You know, like, yo, that's my
daughter Mercedes. What's up?
Paid water bill, how you doing? Come say hi.
Well, she is quite the trailblazer.
The first Latina to create,
produce and star in her own network sitcom.
The first Latina lead in a
Disney Pixar film voicing the
part of Cruz Ramirez and Cars 3,
and not to mention a Netflix special
that came out earlier this year.
We wanna welcome Cristela Alonzo
to our our newsroom set up
our temporary setup in here.
I I want to say that this isn't temporary.
I want to say that this is what you do.
We say that every day.
It's like, ohh, we're. Almost done.
We're almost done with this set.
It's not like that.
The house that you see on the block that
like everyone they've been working on
the whole like your whole entire upbringing.
It's like you're the you're
the studio that keeps the Christmas
lights on all year long. That's
what now that's the truth.
We thanks for being with us.
Thank you. I'm so
excited to have you.
I number one I think it's so cool
you're like evolution in your specials.
How you were saying.
I've I've watched a couple interviews and
and seen so many clips where you've talked
about kind of going from the low income.
Comedy as you call it. Yeah.
To then now making some money. Yeah.
And adding some jokes about it.
Right. Yeah.
It's a you know it's it's the whole
idea of like growing up with nothing and
making miracles happen out of nothing.
And then when you have money you
have access to things that you didn't
know you needed you know like like
healthcare checkup you know. Yeah.
You know it's like I my check up with
my my first aid kit is just VIX. Yeah.
Like you know
and now I get there's like doctors
like what? Like I go to a doctor.
I'm like do you have. Looks like,
you know what I mean? Yeah.
When you I, I looked at it,
I tried to keep my finger on the pulse
of all the the voice that people have.
So I looked at all the comments
of your special and so many
people say that you're relatable.
You know, they use the word trailblazing,
trailblazing, relatable does.
Do you feel like that when you write
these jokes or do you feel like
you're just writing about your life?
Not at all, actually.
You're that's the whole thing.
You you like. I like to be personal,
and what people get out of it
is what people get out of it.
But you don't try to do that
because once you try to write a
certain way or do a certain thing.
You're gonna fail. Yeah.
It's like all you have
to do is be what you are.
And then they get it, you know,
and and luckily they get it.
You know, it's like I always thought
that my family was different
and then I realized they're not.
They're actually like a lot
of other families, you know.
Is that like I I'm curious what the
aspect is that makes it so funny
because I imagine for people who maybe
grew up in wealth they they view
it from a different lens, you know,
for people who grew up low middle income.
Because I feel like I laugh at it
because I'm like that's how I grew up.
Definitely. I'm sure.
I also saw some comments that said it.
They didn't even know that
people grew up that way.
Ohh, 100%. It's like, you know,
like, like allergies.
Like food allergies.
That's something that I
always talk about, right?
Like food allergies.
My family was so poor,
we couldn't afford to have
food allergies, right, right.
There's no such we had to
eat all the food or it's like
it was just a budget.
We had like terrible gas. Yeah,
you know, and then the people didn't
understand, like, there's people that
grew up with food allergies like that,
you know, that they're like,
what do you mean you didn't have them, right?
I didn't know they existed.
I didn't know. And that's the whole thing.
Is that like even with something like home
remedies, like people with money spend
a lot of money to do like home remedies,
whereas when you grow up poor,
the home remedies is all you got,
you know? And it's like,
it's that thing where like now,
like I say in like the special
I'm doing is middle classy and
like now I can afford medicine.
So like let's do medicine.
I'm all team medicine.
Does it feel different to
be a Latina in comedy?
Does that play a role in in how
your comedy came to be? Kind
of. You know, it's. Actually,
like I think that actually just
being Latino in comedy is different.
Yeah, you know, and then,
but then you hit certain markets,
you, you play certain cities
like San Diego. Yeah, look,
I mean I don't want spoiler alert.
You're near, near next
to Mexico. Well, you know, I mean you
get to certain markets where you
actually get to connect with people
and you realize that, you know,
you hit those markets where like the
cities where it feels like home.
And that's what San Diego is like.
Was getting that special.
Like was that a before and after kind of
moment where it was just mind blowing?
To to get that Netflix special or
do you feel like you had been kind
of like working this for so long?
Well, you know, it's it's the second one.
So like when I got the first one,
I couldn't believe I got the hour.
Like, I did lower classy and
then middle classy. I was like,
OK, let's do it again, you know,
and now everybody's like, when's the next
one? And I'm like, good question.
I have no idea. Like, you know, you know,
I can't answer that. Yeah, absolutely.
I do want to point out the reason
why we have you here this morning
is because you've got several shows
that are gonna be here in San Diego.
Yes. Tell us doing.
I'm doing 5 shows at Mike Drop
Comedy Club. It's a new club.
It's been open for five months.
I love the space.
I'm so excited to play it.
I have two shows tonight, 7:00 to 9:30,
another two shows tomorrow and Saturday,
7:00 to 9:30, another one on Sunday at 7.
You can get tickets at micdropcomedy.com.
And I'm very excited.
I I haven't played San Diego since.
Like I guess maybe like
three years ago or something.
Pandemic. Yeah.
Ohh. I didn't wanna.
I didn't wanna mention it.
I didn't wanna, I wasn't.
I wasn't sure if people knew.
Right, exactly. Yeah. So
I'm very excited to play it.
It's five shows and I mean this,
you know, to me it's just I love
playing places like San Diego.
I'm from McAllen, TX down South.
I grew up in a border town. Yeah.
So like the border town vibe.
Ohh. Yeah. It's like I'm always
humor that only we understand.
There's like a shortcut where
you're just like hey, what's up,
you know what, you know and
you're living now in LA right.
I live in the Super
far out. I mean,
you know look it's it's.
It's supposed to be a 2 hour
drive with traffic. It's a 9 hour
drive. It is awesome.
My parents are up there
and that's exactly how it is.
It's like, and it doesn't matter
what time you leave, there's no why
is there traffic all the time,
even coming down like it doesn't matter
if you're San Diego County, Orange County,
LA County, you're gonna hit it
somewhere 100 percent,
100%. It's yeah, I could
fly to Denver or come drive to San
Diego. Where can people check you
out before we go? Just my website.
Thatcrystalalonso.com.
I also have Instagram,
Twitter at Christella 9.
Funny. Funny stuff on Netflix.
Go check her out and see her this
weekend here in San Diego. Thank you for
being with us. Thank you so much.