Episode #420
Marcella Arguello is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor originally from Modesto, Calif., who has made a name for herself in the Los Angeles comedy scene by standing tall and true to herself. Her regular show, “Women Crush,” started as a weekly showcase at NerdMelt, and is now monthly at the Hollywood Improv. Arguello has performed stand-up on HBO’s 2 Dope Queens, Night Train with Wyatt Cenac, was a regular on Comedy Central’s @Midnight, performed on The Funny Dance Show, and has multiple other TV credits as writer and/or performer. She released her debut album, “The Woke Bully,” in 2019, and in February 2023, put out her first special on HBO Max, Marcella Arguello: Bitch, Grow Up! Arguello met up with me to reflect on how far she has come, how long it took her to get to this moment, and what comes next.
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Before we jump into the conversation, check out the trailer to Marcella’s new HBO Max special!
This transcript has been edited and condensed only slightly for your convenience.
Marcella Arguello, last things first, congratulations! Your new special on HBO Latino and HBO Max. I loved it. One of the things I loved most about it is, as somebody who watches and reviews stand-up comedy, so often it’s difficult to really capture the essence of live stand-up in a special. But one of the things your special does, is it not only captures the essence but it also makes viewers want to come see you.
That was the intention. That was the intention. Yeah. Thank you for noticing. Thank you for saying, because that was very much the intention.
I know you’re a pretty rabid promoter.
Yes.
Especially as this special was coming out. One of the things I noticed you posted was that it took you 17 years to get to this point. So we’re talking now, the special has been out for a week. So how do you feel now? I mean, that 17-year wait and now you made it and now it’s been out for a week? What does that feel like?
You know, it’s been a little bit of a rollercoaster because I’ve been telling Aida (Rodriguez, who directed the special), a couple of my friends, my boo thing, that like I have to now let go of some of my bitter feelings. Like I have to! I have to! I can’t say that, you know, the industry didn’t give me an opportunity. It’s happening and it’s been interesting in this last week, processing all those old feelings I used to have, and I’m trying to let some of that shit go because I can’t say what I used to say. I can’t say that the industry doesn’t fuck with me. Because now it does. And that’s been kind of wild to have to let go that stuff, some of those bitter and angry feelings.
Right, that feeling of being snubbed or overlooked.
Yeah, and it’s interesting, too. I was talking with Debra DiGiovanni yesterday at Women Crush, because she was like, ‘I liked that it took 17 years.’ Part of why I said it and I hadn’t mentioned how long I’ve been doing it for a minute, because I think that we’ve now too often gotten used to younger comics getting shit maybe before they’re ready. And we don’t get the quality that we used to get. And Debra was like this is perfect timing. I was like, No, I agree that it’s perfect timing — in the sense of if you’re a stand-up, through and through, then you know that 17 years is just about time you start getting a little more attention for your stand-up.
I always go back to, not that I’m the biggest Jerry Seinfeld fan, but I go back to his documentary Comedian that came out in 2002. Where he’s talking about how a comedian, your age is relative to your career. So 17 years, you’re still a teenager.
Exactly. Yeah, I know. I used to tell my mom when I first started. I’m like, I’m basically in school right now. Like I’m basically in elementary school. And then by the time I’m 40, I’m gonna be in college. And it kind of helped her understand that it’s like a long journey, especially if it is exactly what you want to do. Just do stand-up because that’s what I’ve always wanted to do, what I want to be known for. I want to be known for being myself as a stand-up. It takes time. And you’re right. 17 years is like, you know, we’re just getting started.
So whose idea was that montage at the beginning?
Mine. That was mine. Aida hit me up. She was like, what do you want for your intro? I was like, fuck, I haven’t thought about it, because that’s not something I give a shit about. The 30 minutes is what I care about. And we were on the phone and she’s like, we need to come up with an intro and I was like, what if I just find a bunch of clips, so we just like splice them together? To show it’s been a long time — because I didn’t want anyone to see this and be like, this is a new brand-new comic on the scene, this is an overnight success. It’s not true. I want everyone to know that it’s been a minute. Like I’ve gone through multiple looks. My hair like grows and gets short and gets long in that montage because we put it in the order that it was.
Yeah, it did feel chronological.
It was great. I loved that. A lot of my closest friends were crying when they saw the montage because they’re just like, ‘I remember. I remember.’
One of the things you mentioned in the special was working as a bank teller. Was that your last “day job?”
No. My last day job was as a busboy here in LA. I worked at the restaurant at LACMA. And it was a fine-dining experience. I wanted to be a busboy because I got sick of being a customer service rep as my day job. I have an album coming out on Mercury and Reggaeton — I’m not sure when it’s dropping, but I talk about part of that journey of when when my brain switched. I was literally getting paid at night to say whatever the fuck I wanted. Just talk however I wanted to complete strangers, and then in the morning I had to fucking put on a mask and a fake ass persona. And it was actually starting to drive me crazy because I can’t be fake. And I was realizing I was now being fake as opposed to being just a good employee. I was acting fake at work and that was really hard.
That’s a fascinating take, because, I’m sure a lot of comedians or performers — obviously a lot of performers work as waitstaff. But you realized, yeah, I don’t want to be a waitress and have to deal with the customers. As a busser, it might be seen as a lesser job, but actually it’s better because you don’t have to interact with the customers at all.
Not at all. Yeah, it was really better for my mental health and I wanted to be my best self. I wanted all my energy to be saved for stand-up. I needed to not talk to these entitled fucks anymore. I couldn’t do it.
You can’t do that as a bank teller.
You can’t. You cannot. It’s really wild. Really wild.
What was the moment when you realized you didn’t need that busing job or any additional job outside of comedy?
The only reason I left the busboy job is because my dad was dying, and I had to leave. My mom asked me to come back home. I was ready to come back home and help her. And so I never really had a moment like that. I would say that I didn’t feel that way until I got my first writing job in 2017. So there was quite a few years where I was just struggling and just living you know, flying by the seat of my pants, I should say. And so, only recently. It almost feels crazy to me even today to be like, I don’t have a day job. That’s wild that I could just take time off. Work when I want to. It’s cool.
Your parents are from El Salvador. Your mom still lives in Modesto. Did you do any comedy up there?
Not really. There was nothing in Modesto when I started doing comedy, and there’s barely a comedy scene in San Francisco when I was there, you know, like there wasn’t comedy every night. Well, I don’t think there’s comedy every night over there anymore also, but you know, times are changing. But eventually Modesto started getting a little comedy scene. There’s this comedian. Anthony K. He is trying to build a scene in Modesto. But it’s hard. It’s hard to do that shit, you know, and I think they’re trying to open a comedy club in Merced, which is near Modesto, because people don’t love comedy in Modesto. That’s real. That’s a thing. So people are like, ‘When are you coming to Modesto?’ First of all, you guys don’t come, and you don’t laugh if you do. So. I don’t know what to tell you.
Yeah, it’s wild because people think of California as this deep blue state.
Yeah and it’s not.
That it’s filled with like Hollywood types or San Francisco hippie liberals, but then California is so big that it encompasses all sorts.
Oh yeah. You can see the Confederate flag all up and down California. They love that shit.
So when you went back for your dad, how long did you go back up for?
It was quite a few years. I mean, four years, maybe? Yeah, it was like back and forth for four years. I mean, I was really fucked up about it. And I ended up having to go to therapy for PTSD, because it was a lot. But in that time, I was still going back and forth. SoCal NorCal. A lot of comics know that I was always just on the road. I was living out of my car. I would stay two weeks in LA with some friends, and then I would go back for two weeks. I did it all the time. And that’s the thing. The money’s on the road in California. It is not in SF or LA, it’s fucking on the road. All these fucking weird small town gigs.
So you’re saying your Women Crush Wednesday show at the Improv, it’s not your big moneymaker?
It’s not my big moneymaker no, no. But it’s one of the few decent paying shows for the comics. It’s a sad when like a comic gets 20 bucks: ‘Oh my god, thank you!’ That’s so sad that we, that’s how bad LA comedy is that 20 bucks is like, great.
Well, there’s something tangible about cash versus drink tickets.
Absolutely. But in New York, you can actually make money off doing spots.
So those four years, you mentioned you ended up having to go to therapy, but how did how did that end up changing your comedy?
I don’t know that it changed my comedy, but it did help me realize I wanted to be fully a stand-up. Because when I left LA to be in Modesto, I was like, fuck. Am I really still gonna do comedy? What am I doing? I was also pretty young. My dad died 10 years ago. So I was 28. It’s a trip to think about, because I was still uncertain about how I feel now and how I’ve known for a while that I’m like, no stand-up is the thing I want to do forever. But back then I was still uncertain. I ended up asking Laurie Kilmartin to be my mentor. Because I was like, I need some something to help me like through this bullshit. And you know, she’s a woman who’s a great comedian, well respected stand-up, a great writer for television. And you know, chatting with her is what helped me realize, Yes, this is what I want to do forever.
So you had two therapists. A therapist therapist and you had a comedy therapist.
Yeah, but my therapist came much later. My therapist came in 2017 because I didn’t realize that I was so fucked up.
So you had Laurie for those first four years.
I had Laurie in there for a little while. I think we were only going back and forth for like two years. But it was in that timeframe of being on the road all the time. And she had said, if you’re comfortable struggling, however long you can live struggling, she’s like keep doing it. Because she was like, if you love stand-up the way I think you do, keep doing stand-up. Don’t fucking get a job. Avoid a writing job for as long as humanly possible. Because once you get a taste of that money, that’s it.
You said you first got to taste that money in 2017. What was that first writing gig?
It was Drop The Mic on TBS, and I hated it. I hated it. And then I almost immediately got another job: Bill Nye Saves The World on Netflix and hated that, too. I kind of was like, maybe it was just that job. That’s why I took the Bill Nye job, because maybe it was just those people. Maybe it was that experience, because there were individuals who were making it not great. And then I went to Bill Nye and I was like, oh, same thing. There’s always somebody at these places — if they’ve been in the biz for a long time, they just like to fucking be crazy. You know, they live in their own world.
So there probably wasn’t ever a time where you thought, Oh, I’m going to get attached to this money and I’ll just be a TV writer.
It’s what I was scared of. I was definitely scared going into it. Like what if I get super into this money and really like this. Well, if that’s what it is, and that’s where my path goes, you know? I do try to accept my fate when I have to. But I definitely was like, Oh yeah, I fucking hate this. It’s like working at the bank. Just like the same. Exact fucking same.
Except the customer’s the same customer. Every day.
Yeah. So it was a lot. I didn’t love it. I also don’t understand the concept of fighting for jokes or explaining jokes to talk them into being in a script. It’s like, man, if you don’t fucking like this, I don’t give a fuck. I just kind of gave up at a certain point. What the kids called quiet quitting. I started doing that shit.
Bill Nye might be saving the world but you’re not saving the writers room.
No, not at all. No, I mean, Bill was great! Bill was great. It was cool to work with him. Just like with with Drop the Mic. It was cool to work with Method Man. That shit was fucking cool as fuck, but that’s not enough to keep me.
It’s still an office job.
It’s still an office job.
At what point did you start doing Women Crush? I think that was one of the first times I saw you was at your show in the back of NerdMelt.
Women Crush actually started as an open mic at The Comedy Store inside The Belly Room. I was trying to get them to bring the Belly Room back, you know, in the sense of like, it originated with women. So why don’t we have more women in this room anyways? And they didn’t treat me very well. I don’t really fuck with The Comedy Store, or they don’t really fuck with me and I was like, I’m gonna take my idea out of here. You guys don’t get it. You don’t give a shit. Fucking it’s no wonder there’s not a lot of women at this club. I don’t know when that was — probably back in that era, maybe 2015, I don’t know when that first started. I don’t remember. And then we were looking for a venue or a space or something, somebody that would get it. And it was cool because Meltdown, it ended. It already ended. The show was done. And he was looking for a replacement for the slot on Wednesdays. I found out he was looking for pitches and I just hit him up. It was really funny to have sold him. And I was telling him about the show. He was like, So you’re telling me, if some comedian that’s like a big name — I don’t remember who he said, maybe Bill Burr — Bill Burr comes in and he needs a spot. And he comes up to me asking for a spot, what do you say? Fuck no! You can’t have a fucking spot on my women’s only show. Get the fuck outta here!
And he was like damn. Alright, let’s do this. I’m down. And that’s what got him want to do do the show. I guess he just wanted that energy. And it’s been cool, because — full circle moment would be, I don’t even know if Bill was the example he used, but it was that concept of he used like a big-name comic. But what’s cool now is that Women Crush gets a lot of women opportunities. Girls get managers, agents, representation. They get opportunities on shows. Just because they did that show. People come and see them for the first time or they come to see them because they know Women Crush is such a great space for women to shine. And Bill actually booked Bianca Cristovao off of seeing her at my show, because he would come in and drop in. Look, Bill just loves comedy. And there’s been quite a few like, I remember Drew Carey just came to hang out, and now The Improv was in panic. Drew Carey’s here!I think he wants a spot. Well, he can watch the show. You know, because I’m like, I don’t fucking care. I just want to put together a show that gives girls opportunities.
No, yeah, when I was here in LA last year for that Netflix festival, Bianca was opening for Bill at The Forum.
Yeah, that’s the show. That’s the show I was at and I went up to him. I told her congrats. And I went up to him after the show. And I said, Hey, man, thank you for booking Bianca. I’m glad that you have a woman on your show. That’s when he told me ‘I saw her at your show. I booked her off of your show.’ I fucking started tearing up because I was like fuck yeah, that’s why I do that shit, you know, like exactly for that and she did great.
So how do you balance that with — at the beginning of this interview, we talked about how you no longer having the narrative of being ignored or overlooked. So how did you get through that period where you’re booking women on Women Crush and they’re getting stuff out of it, but you’re not.
I mean, I was getting shit out of it. It’s not like I wasn’t getting anything.
Right, you have a number of TV credits.
But what has always bothered me is that my stand-up was never a priority to the industry and that has always bothered me. Even when I got 2 Dope Queens it was because Chenoa was trying to have me be represented by her, Chenoa Estrada. And I feel like that’s what it was, you know, it wasn’t even on some like organic shit. It felt like it was like a move on her end, which was like, that’s how the fucking industry works, you know? And that still kind of bummed me out. And I even don’t even believe that people thought I was gonna fucking do that good when I was on 2 Dope Queens.
I was at that taping. You were great.
I did great. I love that set. I was really happy with myself. I mean, dude, I had fucking Comedy Central just be, basically they did not want my stand up. And that was shocking to me. And it’s also like, that’s why Comedy Central is where they’re at, you know? They have overlooked comedians for so long, now they’re not known for their stand-up, and when I was growing up, that was the only place you can watch great groundbreaking, new, interesting, young, old everybody was on there. And it was such a dream of mine to have a half-hour special on Comedy Central. It was such a fucking dream of mine. I submitted so many times and they straight up were like, ‘Yeah, we don’t… We don’t find you memorable.’ He said some fucking disrespectful shit, which I forget. I went off on that fool in that meeting when he started talking to me and other people in the meeting hella uncomfortable I was like, Man fuck this. This sucks.
That was a really hard moment for me, you know, after that. And it was like realizing that the industry, oh, yeah, they like what they like, and they’re gonna book what they book and that’s why this was cool. Because this was Aida Rodriguez, this is all her. She submitted my name. She wanted my shit to be on there. And like, that’s the thing. It feels like stand-ups are the ones who have always looked out for me because even when I did at Midnight, Chris Hardwick saw me performing at the Improv on a Funches show. And he was like, we have to get you on at Midnight. And I was like, Yeah, we do have to get me on at Midnight. Like literally every opportunity I’ve had it feels like it was from a stand-up being like, you got it. Let’s get you on somehow.
Was there ever a period where you looked at — because there was a period at least pre pandemic, where there were a lot of shows getting pilots or getting limited series based off of premises that were either happening at Meltdown or happening in the Belly Room. You did some of those shows, like Funny Dance Show was one of them. Was there ever a time where you like, as much as you wanted to concentrate on the stand-up that maybe you needed to have a gimmicky thing?
Yeah, we tried. We tried, we tried. I tried and I tried. I tried to succumb and they never, no one ever liked any of my ideas. And it’s insane because all of my ideas are great and all my ideas are fucking bangers. That’s why I’m like, I’m just waiting. I kind of stopped taking meetings, doing all that shit because these motherfuckers, they do not know what’s good. They do not understand what’s good and it’s very very frustrating. I feel for all the people that are out there pitching their shows and their ideas, because you don’t know a) what they’re gonna bite, and b) you don’t know what’s gonna hit, and they don’t either, and that’s what’s frustrating. But yeah, no. I have a whole document with all these ideas — all my old ideas, too. I was like no, fuck that. I’m re-pitching everything once this shit picks up. It’s that that mentality of, what do you do and when do you do it? Comedy is timing, but so is success. So we’ll see what happens.
What’s your attitude toward social media been like?
I’ve embraced it. It’s just been hard to, I think the pandemic was when it made it hard to be like fuck, you know, like, again, you don’t know what’s gonna hit. Like Ziwe didn’t know that that IG Live show was gonna fucking be a slam dunk. She didn’t know. She just fucking started doing it. A lot of people, a lot of ideas happened on IG Live that didn’t get picked up. But like, again, you don’t know, so that’s why you keep creating and keep trying. You don’t give up because you don’t know what’s going to hit. You don’t know when they’re when they’re going to bite. So I’ve attempted to embrace as much as I can across all social media and I’ve let them go when it’s time to let them go. I think I’m still having a hard time with TikTok But that’ll come. That’ll come. I’ll just post clips soon.
Because right now as we speak in early 2023, it’s all about TikTok. Instagram tried to recreate that with Reels. But I don’t know that comedians care about that as much.
Yeah, they do! There’s some comics that are doing great. Like Steph Tolev is doing great. Gianmarco (Soresi). He’s fucking killing it. If you can make it work for you, it works. But it’s not for everybody. And also some people don’t know how to fucking edit their own shit, you know, because that’s the thing. If you have enough money to pay somebody to edit, great, then you’re guaranteed bangers, but if you don’t then you have to do it yourself, which a lot of comics are having to. It’s harder because people don’t know how to self-edit and everything is so like, gotta get it in five seconds type shit. It’s difficult. I fully embrace it. I encourage people to embrace it. I understand that it sucks. I want to encourage any comedian listening to stop posting crowd work.
I was just about to say it feels to me as a critic and as an observer and as a fan. It feels like it’s turned a lot of people into crowd work comedians because they feel like that’s where the viral clip is, which has nothing to do with your actual stand-up.
Absolutely. The problem with that, too, is that most comics can’t do crowd work. Because even when they attempt to, it’s like, oh, this isn’t that good. And then the other side is, it’s encouraging followers to heckle during the shows. I saw Matt Rife complaining. Oh people are heckling at every show. And it’s like yeah, cuz you post crowd work videos, bro. Like, stop doing that. Post some material. Like, you can still fucking use it on especially even if it goes viral on social media. No one’s gonna give a fuck. It’s like a hit song. You know, we want to hear it again. So I think people need to stop posting so many crowd work videos. Give people a little material. Just a taste.
That’s what you did with with your special. It’s just a taste.
Yeah, it is.
It’s 32 minutes. Was there ever any debate or ever any pressure to try to make it an hour?
No. That was a set time, by I want to say HBO Max, they had their little deal with Pa’lante! And they picked the director and the director picked who she picked so I had no say in that.
We started this by talking about how it’s so great for you, but it also forces you to change your own narrative that you tell about yourself and your career. What have Aida or Laurie or anybody else, what have they been able to tell you about how to embrace this phase of your life and career?
Yeah, Aida has been good. She has called me almost every day. Because she was like, I didn’t get to enjoy any of it when it happened to me. She has her one hour HBO Max special streaming. Please watch that. And she was calling me almost every day, especially leading up to it, and then the couple days after that, and now we’ve been talking less just because the chaos is over. She was just making sure that I was enjoying it, and I was taking a moment and then to not let the emotions overwhelm me. So she’s been cool. It’s nice that she is doing that because it’s also reminding me when young people or somebody that I like gets their shit, to be able to touch base with them when it happens to them. Because I didn’t know that I was going to feel all these feelings. Leading up to it and then when it came out. So it’s been nice to just have her kind of holding my hand a little bit because it is brand new feelings and it is me trying to adjust and it’s also me just like the special says Bitch, Grow Up! it’s me attempting to adjust because that’s what growing up as you’re adjusting to whatever the fuck is going on. And that’s how I’m feeling right now. Like I’m in literally the moment of adjusting and literally growing pains are happening and it’s been cool because she has been there for me and it’s been nice.
We said like 17 is like being a teenager and you’re still growing. So if I come back to you in five years after your college years of comedy, what do you hope we’re talking about five years from now?
I don’t know. Stand-up is is my thing, hopefully in five years. Hopefully I have two hour specials under my belt and something else, whatever that may be whether it’s a show or Women Crush or you know, something that gives opportunities to other women. I mean, who knows? Everything’s open. I think in the long-term goals. I want to be able to like have the power, the leverage to help women who deserve because, I just swear to fucking god if you don’t look a certain way, sound a certain way, they do not want to hook you up and that is crazy to me. And there’s just so many women out there that are so good and that are that can change the narrative of stand-up, but if they don’t get the opportunity, it’s like the shit is just gonna stay the same.
I mentioned on Twitter, that the first time I ever saw Atsuko was at Meltdown on your show.
Yeah, years ago, years ago! And that’s the thing. I’ve been trying to get as many women. It was easier back then because I wasn’t as busy as I am now. But it was cool because I was doing a bunch of shows. Women Crush first started because comedy in LA is very segregated. And I hated that and I would be at the Black shows. I’d be at the club shows. I’d be at the Alt shows. Every show had a couple of women that were so amazing and I was like fuck. If all those bitches were on one show, that’d be fucking crazy. We’d get so many perspectives and that’s how it started really. I want that more. I want people to be able to experience that more, just different backgrounds of women who all speak differently all think differently. Just entertaining and opening people’s eyes to what stand-up really is you know, and it’s not just fucking the same five bitches over and over again. You know, like there’s so much out there. And actually, you know, when I started Women Crush I had a male comedian straight up be like, OK, but how fast do you think you’re gonna run out of women? Because it used to be weekly. It was a weekly show. So he was like, Oh, I give it six months before you run out of women and you’ll need a man on the show. And I was like, OK, first of all, no. But that’s how they see comedy, even the male comics didn’t even believe that a great solid women-only weekly show could even exist. And it totally did. And we barely repeated bitches and it was awesome. And it was crazy. Those meltdown years were really — it might’ve been only one year but it was such a great run of shows.
Well, that’s also crazy that guy would say that, even just because I’m in LA for a week going to shows and as I was looking at the lineups, it’s all the same people. All of these shows must have run out of people.
That’s the thing! That’s where the mentality comes from. Some people actually believe they book the same people because these are the people that are working. There’s so many comics in every city, all across the fucking country. There’s so many women are so I mean, there’s great comics period. I just like hearing women’s voices so I want to have a woman’s only show where you get all the perspectives, you get all the experiences so even last night, I had Natalie McGill. She opened for me in Washington, DC and I told her whenever the fuck you get to LA you hit me up, I’m gonna put you on Women Crush. I don’t care if somebody’s been doing it for three years. You can do five minutes. Not that that was the case for her. She has been doing it longer. I don’t want to make it sound like that. But I’ve always just been like, if you’re doing it, I want to encourage you to do it, you know, like I also encourage when when women meet me after the shows, ‘like oh my god, I’ve always wanted to do it’ and I’ll be like, fucking do it. What are you 40? Now’s a perfect time. You are more interesting than you’ve ever been. Now’s the time we want to hear what the fuck you have to say. And that’s what Women Crush is about. I want to hear all the bitches give a speech at the wedding type shit.
Well, Marcella, thank you for your service in giving all these women a voice and a platform. And congratulations on getting your own platform.
I appreciate it.
It’s really well deserved. Happy to see it for you.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
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