. Now he knows.”

I just got married and had a kid when I filmed that first special. I was trying to be funny. Now I have more of a distinct point of view. I’m like, “Hey, this is what I think about all those things. This is what I think about marriage. This is what I think about what’s happening right now in the country. This is what I think about raising my kids and trying not to lose my culture.”

As far as using my platform, I think it’s necessary for Latinos in general to get ahead. We see other communities do it. We see the Black community and they come out and they support films and shows and make sure that they’re well received and have an audience. Take the Madea movies. I’m not a fan of them, but the community comes out and supports. Madea can go to the gynecologist and people are going to come out and watch it. But then you look at the Latino audience and we don’t come out and support, I think it’s because as artists, we’re taught not to support each other. If you look at the old school the way it was, you had one spot open. These artists would fight for that spot. Once they got it, they tried their darnedest to hold on. They were scared to open the doors for other people because they were scared they would lose their spot.

I took it upon myself to choose this narrative. I want to help other people because if that person wins, then I win. If I can help an Orlando Leyba or Vanessa Gonzalez or Marlena Rodriguez, who are all on the HBO platform, get seen or get a production deal or they can show up on a digital platform or network, then it’ll push the other platforms to go, “We need that. Why aren’t we doing that?” That’s how we all win.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Erik: I have a bunch. Is that bad? With the lockdown, I’ve gotten into more of them. I couldn’t get enough of Tiger King. Floor is Lava is another show I can’t get enough of. It’s funny because when you’re part of Hollywood, they expect you to have high-class taste, like “Do you watch Downton Abbey?” I’m like, “Never seen an episode, but 90 Day Fiancé, I’m watching that nonstop.”

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Erik: One of my favorite movies that I tell everyone to watch is The Pest. [laughs]

PC: Favorite book?
Erik: I recently read Kevin Hart’s autobiography. I always like reading about comedians and seeing what their journey was like, which I highly recommend if you’re thinking about doing comedy or looking into the world of comedy. A book I’m reading now is Reel Latinxs, written by Professor Aldama. He’s this guy who has really taken to the cause of Latinx representation on the screen, Latinx representation in comic books.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Erik: Hamilton. I got to see it years back. Like everyone else, we bought Disney+ to watch it again from the comfort of our own home.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Erik: I like to run in the mornings. I have the usual pop and hip-hop playlists that most people run to. But as far as artists that people don’t know, I’m a big Brett Dennen and RIVVRS fan. I like cool indie guitar guys. It always throws people when I plug in my phone and all of a sudden it comes on the speaker.

To keep up with Erik, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.