When I first told my mother I was doing stand-up comedy, I could hear her rolling her eyes over the phone. “Okay, pero solo una vez, porque los hombres no quieren una esposa que sale cada noche a contar chistes en los bars”. Against her wishes, I’ve been doing stand-up for nine years, and I will be recording my first comedy album with a record label, and to top it off, I am the newest member of the Kings and Queens of Latin Comedy Tour.
If I’m honest, before I did stand up, I wasn’t very close with my mom. We grew up in such different worlds. She grew up in the town of Boaco, while I grew up in the giant city of Los Angeles. She grew up under the dictatorships of Somoza and Ortega, hearing about people getting arrested or worse for criticizing the government, while I grew up watching Jay Leno make fun of Bill Clinton on the Tonight Show, and Jon Stewart tears apart conservative politicians on The Daily Show. She grew up reverent of the church while I grew up laughing at George Carlin, who became a legend by pointing out its flaws. She grew up with the values of traditional womanhood, while I grew up listening to the old comedy albums of women like Joan Rivers, who broke barriers by telling jokes when that path for women was unheard of. My mom and I had little in common, and when we spent time together it seemed like her favorite activity was reminding me that I needed to be more “domestic”.
Yet, when I wrote my first five minutes of stand-up comedy, my mother was all I think could of. I think I took out all my frustration with her by putting her in my act, with her voice and accent, and criticism. People loved it. After my first-time performing comedy, I was invited back to perform on more and more shows. But one day, she asked if she could come to see me. Crap! She would soon find out I had been making fun of her for months.
The day my mom first saw me do stand-up was the most nervous I have ever been as a performer. I couldn’t eat the whole day leading up to it, and I bit all my nails off, but I couldn’t change my jokes. I was new and they were all I had! So, I did it. I told my jokes and made fun of my mother to her face, in front of people.
After the show, I waited. I could feel my face turning bright red, and I had sweat stains. I could just imagine her negative reaction to the whole thing. Instead, my mother came out with a huge, proud smile and hugged me. “You were so good!”
By some miracle, instead of being embarrassed, my mom absolutely loved the attention. From then on, whenever I call, she asks if I have any new jokes about her. Sometimes she writes down funny stories that happen in her life so I can use them onstage. I shouldn’t have been so surprised! Nicaragüenses have always had a great sense of humor! Rather than pushing us apart, comedy has brought us together and I am now closer to her than I have ever been.
My proud mama has been by my side through all the highs and lows. The first time I did comedy on TV for the PBS show, First Nations Comedy Experience, the host interviewed her afterward and she seemed drunk. She wasn’t drunk. She was just overflowing with joy. When Buzzfeed asked me to share a Nicaraguan recipe with them for their Youtube channel, Tasty, she stayed up late showing me how to peel yucca and make Vigoron because I didn’t really know how to cook and had said yes to Buzzfeed anyway (oops!).
When life gets tough, my mom is my inspiration. I think about how hard it was to come to a new country and what it must have been like (and how it currently is) to live without the political freedoms we have here. I can think of no better way to celebrate this freedom than stand-up comedy. The same freedom that legendary American comedians like George Carlin and Joan Rivers had to break rules and make fun of society’s rules and standards, is the freedom so many Nicaragüenses came here for, and I am grateful for that every day.
At the end of the year, I will be recording my first live comedy album. The recording is on December 3rd at the Comedy Heights in San Diego, California.
You can purchase your tickets at https://tinyurl.com/CatAlvarado
Follow me on social media:
@thecatalvarado on Instagram and @catalvaradocomedy on Tiktok.
