When comedian Luz Pazos (TV’s Kroll Show) was a little girl, she used to have the best time showing her family and friends her impersonations, including one of singer Luis Miguel. It didn’t take her long to realize that making people laugh was something that she loved.
“Comedy was always my thing,” Pazos told Remezcla during a recent interview. “I’ve always enjoyed it and discovered it by just doing it.”
On September 18, Pazos will be one of a handful of comedians taking the stage during the “Comedy Chingonas” show at the Ha Comedy Festival, which takes place September 17-19 in San Antonio, Texas. The Ha Comedy Festival is the biggest Latine comedy festival in the U.S. It operated as the Latino Laugh Festival from 1996 to 2000 and then took a 20-year hiatus before returning as the Ha Comedy Festival last year.
The group of women who make up this year’s “Comedy Chingonas” lineup includes Pazos, Carmen Lynch (TV’s Inside Amy Schumer), Nancy Lee (TV’s Trial and Error), Lisa Alvarado (TV’s Latino 101), Jessica Keenan (TV’s Billions) and Renee Santos (TV’s New Amsterdam).
“We are a group of fearless Latinas who are hilarious,” Pazos said. “That’s what makes us chingonas. Latina comedians are from all over the country, but we don’t get a chance to get together to do this very often.”
Pazos immigrated to the United States 10 years ago. Although she would’ve loved to have stayed in her home country of Peru, there were no opportunities for standups there. Once she arrived in America, she started to learn English and worked on her style as a comedian. Still, as a foreigner, Pazos was bothered by the fact that people in the U.S. doubt her intelligence.
“When you’re a foreign female, they’re always going to question you,” she said. “That was difficult at the beginning because you have to show everyone that you are very serious about your craft. It took a while before everyone started seeing me as a professional.”
One of the most challenging aspects of working as a comedian that she still finds a bit frustrating is when people make too big of a deal about her accent. “I think that’s annoying,” she said. “I don’t like when people say that they think my accent is ‘cute.’ I don’t want to be cute. I’m a smart person who is doing comedy and making people laugh.”
Whether she’s making people laugh in English or Spanish, Pazos wants to be authentic. She hopes one day that she can do a comedy special in both languages. “I love inspiring young girls with my comedy,” she said. “I always tell them that if I can do it, they can do it, too. I want them to know they don’t have to be intimidated and that they can be whatever they want to be.”
For more information on the Ha Comedy Festival and for a full schedule, visit hacomedyfest.com.