Comedian Cristela Alonzo: I Had Jokes About Trump in 2016, They Told Me Not To Do Them Because They Didn’t Think Trump Would Win

Wallace: “Tell me what this special is like, having this out there in this moment where comedians are right now one of the brightest lights we have.”

ALONZO: “You know, the first special I shot in August of 2016, my very first special, and I had jokes about Trump and they told me not to do them because they said, well, he’s not going to win. And I thought, no, it’s important to have those jokes even if he doesn’t win, because it’s — it shows a snapshot of where we are in this time. My second special, I was going to shoot around my birthday. The same — my birthday is on January 6th. That January 6th was when I was going to shoot my second special. I ended up getting Covid. I moved it. The third one I shot on June 14th, which is No Kings Day. So this man has followed me the entire time that he’s been running. And let me tell you, I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that on Kings Day I was shooting it in Dallas, Texas, where I started doing stand up, and I thought, I have to do something. I have to say something. And it wasn’t, you know, I did my hour, I did the special I was going to do. And then at the end, I had a come-to-Jesus moment with the audience and basically told them, this is the time when we have to decide what kind of person we are. Who are we to our children? Who are we to the future? This is the time when we decide who we’re going to be. And I did it at the end, after they had been laughing for an hour so that they could leave with that in mind, after having laughed. Because that’s one thing that I think — I think we can use in our arsenal. We can teach people through laughter, we can sneak in lessons in life through laughter. And I love doing that. And the special to me was a snapshot of this moment that this is part of a trilogy. My first special was called Lower Classy. The second one was called Middle Classy, this one’s called Upper Classy. And it’s been a 10-year scope that shows the ascension of my life. And I didn’t know what my life was going to do. I didn’t know where it was going to take me, but I knew that what it was was part of the American dream, whatever it was going to be. And that’s how I approached the special. This is to show you that if you have hope, if you have hope, you have a chance to get your voice out and make change.”