Dominican comedian Gadiel Del Orbe hosts viral OG Drew Hernandez (“The Combat Veteran”) for a real talk on building 1M+ followers pre-algorithm, performing for veteran audiences, creator burnout, and why tiny film crews are the future. They dig into Facebook vs. TikTok monetization, Latino identity without the box, and the discipline it takes to pivot from sketches to stand-up to directing. Plus: Bad Bunny, salsa/bachata classics, and a blueprint for making dope work with almost no resources. New episodes Wednesdays
Guest: Drew Hernandez — “The Combat Veteran”
Topics:
Veteran comedy that crossed over beyond identity
Going viral in 2016 + the video-meme era
Burnout, trust, and rebuilding after fame
Facebook pays, TikTok changed attention
Micro-crew filmmaking (3 people, big results)
Reinvention: from sketches → stand-up → directing
Latin music side-quest: Bad Bunny, salsa & bachata greats
Highlights / Pull-Quotes:
“Do it for yourself first.”
“You don’t need a studio—just a story and a small crew.”
“Reinvention keeps you alive creatively.”
Call to Action:
If you laughed or learned, rate & follow on Apple/Spotify and share with a friend. Drop your favorite moment in a review—we might read it next episode.
Socials:
YouTube: The Gadiel Del Orbe Show
IG/TikTok: @GadielDelOrbe
Guest: @jokesbydrew
Support the Show:
Sponsorships & bookings: contact@gadieldelorbe.com
Tip jar: Venmo @gadieldelorbe
0:00
Yo, we got a special guest in the building today. Uh, this is a man that he was like the beginning of all this
0:06
social media trend like and also he he grabbed the niche and he made it happen
0:12
and is one of the few Latinos to make it happen within this space. I don't even think that there's anybody that grabbed
0:19
the niche as a Latino and and and blew it up and create created massive success
0:27
over 1.5 million followers on Facebook and stuff like that. And that was before
0:34
all this extra popularity of any other influencer. So, I am super excited to
0:40
have this man here today. He's also Dominican. Yeah, I'm I'm pretty sure people are watching and being like, "How
0:45
many Dominican comedians do you know?" Dominican.
0:52
As a matter of fact, Norto is Mexican. All right. And he's not a comedian. But I do want to bring more more. I'mma
0:59
bring more Venezuelan Colombians. Okay. But I'm in New York City. And what
1:06
does New York City have the most? The Dominican. So, yo, welcome to the
1:12
very own the combat veteran Drew Hernandez.
1:18
Yay, bro. Like, like, welcome to the podcast.
1:23
Thank you. Thank you for having me, dude. Uh, bro, like I remember watching you years ago. As a matter of fact, I you
1:29
were the first ones doing this whole like veteran and combat veteran, right,
1:34
on social media. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I pretty much uh the the uniform parodies and uniform content
1:40
I pretty much opened I want to say I opened the door there wasn't a lot of there were people doing it but not at
1:46
the scale that I was doing it. For me it was like the accuracy when I first started just took off for a lot of uh
1:51
military service members and veterans and and and are there other Latinos that were doing it in the space too?
1:57
No. No. And I was the only one and ironically they they thought I was
2:02
white. They thought you were white? everybody. I was like, "Where did yo,
2:08
have you seen my hair? Where do you get white from?" on you. You know what's was crazy the I think what you did well is that um you
2:16
didn't talk about your Dominicanness that I know of, right? No. Like you just happened to be a Latino
2:21
that was also a veteran. But I was like, what is he? What is he Dominican? Is he Puerto Rican?
2:28
I'm the melting pot of everyone. But I think you did a great job in in putting that away, putting that aside because we
2:34
did a show this weekend, bro. And I never seen so many white people.
2:44
I never seen so many white people come out to a show to see a Dominican man. And it was like it was like to be it was
2:51
90% white folks, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Are all your shows like that? Yeah. A majority. It don't matter where
2:57
I go. A majority of them are like that. That is wild. Yeah. Yeah.
3:02
I There was like one Mexican woman. Yeah. And like three black dudes and three black dudes
3:09
who had white women. Bro, I I'd never seen an audience so
3:15
white. And that's great that you got to you were able to experience, you know, get to be in front of the military and the
3:21
veteran community and you got to see firsthand how easy they are, bro. how accepting and and loving they
3:29
are like they just want comedy. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Cuz I think a lot of the the
3:34
stereotypes and misconceptions that happens especially on the internet even I see it too that that just like uh
3:40
veterans in the military community just like hard right this and that and the politics and all this and that and then
3:46
when you get in front of them it's like yo it's not like that at all. It's not like that. Yeah. Not like that at all. So yeah cuz when we're out to seed like it
3:52
doesn't matter what's your race. It doesn't matter. I got to defend. I got to take a bullet for whoever it is and I got and I got to trust whoever is next
3:59
to me whether whatever color they are they got to have my motherfucking back. Yeah. Yeah. Right. There's no question about that.
4:05
You see what I'm saying? So it was interesting. It was cool to see at the same time because I was like
4:10
for me my shows are mostly Latino, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans show up. Especially Puerto Ricans be showing
4:16
me mad love, bro. Right. So, it was interesting to see like all these people came out and pay
4:23
to see a Latino comic, but it was not about you being Latino. They related to you in being a veteran itself.
4:29
Yeah. Yeah. And I never thought about that ident. I'm a veteran myself. I never thought
4:34
about that identity or like you know, you know, I real I realized that, you know, years ago. I didn't realize that
4:41
myself either when I first started doing videos. I didn't even know there was a veteran community. I was just trying to make my friends laugh, you know,
4:47
something that we can relate to and stuff like that. And then the veteran community showed up and I'm like, "Oh, okay, cool."
4:53
But when I started seeing the the influence of even Latinos in the veteran community is when I started having Tommy
4:59
in it cuz Tommy had that Latino Dominican Puerto Rican kind of accent to him where
5:04
you can barely understand them. And when I put that in there, that kind of flavor in there, cuz that's what it is. It's
5:10
flavor in there, everybody started showing up. Even white people was like, "I know somebody like that." Oh my god. Reminds me of this one
5:16
dude when I was saying. But you you you blew like what what year was this
5:22
that when exploding with Yeah. What was what was that video that made you fucking that you said like this is it?
5:29
Oh, I I want to It was probably the first video that I said, "Okay, there's there's a market for this."
5:35
But things didn't start blowing up until early 2016. I want to say March of 2016. And that was because um the the
5:45
memes started happening a little like video memes like there's always been picture memes but video memes started
5:50
kind of happening. And when I when I when I did my first video meme and capitalized on what the moment was
5:57
is when things like viral it the videos would go so viral my phone would crash
6:03
because of the updates. I've never seen my phone crash. It was an iPhone. You never seen it crash but my phone
6:08
would crash because of the update. likes, comments, hearts, this and that. Likes, comments, guys, com. And and it
6:14
got to the point where I had to restart my phone cuz I couldn't do nothing on it cuz the updates were just overwhelming it.
6:20
Wow. And then it's like uh so what so you you amassed like 1.5 million
6:26
followers, right? On Facebook or over a million on Facebook, 400K on YouTube,
6:32
um like almost 300k on Instagram, I think. I think uh the Tik Tok, which I
6:38
don't post on Tik Tok much anymore, but there's like 300K on Tik Tok. Oh, so you were making money.
6:46
Are you still making money? A little bit. I make a little bit. Is it still like racking in money or
6:52
what? No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not. It's not. It ain't what it used to be. Before
6:58
it used to when you used to capitalize on Remember when videos used to be like if you had it the longer it was. This
7:04
was like the vlog period. The vlog period. Yeah. The longer your video was, the more money you were making and that's when we were making the most money just
7:11
because people were tuned in and watching and stuff like that. And I think this was what the 2019 2020 when
7:18
people were locked in and just started watching. That was the time to capitalize on longer videos and that's what we started doing.
7:24
And uh and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's when it was it it's crazy now because you don't get paid what you used to get paid
7:30
and I think Tik Tok ruined that for a lot of us. But you know what? Facebook is paying, bro. Is it? Facebook is paying the monetization on
7:37
on Facebook. You put one picture that I I rarely post on P um on Facebook and I'm getting They send me money. I'm
7:43
like,
7:50
that's why is it called Meta? [Laughter]
7:56
Yeah. No, no, no. I I don't really I don't really cash out on Instagram. Um, yeah, Instagram is like a little low
8:03
like Yeah, it ain't much. Yeah. The main source for me right now is just Facebook and Facebook cuts a
8:08
little little bit of a check little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I got a question for you. Like uh why did you stop? Like
8:14
what is the thing that you're like do you get overwhelmed? Was it burnout? What is it? It was everything, bro. It was
8:20
everything. Cuz you know, you get to a certain point that people just don't want to be your friends. You're the
8:26
access to something. You know what I'm saying? Gotcha. And that completely shuts me out where it's like I don't want to meet
8:31
nobody. I don't want to meet nobody. I want no new friends, no new relationships. Do you feel like it was the people that you were meeting after the fame or like
8:38
the friendships? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um my my close friends before all that were
8:44
still my friends, you know. Um but you also you like any industry, you want to you want to broaden your
8:50
network, right? You want to make but then you start realizing that these relationships only want you for something. Like there's nothing genuine.
8:57
It's all businessminded. They trying to get to a certain place and that's cool and all and then it just gets to a place
9:02
where it's like I don't What made you realize that that's what it was like mental health?
9:08
What What made you realize that though? Like like because Yeah. It's not like something you can't just be like, "Oh, you know what? All my friends wanted me
9:14
for this." There has to be something you be like they would ask for something. Mhm. You know, hey, how you doing? Oh, by the
9:20
way, I got something going on. What do you think about this? And you think you can help support this and that? and a majority of them were good causes and
9:26
stuff like that, but I've been part of businesses that were just ideas, help put them in front of the veteran
9:32
community that are multi-million dollar businesses today and stuff like that. And you know, and and for me, I kind of
9:39
I kind of look at that and I'm like, yo, that's f that's awesome right there. That's really awesome. But then when I
9:45
needed something, it was like, well, we'll see what we can do, you know? We'll see what we can do. It's like, and then how you trans you transitioned
9:52
to standup. How long you've been doing standup? Three years. Three years. And I saw like like people
9:58
like we went to the show, people were like, "I took pictures with you in 2017." And also also the funny thing is
10:05
I met you in Los I met him in Los Angeles, bro. Yeah. And and I was like something about him
10:12
looks familiar, right? And he was like you were sitting on the on the on the uh
10:18
you were say you went to Hollywood improv. You were sitting on the right with with your girl. I was in at the time
10:23
and and I'm like, "This guy looks familiar." But I'm thinking I'm I've seen this guy
10:29
before probably at a party at Capikua, bro. And then we go we go and do the
10:35
show this weekend. He's like, "Yo, you want to come over and do the show?" I'm like, and he's talking about like, "I usually sell out. I usually sell 40
10:43
tickets. 50 40 tickets. 50 ticket. I usually sell out." Like the first show is sell out. I'm like, "How the fuck
10:48
this nigga selling out the first show? in the middle of nowhere, right? And I
10:54
was like, you know, and and he was like, "Yo, I used to have a page 1.5 million." I was like, "Is that him?" I'm like,
11:00
"No, it's not him." This whole time I'm looking at this motherfucker. I'm like, "That's not him." You said, "I thought you died, bro.
11:09
I'm in the car with this nigga." I like, "Nah." And I didn't want to
11:14
offend them. I didn't know how to ask, right? I was like, "Is that him? Is that Is that the combat veteran?" I was like,
11:20
he was like, "Yeah, you know, uh I" And then we went we went to the to the
11:26
restaurant. No, we went to get Chick-fil-A Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick-fil-A. Yeah, right. And we're talking with Chick-fil-A and I was like, "Oh, so you
11:33
serve like what branch?" He was like, "Army." I'm like, "Army." I remember the combat veteran was from
11:38
the army. And I tried to embarrass him. I was like, "Don't be watching porn in
11:44
public." That's the thing, man. Yo. Yeah, you're the worst, man.
11:52
[Laughter] What you throwing? I was like, "Stop watching porn in public."
11:58
Yeah, it was I wanted to walk out. I figured I'll wait you in the car. I'll wait for you in the car.
12:04
In the car. I remember I had those two black girls looking back like, "What the hell was wrong with you?"
12:09
Yeah, man. That's not okay, man. To be watching porn in public, bro.
12:17
No. And and we're in the car and I was like and when you said 1.5 million I was
12:22
like nah that's him bro and you're like I'm the com it was a
12:28
combat veteran. I was like bro I remember watching your page back in the day. That was years ago bro. I think it
12:33
was even I was after I left the military. It was uh you you were popping off
12:39
before I even started BuzzFeed. Yeah. Right. You did all these skits, the veteran skits. You wore the unifor. I
12:45
thought you was still in. Everybody thought I was still in. That's why I was able to get away with it.
12:53
I was like, "This man is not going to get in trouble for half of the shit that he's doing." Yeah, that's what everybody thought. And
12:59
I think that's what kept everybody away from doing it. The few people that were doing it, they they kind of wasn't
13:04
getting a buzz, I don't know, it might have been the quality, how they were delivering it and stuff like that, but there was a a sense of accuracy that
13:11
people was just like, "Yo, oh, that happened to me. I know exactly what that is and stuff like that. So,
13:16
there were a lot of people that appreciated it. I think for me when when I was working at BuzzFeed, right, I I never touched on
13:23
the veteran aspect. I like here and there I'll have a conversation like whatever. So, I never thought that I
13:29
could make content out of being a veteran, but is it is an identity that I didn't even think about, bro. Mhm.
13:35
There's an identity that there's that if you think about it, anything that you do that's part of your life, there's an
13:41
identity attached to that and people relate to that shit, bro. Right. I was like, "Yo, come over to the podcast."
13:46
Like this motherfucker, you're interesting. Like, bro, like you were also
13:52
part of this this legacy time capsule on the internet. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? Mhm.
13:59
And then and then to be a Dominican within the space, you're one of the the pioneers, one of
14:04
the first ones to do this shit. You see what I'm saying? And then I know that I was doing this
14:10
stuff at BuzzFeed, but I know that after four years of doing nothing but Latino
14:15
content, Latino, Latino, being Latino first, I was exhausted. Yeah, I was exhausted. So, how was that for
14:22
you? I could imagine that. It was I I've did more more content about the military than me actually serving in,
14:29
you know, I just like damn, man. I feel like by now I would be retired had I stayed in, you know?
14:35
Yeah. That I I kind of I'm just kind of like it was exhausting because it kind of was
14:40
like, okay, now y'all are boxing me in and I got more to give
14:46
I'm more than just this. But then it it got to a point where it's like, well, if I try something else, nobody's paying
14:51
attention. M then when I bring the the uniforms back, everybody's like listening. I was like,
14:56
"Oh, please, for the love of God, check out the other things that I'm doing because they're good, too."
15:02
And and it was hard to get people to transition to that that for me, I I kind of look at I was
15:08
like, it's not worth it if you're not always listening. Like, it's hard to get people to listen about something else
15:14
when this is all they know you for. Yeah. So, creatively, you start getting boxed in. You know with create being creative
15:21
you got to have the freedom to reach you know and as they say a composer has
15:27
to turn his back on the audience same concept right like if you're going to try something else you're going to
15:33
have to turn your back on the foundation that got you there because creatively you have to stretch
15:39
you have to reach and you got to play with different things you know what I'm saying that's kind of like what the rock is doing right now and it's kind of not
15:44
working because it's box office what six million over the weekend that's unheard of for Somebody somebody like The Rock,
15:50
but it's still a good movie. Yeah, I think uh who I think Sammy Davis did that like he he completely changed
15:58
uh the I think the 48 laws of power. No, the 50th law of power, right? Which was the the Robert Green with with
16:05
50 Cent. It that one of the laws were reinventing yourself. Mhm.
16:10
Always like like to be ahead of the wave, you have to reinvent yourself and do something completely different that's
16:17
unorthodox. So like that people be like, "Oh, this is something new, something different."
16:22
Right? If you look at Bad Bunny, Bad Bunny changes one. I remember I had one conversation with Bad Bunny. I hosted
16:28
this video uh for Tasty and and I was like, "Bad Bunny, you're the number one artist right now. Everybody wish they
16:35
were in your position. What makes you different?" He's like, "Every year I always change my style." And if you
16:42
think about it, I always thought about it as him changing the way that he looked. But he was most he was talking about
16:48
everything. Not only his brand, the way he looked, but Bad Bunny came in with remember he
16:54
had the the the shit on his head. He had the eye and then it was trap. It
17:00
was it was nothing but Latin trap and then this last album
17:06
bomba. Yeah. Uh he had Dembo. So it's like he didn't box himself into one thing. He always
17:13
kept reinventing. That's I think that's like he's such a a a fucking superstar.
17:18
Only a few people can pull that off. And that's the thing when you I I feel like when you're in Bad somebody like Bad
17:23
Bunny and stuff like that and you got the right team around you that's like this is how we should do it and blah
17:29
blah and everybody's working together cohesively to like do that, you know, I think it makes the
17:35
process a lot more simpler. But, you know, somebody like me who's independent who don't really have a team that's kind
17:40
of had to do everything himself. Why don't you have a team? It's hard to find somebody with the same
17:46
work ethic. Mhm. Pretty much. And for good reasons, too. People have lives. Gotcha.
17:51
People often today even today that there's uh it it's shown that you can
17:57
you can do it all yourself too. Of course, that people have that mentality too. Are you are you hyper independent?
18:03
I very much am. Very much am. You think that I can work with people. Yeah.
18:08
But if there's something that I need to get done, you want to do it yourself. Yeah. I don't want to wait for somebody.
18:15
This is where the work ethic comes in. Where it's like I don't know how long you are you going to wait for the stars to line up or you going to wait for
18:22
like I need this done now. Gotcha. You know, what what what makes you think why can't you why don't you
18:27
think that you could find that? Um, I would I would say oftentimes I mean I
18:36
had that in LA um but moving back to New York I just I
18:41
don't get out much so I devote a lot of my time to just writing and I would watch a lot of pe I would
18:47
read a lot of scripts books but also watch the influencers that are in that space. What are they saying? What are
18:54
they writing about? you know, try to stay in the know of what's going on today and stuff like that. And a lot of
18:59
that just doesn't have doesn't require anybody else. I mean, I read this book called Buy Back
19:05
Your Time by Mark is it Martell. Mark Martell or something like that. Okay.
19:10
And and he talks about that, right? And then buying back your time. Like I know that you're and I I am the same
19:16
way, bro. Very hyperindependent. I don't be trusting people. I don't trust people come
19:22
Yeah. and bring things back on time. But then again, you're doing everything, which is also counterproductive.
19:28
Yeah. Cuz then right now, you're the financial guy, you're the marketing guy, you're
19:33
the manager, you're the booker, you're the assistant, you're setting up your own calendar. So then you're you also
19:41
when you have so many fucking hats, you don't even know what time what hat should put on today. Yeah.
19:46
I'm going to be the editor today and I'm tomorrow be the director. Yeah. Right. So the thing is it's
19:51
unsustainable for long periods of time. Yeah. Right. And one thing that I like that Mark Martell said is somebody that does
19:59
80% of the work is 100% awesome. Yeah.
20:04
80% of the work is 100% awesome. I got to I got to take that advice too
20:10
cuz I'm also the motherfucker. I be doing everything myself. I edit this podcast. I set all this shit up.
20:15
You see what I'm saying? I know exactly what I know exactly what this is. the cameras. Me buying the cameras myself. And you know what? I got to tell you, I
20:21
admire it. I really do. I admire that. I admire the shit out of it because I was there. I, you know, I did that, too. I
20:27
used to have a whole closet. It was, when I started an app, we had a me and my roommate, we had a really successful
20:33
app and we handled 90% of the production and we were producing new shit every week. Wow.
20:38
And we're talking on a on a cinematic production level. Wow. So, you were your own TV show like
20:44
Yeah. Yeah. And we were doing a lot of good stuff. And by the end of that year, we did it for a year. And you know, we
20:51
were we were paying outside of what we were making, just about 95% of what we were making. We were making about I want
20:58
to say like 20 grand a month off of subscriptions. And we spend it on a
21:03
production team and stuff, but it wasn't a big production team. It was like, yeah, we need somebody to hold the
21:08
camera. We need somebody to set up a light if we can't do it ourselves. And often times we we do it ourselves, but
21:13
we need somebody to do the sound. oftent times we got the sound equipment, we just need somebody to hold this and stuff like that. You know what I'm
21:18
saying? Feed them. Let me tell you something that I have to take my hat off to you because I understand how hard that shit is, bro.
21:25
And let me tell you, I did all of that, but I did it with a backing of a company.
21:31
Yeah. Do you see what I'm saying? Buzzfeed was already set, right? And BuzzFeed offered me with
21:37
cameras, all this stuff. If I wanted to hire somebody, they already had the budget to hire the person to have a PA
21:43
so we could shoot that day, right? And I learned a lot and I was editing. Yes, I was editing myself. Yes, I was writing.
21:49
Like you become, you wear all these hats, right? You do the finances. It was a lot going on, right?
21:55
But for you to do it without the backing of a fucking company is amazing.
22:03
Budget sheet and everything. Everything. Amazing. taxes comes around.
22:09
Oh man, I don't even want to talk about taxes. God damn. Yo, and you know what's the thing, Gia?
22:16
That I I really do appreciate it that uh that when you were telling me what you know about that camera in my head, I was
22:23
like, I found somebody like me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This guy knows. It's rare that somebody
22:28
who's also in the status that in the seat that you're in knows this much. Often times when you see the typical
22:34
creator Yeah. Sure. They they know how to press record on a camera. That's about the extent of they put it on auto,
22:39
press record, and we're going to go. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that and stuff like that. But I respect the
22:45
person that knows the inside of the camera. I respect that. And when you sent me those LUTs,
22:50
I'll be honest, I thought they were going to be generic Luts. I was like, these are going to be some top notch. And the LUTs were amazing. Yo, you
22:57
thought Yando I was really real talk. The funny thing that you were like, "Oh,
23:03
you were telling me like, "Oh, I'mma edit and uh and I'mma fix the color before I send it to you." I was like,
23:09
"This this nigga's just like me." Moment that you told me, I was like,
23:15
"This nigga is just like me." And I I saw this motherfucker whip out a camera and he had a like lens. You could see
23:21
through walls, nigga. He had he had a super 200 mm lens. He hit me.
23:26
200 by 400, baby. G Masters and stuff like that. your head. This motherfuckers like me, bro.
23:33
Like this motherfucker, he's a you're the type of dude that that wants to get all the fucking gadgets.
23:38
So, let me ask let me ask you. Yes. Do you think that from your work ethic, a
23:43
lot of it is based and and foundationally put together from your time in the military?
23:49
I think a lot a lot of that has to do with the military. I think I'm hyper independent because of the military in a
23:56
sense, right? And I feel like I do have that sense like nobody's going to do it like I will
24:01
type of thing. And I I feel like I can't trust people to come through, right?
24:06
But that's something on me. I got to learn how to uh delegate better or check
24:12
in like, okay, do you get this done? Do you do it? Or know how to communicate that to somebody else,
24:17
right? So, I think management and leadership is is something that I need to work on so I could express what's
24:24
going on in here to somebody else so I could replicate myself because that's what leadership is. But I think a a lot of that also is is
24:30
BuzzFeed has more to do with it because it was the school of hard knocks, bro. I walked into BuzzFeed and I was like,
24:37
I'mma learn everything and I'mma do everything. That's a great position to be in, bro. And I saw these motherfuckers,
24:43
they'll set up lights and let me tell you something, bro. All these like you see you look at the Try guys, bro, and
24:49
you look at every motherfucker that went through BuzzFeed, all of them know how to do everything.
24:56
They know how to run sound. They know what a FA is. They know how to sync lobs together.
25:01
They know how to uh set up the camera correctly. They know ISO. They know how to do lighting. We shot a movie, bro.
25:08
It was me and three other casts from BuzzFeed. We shot a whole ass movie, bro. featured film with three
25:15
motherfuckers. I love that. Three motherfuckers. And guess what? These motherfuckers edit it themselves.
25:21
That's amazing. And he could have said, "And we're in front of the camera. We're behind the
25:27
camera." And he he could have said, "Yo, Sub, can you run sound real quick?" And any one of us could run sound.
25:32
Yeah. That's great. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. And I did I did that a lot,
25:38
too, where I had a skeleton crew just like that. Yeah. Yeah, three tops. It was one I I changed the
25:45
story of Ebenezer to be something horror and uh I wanted to show I wanted to show
25:50
this person like, "Yo, you don't need 10. Just you, camera, and somebody sound and
25:56
you're good." And you're good. And I was showing them and we did it. And you know, the the biggest thing that
26:02
came out of that is that it got accepted to the Atlanta Horror Film Festival. I was like, "And barely spent two grand
26:08
on this." No way. Barely anything on it in my opinion. And the way movie production costs be like
26:14
two grand for what we produce. Like this is really high quality stuff. And uh I was I love showing people that.
26:21
I love showing people that yo, you don't need something so big to be able to do something. You can you can make magic with just you
26:28
and a small team. That's Robert Rodriguez. Robert Rodriguez. Talk about mariachi. Yeah. That that's his whole method is
26:34
like, yo, you don't need if you need a dolly, get you put your put yourself on a shopping cart and have somebody push
26:41
you and you got your dolly right there. Oh my god. Yeah, cuz he ain't spent no money on the the original mariachi.
26:46
I think $1,000. He was like $1,000. He shot it in Mexico. Damn. It was a phenomenal movie. The story was
26:52
everything. And the book is great. I don't know if you read the book. There's a book. Yeah, he came out with a book. Yeah. Yeah.
26:58
Yeah. Yeah. It's a It's called um I can't remember right now.
27:04
No, no, no, no. It's some uh the loner lo one man something, man. I can't
27:11
remember. I'll let you. I'll tell you later. But um yeah, he came out with a book that talks exactly about that.
27:16
What is it? What What is that you want to do? What's the goal for you? I want to write and direct. I want to direct the the things I'm writing
27:23
because I feel like the things I'm writing um I'm very passionate about. It's very
27:30
different. I mean, you know, a big motivator by uh from me in writing these
27:36
things is that is that is was because of when I first got to LA, the things that
27:41
were available, prisoner, cop, drug dealer, thug, criminal, jail.
27:50
That's the only thing that was available and it's like or they wanted somebody who with a Mexican accent.
27:56
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they wanted you to play a cholo or whatever. And it's like for real, you know, Latinos is more than just that.
28:02
You know how many times I audition for Mexican stuff? Oh my god. And then they I'm like, yo, I'm not
28:07
going to get this. I'm going to show up because supposed to the going like [Music]
28:16
that's what it was. You need a Mexican accent. I was like, I got no Mexican
28:21
accentes. I don't got a Mexican bone in my body. Exactly. And so for me, I've always I've
28:27
always used that as a motivation. Like, no, I I want to write the things that
28:33
are more than just that. You can always keep a Latino theme, but it doesn't respect to the Mexican people. It
28:39
doesn't always have to be Mexican influenced. You know, I think about that's LA. They don't they
28:44
can't experience any anything else. They look at us and I think they're like, "What the hell is this?" I know. They look at me, they're like,
28:50
"This guy, what is he? Is he black? Is he Mexican? If he's What is he? Is he Puerto Rican?"
28:56
And they still like, "What the fuck is Puerto Rican?" Look at Look what's going on with Bad Bunny right now, bro. I think that's crazy. What's going on
29:02
with Bad Bunny? What's going on with Bad Bunny, bro? Americans are now finding out that Puerto Ricans are Americans. And that's
29:09
such an American thing. Yeah. Yeah. That's so Americans. They be like, "Hold
29:15
on, wait a minute. These motherfuckers, they've been American this whole time. They were they were people asking for to
29:23
get Bad Bunny deported to where? They were like, "We're going to send ice
29:30
to the to the game." And it's like, "We're going to send ice to the game." Do you not know the the poor island is
29:37
getting gentrified right now because of the access uh and the government and and
29:43
what they're allowing? non-Puerto Ricans to do in the island.
29:48
And your whole logic around Bad Bunny performing is that because it's not in
29:54
English, we should send ice to the to the to the game. That's the way that they think about us.
30:00
What? And you know what's crazy? It's like, okay, you might not understand Bad Bunny. Okay, who understands Michael Jackson? Mama
30:06
say, you know, what does that mean?
30:12
Nobody said nothing when he when he was doing it. No, bro. Not even they had Kendrick. I don't
30:17
understand half of the shit that Kendrick says. Even when he speaks normally. Yeah.
30:23
I don't I still don't understand Bad Bunny. Like Kendall. Yeah. I don't understand anything. And I
30:30
speak Spanish. But you know what? I love the motherfucking shit. Yeah. I enjoy it. Yeah.
30:35
You know, uh it's funny, bro. This is Dance don't got a language. Yeah. Dance is just dance.
30:41
Music is music. Music is music. If we talk about that, Spanish is the second biggest language internationally.
30:49
Like we got English and then Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. We're the biggest, bro.
30:54
Like and then somehow we're the enemy.
31:00
And look at the Super Bowl. Yes, the Super Bowl is a major stage, but guess what? Bad Bunny is bigger than the Super
31:06
Bowl. Bad Bunny is bigger than a lot of the artists. A lot of the artists. This is a big opportunity. The Super Bowl got more to
31:12
benefit from from having Bad Bunny than anybody else. Yeah. Yeah.
31:18
The Super Bowl is winning by having Bad Bunny. Y'all should be thanking Bad Bunny. Yo, thank you, Bad Bunny, for for
31:24
performing. Now they go, "Oh my god, he's telling us to learn English." Yo, right now they have they're losing their heads. I think a lot of people are going to
31:30
understand that Bad Bunny is our Taylor Swift. He is our Taylor Swift.
31:37
And we're gonna see that through the numbers. The guy The guy moves mountains with numbers. It's It's
31:43
phenomenal. It's unheard. It's bigger. It was It's bigger than Daddy Yankee. Yes. And Daddy Yankees was the pinnacle.
31:50
That's not that he's not. He's legendary. He's a legend. Yeah. Yeah. But Bad Bunny's like on another level
31:56
and consistent. I don't understand how anybody could get to that level, bro. I don't understand how Bad Bunny did that shit.
32:04
Music don't have barriers. Music don't have language. It's how you feel when you hear it
32:09
and and it resonates with a lot. I don't know. I think it has something to do. We were talking about Puerto Ricans on the way back and we're like,
32:14
how the hell Puerto Ricans dominate m music so damn much. Yeah. They are like I don't know what it is
32:20
going on in that island. Culture is c their culture is just is a factory,
32:26
bro. Yeah. And a I think a lot of it has to do with pride, especially with the artists that come out of Puerto Rico.
32:32
has such a big pride around being Puerto Rican that, you know, anybody can respect it. Any because even the music's
32:39
good and they're able to use the music and and translate that pride into the
32:46
music that people you don't have to, you know, it's good. It's phenomenal.
32:51
It makes you feel good. I I I don't know. I don't understand the what kind of black magic they doing in
32:58
Puerto Rico because to be so dominant in music for such a long time and the music
33:04
is phenomenal, bro. It's like with I understand, you know, Reggaton came
33:10
from Panama. A lot of people, yo, came from Panama, but what Puerto Ricans did to Reggaton.
33:15
God damn. Phenomenal. Yeah.
33:22
Hey
33:27
era was crazy. And we're not we're not even talking
33:33
about Okay. Yeah. Puerto Ricans and Reaton. Phenomenal. Yeah. But what about when they dominated salsa, bro?
33:39
Yeah. Yeah, bro. Phenomenal music, bro. Yeah. We were sitting down in the car, bro. We
33:44
were like listening to Eto to this day. It's 2025, bro.
33:50
Timeless. Timeless. Eto died in 91 and his music is like
33:56
timeless. Timeless. Yeah. The softs the these niggas created all these years,
34:02
bro. Yeah. And you can you can even say that about bata music, especially back in the
34:08
day in the '9s within Rodriguez and all these other artistes and stuff where you can play and it hits it. It doesn't hit
34:16
like Bachata today. No. Ja today is like very there's something missing or there's the souls
34:22
missing. The soul's missing. But you know what? You know who does a great job? Romel Santo. Yeah.
34:28
That what is it? What is it?
34:34
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just it has that old soul to it.
34:40
That's my favorite song. But it has that old feel like I think
34:45
would be one of those songs that would last a long time. Yeah, but you're right. The bachata that's from the first album. No,
34:51
no, it's from the the last album. The last album. I don't think I heard it. I probably did hear it. I don't
34:56
remember it, though.
35:04
I feel like I heard it. I feel like I've heard it before.
35:10
I don't I don't remember all the lyrics. So, yeah. No, the old school Rodriguez
35:17
if you Okay. Top five batos for me. Yeah.
35:29
Hector Costa Hector Hector Costa. He's not 90s though, right?
35:37
Your top five. You're like, "Yo, I'mma listen to like these are the best bachatto." M
35:44
I got to go down my Spotify playlist for that. Damn, you can't even think of him. I can't even.
35:49
I'll say I'll say Antony Santo. Anthony Santo Rodriguez.
35:54
Uh, of course, you can't you can't you got to put Romeo Romelo Santo is top five. He's earned that.
36:00
Let's see what the four is. Let's see what the four is. Uh, okay. Lu
36:06
Seura. Well, that name doesn't ring a bell. That doesn't even bro.
36:18
And you also got
36:29
The only one I know is the Penna song. Penna. Yeah, that's the only one I know from You know, do you know you know this one?
36:43
No, I don't know. I dedicated to all my exctor.
36:53
I dedicate to to all my exes. Oh, hell yeah.
37:10
[Music]
37:15
motherf
37:23
[Music] that's a good that I listen I that's
37:28
when I'm going through a heartbreak is he all day which is wild because my chapter is literally for that.
37:34
I know, bro. Watch out. It's a heartbreak. It's a heartbreak genre. I remember when when there was like a
37:39
massive layoff at Buzzfeed. I remember uh Norto when they laid off Norto, he
37:46
sent the email and at the end of his email, he put
38:09
[Music] Yeah, there will never be an ecto.
38:14
No, never. No, that man will never be recreated. Yeah. I wonder what made him so great.
38:20
His voice. I think it was more than his voice. Yeah, it was it but it his life
38:25
paralleled his his music. his suffering, bro. I think you heard his suffering.
38:31
Yeah. You know who's also like a phenomenal like that fucking died early and he's Puerto Rican.
38:37
Frankie Ruiz. That's another dude that you're like, "Oh, yeah. How old did he die?
38:44
Was he 46? Was it something like that? Let me see. I'm gonna find out right now. Bronu died in his 40s." Well, Frank
38:51
Ruiz. Oh my god. Yeah. And he was Yeah, he was close too to
38:56
like that that that that voice that was just fine. You know what I'm saying?
39:01
Oh, his voice was amazing, bro. That's why I'm telling you, these Puerto
39:07
Rican when they took over Salsa, even you you yo, I hear fucking Frank
39:15
Ruiz today and I'm like, "Oh my god." Mhm. I I played Frank Huise to this American girl and I I was translating
39:22
and she was like, "Oh my god, this man's voice. I hear the pain when he's singing, you know what I mean?"
39:28
Yeah. Yeah. Let me let me find out what how old was he when he died.
39:33
I think he was like 46. 40. He was 40 years old.
39:38
Wow. 40 years old. Wow. That's wild. That's That's young.
39:44
That's young. 40. Even 46 is anything under 50 is young. I think when you start hitting
39:50
60, it's like, let's start making the bed. Oh my god. Damn. I'm 38.
39:57
Yeah, bro. Imagine at 38 just feeling like you got
40:02
so much more to give. Yeah. And then you're done. And then it's done.
40:08
But he also left a legacy. He did leave a legacy. He left a phenomenal legacy.
40:13
Damn. Yeah. Yeah. So, what's next? What's next for you, bro?
40:20
I'm just writing, man. I want my penmanship sharp and undeniable, you know? But And is it more like movies or like
40:27
comedy? No, I would I don't like I don't like writing comedy and I I have such a such
40:33
a knack for it, especially when it comes to improv and stuff like that, but I don't like writing comedy. I would
40:38
prefer writing drama. I I would prefer taking people's struggle and putting
40:44
that on screen. You know what I'm saying? Because I feel like when you do that, you're giving a voice to people
40:51
who are living a life that might feel unfulfilled. You know what I'm saying?
40:57
And I feel like there's more purpose and there's more substance around writing thing that kind of looks at people's
41:03
struggle and go, I get it. M and putting that on screen that they can relate to cuz when you see it you I know
41:10
I know the feeling of like seeing and like finally somebody understands.
41:15
You know what I'm saying? That's the story for me that gives me life that
41:20
gives me a sense of purpose that I can take somebody's voice and put that up there for them to say I'm not alone.
41:29
So you like writing stories, creating stories. Yeah. Do do you So you like you have like this passion for film? Yeah, 100%.
41:37
100%. A lot of a lot of a lot of my passion comes from pain, you know, and understanding, you know,
41:43
like the hardships around around um trying to have a purpose.
41:50
You know what I'm saying? So, I don't want to come up I don't want to I don't want to do anything and look mediocre doing it.
41:56
That's fair. I don't want to do anything and somebody says, "Ah, he got work to do. I got so
42:03
I want people to read or see my shit and be like where the fuck did he come from? Who is this? And that's what moves you.
42:09
Yeah. I got a question for you. Like you you amass something that that very few
42:14
people are able to create that that amount of success. Even even to even reach a million followers is hard.
42:22
Yeah. It's extremely hard. Not everybody could do it. Yeah. If if you could give one advice to somebody that would like, oh, I would
42:28
love to amass that. What would be that advice that you would give that? Do it for yourself first.
42:34
Mhm. Right. Do it. If you do it for other people, you'll never find joy for it. Do it for yourself. Like I said, like I
42:40
like taking other people's. But for me, the fulfillment how I feel in doing that,
42:46
you know, gives me that sense of fresh breath air that I go, yes.
42:53
when you do when you're doing something, you always want to do it for you first, regardless of what you know, you can be
42:59
you can be black and be like, I want I want to be the voice for the black community. Okay. So, what is it about
43:04
yourself that you can use that fulfills that communicates that to them?
43:11
You know what I'm saying? I've struggled. I've I grew up poor. You know, my mom was making $20 stretch
43:18
throughout the week. Like, I know what it's like for a single mother to have to raise two boys. M
43:23
you know and one of them's gay. You know what I'm saying? Where it's like how do you balance this,
43:28
you know? So, so do something that fulfills you. It's okay to communicate that to a
43:34
community that you want to reach to. But one, learn their language. Learn what this community is about,
43:41
right? Cuz I can be I can be Dominican, but I can't tell you who the top five bajero is, right?
43:46
Yeah. But I understand what goes on in our community, too. Gotcha. You know what I'm saying? You have your
43:52
own experience. And I have my own experiences. Yeah. You know, if you if you were to start all over
43:57
again to be like, "Okay, I'mma I'mma create a a new page or a million followers and you want to create another
44:05
page. You want to reach a million followers. What will you do?"
44:14
Using the lessons that you've learned.
44:20
using the lessons that I've learned.
44:27
A thing that makes me happy is doing exactly what we talk about, taking a micro crew of people and creating
44:34
something great. So, I would make these one minute short films that speak to people. You know what I'm
44:41
saying? Good quality and stuff because you can learn a lot of that on YouTube. There's tutorials all over the place.
44:47
But I would, especially the way the industry right now is that just big studios don't know how to navigate right
44:53
now because you got somebody like The Rock doing something great doing a buyout pick on somebody on a on a Hall of Famer
45:01
6 million. Wow. I'm pretty sure they didn't anticipate this at like what the No, they they thought they would have
45:06
just set up. Yeah. At least 20 30. It's The Rock. It's Dwayne Johnson. You know what I'm saying? So I think the the right now the
45:12
industry is at a place that they don't know how to navigate with these people right now. I think the the new avatar coming out is going to flop.
45:18
100% thing. Ain't nobody talking about this. When does it come out? I think December. I always talk about that. Like the
45:24
industry's changed. Yeah. It's all about social media right now. The people that have the power of the
45:30
people that have the control of their own destiny. And it's social media. Look, Facebook is paying people, bro.
45:35
Yeah. Yeah. People are making money. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? Like even you could create your own short
45:41
off your phone. Yeah. Yeah. Right. the future is going to be there's pages like that too that they
45:47
show you they do it they and then they show you how they did it and the qu it's amazing it's like oh my
45:52
god this is great stuff great stuff and there right now there's there's also yeah there are pages like
45:58
that but I know people in Dominican Republic right now they do like little dramas on Facebook and people are watching it
46:05
and people are tuning in and guess what that's what going to be the future the future is this is the new
46:11
Netflix because we are on our phone more than we on on TV. Yeah. Yeah. And even even things like Netflix,
46:19
they're going to they're going to they're going to go away because of the because of in the of the
46:26
direction society moves. You cannot dictate the direction. You can try to stop it. You can try to pivot or
46:32
whatever the case is, but societyy's always going to move towards a direction collectively that you cannot stop.
46:38
You're either going to have to adapt or be left behind. I think speed is everything because if if if Netflix
46:45
figures out a way to be faster in their production because a lot the problem with producing in Los Angeles is
46:52
you need to get the budget, you need to get the actors, you need to get this, you got to wait for this, you got to get
46:58
I'm like and it takes two, three years to create something when we got some dude creating every week.
47:04
Yeah. And that's the thing with 824 and how they came out where it's like what's 824? Who's this production company? And
47:11
there's hit after hit after hit on a low budget. 10 million, 5 million, and you know, that's a lot of money,
47:17
don't get me wrong, but comparing to the industry, that's low budget. That's low budget. And they hit and they
47:22
hit 100 million gross. You know, they hit hard. So, it's like a a company like that that knows how to stay small and
47:30
stay uh stay consistent, but still produce good quality. Yeah. Is one of
47:36
those things that is kind of like they're doing it right. And this is the opportunity that's being presented that
47:41
you you don't need the Warner Brothers anymore. You don't need Yeah, these guys are on top and they have a lot of power.
47:47
Absolutely. But you don't need Warner Brothers. You don't need Paramount. Let's see where everyone is 20 years from now. Yeah, I would. Yeah, you know, I would
47:54
see I do see it all of that phasing out and and people following more creators or creators doing their own thing and
48:01
like everything is about storytelling and can I capture your attention? Yeah. And right now the people that are
48:06
capturing attention are all on the phone. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I do appreciate you coming through, bro. Like this is like, you
48:13
know, I was like, you know, we had our conversation. I'm like, this dude's super interesting, but I'm like, I feel like a lot of people have a lot to learn
48:19
from you, bro. And and it's nice to see you. It's good to see you. We want to see you back. All
48:25
right. And I know you want to write. I know you want to make movies. Don't ask me to be in a uniform again. Don't
48:32
Don't ask me to put on a uniform.
48:38
Thank you guys for tuning in. Join join the conversation. Write in the comments what you thought. Continue the
48:43
conversation. Keep it going. I want to give a shout out to Passion for always showing up and watching these videos,
48:49
you know. I love you guys. Loto, we're here every Wednesday. Yeah.
48:55
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