Raul Sanchez Finds Funny's Formula

The first time I remem­ber see­ing Raul Sanchez was at an open mic in Austin, almost three years ago. It was a pret­ty cold room, with a lot of comics focused on their own set and patrons that were obvi­ous­ly not there for the show. Yet he stood out…he killed. I went up to him on the way to the bar and told him ​“great set.” He was hum­ble and gra­cious, and I was com­plete­ly igno­rant that I had just met the cur­rent reign­ing Fun­ni­est Com­ic In Texas.

That’s the amaz­ing thing about Raul Sanchez: he may seem shy and unas­sum­ing at first glance, but as I learned when I recent­ly sat down to get to know him, he’s one of the friend­liest and most per­son­able peo­ple you would ever want to meet. Oh, and on stage, there’s anoth­er side of Sanchez, a guy who com­mands the stage and the audi­ence with obser­va­tions and expres­sions that stick in your head for days.

Born in Anahuac, Mex­i­co, and com­ing to the US at the age of sev­en, Sanchez talks about what it was like cross­ing the bor­der, and what it was like to slow­ly become immersed into the Eng­lish lan­guage in South Texas. Set­tling in San Anto­nio a few years lat­er, he was typ­i­cal­ly a shy kid in school, but like the Sanchez of today, he had anoth­er side that would cut up in cer­tain class­es for a laugh.

In exchange for Amer­i­can cit­i­zen­ship, he joined the Army in 2002. Sanchez served three tours with the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq as Air­borne Infantry. Though he orig­i­nal­ly planned to make the mil­i­tary a career, after the exhaus­tion his final deploy­ment, he decid­ed to return home to San Anto­nio. Strug­gling with anx­i­ety and depres­sion, and in need of some lev­i­ty, he walked into a com­e­dy club open mic, and the rest was history.

One of the most fas­ci­nat­ing things about Sanchez’ dis­cov­ery of his comedic tal­ent was the almost sci­en­tif­ic approach he took to writ­ing his mate­r­i­al. That same ana­lyt­i­cal approach is also reflect­ed in his humor­ous obser­va­tions today. Sanchez remains very self-aware in the evo­lu­tion of his com­e­dy and where he would like to take it next.

As win­ner of Fun­ni­est Com­ic in South Texas 2012, Fun­ni­est Com­ic In Texas 2013, and a list of fes­ti­val appear­ances includ­ing Just for Laughs in Mon­tréal under his belt, it’s time you sit down and lis­ten to our inter­view with Raul Sanchez. Then go to Last Gas Com­e­dy to find his next show, as Sanchez plans to make that move to Los Ange­les this summer.