Gina Brillon‘s first hour-long stand-up special, Pacifically Speaking, premieres at 10 p.m. ET/PT Saturday via NUVOtv and a little help from Gabriel Iglesias.
Iglesias “presents” and introduces Brillon to the audience (it’s the second such special “Fluffy” has presented for NUVOtv), and also cast her in his Fluffy Movie this summer.
Iglesias told The Comic’s Comic that he’d previously presented Brillon as part of his Stand-Up Revolution showcase series on Comedy Central (a new season of which starts up Oct. 3), and that the part in his own concert film — in a flashback scene to how and when his parents met, with Brillon playing, as she describes it, “the crazy best friend” — “just made sense for her,” he said.
Iglesias said he chose to present new hours from aspiring stand-ups on NUVOtv instead of Comedy Central or anywhere else because NUVOtv impressed him by offering more respect, creativity and money.
“They respect you a little bit more as an artist,” he said. “The marketing has been really big. And once they keep playing (the specials), they play them a lot. You don’t get lost on the shuffle. Whereas Comedy Central, they have so many stand-up specials.”
“It means a lot to me that Gabe has been a part of everything. He’s been incredibly supportive,” Brillon said.
“When somebody’s behind you like that,” she said, “most comics don’t get to have that from most people. To know he has faith in everything I’m trying to do is awesome, and it gives me that extra push.”
Brillon already has the ambition and confidence, though, to succeed.
“Pacifically Speaking” comes straight from her Bronx heritage and the women she grew up with who had thick Latina accents. Her body issues, she says, is not cockiness or overconfidence, but delusion. “Latino confidence.”
And if you don’t have that confidence already, just visit the Bronx, ladies!
In this backstage clip, Brillon talks about coming up in the tough New York City comedy scene, which she calls “comedy boot camp.”
When you’re trying to move up within the comedy ranks, then, it’s so key to have a successful comedian lend a helping hand in any form or fashion.
Iglesias understands that, and that’s why he’s doing this series for NUVOtv. “It works in the rap community, amazing,” he said. “Why not in comedy?”
“The only other guy I know who’s done that is Adam Sandler,” Iglesias said. Sandler long has cast his friends in fellow comedians in substantial supporting roles in front of and behind the camera of his movies. But that’s for movies. What about stand-up? “You have to go back to Rodney Dangerfield and his Young Comedian specials,” Iglesias said.
Now it’s Fluffy’s turn to earn some respect and pay some of it forward to his comedy friends. That’ll only boost Brillon’s Latina confidence that much more. And that’s a good thing.
Great post 🙂 Thanks for sharing.