For Frankie Quiñones, his new comedy special on Hulu, titled Damn That’s Crazy, was a little bit of catharsis. The comedian became known over a decade ago for his “CholoFit” videos on YouTube and for the Mexican version of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse called Creeper’s Crib: Live From My Grandpa’s Garage, available on YouTube. He is also beloved by fans for his role as Luis in Hulu’s This Fool. But deep down, he has always been a stand-up comedian first.
Quiñones spoke with Remezcla about the special, directed by Ali Wong, cholo culture inspiration, addiction, and how to tackle mental health issues through comedy.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Quiñones said about the special. “Being a stand-up comedian, being a little Latino homie trying to do his thing.” And that thing, which came from a simple idea, has reached so many more people than he could have imagined. And one day, Quiñones dreams of reaching even more.
“I’m always trying to come up with new stuff, I’m hoping to do, like, a movie one day: Cholo Fit, The Rise and Fall of Creeper, you know,” he told us. “Creeper just comes from my dad. My dad was an old school Cholo. He always had a lowrider, he used to have a ’65 Apollo with a little chain steering wheel, always Dickey’s creased, white tee.” Basically, the stereotype.
And yet, not, because Quiñones also described his father as “one of the most positive people I know,” and explained. “I was always around the positive side of the culture, you know, they’re repping the estilo, the cholo estilo, and it would be associated with negative stuff, like gang life, violence, all that, but then there’s also a whole positive side to it, where it’s just a style, it’s a representation, it’s what I grew up around, so obviously, I gravitate towards it.”
It even inspired a character we all remember, the one who gave Quiñones his start in this really hard industry.
Which takes us to Damn That’s Crazy. In the comedy special, Quiñones goes even deeper than his family, though there’s that, too. And one topic that most comedians usually stay away from and that Quiñones tackles head-on is addiction. “I kind of went off the deep end during the pandemic, and so I had to get sober, go to treatment, get right, all that stuff,” he shared. “I went through that, and in that process, you kind of take a spiritual journey, you work on yourself.” And sometimes, without meaning to, inspire others.
“Even just doing the material at shows,” Quiñones shared, “I’ll get messages in my inbox or whatever of some people you wouldn’t expect, like, ‘hey, man, I went through something similar,’ and say ‘go talk to somebody, because, you know, people would see it as a sign of weakness, but it’s not’. And after they do it, they’re like, oh, I’m actually stronger and more confident and all that stuff.”
It might just be comedy, but Quiñones is clear. “I’m hoping it helps somebody.”
Damn That’s Crazy is now available to stream on Hulu.
