The last time i saw Gabriel perform was 7 years ago back in 2006 at the Improv in Ontario. Since then he has gone on become a household name with several Comedy Central specials, his television show Stand Up Revolution, competing in NBC’s Last Comic Standing, and even a few movie gigs. With the increase in success comes an increase in the size of venue at which one performs but even with that in mind I was floored by how big his show at the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino was. A 3700 capacity venue completely sold out of fans all dying to see “The Fluffy One”, it all felt a bit surreal but I was glad to see Gabriel getting the attention he deserves.
Gabriel of course didn’t come alone and brought two friends to open up the night. With him for the evening was the infamous Martin Moreno that we’ve all heard about from many different stories he’s told over the years as well as the slightly less known Alfredo Robles. I’ll admit it right now I was more of a fan Alfredo than I was Martin, the former just made me laugh more, though I will admit that each comedian had their moments throughout the night. Before Gabriel took the stage for the evening the openers came out for what they dubbed ” the commercial” part of the evening wherein they informed us of all the merchandise on sale for the evening. However, they made what was essentially a sales pitch a pretty entertaining 5 minutes. They even held a contest where the largest members of the audience competed for a t shirt, size 6X.
Once all that commotion was over we were treated with a rather entertaining intro video. The first half was a run down of all the rules given to us by Fluffy himself while the latter half was a more of a sizzle reel highlighting some of Gabe’s accomplishments over the course of his career. Then as it ended we witnessed the true sensation that is Gabriel Iglesias finally take the stage. Now out of respect to Gabe and his craft I won’t go into too much detail about his jokes as we both would prefer it if you experienced them firsthand for yourself. However I will say this much, Gabe is definitely one of the realest comedians in the game right now. The man is able to open himself to the audience to some of the most vulnerable moments of his life and find a way to make us at something that was definitely emotional for him. Whether it be about his recent bout with diabetes or some of the struggles he has faced with his family growing up Gabe just has this amazing ability to make us laugh at some of the darkest moments of his life. That may be the reason why he has been able to connect with his fans the way he has. Though it wasn’t all seriousness throughout the night as Gabe also went on to talk about various upbeat topics as well including his exploits while traveling and drinking with friends.
As the night came to a close my expectations for the night were vastly exceeded. Hell, they were shattered completely. I suppose Fluffy took a stage dive on them during his standing ovation at the end of the night. Take a look at my shots from the evening!
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