Most people know me as Loncho Navarro, but my real name is Leoncio Alejandro Navarro Raleigh The Third, don’t be fooled by my title, I’m simply a 32-year-old stand-up comedian, podcaster, screenwriter and sometimes Zoom gigolo, who by chance and some luck left his hometown (Maracaibo) and has been living in Caracas for more than 11 months without any planning.
Initially, I did not know that I wanted to do stand up until the day I call “The day when everything clicked”, it was at a family gathering where I told my first joke live because since 2011 I have been telling jokes on Twitter, but it is not the same to do it in a social network than doing it in front of a group of people. I remember that the joke was about the Virgin of Chiquinquirá and unexpectedly everyone laughed, and I say “unexpectedly” becauseI decided to let the joke out as an act of rebellion regardless of the public that was in front of me: my religious aunts, my altar boy cousin and an uncle who is in love with God, whom we affectionately call uncle Flanders. Their reaction was tears of laughter. It was at that moment that I said to myself: “Yo home to Bel-Air”, no lie, I really said: “Damn they laughed, now what do I do with this power?” And that’s when I felt curious about getting know a little more about the world of comedy, especially that of stand-up.
At the beginning of my career as a comedian in Maracaibo the opportunities to do this type of comedy were as scarce as gasoline is today, since there weren’t comedy shows in the city and the greatest efforts there were in terms of comedy productions of stand up came from artists of the capital that did their shows in theaters, nothing else. There were no comedy circuits, no comedy bars and much less weekly shows, which made comedy consumption very limited and it was there that I saw an opportunity to do what I love to do most in the world: imitating Juan Gabriel (lie, doing stand up comedy)
This passion is still active since 2017 when I had my first presentation, I remember the lights had gone off, I had to do it amidst the dark since I lived in a city where the electrical service is as terrible as Panettone or Vanessa Senior’s OnlyFans. At the beginning I almost lost it since I had to do the show without a microphone and I had to shout my routine, but in the end everything went well since one of the advantages of doing a show without light is that if you screw it up, you will not see the disappointment on people’s faces and it’s as if nothing had happened.
From that moment I realized that doing stand up was my thing, my passion, my favorite thing in life besides gossiping with my brothers and eating junk food. I think it is difficult to know what you really want to do with your life, especially if you live in a country where the quality of life is minimized over time and it seems that the future is increasingly uncertain for many of young Venezuelans, especially for those who want to start a career as difficult as that of the comedian or for any artist who wants to achieve their dreams in Venezuela.
Despite all the difficulties that starting a career as a comedian in Zulia implies, I was able to manage three comedy circuits in Maracaibo, perform several shows in the city and travel repeatedly to Caracas and Valencia to perform. It was at this point that I decided to follow the advise of several comedian friends and try my luck by moving to Caracas. For me, the idea of living in the capital of comedy and motorcycles did not seem so far-fetched if I put aside the fact that I was going to leave my family, my friends and food from Maracaibo … Oh yes, especially food, nowadays I miss burgers from Cecilio Acosta more than I miss my mother. I think that the feeling of leaving many things or goals behind without achieving it is what makes you doubt whether to leave or not, added to how stuck that you can feel in a city that does not evolve and that gets worse with time.
One of the reasons that most motivated me to leave Maracaibo was that the city that once could give me everything, currently cannot give me much, sometimes I think that instead of giving you something it actually takes away a lot from you. As the crisis in the country intensified more and more, for me the city was becoming an illusion, a ghost city of what was once something great, but which over time became the city that coul’ve been something but didn’t make it. I began to have a love-hate relationship with it, as if it were an ex that you love very much, but hurts you. I remember once I was in a show I said that I loved Maracaibo a lot, but that at that moment she didn’t want to be loved, that it was better to leave it alone for a while, like when your girlfriend is upset and does not want to know anything about you and her attitude is totally hostile and when you ask her for an explanation she tells you that she’s on her period. I understood at that moment that Maracaibo had a red stain that was bothering her and that she did not know when it would leave her, unlike my girlfriend who goes back to normal in two days.
It’s funny how things sometimes work out, throughout 2018 and 2019, despite the blackouts, rationing, and gasoline shortages, I was doing stand up in various placess in Maracaibo, and by the end of that year I had managed three comedy circuits in the city, and even so, I could do stand up in a theater, it was in Caracas that I got to do so and it was one of the reasons why every day my desire to be in this city increased.
I have only been doing stand up for three years, two if we just forget about 2020 since this year has been a bit difficult for those of us who make a living out of gathering crowds in commercial establishments. It is a bit unfair for us new comedians to count 2020 as a year of “experience”, unless learning to make banana bread and yoga helps me in my professional career.
The lack of experience did not stop me at any time, despite the fact that I had got to a city that I did not know, without a job and without many friends, unlike my life in Maracaibo. I wanted to conquer the world, but at the same time, I feared for my savings. However, I was focused on my goal, to do as much stand up as possible, gain a lot of experience, and eventually to have my own comedy circuit.
Just like my cholesterol, my determination to become a renowned stand-up comedian in Venezuela was on the rise. It was clear that the first thing I had to do was to be recognized as a comedian who wanted to learn and to become someone in the world of comedy and thank God it happened. As they gave me opportunities I took advantage of them: a show in which they needed me because someone didn’t show up, I was there first, I did not miss an open microphone show at Pizpa and I was always asking for a spot in comedy venues of Caracas .
The first months of 2020 turned out to be very fruitful for me, by March I had two job proposals as a scriptwriter, I earned a position at La Quema de Budú (a roast special) and already had 5 scheduled shows as the opening act of Gabo Ruiz’s Belly Button Tour, all that in just Two months of being present in the capital, but since life isn’t all that rosy, the pandemic arrived and brought misfortune with it. The proposals were dropped, as well as Gabo’s tour, Budú’s roast was saved because the show took place the last week before the quarantine was decreed in Venezuela.
After that my life changed completely, from doing stand up almost every week I went to doing Zoom shows which I hate with all my guts, but yes, doing shows on Zoom is a struggle that I haven’t mastered. For a comedian, the feedback lies in the laughter that he or she generates in the public that sees him/her, that way one knows if a joke works or not. In Zoom, laughs are not heard at times, or if they are heard, they come out late and that makes you lose your pace. That is another detail, comic timing, for a joke to work you must have a comic timing and without it, the joke is lost and is not fully understood, this is what happens every so often in Zoom.
If doing stand up with a live audience was already a challenge, imagine doing it through a screen, without hearing laughter and facing the possibility of being interrupted by someone during the routine. For my part, I do this adaptation begrudgingly so as not to rust, it’s like a way of forcing myself to keep writing even for Zoom because that’s what it is. Understanding and accepting that there are situations that you cannot change is one of the best things I have learned during quarantine. Seeing how everything can change from one day to the next has given me a less selfish perspective on life, it made me see that there are other things beyond standing up or making people laugh, such as being at peace with your mind.
During the confinement, I went back to therapy, something that I thought I would never do due to my past bad experiences, but I did it and it has helped me a lot, especially with not thinking about how everything could’ve been and didn’t happen due to the pandemic. I also took refuge in the administration of my personal finances, I understood during the quarantine that we must be financially intelligent, something that isn’t taught in schools, not even in college, but one of the things that has helped me the most is keeping in mind my life achievements; Sometimes we waste time thinking about what we could not achieve and that wears you out mentally.
Despite it being something that I did almost, by inertia, my favorite activity became writing, writing whatever, on any subject; Before I only wrote things that seemed funny to me and now, but no, now I write down everything, as if it were a kind of Pascualina (diary) for comedians, this has helped me to cope with confinement in a lighter and less intense way. For someone who made jokes out of his life, it is difficult to do so now that we are living less. I’m sure that eventually, this will change and everything will go back to normal, not like before, but less chaotic than it is right now.
I believe that in these difficult times we must be more aware of our actions, think more about what we have achieved, and enjoy it, we must take our time and stop being so hard on ourselves for not having achieved what we had planned for this year. Remember that another year in which we can do things better will always come, as long as we keep in mind everything we learned in 2020, because, after all, it was a journey full of learning.
Translated by: Pascual Díaz
