Renee Santos

SAN DIEGO -- Renee Santos is a spicy Latina tri-athlete who is easy on the eyes and can give your funny bone a workout as well.

Santos has been honing her comedic skills at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and with The Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe for many years and will be headlining at the Laugh Out Proud Comedy Night at Martinis Above Fourth on Thursday, Oct. 13.

Santos is one of the six featured comedians on the Showtime stand-up comedy special, “Pride Comedy Jam,” which will be airing frequently throughout the month of October and is also available On-Demand.

The “Pride Comedy Jam,” is emceed by renowned lesbian comedienne Suzanne Westenhoefer and has a dynamite lineup of fresh, young LGBT comedians who are making waves in the comedy world.

Santos stumbled into her role on the “Pride Comedy Jam,” in a very serendipitous fashion. Suffering from strep throat, Santos was called in to cover for a comedian who had fallen off of the line-up at a Long Beach event. That performance led to connections that helped her land an audition for the Showtime special.

"It was so coincidental that I was there, because I wasn’t even initially a booked comic for that night, I was filling in. So I drove all the way down there and I remember thinking, ‘Just suit up and show up for your life, whatever, you’ll be fine,'" Santos said, laughing.

A number of opportunities have come Santos’ way since she got to Los Angeles; she’s been in a number of films, "Shooting April," "Just A Girl" and "30 is the New 12," are her most recent big screen endeavors. She was also just featured on the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced television show, “Eleventh Hour,” on CBS.

Hollywood can be a brutal place to try to find your voice in, and for many that means denying who they are to land a role. For Santos, who has been out since she was 19 years old, hiding her true self was not an option.

"I want to be successful based on my truth, if me being a lesbian hurts my career, then so be it," Santos said. "I don’t want to go back into the closet to be a people-pleaser so that I can make more money. Yes, I would like to be a successful comedian and I do believe that in the infancy of our careers we have to be sort of malleable and play by some rules until we have a platform, but it’s like the old adage, ‘If you stand for nothing then you’ll fall for anything.’ I hope that my truth brings me success, but if it doesn’t, then those weren’t my people."

Santos’ truth has been accepted by almost all of her family. Her mother is not as supportive as the rest, but nonetheless, she did have a strong built-in support system through her many siblings and father.

“My sisters are amazing, I’m one of six kids, I have four sisters and a brother, and my sisters have been overwhelmingly supportive,” Santos said. “They knew I was gay before I did. I actually made a joke about it in my interview for the ‘Pride Comedy Jam’ because when ‘Dirty Dancing’ came out I put up Jennifer Grey on my walls and they put up Patrick Swayze and they would question me and I would say, ‘No I just think she’s a good actress,’ and I would defend it. So when I came out, they were not at all surprised, they were just waiting.”

For Santos, her journey through the perils and pitfalls of Hollywood hasn’t been all smiles and laughs. She has been sober for two years and talks about sobriety in her act. For something that can rile up feelings of pain, Santos manages to put a spin on it in such a way that you forget you’re laughing at what could easily be considered as some dark moments in her life.

"It is cathartic [talking about sobriety on stage]. I think it goes back to owning whatever you are -- whether you’re gay or an addict -- people respond the most to our truth. It’s like my comedy is a caricature of my human folly and my ego. So I like to talk about my recovery, because it’s made me the artist that I am.

"One of the reasons I started using so many drugs is because I d - San Diego Gay & Lesbian News

SAN DIEGO -- Renee Santos is a spicy Latina tri-athlete who is easy on the eyes and can give your funny bone a workout as well.

Santos has been honing her comedic skills at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and with The Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe for many years and will be headlining at the Laugh Out Proud Comedy Night at Martinis Above Fourth on Thursday, Oct. 13.

Santos is one of the six featured comedians on the Showtime stand-up comedy special, “Pride Comedy Jam,” which will be airing frequently throughout the month of October and is also available On-Demand.

The “Pride Comedy Jam,” is emceed by renowned lesbian comedienne Suzanne Westenhoefer and has a dynamite lineup of fresh, young LGBT comedians who are making waves in the comedy world.

Santos stumbled into her role on the “Pride Comedy Jam,” in a very serendipitous fashion. Suffering from strep throat, Santos was called in to cover for a comedian who had fallen off of the line-up at a Long Beach event. That performance led to connections that helped her land an audition for the Showtime special.

"It was so coincidental that I was there, because I wasn’t even initially a booked comic for that night, I was filling in. So I drove all the way down there and I remember thinking, ‘Just suit up and show up for your life, whatever, you’ll be fine,'" Santos said, laughing.

A number of opportunities have come Santos’ way since she got to Los Angeles; she’s been in a number of films, "Shooting April," "Just A Girl" and "30 is the New 12," are her most recent big screen endeavors. She was also just featured on the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced television show, “Eleventh Hour,” on CBS.

Hollywood can be a brutal place to try to find your voice in, and for many that means denying who they are to land a role. For Santos, who has been out since she was 19 years old, hiding her true self was not an option.

"I want to be successful based on my truth, if me being a lesbian hurts my career, then so be it," Santos said. "I don’t want to go back into the closet to be a people-pleaser so that I can make more money. Yes, I would like to be a successful comedian and I do believe that in the infancy of our careers we have to be sort of malleable and play by some rules until we have a platform, but it’s like the old adage, ‘If you stand for nothing then you’ll fall for anything.’ I hope that my truth brings me success, but if it doesn’t, then those weren’t my people."

Santos’ truth has been accepted by almost all of her family. Her mother is not as supportive as the rest, but nonetheless, she did have a strong built-in support system through her many siblings and father.

“My sisters are amazing, I’m one of six kids, I have four sisters and a brother, and my sisters have been overwhelmingly supportive,” Santos said. “They knew I was gay before I did. I actually made a joke about it in my interview for the ‘Pride Comedy Jam’ because when ‘Dirty Dancing’ came out I put up Jennifer Grey on my walls and they put up Patrick Swayze and they would question me and I would say, ‘No I just think she’s a good actress,’ and I would defend it. So when I came out, they were not at all surprised, they were just waiting.”

For Santos, her journey through the perils and pitfalls of Hollywood hasn’t been all smiles and laughs. She has been sober for two years and talks about sobriety in her act. For something that can rile up feelings of pain, Santos manages to put a spin on it in such a way that you forget you’re laughing at what could easily be considered as some dark moments in her life.

"It is cathartic [talking about sobriety on stage]. I think it goes back to owning whatever you are -- whether you’re gay or an addict -- people respond the most to our truth. It’s like my comedy is a caricature of my human folly and my ego. So I like to talk about my recovery, because it’s made me the artist that I am.

"One of the reasons I started using so many drugs is because I d - San Diego Gay & Lesbian News

Latina comedian RENEE SANTOS is ready to LAUGH OUT LOUD! Renee will be bringing her hip, hilarious and queer brand of comedy to the upcoming benefit at The Comedy Store on Sunday, April 1st, hosted by funnyman Bruce Vilanch.

Fresh off her appearance at the 2012 NACA Mid Atlantic Festival in Pennsylvania, this Latina funny lady burst onto the national comedy scene last year with her celebrated appearance in the “outrageous” Showtime stand-up comedy special, “PRIDE COMEDY JAM.”

I recently had a chance to chat with Renee about the LAUGH OUT LOUD event, being a stand-up comic, and her budding acting career.

Holly: Tell us about the Laugh Out Loud event you’re participating in.

RENEE: This is a stand-up comedy fundraiser benefiting The Gay and Lesbian Center’s Lifeworks program. Lifeworks is a mentoring program for displaced gay youth. They offer a facility for the youth to come after school each day and are matched with mentors offering help developing life skills such as filling out financial aids forms for college or integrating them into professional endeavors. Mentors also take the youth to social events like Film Festivals that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. This program means a lot to me. I was a kid who was bullied and treated badly because I was gay. I joined a mentoring gay youth program called BAGLY (Boston’s Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Youth) when I was a teenager and it was very much a conduit to me embracing who I was and to navigating the adult world without the guidance of a parent. This is my way of giving back and helping gay youth.

Holly: For those who haven’t seen you in person, give us an idea of the type/style of comedy you do.

RENEE: I am an idiosyncratic comic. All my jokes come directly from my life experience. I purposefully create from within my own shadow by making productive work out of the sometimes less attractive parts of myself. My stand-up is a caricature of my human folly.

Holly: What’s the hardest part about being a comic?

RENEE: Constantly coming up with new material and hoping that my observations of the world or my experience will resonate with an audience is often difficult. Oh...and when I'm out at a social event, and I'm asked to bust out a joke. Doctors don't get that! Can you imagine a doctor being out and somebody saying, "Oh I hear you're a doctor, will you show off how you do surgery?"

Holly: Who are some of your comedy idols?

RENEE: George Carlin, Lisa Lampanelli, and Chris Rock. I love how crass and smart George Carlin was, I admire the straightforward mean edge of Lisa Lampanelli, and I adore the honest, personal, and eccentric observations of Chris Rock.

Holly: You’re also an actor - how’s that going?

RENEE: I am blessed. I recently booked a Wendy's commercial running nation-wide. I also just got cast as a guest star on an Untitled Comedy sitcom pilot that shooting in March. I co-starred in a Jerry Bruckheimer series and two of the independent films I starred in have screened in numerous film festivals over the last couple of years.

Holly: How can people find out more about your upcoming gigs?

RENEE: I post all my dates on my Facebook page. A direct link to my page can be found on my website: http://www.reneesantos.com or
www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ReneeSantos/223567691048134?...age

And, for anyone in Los Angeles on April Fools Day…join us at the Laugh Out Loud event.
For info & tickets visit: laglc.convio.net/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=120141


Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Renee! Keep bringing us your observations…and we’ll keep on laughing – I promise!
- Fan Pop

Latina comedian RENEE SANTOS is ready to LAUGH OUT LOUD! Renee will be bringing her hip, hilarious and queer brand of comedy to the upcoming benefit at The Comedy Store on Sunday, April 1st, hosted by funnyman Bruce Vilanch.

Fresh off her appearance at the 2012 NACA Mid Atlantic Festival in Pennsylvania, this Latina funny lady burst onto the national comedy scene last year with her celebrated appearance in the “outrageous” Showtime stand-up comedy special, “PRIDE COMEDY JAM.”

I recently had a chance to chat with Renee about the LAUGH OUT LOUD event, being a stand-up comic, and her budding acting career.

Holly: Tell us about the Laugh Out Loud event you’re participating in.

RENEE: This is a stand-up comedy fundraiser benefiting The Gay and Lesbian Center’s Lifeworks program. Lifeworks is a mentoring program for displaced gay youth. They offer a facility for the youth to come after school each day and are matched with mentors offering help developing life skills such as filling out financial aids forms for college or integrating them into professional endeavors. Mentors also take the youth to social events like Film Festivals that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. This program means a lot to me. I was a kid who was bullied and treated badly because I was gay. I joined a mentoring gay youth program called BAGLY (Boston’s Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Youth) when I was a teenager and it was very much a conduit to me embracing who I was and to navigating the adult world without the guidance of a parent. This is my way of giving back and helping gay youth.

Holly: For those who haven’t seen you in person, give us an idea of the type/style of comedy you do.

RENEE: I am an idiosyncratic comic. All my jokes come directly from my life experience. I purposefully create from within my own shadow by making productive work out of the sometimes less attractive parts of myself. My stand-up is a caricature of my human folly.

Holly: What’s the hardest part about being a comic?

RENEE: Constantly coming up with new material and hoping that my observations of the world or my experience will resonate with an audience is often difficult. Oh...and when I'm out at a social event, and I'm asked to bust out a joke. Doctors don't get that! Can you imagine a doctor being out and somebody saying, "Oh I hear you're a doctor, will you show off how you do surgery?"

Holly: Who are some of your comedy idols?

RENEE: George Carlin, Lisa Lampanelli, and Chris Rock. I love how crass and smart George Carlin was, I admire the straightforward mean edge of Lisa Lampanelli, and I adore the honest, personal, and eccentric observations of Chris Rock.

Holly: You’re also an actor - how’s that going?

RENEE: I am blessed. I recently booked a Wendy's commercial running nation-wide. I also just got cast as a guest star on an Untitled Comedy sitcom pilot that shooting in March. I co-starred in a Jerry Bruckheimer series and two of the independent films I starred in have screened in numerous film festivals over the last couple of years.

Holly: How can people find out more about your upcoming gigs?

RENEE: I post all my dates on my Facebook page. A direct link to my page can be found on my website: http://www.reneesantos.com or
www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ReneeSantos/223567691048134?...age

And, for anyone in Los Angeles on April Fools Day…join us at the Laugh Out Loud event.
For info & tickets visit: laglc.convio.net/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=120141


Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Renee! Keep bringing us your observations…and we’ll keep on laughing – I promise!
- Fan Pop

The comedy stand-up special Pride Comedy Jam, which is currently running frequently on Showtime, features six gay comics, including Renee Santos. A regular on the Los Angeles comedy scene at such landmarks as The Laugh Factory, Hollywood Improv and The Comedy Store, Santos will be taking her relatable, personal stories on the road in 2012.



During a recent chat with AfterEllen.com, Santos chatted about how coming out onstage changed the course of her career, why her material is not "all gay, all day," the reason why she doesn’t talk to her mother much anymore (though she still talks about her in her act) and, of course, we got the 411 on whether she’s single, dating or off the market.

AfterEllen.com: Tell me about breaking into the stand-up world, which is not the easiest place to jump into.
Renee Santos: It’s not an easy world to step into but, it’s funny, I’ve been doing it for about five years and when I first got to L.A., I wasn’t out and I thought, "That’s going to hurt me." I didn’t have a lot of success and I was doing open mics until two in the morning and I think it was because I wasn’t owning who I was. Right around year three, I was finally like "I just need to start talking." I was out to my friends but I wasn’t doing it in my stand-up because I didn’t want anyone to know. But as soon as I owned who I was and I started writing gay material I started to get all these bites and they booked me at the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory. I did that for a couple of years and made a niche gay fan base, who were really just my friends who showed up to support me. Let’s be honest! Eventually, last year, they then offered me that green stuff – money – to perform! That was pretty awesome and that’s kind of how I got into it. I finally felt like I had a platform and a voice with my comedy.

AE: Was there any trepidation about being too gay with your material or did you have to work to make sure you mixed the subject matter up a little bit?
RS: You know, that’s such a good question because once I came out it was all gay, all day. Then, one time I went to Boston and I got booked in a club that was not at all a gay crowd and I completely tanked with material that had killed in L.A. That was my first epiphany that I had to become more eclectic and even though that voice was important I didn’t want it to be my only voice. A hard lesson learned but it’s not nearly as open and liberal in Boston, surprisingly not. It was a really good learning lesson for me so I started opening the door up a little bit more. I’m Latina so I started writing material about my mom being an immigrant. Also, for me personally, anecdotal stories are the types of comedy I like to do and being gay is just part of my anecdotes. It’s easy to get stuck in that niche when that’s what people are responding to.

AE: I love the fact that you use your parents in the act. Are they aware of that and are OK with that?
RS: [sighs] My dad is amazing and completely supportive. He’s actually hilarious and when my Showtime special aired, we were at a family function and he said his oldest son was a lawyer and his second eldest daughter is a nurse and his third eldest daughter was a lesbian. [Laughs] It cracked me up — like it was a career choice. So he’s very, very supportive of it. He’s come a long way. I’ve been out since I was 19.

But, my mother is a completely different story. She’s not at all happy and we don’t even really speak anymore. We always had a tumultuous relationship but she thinks I’m basically selling my soul by being out. She’s an immigrant, she’s very Catholic and she wanted me to overcome this. At first, she thought this was my challenge and God gave me this challenge to overcome and the fact that I’m choosing not to "overcome" it and embrace it instead is something she’s not so happy with.

AE: Talk to me about the Pride Comedy Jam. I love that it’s a show specifically for gay comics. How did you get hooked up with that show?
RS: It - After Ellen

The comedy stand-up special Pride Comedy Jam, which is currently running frequently on Showtime, features six gay comics, including Renee Santos. A regular on the Los Angeles comedy scene at such landmarks as The Laugh Factory, Hollywood Improv and The Comedy Store, Santos will be taking her relatable, personal stories on the road in 2012.



During a recent chat with AfterEllen.com, Santos chatted about how coming out onstage changed the course of her career, why her material is not "all gay, all day," the reason why she doesn’t talk to her mother much anymore (though she still talks about her in her act) and, of course, we got the 411 on whether she’s single, dating or off the market.

AfterEllen.com: Tell me about breaking into the stand-up world, which is not the easiest place to jump into.
Renee Santos: It’s not an easy world to step into but, it’s funny, I’ve been doing it for about five years and when I first got to L.A., I wasn’t out and I thought, "That’s going to hurt me." I didn’t have a lot of success and I was doing open mics until two in the morning and I think it was because I wasn’t owning who I was. Right around year three, I was finally like "I just need to start talking." I was out to my friends but I wasn’t doing it in my stand-up because I didn’t want anyone to know. But as soon as I owned who I was and I started writing gay material I started to get all these bites and they booked me at the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory. I did that for a couple of years and made a niche gay fan base, who were really just my friends who showed up to support me. Let’s be honest! Eventually, last year, they then offered me that green stuff – money – to perform! That was pretty awesome and that’s kind of how I got into it. I finally felt like I had a platform and a voice with my comedy.

AE: Was there any trepidation about being too gay with your material or did you have to work to make sure you mixed the subject matter up a little bit?
RS: You know, that’s such a good question because once I came out it was all gay, all day. Then, one time I went to Boston and I got booked in a club that was not at all a gay crowd and I completely tanked with material that had killed in L.A. That was my first epiphany that I had to become more eclectic and even though that voice was important I didn’t want it to be my only voice. A hard lesson learned but it’s not nearly as open and liberal in Boston, surprisingly not. It was a really good learning lesson for me so I started opening the door up a little bit more. I’m Latina so I started writing material about my mom being an immigrant. Also, for me personally, anecdotal stories are the types of comedy I like to do and being gay is just part of my anecdotes. It’s easy to get stuck in that niche when that’s what people are responding to.

AE: I love the fact that you use your parents in the act. Are they aware of that and are OK with that?
RS: [sighs] My dad is amazing and completely supportive. He’s actually hilarious and when my Showtime special aired, we were at a family function and he said his oldest son was a lawyer and his second eldest daughter is a nurse and his third eldest daughter was a lesbian. [Laughs] It cracked me up — like it was a career choice. So he’s very, very supportive of it. He’s come a long way. I’ve been out since I was 19.

But, my mother is a completely different story. She’s not at all happy and we don’t even really speak anymore. We always had a tumultuous relationship but she thinks I’m basically selling my soul by being out. She’s an immigrant, she’s very Catholic and she wanted me to overcome this. At first, she thought this was my challenge and God gave me this challenge to overcome and the fact that I’m choosing not to "overcome" it and embrace it instead is something she’s not so happy with.

AE: Talk to me about the Pride Comedy Jam. I love that it’s a show specifically for gay comics. How did you get hooked up with that show?
RS: It - After Ellen