Marlena Rodriguez Talks Entre Nos: About Last Night

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Marlena Rodriguez talked to People CHICA about the HBO Latino stand-up comedy special Entre Nos: About Last Night, premiering Friday at 9:30 pm The comedian, of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, opens up about how she uses humor to tackle these topics in an uncensored, unfiltered and unapologetic way. Entre Nos: About Last Night - also featuring Latinx comedian Kim Congdon - features hilarious commentary on dating and hooking up.

"Whether hyperbolized or not, our comedy always comes from a real place," she says. “A lot of times what we are really doing is telling a real-life story, because dating is actually horrific. I have found that telling these stories through jokes gets people thinking. Jokes are a great way to let people let you talk uninterrupted and get your point across.”

Coming from a traditional Latinx family, Rodriguez says her parents dreaded having the “birds and the bees” talk with her as a teen. “It's taboo to talk about it. In terms of the sex talk, my Puerto Rican and Cuban parents acknowledged that birds exist and that bees exist, but wouldn't dare to acknowledge that they know each other,”she jokes. “Being Latina, they do that thing where they say, 'We are not going to allow you to be anywhere near men, then when you're 30, we're just going to jump into asking why you're not married.' They ask, 'Why are you alone, what's wrong with you?' It's like, what do you mean? You told me I had to be alone!”

She also uses humor to talk about how fairy tales and princess movies wrongly shape little girls' visions of what love and "happy endings" should be. “I definitely talk about how Disney has taught us to settle. Th ey teach us with these princes that the guy you're looking for should be hot, he can lie to you, he can kiss you while you're sleeping, while you are in a coma,”she jokes. "What is this propaganda we are telling these little girls?"

Rodriguez also celebrates the diversity of Latinx culture in her stand-up work. “I hope to help better represent Latinos. We've explored all the easy laughs and the stereotypes, but if you write a joke right, you can get people thinking and debating,”she says. “These are voices that you haven't heard before. We are now able to shout things from the mountaintop that Latinos haven't been able to shout before.”