Family Migration Stories, Cultural Roots, Physics, Improv, and Stand-Up Comedy: A Discussion with Will Luera!

Paul Vato: Bravo. Bravo. Welcome everybody to Paul Vato Presents. Yay! It's a party on a Monday in July. My very special guest today is Will Luera, unless you're White, then it's Will Loooera.

Will Luera: That's exactly right, you got it. Thank you for getting both pronunciations correct.

Paul Vato: We're gonna give both pronunciations. Is "Will" a Latino name?

Will Luera: My father's also William. My grandfather just really liked the name, like the English version of it, William. My grandfather really liked it, that my father liked it. My brothers have more traditional Mexican names, so like my younger brother is Juan Alejandro. My youngest brother is Alfredo Ricardo and I was just William, no middle name, just William. That's it.

Paul Vato: I know it's a stereotype, and I'm surprised that your brothers only have the three names, just one middle name. I also do not have a middle name. My real name is Paul Rodriguez, but I don't have a middle name.

Will Luera: Wow.

Paul Vato: Which is strange.

Will Luera: That is strange. Yeah. You're one of the few people other than myself that I know, especially among Latinos. Yeah.

Paul Vato: What was your grandfather's name?

Will Luera: He was Juan Mendoza Luera. He took on his mother's last name, became his middle name.

Paul Vato: Which I think, isn't that the way we're supposed to do it, where you take the mother's maiden name and then your last name.

Will Luera: Yes.

Paul Vato: And then once you started adding middle names, that's how we end up with all those stereotypes. He's got like six names!

Will Luera: Yeah. And I've got some cousins like that, especially my cousins that are in Mexico, they still very much have that. Just name upon name.

Paul Vato: Wait, your family's from Mexico.

Will Luera: Yes.

Paul Vato: How the heck did you end up in Florida? Did you convert to Cubanism or what?

Will Luera: Yep. Yeah. I got recruited into Cubanism. That's correct. What got me eventually to Florida was a job. The full-time, the full salary improv jobs are few and far between, and there was a theater down here, not an improv theater, just a like an equity house that had an improv stage and they wanted somebody to run it for them. It was created by the managing director of the theater, she's the one who started the whole thing, but she was like, "I can't do this anymore", and she brought me in full time and I moved down from Boston. So yeah that, that's what brought me here. Yes, but there are a lot of a lot of Cubans here and so I've learned to really appreciate the culture.

Paul Vato: Sure. How far south in Miami, or how far south in Miami are you? How far south in Florida are you?

Will Luera: Like from Miami, from here?

Paul Vato: I was just trying to find out where you were in Florida and I don't.

Will Luera: Oh, gotcha. Basically it's on the Gulf side, so we're like not on the Atlantic Ocean, we're on the Gulf side. And we're about three hours north of Miami. If you head up the Gulf.

Paul Vato: Got it. Got it.

Will Luera: There's Orlando right in the middle, then we're a little bit more we're to the west of that.

Paul Vato: I used to travel a lot to Sarasota. My friend's father lived in Bradenton. I think it was Bradenton. And we go to Siesta Key, Sarasota.

Will Luera: That's exactly where I'm in Florida. I am in Sarasota.

Paul Vato: Really? Okay I'm gonna need your address so that when I come visit, I have a place to stay.

Will Luera: Please. Yeah. It's so funny that you say that cause very few people pass through Sarasota. There's all these other big cities. So the fact that you've been here, that's awesome.

Paul Vato: I love it. Recently though, because I'm working with a brand called Owwll, and their headquarters are in Boca, it's on the other side, so I've been there a couple times to visit and to do a trade show and a TEDx event and all this. I'm blanking Florida a lot. I know people are definitely moving there.

Will Luera: Yeah. And I know that it definitely, it has its reputations and stuff like that. It's a big state. There's just a lot of different people here. I feel very lucky, the Sarasota area, this little corner of Florida, is really cool. I feel very lucky to live here.

Paul Vato: It's a great area. I remember, I think Siesta Key was one of the nicest beaches maybe in the U.S.

Will Luera: That's true. Yeah. I always tell people I'm like, we're number one or something years number two beach in America. And I tell people I'm like, that includes Hawaii. Like we're beating out the Hawaiian beaches. So we're up there.

Paul Vato: That's amazing. We had already a couple questions or comments from the peanut gallery, from the audience. Chris wanted to know, "porque no Guillermo, why not Guillermo?"

Will Luera: That's a great question. I wish it was "Guillermo" and when I go back to Mexico, they call me "Guillermo" and they'll call me "Guillermo" or what would be the "Will" equivalent of "Guillermo" is "Memo". So when I'm in Mexico, they'll call me "Memo".

Paul Vato: Yeah, instead of "Weeel".

Will Luera: Instead of "Weeel". Yeah.

Paul Vato: "Weeel".

Will Luera: Yeah.

Paul Vato: I am a "Junior" and they used to call me "Youñior", of course then my brother wouldn't let me live that down. And there was this little fat cartoon character named "Ñoño" from Chavo Del Ocho show or something. Then they started calling me "Ñoño".

Will Luera: Oh man.

Paul Vato: Not good memories of traveling to Mexico in the middle of August when it was so damn hot and it felt like my father would kidnap us. Like we were kidnapped victims. He would throw us in a van. He would drive like a madman from Chicago, the Chicagoland area, and I think he'd almost make it as far as Texas, Texas is so big, it takes a whole day. So I feel like we'd make it almost to the north of Texas. Sleep there. And my mom would have to pack food and she was feeding him as he's driving. And we'd make it in like a couple days. I think we spent an extra day in McAllen, Texas, where my grandmother had a house to help her fix it up and things like that. I just remember these very hot Mexican summers. Oh, it was misserable for a little fat kid.

Will Luera: I feel like it almost sounds like our parents were, our families were on like the same migration trails because my family was from Chicago area originally. And we would do that drive, the one that you're talking about, as you described it, as soon as you said we would stop at, I'm, like, I remember those stops in Northern Texas. Eventually, over the years Hope, Arkansas became like a stop. We knew that we were gonna stop or stay at Hope, Arkansas. I don't know why that always became a thing. And then we would do the McAllen stop also. I also have extended family in that area, now I still have family there. Yeah.

Paul Vato: Very interesting. Let's figure this out cuz we're probably related. My mom was born in Harlingen, and then kind of raised in McAllen and then somehow went to Ohio and then went over to Chicago and that's where she met my father, like in the 60s, she met him on that first day. I think she still kicks herself for hooking up with him. Where would you guys go in Mexico? Would you guys go to Monterrey? Cuz that's where my father's family was from.

Will Luera: Stop it, man. Yeah. That's where we would go. You say Harlingen and I know we have extended family at Harlingen. I hear the name of that place a lot when my family talks about it, like Harlingen and McAllen and all that.

My father went up through Texas. And the funny thing about my father is that he was actually, he was born in the United States when my grandfather was migrating, when he was part of the Brasero Program. My father was born in McCallen and then eventually came back to the U.S., moved to LA, and then ended up in Chicago. My mother came on a student visa straight to Chicago, and then that's where they met probably very similar story as yours. My mother is the one that's from Monterey actually from a little town outside of Monterey, which,

Paul Vato: Don't say Dr. Gonzalez.

Will Luera: Not Dr. Gonzalez. No, oh, that would've been. No, you've probably driven through her town. If you were driving down to Monterey through Laredo, I imagine passed through Laredo, maybe sometimes?

Paul Vato: McAllen and Reynosa.

Will Luera: If you came, ever came through Laredo, you hit a little town called Cienega de Flores, which is outside of Monterrey. It's like on your way to Monterrey, but it's through the Laredo path.

Paul Vato: Got it. Got it. It's all so close. Have you done your DNA or have you done like your ancestry, DNA?

Will Luera: I have.

Paul Vato: That is that migration pattern of our people. It was exactly what I thought, like 63% Spanish 30% Native American, but it was exactly that, here's where your family's all, and it was Monterrey, and then Texas. Some of us, when they said "run for the border", they didn't mean almost make it all the way up to Canada. My God.

Will Luera: I remember before social media, before all this 23andMe and Ancestry, my family would say oh yeah, we've got extended family up in Oregon and Washington. Like they would talk about this family. And then Facebook starts opening up and I start connecting with all this family up in that corner. And then I get on Ancestry and I look up my grandfather. And then you start to see all the documents, all the immigration documents. And you're like seeing, oh, wow. Like they used to just follow the picking seasons all the way up there. And then they would just work all the way down. And similar to you, I am like 50% like Native, then it's 30 to 40, 35% of Iberian Peninsula, like Spain and all that. And then I'm like all over the world after that, it's Arabic, it's Northern Africa, it's Southeast Asia. I'm like, wow, they really they like put me together. I'm quite a mix.

Paul Vato: Very similar. I even saw, and it could be zero, because it was like 1%, but like Welsh. I was like, how the heck does that happen? For me, what was sad was 0% Asian. Cause I have Asian features, I must be some kind of Asian, but no, zero. And it was a little heartbreaking because I have this Asian soul or Asian spirit that, maybe just cause I like dim sum. I don't know. No, no.

Will Luera: I think the only three parts of the world, the only three parts of the world that didn't show up on my map or Russia, India and Australia, everything else, I had like DNA scattered everywhere.

Paul Vato: Wow. Wow. Yeah, but that was also, of course there is that Arabic influence, when the Moors were in Spain at the Iberian Peninsula and all that. Chris also said that on Fireside, we find out that we are long lost brothers.

Will Luera: We gotta just keep digging and then we're eventually gonna be like, oh yeah.

Paul Vato: Yeah. A hundred percent. Where did you grow up in the Chicagoland area? I grew up in Aurora.

Will Luera: Okay. I grew up in Little Village is where, like my initial, like upbringing, so on the West Side, like right off of 26th street. I always tell folks like that we did the reverse White flight. Like we, when I was in fourth grade we moved to the suburbs. We moved to Burbank, south of Ford City, up that way. We moved to Burbank for a couple of years. I always tell folks for those two years I became "Bill" and not because I wanted to, but that's what everybody just kept calling me.

Paul Vato: Okay, "Bill".

Will Luera: Yeah. I came in I'm like my name's William Luera and they're like, okay. I never even heard of Bill. I'm like oh, okay. I call it reverse White flight is because we were there for two years that we just couldn't make it work, and it had nothing to do with the people. I had great friends, we had good neighbors. It just wasn't our vibe. It was too quiet. And so we ended up moving back to the inner city. Which was still pretty ghetto back then. We moved into Pilsen. And then that was my formative years. Like middle school through high school.

Paul Vato: Around what year would this have been?

Will Luera: This would've been from 1986. Yeah, 1986 is when we moved back to Pilsen and then I was there until 1992.

Paul Vato: So that would've been like your high school years and all that would've been?

Will Luera: Yeah.

Paul Vato: In Chicago, in Pilsen? I didn't experience Pilsen until later on when we started doing improv there, would've been like 97, 98, maybe 99. Because that's where we put ¡Salsation! together, and Pilsen was where we were doing one show on a Friday and one show on a Saturday, Second City, in Old Town in Chicago. Probably on Saturday nights and in Pilsen on Friday nights. It was quite the experience, it was wonderful to see this community, but I think it was maybe even starting to get gentrified.

Will Luera: Late nineties, it was starting up. Yeah. I was already in college or I was outta college by then, but I would be coming back. I remember the first time I saw a barbecue place. Everything was Mexican. And then you see a barbecue place and you're like, wait a minute. One of these things, not like the other. All right. And then then you see a gastro pub and I'm like, wow. Okay. Now Pilsen's changing.

Paul Vato: Yeah, it certainly is. Coffee shops, fancy coffee shops. Where did you go to school?

Will Luera: I went to Saint Ignatius College Prep.

Paul Vato: And then to college?

Will Luera: Oh, then to college. I went to Boston College.

Paul Vato: So that's how you ended up in Boston.

Will Luera: Yeah. Yeah. I loved Chicago, but I definitely needed to spread my wings. I need some space for my parents, so I applied to so many schools as far away as possible and Boston was the one that worked out best.

Paul Vato: You needed a little bit more racism in your life. I'm guessing?

Will Luera: Oh yeah, I got that lesson right away, man. Those first couple years in Boston!

Paul Vato: I'll bet. I'll bet. We'll have to do a whole show on that. I was quite the opposite. I applied to one school and for some reason I'm like, oh, if I don't get in, then I guess I just won't go to college and that was the University of Illinois, three hours away from my parents, so that once a month I could come home and drop my laundry off, get it done and then go back to school.

Will Luera: You said in the Champaign-Urbana?

Paul Vato: Champaign-Urbana, yeah.

Will Luera: That was on my list, I almost, you won't believe, once again, our paths almost crossing, although I don't know what years you were in school. It got so far from me, I had a dorm picked out in Champaign-Urbana, like I was gonna go, and then BC sent me an acceptance letter. I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, I guess that's where I'm going now.

Paul Vato: Did you just fly out? Cuz for me, my dad just drove me down, it was only three and a half hours away. But did you just then have to fly out to Boston or did you drive cross country. It's not that far, from Chicago.

Will Luera: For the application part, was blind. Like we did not know, I knew nothing about Boston. I knew nothing about the school. I just liked what they offered. So the first time I went there, we flew out, my first week of school.

Paul Vato: Got it. What did you end up studying?

Will Luera: I studied physics and computer science. That was my double major.

Paul Vato: Jesus!

Will Luera: Yeah, yeah, I did that. I lived in that world. I lived in the physics computer science world for about 17 years before I got the job here in Florida.

Paul Vato: So how long have you been in Florida now?

Will Luera: It'll be eight years in November.

Paul Vato: Got it. Wow. Are you using your physics degree in the world of theater?

Will Luera: I think a lot of what I teach in improv was very, especially early on when I was becoming a teacher, it was very influenced by what I had learned in physics. A lot of the way that I saw the improv stage was influenced by that.

Paul Vato: Wow. That is very interesting. I was just trying to ask a snarky question, but I think we're getting somewhere. Isn't that amazing though? How physics is in the world, but improv the way you can relate improv to a lot of things where you wouldn't think so, but you sure can.

Will Luera: Yeah. It's actually happening to me again right now with a whole other discipline, and I'll talk about that in a little bit. I was learning physics and improv in college, like both were happening simultaneously. And I'm doing this action, because I feel like those two parts of my brain were just like, rubbing up against one another. The example I often give, one of the more mainstream examples that we all look at, we all at least have heard of the idea of Schrödinger cat or know a little bit about what the idea of Schrödinger Cat, right? Like the whole theory being that, if you put a cat with a radioactive device inside of a box and you close the box and then up until the point, and I'm really simplifying this experiment, but basically, up until the point that you open the box, the cat is both simultaneously dead or alive.

It's both until you verify with your eyes and then you say, oh, the cat is dead. Then, the reality of the cat being alive, that reality is gone. Now we're focusing on the cat being dead. So how does that apply to an improv stage? When I used to teach early improv, I'm like the blank stage of an improv scene, it could be anything. It is all possibilities at once. All possibilities exist on the improv stage at once until somebody says, this is what it is, until somebody says we're at the Grand Canyon, we're at the dentist's office, we're on a first date, et cetera. Up until that point, it could be anything, but you have to observe that one reality.

And so anyways, that's how my nerdy brain brought these two ideas together. I teach a lot from that from like anything is possible in an improv stage. Once you know what it is, you have to tell everybody, this is what I see. And then everybody will see it with you.

Paul Vato: That is such a great way to look at it. Yeah. Yeah. Round of applause, that is such a great way to look at an improv stage. And you're right. You have to let people know. Del Close used to teach us it was okay to take a second and look at all the possibilities and then pick the most interesting one and I feel like that's almost similar to that where, you've got this world of possibilities out there, which one are you gonna choose? But now you have to let everyone know what you've chosen, whether it's by object work or action or whatever. But that is such a great way to combine the two. This is one of the methods that you would use to teach?

Will Luera: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Then you would start to hear, like what you just mentioned about Del Close and it made me feel better. I was a young teacher trying to make sense of the improv I was learning and I was using what I knew, which was physics. That started to just help me. It helped me understand it and helped me communicate it. But then folks would tell me, there's other teachers that are saying very similar things to you, and that just helped me feel validated. I'm like, okay, at least I'm onto something that is, at least I'm not crazy in the way that I'm seeing this stuff.

Paul Vato: No, that's wonderful.

Will Luera: And to this day it helps me teach it. Sorry, go ahead.

Paul Vato: It's whatever helps you teach it, but you're also helping some students understand it that maybe are more linear thinking and thinking about physics and have that part of the brain working where you can actually relate to them with your style of teaching improv.

Will Luera: I think you're right, and I think it has helped. It has helped me teach it and reach people in different ways, and it's helped me understand it a bit more. I feel like my teaching right now is going through a whole other evolution because now I became a CrossFit coach, so a whole other cult, not the improv cult, but the fitness cult of CrossFit. I became a trainer, and the way we coach CrossFit is now starting to influence the way that I coach improv. It's made me realize like some blind spots in my teaching that I can be better at. Once again this action is happening where these two parts are bumping up against one another.

Paul Vato: It's funny that you would say that because when I got into yoga, the same things started happening where you start looking at improv, like you do yoga. It helps each other because you're supposed to be in the moment when you're doing improv, you're supposed to be in the moment listening and things like that. And yoga's very similar where you're supposed to be in the moment, not thinking about the past, not thinking about the future where you want to go, but rather enjoying this moment that we're in. I think improv is very similar to that. Worst case scenario you can always come back to the Chicagoland area and work at Fermilab.

Will Luera: I did an internship there, my senior year high school.

Paul Vato: I worked there also because my father was one of the first hires in whenever they opened, maybe like within that first year. He used to work at a place called Clark Equipment. It was called Austin-Western first I think. He had a factory job. They built forklifts and he was a foreman and then they were going to close, so they said, Pablo, you need to go grab another job. Cause he was already older. He had me when he was like in his forties. So he was already like in his fifties then. And they're like, Hey, we're gonna close. So you should probably go get another job. A guy that used to work for him was now in charge of hiring at Fermilab they're like, hey, we would love to have you here. That's when they were building the magnets for their Collider. He ended up working there. He and this other guy who was like 23, they're like, yeah, we'll do this for six months until our factory closes, now we've got jobs. Another company Clark Equipment came in and bought the forklift factory. So they didn't close for another 10 years.

My dad worked two eight hour jobs. First shift was at Austin Western, which he'd walk at the end of our block, so he'd walk there, walk back. My mom would have lunch for him. He would pick it up. He would then drive or carpool to Fermilab and put in another eight hours. So I didn't really grow up with my dad, because growing up, he was just a guy that was around on the weekends, working, still working on one of our houses or mowing the lawns or, shoveling snow.

So I don't know how he did it because I had to get up early just to do this interview and, I'll be honest with you, I'm exhausted already.

Will Luera: Oh man. But isn't that something like you're giving me as you go through that story. You're like, like so many things are just passing away brain. Like you're making me think about like how hard my father and a lot of my male relatives, how hard they work. You made me think about this one summer in college where I worked, I'd say very similarly, I had to put in two full-time jobs at the same time over the summer, it was only over the summer, not over, however long your dad did. It sounds like almost 10 years. Yeah. Then it suddenly, that cascade of thoughts, makes me think of like the horrible stereotype of Latinos and immigrants of being lazy. I always tell people, I'm like, the reason why you think they're lazy is because whenever you might catch a glimpse of Latino resting it's cuz they're probably in between jobs. It's like the only time they could rest.

Paul Vato: That's it. I was so pissed yesterday. I slept right through my siesta. I was so upset.

Will Luera: That's funny.

Paul Vato: Thanks. Thank you. I'm working on my book.

Will Luera: I just did standup for the first time last week. Like an actual show, like I've done open mics before, but I did my first set last week.

Paul Vato: We need to talk, I've done it a handful of times. I'm almost thinking about maybe just doing a one person show, so there's not that pressure of standup comedy. Do you think knowing improv and having an improv background helped you with your stand up?

Will Luera: This is where I know it helped me. The reason why I did it was because I was part of a class that kind of led up to this actual, like big performance. And the one advantage I had was stage presence. The fact that you're already used to being in front of an audience, like that was one advantage I had. Number two was, we already know what's funny. Even if we haven't crafted the joke yet, we kind of have an idea of what makes something funny and maybe even what is out of bounds, like what you shouldn't be. I was able to put together the skeleton of my set pretty quickly, where a lot of my classmates were struggling with like just zeroing in on something that was funny. They were just shocking, a bunch of ideas and some were really offensive. Some just weren't funny. I think at least as improvisers, you have an idea of where those boundaries are.

Paul Vato: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good. Good. And I'm sorry, was this part of a class that you were taking or why did you have to do this standup?

Will Luera: Yeah, so there's a standup club here that offers these classes and then they put you up on the main show. You'll go up, like your graduation show is part of main show and like on a prime night at a prime time. And so again, it was like, like I've done open mics before where I've just been like, hey, here's some dumb ideas I've had, but then this one it's like, they actually coached you into crafting an actual set. So yeah, it was part of this class.

Paul Vato: Oh, wonderful. Congratulations, cuz it's not an easy thing to do.

Will Luera: It was scary, but I enjoyed that fear. I miss it sometimes.

Paul Vato: Oh, wonderful. And you'll be doing it again? I take it.

Will Luera: Yes. Yeah, now that I have a set. This one, it ended up being five minutes, but it was in class before I had to cut it down. It was a pretty solid 10 minute set. So I know I could do that and I could do that well. Now that I have a better sense of how to craft a set I'd like to try it again. There is an artistry to it. There is an artistry of weaving these jokes and these punchlines and the timing behind it, there's an artistry that you appreciate.

Paul Vato: Wow. Wonderful. Who are some of your favorite standup comedians either from now or from the past?

Will Luera: I think like right now I'm really enjoying Bill Burr right now. And I don't know if it's that Boston thing that, that kind of.

Paul Vato: Sure.

Will Luera: There's a woman that I know that I used to perform with, I find her stand-up very funny. I say all that, cuz it might sound like I'm playing favorites, but I think she's great. Her name is Jen Kirkman. She has a few Netflix specials.

Paul Vato: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Will Luera: Then the rest are, there's some names now , that I've enjoyed, but they're like hot topics right now that you have to be careful with. I have found like some of Chappelle's stuff to be brilliant and some of Louis CK's and Aziz Ansari, of course they've all now have had moments where, they've had to go through their own evolution and are still going, and in some cases still going through that evolution. John Mullaney, he's been a lot of fun as well. I believe he's a Chicagoan if I'm not mistaken. My original one look back at like eighties. I don't know if you remember, Robert Townsend from like the eighties and nineties.

Paul Vato: Sure.

Will Luera: I remember Robert Townsend and early Andrew Dice Clay were very formative for me.

Paul Vato: OOOOHHH! Yeah. Hickory, dickory, dock!

Will Luera: Yeah.

Paul Vato: Yeah. He's still out there touring and hitting it.

Will Luera: He's coming to Sarasota in a couple months. Yeah.

Paul Vato: Oh man. You're gonna have to go check him out.

Will Luera: I need to try to get tickets to that. Yeah.

Paul Vato: It's refreshing sometimes to see. He's been around for a while, but he's starting to hit it big, which is, Mark Norman.

Will Luera: Yes.

Paul Vato: He is unapologetic, I think it's refreshing or people like Joey Diaz. You can't cancel 'em because they don't care. And that's their thing, and they're funny. And I think that's it, if it's funny first, then it's okay. Sometimes as satirists, as comedians, we should be allowed that little extra step because sometimes you're just trying stuff out and see if it works. I'm a big fan of Tom Segura.

Will Luera: Oh yes.

Paul Vato: Sebastian Maniscalco, another Chicago guy. Wow. Yeah. These are all great names. You got, you be like thinking now.

Natasha Leggero. Christina P, Tom Segura's wife. I worked on Sarah Silverman's show.

Will Luera: Oh yeah. Another brilliant one. Yes.

Paul Vato: Yeah. Yeah. That's good. I think we're in good company and I love the fact now that a lot, and I think thanks to Joe Rogan, a lot of these comedians are now smoking cigars.

Will Luera: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Paul Vato: I guess I gotta work that angle, become the official supplier to comedians. Vato Cigars.

Will Luera: There it is. I see it on the screen right behind you.

Paul Vato: Yeah. Oh yeah. There it is. Perfect timing.

Will Luera: Cool. That was, yeah. Was that really, that wasn't you doing that just came up at the right time?

Paul Vato: Yeah. It just came up. Improv!

Will Luera: It's like the moment you said it, it like popped up. It was great.

Paul Vato: That is too funny. No it's just on a, loop. Different photos from my life. That's it. So if if you wanna start smoking, you let me know.

Will Luera: I have, it wouldn't be a start for me, but I yeah but I, next time I go to Vegas I need to check it out. Even though it wouldn't be a start for me, I am blind to the landscape of it. I walk into agar shop. I dunno what, I don't know what to look at, what to look for, et cetera. I imagine that it's as complicated as like the landscape of, beer drinking or wine drinking or something like that, where there's a lot of variation there.

Paul Vato: You know what that's exactly it. Somebody just texted me that they're watching. So hello, Vaughn Papanicholas of Chicago. It's also like the coffee business, he's in the coffee business. It's anything that's that's handcrafted that comes from the earth. So it's very linear, very similar to handcrafted beer and wine, cigars are the same way, cause it comes from the earth. It's all natural. It's crafted by hand. If you start putting chemicals into it, it changes the flavor, things like that. They're little pieces of artwork that have been touched by 400 pairs of hands from the time that the seeds were planted all the way till the salesman hands it to you, and takes the wrapper off and cuts it and then you smoke it, so there's this kind of romantic side to it. It's in the world of tobacco, which if there was no tobacco, there'd be no USA. Our first crops in Jamestown were tobacco.

Will Luera: That's beautiful, man.

Paul Vato: Do you have any Vegas stories? Do you have any good? Any?

Will Luera: I do have one. It's crazy, but not in a, not like in a hangover kind of way, like the movie, but it is crazy. It's actually a great Vegas story in that there was one year in my improv career, this was about four years ago, where I was, I think for 10 consecutive weekends, I was away from the house. Very like the the inverse of what your father was going through. Every weekend I had to go fly somewhere, teach somewhere. I was gone. After the last weekend I told my wife, I'm like, hey, listen what are you doing this weekend in October? Are you available? And then she's " yes", I'm like, block it off. We're gonna go do something. I didn't tell her what it was. The weekend comes around and I just told her I'm like, listen tomorrow morning, this was Saturday night, I told her, okay, tomorrow morning, Sunday at 4:00 AM, we're leaving the house and you gotta pack a bag. I need you to pack a swimsuit, comfortable clothing, a fancy outfit, and maybe a second comfortable outfit. We're gonna leave with one of the comfortable outfits. She's like, "okay". 4:00 AM comes around, our babysitter arrives, and my wife was like, why is the babysitter at 4:00 AM? I'm like, don't worry about it. Babysitter comes in. We leave. She still has no idea where we're going. We're driving for an hour. She notices we're driving towards Tampa. Still has no idea where we're going. Now, she's noticing we're going into the airport. She has no idea where we're going. It wasn't until we walk up to the plane that she sees, we're going to Vegas.

We fly to Vegas, we arrive at 10:30 in the morning, immediately check into the Luxor, basically just leave our bags. My wife then hits this other gear that I've never seen. My wife, she's Brazilian, so she's also an immigrant, but she's pretty reserved. But then like we literally put our bags down in the Luxor and then suddenly something happens, and she's let's go. And I'm like, oh, okay. We go down to the lobby of the Luxor, we start doing things there. Then we walk out, we walk straight to New York, literally for the next eight hours. She gets a tattoo. Like we're doing all these things. And we're like for eight hours, we're just like enjoying The Strip but the reason why we went to Vegas is cause I made dinner reservations at é at The Cosmopolitan. Yeah. Eeeeeeeh! That was the whole purpose of the trip was that dinner.

So at six o'clock at night, we go there to have our dinner. We finished by around eight or nine, walk more of The Strip and our flight is that same night. Remember we got there 10 in the morning. Our flight is at 12:30 after midnight, that same day. It was an insane day in Vegas.

Paul Vato: Oh my God. So you don't have to answer this question, but I would like to know, was it like 700 bucks for the two of you for dinner or did you have wine, and it was more like a thousand bucks?

Will Luera: Man, you did the math right on, it was 700 bucks for the dinner. When I made the reservations, I did not pay for the wine. And I'm like, oh, this is already so much. But then you walk in and you're just seeing everything and they give you like one last chance. Like the sommelier is there and is like for $150, you could do the pairings. And I'm just like, ah, man, alright fine, we'll do that as well. And it's 150 bucks each and that got us to about a thousand.

Paul Vato: Man. That is a tough nut to crack. I've eaten at Jaleo, and for those that don't know, é is the E with a little accent over it. I forget what it's called. Ah, I used to know. It's owned by José Andres, who is a famous Spanish chef. I want to go to é, cuz Jaleo I love, it's, tapas. It's great. It's basically full price for very little portions, but é is 10 times that. It must have been an amazing experience.

Will Luera: It's supposed to be like a chef's table type thing, right? It's just like 10 of you in this little room. It was like Cirque du Soleil. It was theater, it was food, it was the whole thing. I loved it.

Paul Vato: They only have two seatings per day, the first of the month, they send it out where people can make reservations. So you can only do it like that first day of the month and it's for two or three months from now, it's gonna be 500 bucks if you want the whole experience.

Will Luera: Yeah. To this day, I still talk about it. Like I'll bring it up to people and just start to, I'll start to describe the meal. It's 24 courses or something. And it was just amazing.

Paul Vato: That is amazing, man. Yeah. What an experience. Next time you come out to Vegas, we'll definitely have to connect or next time I'm in Florida we'll have to do the same thing. So what's coming up for Will, for Guillermo, Bill?

Will Luera: Memo.

Paul Vato: Memo.

Will Luera: I'm starting to travel again. In fact, like right before I got on with you, I was starting to finalize plans for a week long workshop in New York. That'll be happening. Of course, I teach here year round in Florida. I'm gonna be going down to Columbia and South America to teach in October. So all that to say that the touring part of my work is starting to pick up. Those workshops are in improv, they're in sketch writing and they're in storytelling. Those are like my three main things, but I also do a lot of work. Thank you. I do a lot of stuff outside of that as well that I get hired in for. One of the big ones is workplace conflict, mediation. I'm really big into giving people the tools to communicate better in the workplace. So that's another set of my workshops.

Probably the one that is closest to my heart is my work in Alzheimer's and dementia and working with patients and caregivers. All of these workshops come from the root of improvisation and even in the Alzheimer's and dementia, I do two things. I do one that's what we call brain games where I'll go into memory care centers or assisted living centers and I'll do workshops with the residents. It's like fitness, it's cognitive fitness, it's working their brains a little bit. And then I also work with the people who take care of them, teach them the tools, especially like when somebody's going through an Alzheimer's episode where they've gone into this altered reality for a little bit. Giving these caregivers the improv tools to follow them and play along while these people are going through their episodes. This person is ill, they're dying and why fight them when they are in a happy memory. If they're in a happy memory, why fight them and try to drag them out of it, instead, live in there with them for a little bit, and they'll come out of it they always do. For that little moment, be there with them.

Paul Vato: Oh yeah. Yeah. Round of applause, man. Thank you. Thank you. You're doing God's work, man. That is fantastic. What's the name of the organization or is there someplace that people can contribute or help.

Will Luera: My workshops are now independent. I teach 'em either independently from me or through my theater, Florida Studio Theater. The original organization that I helped to found out of the Boston area is called Healing Moments. Healing moments does a lot of the workshops that I just described. They also interweave a spirituality aspect to it. They're now based out of Iowa, I still work with them to help develop workshops, but so I'll sometimes work through them. But a lot of this work now, especially living in Florida, which has a very heavy, retired population. I do a lot of this stuff, either hired independently or through Florida Studio Theater.

Paul Vato: Wow. My my grandmother had Alzheimer's, but she was also bulimic. So we'd have to go. "Hey grandma!" Sorry. Horrible horrific.

Will Luera: Oh my God.

Paul Vato: Oh man. I was like, maybe I won't do standup. Never mind.

Will Luera: Oh, no, that's a good one. You gotta just, once you get in the audience's trust, you put that one in.

Paul Vato: Exactly. Exactly.

Will Luera: Yeah.

Paul Vato: Is Instagram or your website Will-Luera.com. And for those of you that don't know I think everyone that's here on fireside already knows you can go right to that fortune cookie right below us. And you can click on that and you'll see my website, PaulVato.com.

You will also see Will-Luera.com. So please find Will. What's your Instagram, where people can follow you and do you prefer Instagram or Twitter, or do you have any?

Will Luera: Either one I checked both regularly. It's @WLuera, at everything. From Instagram and Twitter to Pinterest, it'll always be @WLuera.

Paul Vato: Oh. And Chris wants people to know that no cigars were harmed in the making of this podcast.

This is, this is amazing. Do you have anything that you'd like to promote? Any are you gonna go on tour soon? Or what do you have coming up?

Will Luera: Yeah, other than those few dates the rest of my schedule is starting it's finally I'm finally able to start to project and plan out in advance.

Paul Vato: So all of those dates start to pop up on my website, but I'm hoping to do some stuff on the west coast, in the Texas area, Chicago Northeast and Florida. So it'll all start once it all, once the schedule comes together, it'll all be on my website.

Pick me up in, in Las Vegas and I'll hit the road with you, especially to Columbia.

My, my brother's married to a Columbian from Barranquilla.

Will Luera: Oh, yes.

Paul Vato: I've been wanting to go to to Columbia, but are you teaching improv in Spanish or are the classes in English? How does that work when you go to South America or Latin America to teach improv?

Will Luera: Yeah. In Latin America the classes are in Spanish and and it's thankfully now that I live here in Florida, I speak a lot more Spanish than I did when I was in Boston.

But it's still it's it's a workout you, I don't know if you were like me where the Spanish I learned was at home, so it's very conversational. It's, it's not academic at all. And I've had to learn a lot of the more, advanced. I don't even say advanced, but yeah.

Advanced words to be able to teach. Yeah. Yeah. Technical words to be able to teach effectively, but yeah, but I'm when I'm in Latin America, those classes are all in Spanish.

Paul Vato: Ooh.

Will Luera: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Wow.

Paul Vato: Do you Portuguese, have you learned Portuguese?

Will Luera: I'm getting better at it. And I thankfully I am able to hear it often, which helps.

I'm able to hear it quite a bit and put it into practice. Like whenever I get to to my, the Portuguese lesson, on DuoLingo, I'll go sit next to my wife so that, she could either laugh at me or correct me as I'm going through it. .

Paul Vato: I would love to learn...

Will Luera: Yeah.

Paul Vato: COVID helped me with my Italian, so I really nice, brushed up on my Italian and a little bit of Russian. I was trying to learn a little bit of Arabic and Norwegian, but really I think I was for now I'll stick to the Italian, but I would love to learn portugese oh, all the romance languages would be something to learn.

Will Luera: I've been doing a little bit of the Russian and Arabic on DuoLingo as well. The letters I've really found the letter system in Arabic to be fascinating. I've really enjoyed learning that whole part of the language.

Paul Vato: The first day I was like, the first few hours I was like, this is impossible.

There's absolutely no way that I could ever figure this out. Impossible. And then you start, it starts clicking and you just start phonetically pronouncing the words. And then sometimes like "garage", it's the same, it's almost "karaaj" or something, you're like, oh, okay. And then you're just basically reading from right to left.

Will Luera: Yes.

Paul Vato: And phonetically sounding the words out and you surprise yourself when you're like, oh, that's pronounced, that's a KA that's KA. And then all of a sudden it starts clicking. So that is that's amazing. I like the gamification that DuoLingo helps with, but also Norwegian you've been?

Will Luera: Not norwegian, Russian. Russian that has been tough. Those letter, because they don't, I don't know when they're gonna cover the alphabet cuz they have not covered. I'm like a few I'm about a couple of months into it and they have not covered the alphabet yet. And which I found interesting in Arabic, they hit the alphabet right away.

Paul Vato: Instantly.

Will Luera: Yeah. That's why I was hoping I would just learn to, just like with Russian or anything else that I would just learn Arabic and start speaking it. Because I know a few words like "kayfhalak", "mazboot" "kwayes". "Kayfhalak" "Hi. How are you?" So I was just, and then nothing, it's all reading. I'm like, oh my God, this is impossible. I took Russian in college. So I do, oh, know the alphabet. And so I can decipher when I see something written I'm like, oh "cafe". So I can read the, that alphabet, but it's. Understanding what people are saying, especially when they're native speakers.

Yeah. And I wish

it's really, I'm sure there's method to all of this, but it's even with the Chinese one on DuoLingo, they don't give you the alphabet. They're just like throwing sounds at you. And I'm sure there's a reason for that. You gotta be able to get these sounds down first.

Paul Vato: But that is interesting that Russian just gives you the words that you're learning, but then Arabic goes right in with the alphabet.

So yeah. There's gotta be a reason, a method to their madness.

Will Luera: So funny. I'm convinced that we are, either we are alternate versions of ourselves or we're related in some way. Cause all the similarities are fascinated.

Paul Vato: There's CrossFit Will, and then there's Lazy Paul, so.

Will Luera: Okay, so alternate versions. I got it. we're like inverse.

Paul Vato: Yeah, I you know what, if we go back far enough I mean we're related somehow we've led such parallel lives with the improv. I mentioned it, I interviewed Kelly Leonard, who used to run Second City and Jonathan Pitts who had put together, the Chicago Improv Festival. That's the podcast I just put up today. I interviewed him July 1st, but I just put the podcast up and a lot of these similar things came up.

Will Luera: Yeah that's funny. Now, is your mother also from Monterrey?

Paul Vato: She was born in Harlingen, raised in the McAllen, but her mom, my grandmother, the one that was bulimic with Alzheimer's. She was from Monterrey. Her family was from Monterrey. But my mom was born in Texas, so she's not Mexican. She's not American. She's Texan.

Will Luera: She's Texan. Yeah. That is funny. Okay. So your mom was like what my father was cause yeah, my father was on the border and my mother was born in Monterrey. Okay.

Paul Vato: It's yeah, the opposite. So my dad was born in Monterrey in a little town called Doctor Gonzales, which I think now is probably part of Monterrey. because Monterrey just grew.

Will Luera: Oh yeah.

Paul Vato: Exponentially that, that I believe they've swallowed up the, like these little towns and villages. But yeah, he came from a family of 13 kids, I think.

Will Luera: Oh, okay. Yeah. My mother was a, my mother was a family of 11. 1 died as a baby, so 12. Yeah.

Paul Vato: Same, you know what I think it was exactly the same, or I think 13, but one died.

So. They were right there. And it was all girls. There were like three boys the rest girls and I think one, one or two died at birth. Wow. That's yeah.

Will Luera: I'm like looking up Doctor Gonzales. That's the name of it?

Paul Vato: Yeah. Doctor Gonzalez

Will Luera: Municipality.

Paul Vato: I love geography. I should have looked it up.

Will Luera: As of right now. Oh, okay. I see where it's at. So it is up towards the, oh, you know what? That's so weird. Dr. Gonzalez is, oh, that's gotta be like, just a few kilometers of where my mother was from.

Paul Vato: Okay.

Will Luera: Here, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a little little map. They're like on the same. There's one carretera (road). There's Dr. Gonzalez, Zuazua and then, Cienega de Flores, which is where my mom's from.

Paul Vato: Amazing. All right. Alright. We don't wanna bore people with this.

Will Luera: With a geography lesson, that's crazy.

Paul Vato: For those of you that, that love geography. My joke is for those of you that love geometry. No, but for those of you that like geography there is a great website. It's like Wordle, but spelled Worldle. And it'll show you the outline of a country and you have to guess what country that is. And know, of course, the U.S., you pick out right away, Australia, Canada, Russia. China, but then when it gets, I usually guess Africa first, cuz there's so many countries in Africa and then from there it'll point in the direction where it is and how many kilometers.

Will Luera: Oh my gosh. That's great.

Paul Vato: I think you would enjoy that. So I don't know if I finished telling you though, but then I worked at FermiLab also. I dunno if I actually.

Will Luera: Oh no, I don't think you got to that. Okay.

Paul Vato: I think before I went to college or maybe it was the summer after college, but yeah, I worked for one summer at FermiLab, where my dad had worked for many years.

Do you still have a little bit of time because we have a speaker request Mr. Chris Rosetti, who's been harassing us the whole time would like to come up and maybe ask you a question?

Will Luera: Sure. And oh, and the answer is 37 kilometers from where your father grew up and my mother grew up.

Paul Vato: That's like, what? 10 miles?

Will Luera: Yeah. Yeah. It's very close. That is nuts.

Paul Vato: Amazing. Wow. Okay. It's, I wonder if they knew each other? To everyone please would like to welcome Mr. Chris Rosetti to the stage. I don't know if you, if you'd like to come on camera or not? Chris, welcome!

Chris Rosetti: Thank you so much, Paul and Will both of you have provided a great interview today. I enjoy all of your guests, Paul, but this one has to have a follow up. You two have got to get together and we've gotta see the DNA test results. We've gotta see the road trip to the cities. We've gotta see you retrace the paths up to Chicago and back down to the border.

We've gotta see all of this come to fruition because these these are not coincidences. I'm telling you. This has been amazing. I have one quick question and I'll go back to the audience. Will, would you ever consider opening up your own improv club and all the headaches that come with that and rewards that come with that. I'm just curious about that. Thank you so much, guys.

Will Luera: Chris. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. That's a great question. And the answer is yes, I would. I think I I would love that. I have been lucky to I've worked for some amazing organizations. I've been given some great opportunities to to run these improv theaters.

But what I'll often say is that I'm really good at making money for other people. So like these theaters that I've worked at, the one in Boston, when I was first brought on that we were making, $250,000 a year. By the time I had left, it was like 2 and a half million. We were nearing 3 million a year by the time I left.

Here in, in Florida, the same thing I've been able to grow out the program. I I was actually supposed to move back up to the Northeast to run another couple of theaters, but that due to COVID that didn't work out. But I would love, yeah, I, the thing is I'm even in all those circumstances, as thankful as I am for those opportunities, I am working for somebody else. I'm in a way, executing someone else's vision through my own ideas. But it would be great to have like full like control of the space and execute it the way I want it to. Yes, the answer is yes, I expect.

Paul Vato: Perfect. You let you, know what Will, you let Chris and I handle the ownership of the club and you don't worry your pretty little face. You just do all the work.

Will Luera: Wait a minute.

Paul Vato: Yeah. You just worry about making money for us. You don't. Yeah, don't worry. My friend Vaughn, Papanicholas, who's slightly Greek Papanicholas just text me that I think they wanna see more of us. And I'm thinking that we should, maybe we should do a travel show.

I think what Chris was suggesting and go to Dr. Gonzales's go to the town that your mom grew up, but let's do a road trip, let's go through.

Will Luera: I would love that man. Like I'm looking at it right now and the the airport's like in between both of our towns the Aeropuerto de Monterrey. There's Dr. Gonzalez. There's el Aeropuerto de Cienega de Flores. We fly in, we meet up at the airport and we start there.

Paul Vato: Quite fun. Let's fly private though, yeah.

Will Luera: Yeah.

Paul Vato: And another thing is both of our fathers, very famous boxers. They would box lettuce, tomatos, onions.

Will Luera: That's great. That's a good one. That's your clothes right there, Paul.

Paul Vato: I you might not know this, but my father was a very famous boxer. All right. All right. Help me with my standup.

My long loss brother, it is such a pleasure to finally reconnect after all these years. Cause I'm sure we hung out in Chicago yeah. Back in the 19 hundreds. , it's great to, and see your success and you're gonna have to, so if you need help in Columbia, I'm your guy or, when you come out to Vegas you have a place to stay as well, if you don't want to stay in the hotels.

Will Luera: I appreciate it. I appreciate it, Paul. And yeah, there's a lot of. In addition to Columbia there's yeah, we could chat. If you're generally interested, there's a lot of Latin American opportunities in different festivals and stuff like that happen.

The festivals down there function a little different from the ones up here because they're a lot more, they're big events. They'll put you up. They'll feed you every day but you are working every day. You're doing some sort of show every day, but it's great.

Paul Vato: If you want to maybe even add the whole standup side to it I interviewed Richard Villa on my podcast and he's an amazing standup who had great connections with the Latino community and with specifically with Mexican standups. So I don't know if we ever do something that involves improv, stand up and comedy, he would be another great resource whether he's available or not, I don't know.

Will Luera: But that's great. Yeah, that's a good conversation to start. We could put a whole package together.

Paul Vato: I know that it would probably do well I'm friends with Johnny Jimenez who I dunno if you ever watched Pawn Stars, he's the toy expert. He owns a business called Toy Shack and he goes down there, for toy events, for ComicCon and toy events down in Mexico and, or Latin America. And what you said was very similar where they treat you so well, they put you up, they feed you and, they're, I don't know if they're starving for this content, but it's I think there's something there.

Will Luera: Agreed. That's great, man. Yeah. Let's let's follow up on that idea. I think that's awesome. There's something there.

Paul Vato: You got it. My friend. Any final thoughts before we wrap this up? And anything you'd like to promote. Please share any of your final thoughts.

Will Luera: Oh first of all, Chris, thank you for the question. That was a great question. And and again, got me thinking down that, that path. Cause I, I would love to do that someday and I love the travel show or yeah. I Whether it's a show or a, just continuing to discuss it look up our facts and share 'em with each other. I think that's that's awesome as well. And yeah I'm a lot of a lot of the stuff that I do everything from like the Alzheimer's work to workplace mediation, to improv, it's all on my website at Will-Luera.com. And if people wanna reach out any follow up questions or any know, if you're gonna be in the area in Sarasota, drop me in line, it's all there on my website.

Paul Vato: Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much for spending the time with it, Chris. Thank you. And everyone that's in the audience for thanks for the applause. Thanks for feedback. And for sharing the show. Thank you so much, Vaughn, out there on Facebook or wherever you're watching. Thank you for joining us.

His father was my mentor, Nicholas Papanicholas. Who had a great coffee company. So when I owned my ice cream shop, I own an Oberweis Dairy and Nick was one of my customers and became my friend and mentor. It's always great to think of Nicholas Papanicholas who passed away a long time ago, but was in, in my heart.

And I just wanna thank everyone, please go to PaulVato.com so that you can follow us across all socia media. Most importantly head on over to apple podcast, and leave us a review. Give us a follow and also on Spotify and I'm building my community on Goodpods. Big news, we just broke top 10 of independent comedy improv podcasts on Goodpods. So we're at nine and amongst all the other podcast we're like in the 12th place. So if you guys could go over there and give it a like. I'd like to go to top 10, on the regular, not just the indie, but on all.

So thank you Will for being part of this journey.

Will Luera: Thank you, Paul. This is fantastic. Thank you.

Paul Vato: You got it my friend and folks once again, thank you guys for being here, whether you're here or in one of our live streams and thank you all. And let's do this again. Will.

Will Luera: Yeah, let's have a follow up.

Paul Vato: You got it.