Q: Tell me a little about where you grew up and your life back then.

A: “I grew up in Los Angeles to a single mother. My parents were never married, so I was raised by mother, by herself. Papa had several kids off with different mothers, my dad was the ultimate ‘Papi Chulo.’”

Q: How do try to relate your life growing up with other people?

A: “Kids can relate to the fact that I didn’t grow up with a relationship with my dad, so it’s always a beautiful way of connecting with kids who have issues with their parents.”

Q: Who would you give credit to when it comes down to who you are as a person today?

A: “My mom’s dream when she came over from Mexico was raise a young, educated American boy, and so she really worked for me to get an education… I went to a private catholic high school and catholic university… I went to Loyola Marymount University.”

Q: Before becoming a performer, who would you say inspired you?

A: “As a kid, my uncle was a child actor.  He came up on a bunch of TV shows, so I always had this dream of being a performer, being an actor.”

Q: When did you truly get into motivational speaking?

A: “My aunt died, my uncle’s wife. When she died, it was the most devastating experience of my life. [I] went to her funeral, and no one was going to say anything, no one was giving a eulogy, and I was like ‘is someone going to say something,’ and they said ‘you say something if you want’ so I went up in front a whole bunch of people and I was like ‘ode to a rose, why did my tia die? Why did God take the one angel we still had on this planet?”

Q: So what happened after your public speaking moment at your aunt’s funeral?

A: I’m not going to let her death be in vein, so I’m going back to college and I’m going to graduate in her honor. When I said that to my family, I just remember people standing up and clapping and crying, and I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I know how to use my words to really move people,’ and that’s where Ernie G the speaker came in.”

Q: What did you do after you felt you were called to be a motivational speaker and comedian?

A: “I quit graduate school, started doing comedy, and here we are later, I’m one of the top 20 latino comedians in the country.”

Q: Where has being a comedian taken you?

A: “It has taken me all over the world. I was on tour with George Lopez and Gabriel Iglesias… Me, George and Gabriel were on this show called “Que Locos” and that show kind of us put on the map.”

Q: Did you just stick to comedy?

A: “We were travelling across the country doing comedy, but just making people laugh at a comedy club wasn’t fulfilling for me, but when I started doing this empowerment comedy stuff, it really opened the doors to perform and colleges and universities all over the country.”

Q: What makes you want to continue to keep doing what you do everyday?

A: “I get to wake up every morning knowing that God put me on the planet to do this empowerment comedy, not just making people laugh, but making young people fall back in love with who they really are.”

Q: What is the biggest advice you give to students or anyone in general that attends your leadership workshop?A: “If it is to be, it is up to me… If it’s going to happen, if you’re going to get into college, if you’re going to successful, if you’re going to do well in life, it’s because you made the decision to make it happen. If it is to be, it is up to me.”