Willie Barcena’s second special “I Gotta Be Honest” and first special for Showtime (premiered Sat. September 14, 8 PM). If you missed it, well it will continue to run through the end of the year on showtime, check schedule. But if you do not have cable or Showtime or a TV (believe it or not you don’t need a TV to watch it, just a computer and an internet connection) you can go to www.lolflixcom and download to own or stream Stve’s special for just 5$ for both the download and stream or $2.99 for just the stream.
“Deal with It” was Willie Barcena’s first Stand-up Comedy Special in his 20-year career as a Stand-up comedian. Deal With It premiered on Comedy Central in 2009 and was absolutely hilarious. This should have naturally lead to a well-deserved shot at a sitcom. With his take-it or leave-it, deal-with-it real life stories and his 18 year marriage raising 3 boys in a heavily sports oriented LA backdrop, the Archie Bunker-type Latino Father stuation seemed a timely show made for mainstream American TV for sure.
But you never saw “Deal With It” you say? No surprise though, unfortunately nobody really saw it. Armed with equal footing it’s hard to really predict why certain successes are made and why others are not. As a producer all you can do is help pack the punch, focus on setting it up the best way possible and hope that, as they say, your in the right place at the right time as the comic delivers the most important ingredient, “the funny.” If he is presented in the right light and truly is, first-and-foremost…funny, and delivers in an intelligent and entertaining way he should succeed right? However if you consider all the effort, whole heartedly or even half baked that goes into this process then it would seem obvious that most comedians need to be presented in one setting and in full un-interrupted and un-cut form to have the best shot at this success. This of course is why we like to say “Comedy… the Way It Was Meant To Be Seen … Uncensored and Uncut.”
Timing is in fact everything. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone and be repeatedly interrupted by them answering their phone right in the middle of your point? Or had to censor yourself in mixed company when driving a point? Same thing, comedy is very much about the entire message. The timing, the set-up and the delivery and finally the punch line, are the build to a well-structured joke. A series of well-structured jokes are the build up to a well-orchestrated set. Finally, a series of well-orchestrated sets are the foundation to a great one-hour stand-up comedy special. Interrupt any of that flow for a moment, a commercial, a bleep for language and it just losses its full impact. Its simple and when you bleep and cut for commercials every few minutes its just plain distracting.
Every comic has their own style and depending on that style timing is in-fact everything. Unfortunately Willie’s first comedy special suffered from unfortunate timing which attributed to the series of events that probably kept you and the rest of America from even knowing who Willie Barcena is and that was unfortunate for everyone.
So we have to be honest (pun intended) Willie’s special is truly hilarious. With no surprise and as a well-seasoned stand-up comedian is expected to do, Willie took his next one-hour special to another level. Its intelligently written and performed and Willie speaks to every man in America with his real life stories of anger management, struggling to understand and accept religion, coming to grips with his wife leaving him and then his quest to win her back, his struggle to raise his kids the only way he knows how. But more importantly Willie Barcena does all of this with intelligence and hilarity to a sold out crowd at the California Theatre in San Bernardino and“I gotta be honest”, I can’t wait to see it again!
Check Schedule: Will Barcena “I Gotta Be Honest”