Roots of Comedy with Jesus Trejo

My mom's white, my dad's Samoan.

That second part's quite obvious.

[Laughter] There's not a lot of ways I can go with this look.

[Laughter] I'm either Samoan or I'm the Little Rascals stacked up trying to sneak into a buffet.

[Laughter] As a younger man, I think to protect myself and my ego, I rejected my culture.

It was like, "I don't know this thing because I don't need to know this thing."

Man: Put your hands together.

Adam, voice-over: It's something I never corrected until now.

Leo coming into my life has been huge for that.

He's given me access to my culture that I probably wouldn't get elsewhere.

Leo: Yeah.

Adam: Leo messaged me a couple months ago basically saying, "Yo, I heard you're "a Samoan comic in Portland.

"I want to get in the game.

Do you have any advice?"

And I kind of messaged him back, and I got to know him.

Me and Leo just met a couple months ago, and I really like hanging out with him because when he stands behind me, it looks like I'm astral projecting.

[Laughter] It's pretty cool.

People think I have powers now around town.

I've met, like, 3 other Samoan comics.

That includes trips to Hawaii, that includes trips to L.A., where we are out there, but I'm just not seeing us onstage.

My friend says, "Adam, I bet if you go to Samoa "and you go to a nightclub in Samoa, at the nightclub, "at the door, you will see a bouncer letting in a long line of even more bouncers."

[Laughter] How long have you been in comedy now?

-Since March.

-That's great.

Yeah.

I'm a big dude.

I'm Samoan and Tongan.

Man: Yay!

Yeah.

It's nice to have the whole population of Polynesia in Portland in this room right now.

Adam: Not to say that, like, I have everything, but anything I can use in my experience that'll benefit him, I want to do that, and at the same time, I didn't grow up around other Samoans.

I don't speak the language barely.

And, Leo, do you speak the language?

-Fluently.

Yeah.

-You speak it fluently?

-Yeah.

I used to live in Samoa.

-OK.

Thank you very much.

Leo, voice-over: When I was there, I took a deep dive into our culture, learned the language, learned our history.

You know, we get called Hawaiian so many times, and it's like there's so many uneducated people out there who don't understand that we're different, and then when I met him, you know, it was one of those "You teach me how to be a comic, "and I'll shoot you this little knowledge about our culture."

-That's great.

-Yeah.

So it's a symbiotic relationship really, you know?

Jesus: Yeah, no, it sounds like, you know, a rising tide mentality of, like, "Hey, let's go up together," especially somebody that you see yourself reflected in, you know, so... And also, the fun part is we've been introducing each other as cousin, but he just found out at the table-- I just found out we're actually cousins.

-You're actually cousins?

-Yes.

-You just found out right now?

-I just found out.

-Get out of here.

-No.

With us, -it's always a possibility.

-Yeah.

-It's a small island, bro.

-Very small.

Yeah.

Jesus: Oh, man, that's amazing.

Can't wait to see you out on the comedy circuit, man.

Thanks, actual cousin.

[Laughter]