Chris Estrada Brings Stand-Up Comedy to the Punk Rock Museum On February 15
Chances are that you know Chris Estrada from the hilarious, real-yet-surreal Hulu sitcom, “This Fool,” which was unjustly cancelled after just two seasons. Estrada, a lifelong punk rock fan, will be hosting a night of stand-up comedy at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas on Saturday, February 15. He’ll be bringing two other comedians, Joel Jimenez and Ramsey Badawi, along to perform at the event. The following is an interview with Estrada about his own personal punk rock history, punk rock Easter eggs he worked into “This Fool,” and what fans can expect at the Chris Estrada and Friends Comedy Show on Saturday, February 15, at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas.
Chris Estrada. Photo courtesy of Mandee Johnson
Goody James: Was there someone that got you into punk rock? I read that you were into the “Punk-O-Rama” compilations when you were younger.
Chris Estrada: I think I was just growing up with kids who were into it, you know? Like older kids. My older sister, growing up, it was like the mid to late 90s, so she was listening to whatever contemporary alternative radio at the time was. Like Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden, but you know, you get things in there like Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana and stuff like that that feels a little closer to punk. I grew up with this kid named Adrian, and I remember his older brother playing Fugazi around us. That was like a big deal to us. I heard Fugazi before I heard Minor Threat. Kinda things like that. Nobody was necessarily getting me into it, but it was a little bit around. Not a lot, because I grew up in L.A., and where I grew up is mostly Black and Latino, so not that many people were into punk music or alternative. But you had your pockets. This was before I discovered punk rock, but I remember a big deal for me was “The Crow” soundtrack. Henry Rollins does a cover of “Ghostrider” by Suicide, then you have The Jesus and Mary Chain, and doesn’t Nine Inch Nails do a Joy Division cover?
GJ: Oh yeah, “Dead Souls.”
CE: Yeah, stuff like that. That kind of alternative shit was seeping into my world. And growing up in L.A., listening to KROQ. I was probably one of those kids that my gateway was that 90s Epitaph boom. The “Punk-O-Rama” comps, the Hellcat “Give ‘Em The Boots,” that’s when I started discovering stuff for sure. But also on the radio, there was a Sunday night show, Rodney On The ROQ. He would play a lot of shit like The Ramones, The Adolescents, and The Clash. That really stood out to me.
GJ: I think what was cool about those compilation albums is that everyone would listen to the same albums but gravitate towards different artists and songs that were featured on them.
CE: Yeah! I know that with “Punk-O-Rama,” the stuff I gravitated towards wasn’t like the skate punk stuff. Not that they’re bad, I just didn’t gravitate towards bands like Millencolin and Pulley. The stuff that stood out to me on those comps was like The Cramps or Poison Idea or like T.S.O.L. I remember one of them had “Coffee Mug” by The Descendents. It was shit like that that kind of stood out to me.
GJ: I read that you while you were going to high school in Inglewood, you found out about Despise You.
CE: Yeah, dude! That was a huge deal. I went to high school here in L.A., in Inglewood. I remember just hanging out and talking to this skate punk kid I knew. He was like, “Oh, do you like Despise You?” I go, “Who’s that?” And he was like, “It’s this fuckin’ hardcore band from here, from Inglewood.” And I went, “What the fuck, for real?” This was like ‘99, or maybe 2000 at most. He was telling me about it and he let me borrow “West Side Horizons,” the comp, on CD. I went home, and I put that shit on, dawg; it blew my mind. I think what blew my mind too was growing up in Inglewood and going to places like South Central and Compton. I had never seen a hardcore punk band sing about ghetto shit. Like gang violence. I mean, they sang about it, but not through the lens of Southern California. Like damn, there’s a photo of someone blasted on the ground [on the cover of Despise You’s split with Agoraphobic Nosebleed]. It resonated hard with me.
GJ: I’ve seen you mention some similarities between hip hop and punk rock.
CE: Yeah, a little bit for sure.
GJ: Bands like Despise You and Dystopia used graffiti handstyles in their artwork.
CE: Yeah, using graffiti. I’m not the biggest New York hardcore guy, but I like it. I remember when I was young, coming up and seeing New York hardcore bands like Antidote using graffiti. I was like, “Oh, these fools are writers.” Or I remember hearing that the drummer homie from Cro-Mags was a writer. Mackie, I think. I heard he came from a graffiti background. Or even like The Clash. That famous New York graffiti artist, Futura, did pieces for them. But yeah, seeing bands like Despise You and Dystopia and even like downset… Downset. was a big deal. I know people probably think of them as like a rap metal band, but to me, I think of them as a hardcore band. Those guys were all writers from UTI, a graffiti crew up here in L.A.
GJ: In “This Fool,” there was Generación Suicida shirt, a Tozcos song, along with songs from a few other contemporary punk bands. It seems like you still keep your ear to the ground and stay up-to-date with current bands.
CE: Because I get so busy with stand-up comedy and I do stand-up at night, I don’t really go to shows. But I’m always listening to recommendations like Bandcamp shit. There was this band called Bloodstains from Orange County that I really got into. They’re really good. I’ll read zines and blogs and stuff. That’s how I found out about Poison Ruïn. I don’t know that I’m completely up-to-date, but I try. There’s another band from Lawrence, Kansas, Sweeping Promises. Stuff like that.
GJ: Hearing some newer stuff like that in “This Fool” was cool.
CE: Yeah, it was really cool. With “This Fool,” I wanted to have a punk element to the show without trying too hard. You know, without calling attention to it. Sometimes when you call attention to things, it feels a little try-hard. If you just play something and don’t make a big deal out of it, it’s kind of cooler that way. But yeah, we used songs from Generación Suicida, Tozcos, and there’s another band called Ausencia from the San Bernardino area. We used one of their songs pretty prominently in Season 2. That was really cool because I thought, “I could try to go out and get a Black Flag song, but everybody knows that shit. Or I can try to use one of these current, newer bands that I think are just as cool.”
GJ: Do you feel like there’s some crossover between punk rock and comedy? Or do you think that punk rock has informed your approach to comedy?
CE: I don’t know if there’s crossover. I think of them as different. I think the thing about punk is you can be bad at it and still be good at it. But when you’re bad at comedy, you’re just not funny. They’re kind of different in that way. I think there’s some crossover in the sense that in comedy, you can start your own D.I.Y. show, an independent show that exists outside of the club system. I don’t know; I try to keep them close and different at the same time. Punk is a very referential world. There’s a reason not that many people are into it. As popular as it is, it’s not Top 40 music. People are making things that aren’t necessarily mainstream. But with comedy, you ideally do want to make a lot of different types of people laugh. I think if I try to implement any kind of punk aspect into my comedy, it’s to be irreverent. If I’m being a shithead, I try to be smart about it.
GJ: I watched your bit about hating small business. And it’s funny because you start off by saying, “I hate small business; I love corporations,” but you clarify later, “Corporations are actually evil and do all this stuff that’s actually bad.”
CE: Yeah, I try to do that. Even that leads up to a punchline. I go, “They’re really bad; they don’t care about human beings, but if you run into a Target and you’re about to shit your pants, these kindhearted people will point you to the restroom.” That’s an example of where I try to implement something that is a real belief system.
GJ: In a way, that’s what a lot of punk rock bands do. Like Dead Kennedys or Reagan Youth. They lead you in by being satirical but then let you know what their point actually is.
CE: Yes. And they’re being subversive. I think good comedy finds that everything is good and bad at the same time. Corporations are bad but if there’s one shining light, it’s that it benefits me and my horrible stomach. *laughs*
GJ: I also read that the Minutemen documentary influenced your work ethic and the way that you’d go out and practice comedy.
CE: Yeah, I watched that “We Jam Econo” documentary, and it blew my mind. I started comedy kind of late. I was like 29 or 30 when I started comedy. I had spent a lot of time not working hard towards anything. So when I started, I remember reading that book “Our Band Could Be Your Life” and reading about Minutemen and how they’d go out every night. They also had this aspect of, “Don’t waste people’s time.” I think about that now, in comedy. Like, if I perform at the Ontario Improv, you know, people drop their kids off with their parents or they get a babysitter, and they spend money. So when I get up there, I try to be like, “Make sure you know what you’re doing.” People work and bust their asses, and they’re paying money. I remember that Ramones documentary, “End Of The Century,” and they were like, “Make sure to give ‘em a fucking show.” I hate when I see comedians, and they’re pontificating on stage like they have all the time in the world and nobody’s laughing. Like, don’t be too precious; these people are here to laugh.
GJ: What was it like going out there and doing open mics every night, especially getting, as you said, a late start to comedy?
CE: I felt like I didn’t have any time to fuck around. It’s funny because you gotta not take yourself too seriously to be funny, but you gotta take yourself seriously enough to make it work. I don’t know that I think comedy is profound art. I think comedy is meant to make people laugh. I don’t think comedy is going to change the world or save anyone, but I think there’s a lot of merit to making people laugh and forget about their problems. So I said, “Alright, don’t take comedy too seriously, but take working at it seriously.” I was also working at a warehouse and doing Postmates, so I had to be precious with my time. I would work an eight-hour shift and then drive straight to where the open mics were, do a few open mics, go home, get some sleep, and start the next day. I had to have a schedule. It was also like, “I’m too broke to fuck around. I need to work on this hard.”
GJ: This show coming up this weekend won’t be your first time at the Punk Rock Museum; you’ve done some stuff with them before. How did you get linked up with them? Was your first time there when you did the podcast with Damian from Fucked Up?
CE: Yeah, it was through Damian. I did Damian’s podcast “Turned Out A Punk,” and he was like, “Hey, I’m going to do a live one in Vegas with Fred Armisen and Fat Mike.” And I said, “I’ll come out.” Then they were basically like, “Would you ever do a comedy show here and do guided tours?” I was already following the museum on Instagram, and I was really curious to see what it was. It looked very legit. I remember when I saw it in person for the first time; I wasn’t expecting them to do a bad job, but it surpassed my expectations where I went, “Oh, this is a legitimate museum.” It’s curated like a museum; they take it very seriously. They understand that they’re documenting a subculture.
GJ: Tell us a little about this show this weekend. You’re bringing some friends with you?
CE: Yeah, I did it last year, and I’m doing it again this year. I do a comedy show, “Chris Estrada & Friends.” This year, I’m bringing two really funny comics with me. One is Joel Jimenez: he’s a comedian here in L.A. He actually used to be the drummer for that podcast, “Kill Tony.” He and this other comedian, Shapel Lacey, are both guys who love punk music, and they play in a hardcore band called Mad Peaceful. It’s cool; it’s a hardcore band with four comedians in it. They put out an EP last year, and they’re really dope. Joel is a guy that I’ve known since I started comedy. I’ve known him for almost 12 years now. The other comic is this comedian named Ramsey Badawi, and he’s one of my best friends. I’ve also known him for close to 12 years now. He started in Orange County, and I used to go down there to do open mics. That’s how I met him. His connection to punk is that he came up as kind of like a pop punk/emo kid in Orange County. He was going to shows at Chain Reaction, and he played bass in an emo band. His world is different from mine. His world is bands like Modern Baseball and stuff like that. They’re really cool. They just happen to like punk, but we just do a standard comedy show. We don’t really talk about punk in our comedy, but it’s cool to bring comedians that feel connected to that world.
GJ: Here’s a question that some of the readers might be wondering at this point: What’s so funny about punk rock?
CE: You know, how earnest it is, is actually kind of funny. You know what I mean? There’s so much funny shit to it, and that’s why you have a really funny satire website like The Hard Times. It’s both a good thing and a funny thing how serious punk rock takes itself as a genre and a community. It’s so earnest, and I think that’s hilarious to me. I remember when I was younger, any time I would see a music video on YouTube, say it’s a Ramones video or something, and somebody in the comments was like, “I can’t believe this only has 100,000 views and Justin Bieber has 2 billion views. This ain’t right!” That shit kind of makes me laugh because I go, “Dawg, if this had 2 billion views, this wouldn’t be punk rock anymore.” It wouldn’t be special to us. Half of the reason we all like this shit is because other people don’t like it. It somehow speaks to our weird brains.
Chris Estrada & Friends Comedy Show at The Punk Rock Museum, February 15, 2025.
Chris Estrada, Ramsey Badawi, and Joel Jimenez will be performing at the Punk Rock Museum on February 15, 2025. Tickets are available at the Punk Rock Museum’s website. Estrada will also be giving guided tours of the Museum on Friday, February 14, and Saturday, February 15. He will also be spinning punk rock Valentine’s Day records at the Triple Down Bar starting at 9pm on February 14. Fans of punk rock and comedy alike will have plenty to do in Las Vegas this weekend.
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