Steven Michael Quezada, Breaking Bad’s Agent Gomez, performs stand-up on The Arsenio Hall Show

Breaking Bad may have captivated us as an award-winning drama over the past several years, but we’ve also noticed how much Vince Gilligan’s TV series about a dying chemistry teacher who becomes a dangerous meth dealer also owes to comedy. Specifically, to comedians.

We haven’t seen the last of Bob Odenkirk — his sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman earned himself a spin-off dramedy series, Better Call Saul, coming to AMC next year. And Odenkirk’s two favorite henchman were and are headlining stand-up comedians in real life, Lavell Crawford (Huell) and Bill Burr (Kuby).

But what about Gomie? DEA Agent Steven Gomez was played by Albuquerque actor Steven Michael Quezada, who as it happens also is a stand-up comedian. Quezada, 50, appeared in the 1990s HBO showcase series Loco Slam. His Twitter handle is @abqjoker. His home page includes testimonial quotes from both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul (the quote from Paul claims Quezada had him “laughing so hard I want to pee my pants,” while Cranston’s canned quote incorporates his Breaking Bad persona to say: “If laughter is good medicine then Walter White should see Steven’s stand-up comedy… He’d get well fast!”).

A 2009 promo video for his stand-up opens with Quezada portraying “Tio, the old-school vato” (no spoilers telling you there’s a pivotal BB character who’s an old man nicknamed Tio).

And yet.

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Poor Gomie.

Always seemingly in over his head.

Don’t feel bad for Gomez or for Quezada, because here he is back on our screens, a new life reviving his old life as an aspiring stand-up comedian. So Quezada talked up his new movie with George Lopez (and you’ll see Lopez’s influence maybe here) with Arsenio, but he’s really only on Arsenio to be a stand-up again. In this clip from Tuesday night’s show, he jokes about airplanes, his wife and how he’ll deal with his daughter’s boyfriends.

Roll the clip.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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3 thoughts on “Steven Michael Quezada, Breaking Bad’s Agent Gomez, performs stand-up on The Arsenio Hall Show

  1. I’ve heard someone mention that Breaking Bad is showing how Terroristic White people are in society. The fact that his name is Mr. White. It’s definitely good to study this show and talk to other people about Racism (White Supremacy) in our media.

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