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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Stay at Home Son
Cover image credit: via TMDB

Stay at Home Son

Jesus Trejo

Showtime · 2020 · 63 min

A self-deprecating hour of reverse parenting and childhood mishaps.

Jesus Trejo built his debut hour on the premise that he is totally useless in a crisis. The centerpiece of the set is a childhood memory of being held at gunpoint and forced to translate the mugger’s demands to his Spanish-speaking mother. Rather than leaning into the trauma, Trejo treats his younger self as a helpless observer, a theme that carries through his stories of failed karate lessons, a fistfight in Las Vegas, and the confusion of buying a defective hourglass online.

Filmed at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood, the special arrived on Showtime in May 2020. The title was chosen months before pandemic lockdowns made it an accidental pun, but it fits Trejo’s reality as an only child who became the primary caregiver for his aging parents. He jokes about running the American Dream in reverse — graduating from college only to pause his stand-up career to run his father’s landscaping business.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Purchasing an hourglass online without knowing what he needed it for.

    Describes an unusual impulse purchase during quarantine/online shopping, leading in surprising directions where the joke turns back on himself.

  2. Getting mugged at gunpoint as a child.

    Highlights his helplessness as he was forced to translate the armed mugging in real time to his Spanish-speaking mother.

  3. Taking over his father's landscaping business while caregiving.

    Reflects on feeling like he lived the American Dream backwards by graduating college and pursuing comedy only to end up mowing lawns.

  4. A childhood friend who went from working as a mechanic to becoming a gynecologist.

    Uses an act-out imagining how the friend might carry over mechanic habits and terminology into his medical exams.

  5. Running the Los Angeles Marathon to impress his father.

    Details how he trained by running only three miles a day, accepted any food volunteers offered him during the race, and won a trophy, only to be dismissed by his father as a Millennial looking for likes.

How it plays

Tone
Warm, lighthearted, self-deprecating, and family-centered.
On stage
Charmingly self-deprecating, laughing at his own anxieties, misfortunes, and perceived shortcomings.
About
Family dynamics and immigrant parents, Caregiving for elderly parents, Living the American Dream in reverse, Generational and cultural gaps, Growing up in Long Beach, Awkward self-defense and helplessness

What the critics said

Received positive critical reception as a solid, charming, and likable debut hour built on self-deprecating storytelling.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: meaww.com, imdb.com, nuxt-movies.nuxt.dev, cbsnews.com, decider.com, readysteadycut.com, thecomicscomic.com, forbes.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Trejo's life as an only child to Mexican immigrant parents in Long Beach, California, including balancing his standup career while becoming a caregiver to his elderly parents.

Details

Released
Taped
2019, El Portal Theater, North Hollywood
Runtime
63 min
Where
Showtime
Director
Brian Volk-Weiss
Topics

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