Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Antonio Verdugo.
Paul, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It starts with Pomona. This city, in which I’ve lived my whole life, allowed me to find my footing creatively and develop both my sense of pride and my sense of humor. I graduated from Cal Poly Pomona (in 2017) and even performed on my first booked comedy show in Pomona.
My first love was music. I was a member of the South Coast Youth Symphony Orchestra and performed in such historic venues as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Fox Theater in Pomona and even performed in the Rose Parade. It was through this that I truly felt comfortable on a stage in front of an audience. My only goal was to continue to perform, in any way possible, for a crowd. The energy you get in front of an attentive audience truly is heroin, but I knew this was the highest level I’d personally achieve in music, and I wanted a different type of challenge. Enter stand up comedy.
I was a member of the group of students who started Cal Poly’s online radio station and gained an admiration for broadcasting and show development. Through this, I landed an internship with one of the best crowd work comedians in the world, Ian Bagg and his SiriusXM show The Ian Bagg Show. Being around him, and the rest of the crew including Jen Murphy and Bryan Erwin, I got my first taste of the Hollywood side of comedy. The entire time I was interning, I was absorbing both how to develop jokes and also how to act as a comic. I saw the good and the bad of the industry. I heard jaded veterans telling the numerous stories of how they were screwed over and also saw just how much it took to even be seen by the industry. I always say I am lucky to have had these experiences, yet if I was not prepared for this opportunities, they would never have happened.
After developing my skills as an audio engineer and producer, both with the college radio station and SiriusXM show, I began helping live comedy shows, generally running sound and announcing the hosts. I was also beginning to attend open mic nights. Then came my second big bump. The owner of one of the venues I frequented asked me to take over their open mic nights, as the other host had been disinterested and attendance was low. I hosted my first open mic with four performers on the list and virtually no audience. It took months of building but soon came more musicians and poets to the mic. In addition, comedians, knowing that one of their own was now hosting, came in great numbers to sign up. There would be nights with 20+ performers signed up and over half of the comedians. A notable open micer that I befriended during this time, Alejandro, would go on to finish second on American Idol. There was an insane cashe of talent in this little Pomona bar.
After passing on the mic to a friend, I began helping out Comedy Pop Up, a production which would host pop up comedy shows in random venues. Initially I was a sound guy, bouncer, janitor, door man, usher, and whatever else they needed. I had a passive role, showing up and working for gas money. Eventually, the owner came to me with an idea to start a podcast to promote the live shows. A week later, he came to me with an even bolder idea, start a podcast studio. CPU studios opened in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles in August of 2017. I took on the role of studio manager and minority owner of the company. To this day, there are now 23 shows on the Comedy Pop Up Podcast Network and approximately 700k downloads across multiple platforms. To this day, this is my full-time day job.
As a comedian, both SiriusXM and Comedy Pop Up added the credibility I needed to get my foot in the door. I have performed in multiple states and at clubs such as The Comedy Store in Hollywood, HaHa Comedy Club in North Hollywood, Ice House in Pasadena, the Brea Improv, the Ontario Improv, the Irvine Improv and Skiptown Playhouse in East Hollywood. There are not a lot of 25 years old out there with the amount of opportunities I have received. I have opened for comedians such as Bruce Jingles, Dante Chang, Gene Pompa, Jen Murphy, and several others.
My biggest baby to date is the formation of the IE Comedy Collective (Inland Empire Comedy Collective) which has united several comedy producers in an effort to better market comedy shows from LA to the OC back home to the Inland Empire. I am both the founder and CEO of this marketing venture, putting my BS in Organizational Communication to work.
It is both my goal and dream to continue to produce and perform on stage and to add to the ever-growing entertainment scene both in my home city and in others.
My monthly comedy show I Don’t Know You Either is going on its 20th show at O’Donovans Pub in downtown Pomona (generally the last Wednesday of the month). In addition, I also produce a weekly comedy show called Comedy Night at The Lincoln House in Covina every Tuesday and an additional weekly comedy show called The Comedy Cove at McFadden’s Public Market in Santa Ana every Wednesday. I am up to producing 11 shows a month and perform an average of 15 booked spots a month.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Whenever you aim for a career in the entertainment industry, it is never going to be a smooth road. I have overcome a lot of negative gatekeeping from veterans, open micers who are upset at the opportunities I have received, and venue owners who would rather keep a dollar than help grow a venue.
At the end of the day, if you are prepared for the opportunities you receive and are willing to put in the work to be prepared, good things will happen. You must grow as the industry grows and adapt as the industry adapts. You must be cerebral with how you run operations and constantly be making changes to improve quality. Stay ahead of the curve, and those bumps on the road will be a lot smaller and manageable.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Comedy Pop Up – what should we know?
My business, that I co-own with Comedy Pop Up, is the CPU Podcast Studio. We specialize in a smooth podcast recording experience. We also take it a step further by distributing shows recorded in our studio, a service that most other recording studios do not provide. We create a relationship with our hosts that adds to our artist-friendly business model. We also have some of the most competitive rates in Los Angeles and artist-friendly deals for our network contracts.
I am proud of what essentially two people have built in providing an alternative to big name corporate recording studios in the city. The work that we have put into this studio and the love that has gone into building a former beauty salon in a beat up part of Koreatown into a fully functional recording space (WITH FREE PARKING) is unique.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Don’t just say it, do it. Words mean nothing. The amount of promises in this industry that are verbally made, but never followed up on, is overwhelming at times. I used to talk. A lot. I bragged about my accomplishments and what I was going to do next. Then came the reality check of being fired from one of those big opportunities. I felt like I had reached an impasse and that I would never have that opportunity again. Then I began to do it, not speak it. I no longer felt accomplishment in the possibility of doing something, but only once that possibility became a reality. It’s sort of like getting a girl’s number at a bar. There are guys who brag about that and feel good and confident once they get those digits. But if you don’t do anything with the number, then it means nothing. Stop talking and do it. Now, my studio sits two streets over from the studio that fired me. I was meant to be fired in order to learn that lesson. Now, hopefully I can pass that on to prevent people from having to take that extra learning step.
Pricing:
- Audio Rentals are $50 an hour fully edited
- Audio and Video Rentals are $75 an hour fully edited
Contact Info:
- Address: 3435 W 8th st.
Los Angeles, CA 90005 - Website: ComedyPopUpLA.com
- Phone: 5628964438
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/thepaulantonio
- Facebook: facebook.com/paulantoniocomedy
- Twitter: twitter.com/thepaulantonio
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/comedy-pop-up-los-angeles-3?osq=podcast+studio
- Other: thepaulantonio.com
Image Credit:
Eric Moore
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