#21 "Unlocking the Stage: From Teen Rebel to Comedy Entrepreneur - A Journey with Deece Casillas"

Cheryl

Welcome to another episode of teen minds redefined, where we strive to redefine the relationships we have with our teenagers and just foster their growth into their own authentic selves as we watch them become these amazing adult human beings. And today we have these casinos and I am so excited. This is not only a number of things I'm going to go through here but he has a podcast as well called the social hour. And I highly recommend it. It's great to listen to you are really enjoying it. So DISA is an internationally touring Latino comedian who has carved his path from so Central LA to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the entertainment industry. With over 15 years of experience in comedy DS has graced the stages across America, Canada, right here, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize and the Bahamas. He's been featured on various platforms, including lmao TV, Amazon Prime Apple TV TV Roku comedy channel. Notably DS has released two albums The Northwest comedy mixtape Volume One and two, and has been voted Northwest best comic for over five consecutive years. Yay. His recent special not your cup of tea showcases his biting and sarcastic comedic style blending big city energy with small town charm. And while audiences adore his humor, his parents have a more lukewarm view of his career choices. Nevertheless, his story serves as an inspiration for parents and teens alike, illustrating the importance of pursuing one's dreams, even if they deviate from the typical linear path. So thank you for joining us. It's so funny. Is there anything you want to add to that, that I might have missed? Before we dive into this?

Deece

The I, I also ran for mayor of a town in Washington State. Just very recently, so I did not win. But also I was I kind of I kind of some things happen, which changed the trajectory. But I was running for mayor of a city in Washington State.

Cheryl

That's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. Are you the first comedian to do this?

I can't, I can't imagine I am. But I don't know of any others off the top of my head. But man, I have to imagine at least if not, as a complete Lark. Someone has to have at some point, you know,

well, and then there's the I'm an intentionally a comedian, then there's oh my god, they're laughing at me comedian. So there's a few of those in politics, I imagine.

Most politicians. That's why I ran.

Cheryl

 So I'm gonna just say, the way I find my podcast guests is I'll either be on Instagram or Facebook, or I see a quote, or whatever it is, it's always an energy, like, Oh, I really liked what they had to say. And, and I don't specifically go, who can talk to parents or who can talk to teens? Because everybody, yes, there's some connection somewhere. And so what I like to do is, you know, my main thing is kind of shift perspective for parents, and just kind of look at, what do we have to do in order to let them be who they are? Yeah. And it always started out when I first started even this, it was, you know, here's a diagnosis and how do we help them and what do we say to the teacher? And how do you help them at home? And it has evolved to this, it always begins with us, and the shit we have to do, because whatever they're doing is triggering us. And it's our trigger. Yeah. So it's just kind of moved into that direction. And so when I saw that your parents weren't real pleased with this decision. I thought, oh, I have to get this guy. Because this sounds like a lot of fun. So let's talk first, where are you now? What are you doing now? Like currently? What's leading you up right now?

 Deece

Right now I live in Texas. I recently moved to Texas just over a year ago. Love it very happy with the with Texas life. Yeah, that's so you know, I'm from LA kind of lived all over, mostly LA. But most of it did live in Washington state for about 10 years recently, and then moved to Texas A year ago. And it's great. I love it. I'm in the middle of a little bit of a break. I'm taking the first couple months of 2024 off of touring. So it's nice. I the last five plus years, I've spent more time on the road than I have at home. So I'm just enjoying, you know, I'm still doing stuff locally, but just kind of taken some time off the road and working on a comic book that I'm that I wrote working with an artist to finish that up in the next couple of months.

No, not a book on comedy, but an actual comic book an actual comic book.

Yeah. Okay. So yeah. So that's kind of the next adventure. That's what's lighten me up right now. And yeah, you know,

that's fine. That's fine.

Cheryl

 So from where are you going to try and go back and it's so funny when I was reading your bio, and then listening to your podcast, I'm like, Oh, shit, this guy's a big deal. Seriously, like, you just because I don't chase that. I think it's, it's the message in the energy. Sure. And then it's afterwards I'm doing this research. Oh, my God. And then I remembered. You're the comedian. So pressure is off me?

Deece

Well, it's not that bad. I mean, here's this. Here's the deal. Show. Like I've done huge shows across the world. And then like, last weekend, I did a show for, like, just 19 people. So it's, there's real upset ebbs and flows of this thing. You know, so yeah, big deal is subjective. But you

know, I'm very impressed. And then how much I mean, you can't get more material than teenager. So I think we're good to go. 

Cheryl

Yeah. I've had them. I've taught them. I've worked with them. Yeah, they gave him some material for sure.

I am there either. I've been one. I know that at some point. I was one. Yeah, me

too. But I think I was a perfect angel. But

I like to think so too. You know, the Sheriff of where I grew up may say otherwise. You know, 

Cheryl

that's funny. Okay, so can you share with us just from what age did you start thinking this realm, like, at what grade did you start or what age did you think? Oh, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not going there.

Deece

I think always Yeah, this is so it's so funny. My mother likes to remind me of this often, but I from a very I think it was my second grade teacher. Miss Moreland, I still remember her name. She in like a parent teacher conferences. You know, she told my mother that when, you know, my mom asked how I was doing and she liked this is her it was her diplomatic answer. My teacher said he thinks marches to the beat of his own drummer. So from a very young age, that was kind of my perspective. And you know, I was always a creative I mean, as much as I love sports and friends and running and being a kid and doing crazy stuff. I always was also fine and really craved like, time alone to just create and write and draw and like think and come up with just interest things that you know kind of be it like as I look back it's funny like I was having crazy introspective philosophical you know dumb because I was you know, a is Nydia know anything. But also, you know, you don't know what you don't know. So you're you're just having these thought explorations at such a young age in almost with an innocence that makes them more interesting, I think. Yeah. And as I look back, so I was always just kind of that was the like to think abstractly and just kind of absorb a little bit of everything.

Cheryl

And so what point were you like, did your parents tried to rein that in? Did they say Well, that's that's a really nice hobby, but you need like, how many conversations I have with parents? Yep. That's great that they want to act that's great, but but they need a backup plan.

Deece

Yeah. That's That's kind of you to assume they were interested. They Yeah. They, you know, that would have involved burning some calories. They weren't that interested in what I was doing at all. Good, bad or indifferent. So, you know, the I just kind of was able to explore that a little more for, you know, sometimes to my detriment, sometimes, sometimes not. But I mean, honestly, especially now at my age and looking back, it's despite everything that some people would view as negative that I did or was done to me or was involved in or, you know, whatever. Everything that it everything, like, made me and got me to here, and really was, I don't know if there's much I would change.

Cheryl

No, I like that. Yeah. So at what point then, so where did you get to and high school? Like, did you finish high school? What  did you do there?

Deece

Oh, man, again, I kind of you to assume I went to high school I, I actually dropped out of school in the middle of my eighth grade year, and moved out of my parents house. Yeah, I was. It was like 15. And left school, left my parents house and went kind of out on my own. Cheryl

So

and then what?

Deece

Then a lot of things, some of them their statutes of limitations, I probably still fully disclosed. But, you know, the, yeah, I, you know, I had a lot of friends that were older, you know, 18 to 21 plus, so. And I was pretty self sufficient. Financially, I was working and able to make money. So I started is I rented a room from some friends who I knew were in a room for rent. And I had purchased a car that year, you know, for 500 bucks, I gotta bought a 75 Chevy Nova, that was driving around. So you know, it's kind of doing my thing, and I just kind of you just kind of fake people. I mean, here's the thing, and don't get any. I mean, I don't know, if kids or teenagers listen to this, don't get any wild ideas. But like, people are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. And when put in a position of difficulty, we, I mean, I was always, in everything, I always bet on myself. And I kind of found myself, you know, you figure it out, you figure it out in it, you know, so I I certainly wasn't 100% success all the time. But I, you know, made it.

Cheryl

When did you first get up on stage?

Deece

First time I did stand up comedy. I was. Oh, let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see, it was probably about 17 years ago. Is that right? It would have been like, 2005 2006, somewhere around there. So I don't know how old I would have made me. I was born 82 You guys can do the math. I see. I didn't go to I didn't go to school, the you know, whatever. 2026 25 or something. It was in a little bar called pizza at the beach in Long Beach, California, where I'm where I'm from. And I had, you know, grew up in Long Beach, and I moved away and I was gone for a while and back and forth. And I was had been back there permanently for a couple years. And this little bar used to do an open mic and I love love comedy. So I go out and hang out and watch just watch because it was the only comedy around that I knew of. And it was kind of a bar I hung out at anyway. And the guy who ran his name was Steve. We started I started hanging out and talking to him after the shows and you know getting drinks of them. And you know, we choose Sorry, can I swear? Yeah, and he would he's like hey you you're funny who's you should you should try this you know you ever thought about trying to say go? Yeah, I thought about I mean I've written jokes and I always wanted to I just never knew how it was what you're here every week is goes next week you're going up. That's it. Okay. And I did and I I got bit by the bug. And that's usually what happens when you go up you either like it don't ever want to do it again, like I got that out of my system or you go, I will do this forever. And I will sleep in my car and get paid in chicken tenders to make sure to do this again. And then you do for the next couple of years you do that. As you pursue this ridiculous goal of doing cars standing in, you know, trashy road houses, hoping people like your little Yuk Yuks. observations about travel is weird.

Cheryl

You know, it's funny, I'm sitting here, I'm thinking so was there a point in any of those initial setups where it was just like a complete bust? Like just a bust? Whoa, yep. Silent. And then what goes through your head?

Deece

That's,that still happens. I'm not going to share I'm gonna say right now. I mean, 15-17 years, like. I mean, I've been doing this professionally full time for nearly a decade. And it's still, I mean, a couple of weeks ago, I did a set that went very poorly, you know, and I mean, any comedian in the world, the best comedians or Dave Chappelle tell yet, it's not always a hit you but if you're not bombing, you're not taking chances. You know, you're not making you're not taking swings. And sometimes you gotta take big swings to get a home run. And you're gonna whiff sometimes, but that teaches you how to swing better keep your eye on the ball. It's just part of it. But yeah, early on, but also I like, I mean, I always I'm like a robot, I don't care. I it's like, I was just like, whatever. I'm just, there's good ones. There's bad ones. You try again, you know, it's okay. It didn't make me it didn't really discourage me. It was always just well try again, next time you learn something. And that was my takeaway, like, you know, and it's like any failure, you learn something from it, and figure out what to, because I mean, you're when you start comedy, you have no idea what you're doing. You're just up there. You don't you don't even understand how, what you're doing, how the magic works. Eventually, you start to figure it out. The mechanics and joke writing, and it's just reps, but like, you're just trying to capture just lightning in a bottle and figure out what works. So you're gonna bomb a lot of times a lot, a lot of times, but you got to be delusional, to even try to think that I'm gonna walk up on stage. Me, no one, nobody in this room knows me. You're gonna hand me a microphone, and I have three minutes. And after that, I'm gonna make you all laugh like you have to be a crazy person. You think that's gonna work?

Cheryl

 So it amazes me. It totally amazes me. My kid. She's 31 now. But when she first started, when she finished, she went to college when she was writing comedy. She was as a side thing. Yeah. Yeah. I always said to my kids, listen, you want to do something? Find someone who's already doing it. 10 years from now, because if they love what they do, they're happy to share it. Yeah. And they they then you avoid the little bombs that you don't need to step on, on the way. And so she found she found someone who said if you want to write comedy, you got to do comedy. Yeah. This is the quietest kid you'll ever meet. Every every teacher meeting where she doesn't raise her hand. She doesn't participate. She doesn't talk bla bla bla, like literally does like so shy. Shy, introverted, whatever it is. Anyway, so she I got her this pack of to Second City. Yeah, okay. Yeah. And part of the grad was you had to stand up at open mic night and do your stick. And I was wedding. I mean, I was sweating. You do nothing but encouraged right? Yeah. Go Go. Go. You got this. You got this. And I was literally shitting my pants and this kid knocked it out of the park. I kept going. Lucky. She like who? She killed it. Yes. And I thought what is this like, this is this is amazing. But it's but as parents, like I was crapping like I honest to god, I was so nervous. And I know she's very funny writing. She's got a great wit and timing. But I was really nervous. And I'm thinking okay, here's the lesson. Like just sit back and and let it go. You know, what would you say to parents, okay, your kid got up there. You kid wants to try something and you're scared for them because, you know, I mean, I didn't think she would suck but if you saw you heard kids sing and they couldn't carry a tune. But they want to get up on stage and they want to do it like what are we saying to parents?

Deece

Yeah, yeah, it's like, you know, maybe karaoke night is more your speed than, you know than Broadway. Yeah. So find the local Chinese Joy hit their Friday nights and go get you know, my Thai and then sing some Billy Joel in the back. But I don't know, maybe Juilliard isn't for you?

Cheryl

Well, and how important is it? And what do you what are your thoughts on? Just Just let him try it? Like, just let them try it. But it hadn't been for me worried about my kid. I was that Oh, my God, please don't get up on stage. I don't want you to be hurt. I don't want you to hear silence. But I did. Thank God.

Deece

I'm a couple of things. First of all, I've said for a long time I so I used to do improv also. And I used to teach improv. And I used to tell every I said to a million people who have no interest in doing comedy in any shape, or form as a pursuit, but I've like, I think everyone should take an improv class. A basic intro to improv, you know, you take you know, half a dozen classes, it's just going to teach you some basic things about it'll make you better in conversation. It'll make you better in interviews, it'll make you better in a lot of things. But what people don't realize is like improv, it, they, they think it's about being funny. It's really about listening. And listening to the people around you and picking up on cues from people around you. So, like, as far as trying it? Yeah, I think everyone should try that aspect. But even even stand up comedy when people like, I've always thought about it, Should I try it and I go, just do it. I go, I guarantee you your first time there, you won't be the worst person there. I guarantee it. I have watched a million open mics and a million cities, you could be so bad. I go, you will not be the worst person there. There's some there is some sociopath who has been walking up on that stage for 10 years for three minutes every Tuesday and doing impressions of you know, hit like impressions of Mary Poppins. If she was an astronaut. You're like just going on. There's some crazy shit and you're like, yeah, just go. You won't be the worst person there. And the people who go watch open mic. happen. Those crowd members, they remember two people that remember one person for sure, whoever's the worst. Second, they maybe remember the best person in everyone else. They forget I like you can go up there and be forgettable. You just got a W ah, oh, it just go try and find out. You know, you never know until you jump up there and find out.

Cheryl

 Oh,I love it and love it. So tell me what did the one of the standout moments for you? What are this? Like? I'll never forget this moment. I'll never forget that moment. Good or bad. I don't care.

Deece

As far as common like in in my comedy career.

Cheryl

Yeah, start there.

Deece

I'll start with a well, I'll live. So there's a lot of moments that here's the thing about being a stand up comedy comic is not only are you delusional, but you're also just, you're cynical. And we are we have it we have a demented outlook. And generally, I found this with myself and most standard comedians, we have a hard time remembering the highs, good shows rarely stand out. Good shows. Good that like what we remember most is the bad shit and the crazy things that happen like the crazy shows like I I mean, I I walked into a show in Colville Washington, you know, and I'm Latino. I'm with my buddy who's Korean. And we're meeting a guy we've never met, who's supposed to do the show with us and he's a black guy. Okay, which already sounds like I've set up for a terrible joke, you know, Latino, creative, like walk into a bar. My buddy, Tony, who was like this gregarious guy, just like, you know, bullshit talking. He walks up and just walks right at the bar. He's like, hey, he gets a yes here for the comedy show tonight. And he's two days your turn. Look at us. In one of them. Just straight up gives us the Zig Heil. Like Heil Hitler, like just out well. Like, just go. Like, if it's gonna be a fun night, we're gonna die. You know, and like, you know, then the black guy gets there, and it gets worse. We spent the whole night played, you know, playing defense against people trying to get on stage and fight whatever comedian was on stage at the time. Because they just hated anyone darker than you know, Tom Selleck. And it was just a wild, like nights like that are the nights that I remember. Because those are the ones you talk about more. You know, it's like, you don't talk about Yeah, we had a good show. And there's not a lot of follow up questions. Great. Yeah. Glad you had a good show. But the show when you commiserate with other comedians on the wild shows, you know, that's the ones that you really, that really stick out.

So funny. Yeah.

I mean, stuff like that. I mean, I don't know how many times I've had people try and fight me on stage. It's, generally I've got a joke. In my set that I call the Karen killer joke, because it generally will get about one out of 10 times and middle aged women will.

And yell at me, or for this joke, and so on with Josie Tracy, we took as long as swinging me one time jumped up on stage and yeah, so. So you just, you know, those are the things I remember. Okay. 

Cheryl

Now,I want to go , like play metaphor here with the hecklers in your audience. Yeah. And how and I know, like you said, how many teens listen to my podcast? Listen, I tell parents, if they want to ride to the mall, then they're listening to the podcast in the car. That's probably because No, but I can imagine my teenager saying I'm not listening to anything you listen to that's ridiculously lame. But so hecklers in the audience hecklers in your life? Like how how do you handle that?

Deece

Well, what people don't, what hecklers fail to realize is that, especially like, if you're an open mic, it's a little different. But if you're like a show, and you're talking to someone who's on stage holding a microphone, there's a good chance that that is a seasoned professional, whose job is whose whole career and mortgages paid by him talking shit, and being very witty and fast. I doubt that the guy who's half in the bag with a G D, who works at the sawmill is that quick, and get a get a really get one over on an on a on a guy who does it as a living. So here you are, you know, it's a it's like stepping into a wrestling match with a Kodiak bear. It's like, yeah, you might, you could you might get a swing in, but I guarantee when they swing back, it's gonna count more. So it's, you know, there's, there's ways to go about it, I've my personal favorite way to deal with hecklers in the audience, is, there's a way to get the rest because the rest of the audience is having a good time. And the rest of the audience generally is, wants to hear the show, and they don't want to hear some dumb ass about themselves. So what you do is you just get the rest of the audience to hate this person. And then the rest of the audience will completely shame this person so much and get throw so much shade at this person that they want to crawl out of their own asshole, and back in their mother's womb and never been born. And then and then you can just look at him with a straight face and be like, I wanted to hear what you had to say, buddy, but like, they all hate you. And everyone just cheers. And then you're like, look, what are you gonna do? And then they just they're shut up. They shut up.

Cheryl

 Loveit. Good. Okay, so you've moved, or is this at the same time? The Entrepreneurship? What is this entrepreneur? What are you doing?

Deece

Well, oh, man, what am I doing? Well, I've done a lot of things over the years. You know, currently, it's, it's kind of represents or presents itself and, you know, I am a again, internationally touring standup Comedian I my own agent, I'm my own manager. But I also run a production company. So I book and produce comedy at, oh, I think we're probably somewhere over 40 venues in 19 states. So, you know, we've got comedy events. So you know, booking comics, getting comics paid, finding venues, creating shows, producing shows. So a lot of that, that takes up a lot of time. And then, you know, writing again, the comic book, that's, you know, doing the, that's the next venture I'm committing myself to, which will take away from my standup time a little bit, but that's okay. Happy to be home a little more. You know, I do the podcast, I've done stuff outside of that I've had, I was the head of a podcast network for a while, where we were finding and producing shows we had a lot, I mean, probably 20 shows on the network, at one point, about a year ago, I left the network, just because I didn't have time and wasn't, you know, looking to do cultivate and produce podcasts anymore. It's just a lot of work. You know, done sketch comedy, you know, I used to do during the pandemic, I was doing a show called the Social minute, which was a, like, four to eight minute, weekly news, like, is comedy news thing, you know, just always finding new ways to explore the nice thing about comedy, or anything, any creative endeavor is like, especially when you when it comes to what I'm doing. Now, I don't have a boss, I can look anywhere I want it to look, you know, I can do as much fuckery as I want to, because the only one at the end of the day, the only thing person I have to make sure is okay with it is me and, and make sure I can still pay my mortgage. And as long as those things are all happening, like, I can explore the genres and the way I present it and what I want to do with it in any way, you know, if I want to put money into doing a sketch comedy, and film a bunch of sketches, we can do that. You know, there's, you can do it. Yeah, yeah. And that's that, I like that. That freedom is available to anyone that freedom is so available these days in the gig economy, you know, it's like you can you can really find something you like and find a way to make money out of it.