Conversations with Paulina Perez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paulina Perez.

Hi Paulina, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story starts on the playground of blank pages. For as far back as I can remember, I’ve been a mad cat typing words on my puter. I write to figure out what the heck is going on in my jelly-fleshed brain. I started my first blog in college, I called it PEP Thought, a smirky ode to “pep talk” (PEP being my initials). These days I write on my Substack, Pretty Sure No One Asked, a title that pretty much sums up most people’s attitude toward anything that comes out of my mouth.

Then came comedy, a perfect storm of lent ears and a microphone. Attractive enough for a person like me who reveals her personality in glimpses of honesty and then all at once. Comedy came into my life screaming and shouting out of my chest to get the fuck on stage. At the time I started comedy, I had realized how ridiculously obnoxious adults could be. Like, at some point someone told them that walking the earth with a stick up their ass was mandatory. Not most adults, but definitely a solid number of the ones you’ll find around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW. I was at a tipping point when I did my first open mic. I found comedy as a way to feel less alone in the land of assholes and looks-maxxing bros we were living in. A couple months later I found myself in Austin and got pulled up on Kill Tony two months into doing comedy, but a big joke book nonetheless.

The best part about Kill T for me wasn’t that millions of people got to watch me be silly on a national stage. It was the minutes before going up that meant the most for me. I had just gotten up from my table between bucket name pulls and at some point between a pee and a lip-gloss touch-up, my gut told me my name was about to be called and I was about to go up on stage. Sure enough, the second I sat back down at my table, the next bucket pull was Paulina Perez.

It wasn’t a poopy-my-pants kind of gut feeling; it was my intuition telling me to trust it. The thing that’s bigger than me but lives in me spoke in that moment and I listened to it. That’s what was most valuable and igniting about the whole experience. Since then, I’ve been working hard to nurture the funny bone that feels most like me.

Now you can catch me live every month with @Gordos_Productions_Official in Perris, CA & @NoQuestionshow in Riverside, CA!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No path is a smooth road. My motivating factor in anything I do is to make life fun. It’s to enjoy the process of noticing, putting in the work, and transforming. Like most people I look up to, there’s an ocean of hard work that goes into materializing your vision. I’m extremely lucky to be alive and if something has come “easy” to me it’s because when no one was looking I was clocking into Pau’s silly factory consuming what inspires me and playing on the playground of a blank page. + getting really sweaty to expel copious amounts of rage from inside.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Sounds cheesy but my job is to make visions come to life. Right now I’m doing that at UCI Health, helping organize the Anti-Cancer 5k run/walk/bike challenge that raises funds for cancer research. Before this, I was working at an AI-Startup securing financial investments for the company. Now, I continue writing for startup companies, translating their vision into newsletters and blogs!

What was your favorite childhood memory?
One of my favorite childhood memories is the day my parents brought home the first of many Labrador retrievers, Ruby. She was a yellow lab with a pink nose, and she ran straight up to the glass sliding door of our backyard, where I was waiting for my dad’s approval to go out and meet her. My brother, two years older than me, was terrified. My dad stood on the other side of the yard, watching. I opened the door and let myself out to prove to my brother she was nothing to be scared of. As I jumped up and down with my first best paw-friend, my dad smiled and laughed, standing on the last patch of green grass that house would ever have.
Ruby was a big part of our family skit. One day she grabbed a toy out of my dad’s hand and nipped at his finger. He bit her back on the ear. And said “an eye for an eye” . Ruby got the message. Thats Two of my favorite memories among others involving a golf ball to the head thanks to my older brother. I was extremely lucky to be raised by two parents and a home full of love.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://substack.com/@prettysurenooneasked
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prettysurenooneasked/

Image Credits
Gordos Productions, Sonny Sotelo. No Question Comedy, Travis Smith & Davey the Don. Kill Tony.