Today we’d like to introduce you to Eugene Torres.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a comedian. Some of my first memories are from the pageants my mother used to put me in as a young child. Yeah, I was a pageant kid. I’m pretty sure my mother wanted a girl. Instead, she got a wisecracking boy who was willing to do or say anything for a laugh. That served me well on the pageant circuit. One time, we were in this fancy hotel in Chicago for this major event. I couldn’t have been older than four, and I was dressed up as a cowboy for this particular show. I walked out on stage and the host asked me a question. He then put a microphone in my face. I ignored the question. Instead, I said, “This show ain’t big enough for all of us.” I then unholstered my fake six-shooter and took a shot at each judge that was behind their table. I then blew the imaginary smoke that was coming out the barrel of the gun, and I jumped off the stage. Well, I won that event, and a lot more just like it.
The pageant life of a young boy isn’t long; just a couple years until it starts getting creepy. At around six years old, I was out of the game and out of the entertainment business. Even at that age, I knew that performing was my passion, but I wouldn’t be able to scratch that itch again for a very long time.
I grew up in a town outside of Springfield, IL. I was in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have much, but I did come from a great family. My father is a full-blooded Puerto Rican that was raised in New York. He’s a loud and funny guy. When I was a kid, he would tell the best stories. He would do different voices for the people he was talking about, and he would even include act-outs. I spent a lot of time trying to make him laugh. My family was always supportive of whatever I chose to do. Since there wasn’t an entertainment industry where I grew up, I fell in love with sports. I was a great athlete, and the majority of my teenage years was devoted to the sport of basketball.
I was a good student. Well, I made good grades. I was at the top of the class in academics, and because of that, I got a lot of freedom at home. There were days that my mother would let me skip school so that I could stay home and watch stand-up comedy. At this time, Comedy Central was playing most of their stand-up during school hours. I also started staying up late and watching a show called “Tough Crowd.” To this day, it’s my favorite show of all time, and it introduced me to two of my favorite comedians: Greg Giraldo and Patrice O’Neal. My mother knew that I loved comedy. One day, we were at Wal-Mart, and I saw this cool-looking DVD. I knew it was stand-up, and I wanted it. My mother bought it for me, and I watched it at least a thousand times. I still have that DVD. As it turns out, it’s known as one of the best comedy specials of all time: “Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker.”
As I began to close in on the end of my high school career, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what was possible coming from the place that I grew up, but I did know one thing. I was going to do whatever it takes not to work a regular 9-to-5 job. That just seemed so unappealing. I had some offers to go play college basketball, but instead, I became an MMA fighter.
I started training martial arts towards the end of my senior year. I knew that my athleticism and grit could help make me successful. When I began, I was just training with random people. I actually took a few fights that were set up inside of some weird dive bars. Nobody even knows about that until now. I won all of those, but I knew that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to find a great gym that could be my home. I found that in Chatham, IL at a school called Gracie Humaita – Springfield. It’s still there, and it’s a fantastic place to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Throughout my MMA career, I met some great people. After one fight, I won by armbar and I cut a fantastic promo in the cage. Well, Royce Gracie (UFC Legend) happened to be there, and he came to the locker room and asked to take a photo with me.
One day, this guy joined our jiu-jitsu gym, and he told me that he was a stand-up comedian. I was shocked. How? How could you be a comedian and live where we do? He told me that what you do is you just start going to these things called open mics. There was one that happened a couple times per month in Springfield, IL, and he invited me to one he was performing at. I showed up to this tiny bar called The Tin Can Pub, and I watched the show. I’m not going to disrespect anyone, but I will say after watching the open mic, I knew that I could it. I signed up for the next one. That whole next week, I worked on writing my 5 minutes of material. Finally, it was showtime. My stand-up comedy debuts. I went on stage, and I ended up having the best set that night. Instantly, I was hooked. This was what I supposed to do with my life. I retired from MMA which shocked everyone because I was undefeated and one of the most promising prospects on the scene. I traded in the punches for punchlines. That was July of 2012.
I’ve been honing my comedy craft ever since. In my early days of stand-up, I spent a lot of time at this little club in Mason City, IL called Mason City Limits. It was there that I was given the opportunity to work with a lot of veteran road comics which helped me grow tremendously. At around a year in, I became one of the houses emcees at a club in Bloomington, IL. When I wasn’t at those two clubs, I was traveling the Midwest getting on any stage that I could. I was trying to perform every night. Sometimes, that meant that I was making a 6-hour round trip just to do 5 minutes. I started getting paid shows every so often, and then eventually I started getting consistent feature work which means that I was the middle act of the show.
In 2015, I moved to Orlando, FL. I always loved Florida (I was born here and I came back every year as a child.) I also had family that already lived in the area so it made the transition easier. I immediately jumped into the comedy scene. My first spot I ever did in Orlando was at “The Geek Easy.” If you haven’t been, you need to go. It’s a great comic book shop that has an awesome bar in the back. In Orlando, there were a lot more opportunities for stage time, and sometimes you could even do multiple sets in night. Orlando doesn’t get the respect that it deserves in the comedy world. I’ve been all over the country, and Orlando has some of the strongest comedians out there.
Fast forward seven more years, and here we are today. I’ve worked my way up to being a regional headliner. I’ve performed for a bunch of clubs, colleges, the military, etc. I’ve had the opportunity to share the stage with some of the best comedians in the world. It’s kind of surreal, but I’ve even become friends with some of the comics that I used to skip school to watch back in the day. Dreams can be accomplished; you just have to put in the work. I’ve got a lot more goals to conquer, but this game is a marathon so you just keep running.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Stand-up comedy is anything but a smooth road.
First off, as a comedian, you’re going to bomb. Everyone bombs. If there’s a comedian out there who says they haven’t bombed they’re either lying or delusional. It takes a long time to get good at stand-up.
When you start, most of the venues you’re performing at aren’t even set up for a comedy show. Sometimes, you’ll be at a bar with TVs on and patrons who didn’t even know that there’s a show. They just want to drink and talk to their friends, and now they’re being bombarded with an open mic.
As you start to get better and start getting booked at more legitimate venues, there’s still a ton of struggles. The entertainment industry is the business of “NO.” You’re going to get “NO” way more times than “YES.”
We could write a whole book on the struggles of stand-up comedy. This is something you have to be passionate about to really want to pursue it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a stand-up comedian. Nowadays, I would consider myself a storyteller, however, I’ve kind of become known for my crowd work.
I think my life experiences really set me apart from others. My childhood was a bit different from the norm. I’m the son of Puerto Rican from New York, and I was raised in Central Illinois. We were the only Latinos in the area. I was in pageants as a toddler and fighting people in a cage during my late teens/early 20s. I’m also willing to do anything for a story. For example, I’m the only comedian in the world that wrestled alligators professionally.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The industry is already changing so much due to social media. You have to be on Instagram, TikTok, and whatever new social media platform blows up next. That’s where everyone is building their fanbases. You used to be able to get booked at clubs and people would show up that were just looking for a comedy show. A lot of times, they didn’t even know who was performing. However, if you made them laugh then you now had a fan who may come back next time you play that venue. Today, it can be hard to get booked if you don’t already have that built-in fanbase from a social media platform.
I’ve been working on my social media more. Podcasts have also become important tools for our industry. I have my own called “The AGE/GAP” which I co-host with another comedian, Dean Napolitano.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eugenecomedy/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/eugenecomedy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/eugenetorres
- Other: https://tiktok.com/eugenecomedy
