Vanessa Gonzalez: Homecoming Queen

Despite Vanes­sa Gon­za­lez mak­ing unde­ni­able strides in her com­e­dy career while work­ing and liv­ing out in LA, she wasn’t sure how she’d be received when she had to move back home to Austin, Texas dur­ing the pan­dem­ic – ​“Are peo­ple going to think I failed?” she wor­ried. Quite the oppo­site. Upon her return, proud friends and fam­i­ly flocked to the Lare­do native to announce, ​“You’re famous!” 

“It’s been just so over­whelm­ing how Austin has wel­comed me back… When I have shows, they come out and it’s a lot to take in,” Vanes­sa Gon­za­lez told Valerie Lopez.

Since that home­com­ing, Gon­za­lez has been named one of Vari­ety​’s Top 10 Comics to Watch in 2022, as well as vot­ed 2022 Best Stand-Up Com­ic in Austin by The Austin Chron­i­cle – prov­ing her to be not only hum­ble but unan­i­mous­ly hilar­i­ous. And the Vanes­sa Gon­za­lez home­com­ing parade didn’t end there. It kicked off in 2020 with the release of her debut album ​“My Birthday’s Tomor­row,” and in just this year alone, she land­ed her first guest star role on ​“The Gar­cias” on HBO Max and had her stand up com­e­dy aired on Will Smith’s ​“This Joka.” With all these acco­lades and cred­its, the peo­ple of Texas (and beyond) have spo­ken and though it’s tak­en her some time, this home­town hero has right­ful­ly begun to inter­nal­ize the praise for her hard work and hilarity.

“There was always this guilt of being too fun­ny, or too good. I’ve always had that, ever since I start­ed: guilt of suc­ceed­ing or being too much. And I’m learn­ing that I don’t need to feel bad about it,” Gon­za­lez said. ​“It’s been so great to just own it and be like, ​‘Yeah, I’m fuck­ing good at this!’”

Turns out, come­di­an Chelsea Han­dler agrees. When Gon­za­lez received an Insta­gram DM from Han­dler ask­ing to be her open­er, she had to do a dou­ble take to make sure it was the real deal. Sure enough, Gon­za­lez would soon find her­self on stage for the very first show of the (hilar­i­ous­ly named) Chelsea Han­dler: Vac­ci­nat­ed and Horny Tour. Gon­za­lez knew that show would be a ​“vibe check audi­tion” to see if she would be a good fit for the entire tour. It was no sur­prise to Valerie to hear Gon­za­lez passed the test with fly­ing col­ors. When Valerie first inter­viewed Gon­za­lez way back in 2016 she point­ed out – and has since loved to remind – Gon­za­lez that she suc­ceeds at every­thing she tries. When Han­dler invit­ed Gon­za­lez for the full tour, it would be yet anoth­er excit­ing suc­cess under the comedian’s belt. While Gon­za­lez was con­fi­dent in her set that first night, she did share that she nev­er could have imag­ined actu­al­ly being booked on an entire the­ater tour of that scale after expe­ri­enc­ing a string of hard­ships. From the pan­dem­ic, to her mom being diag­nosed with can­cer, to not being able to pay rent due to a lack of work, Gon­za­lez felt that get­ting the tour was ​“too good to be true,” but like a light at the end of a long, Covid‑y tun­nel, it was. ​“So for [Han­dler] to send all those dates for like the year, I was just like, ​‘wow.’ It just felt like secu­ri­ty, at least for one year – which is not some­thing I’ve had in a long time… I was just so grate­ful,” Gon­za­lez said.

And Texas is so grate­ful to have her back. Gonzalez’s par­ents, whom she lov­ing­ly roasts in her set, sup­port her so much that they reg­u­lar­ly make the 4‑hour dri­ve from Lare­do to Austin to catch her com­e­dy shows. Gonzalez’s mom (adorably) used to bring her con­grat­u­la­to­ry flow­ers after every set. Gon­za­lez has since explained to her mom that this was a stand up com­e­dy faux pas. While a bou­quet may not be cus­tom­ary for com­mon jesters, it cer­tain­ly is for a home­com­ing queen. And with Gon­za­lez as our reign­ing, peo­ple-appoint­ed best stand up com­ic in Austin, I’d say the crown fits just right.

Fol­low Vanessa

• Web­site — Vanes​saCom​e​dy​.com
• Twit­ter — @vanessagcomedy
• Insta­gram — vanes­sag­com­e­dy

Vanes­sa can be seen and heard:

• I’m Not Busy Pod­cast — Co-host­ed with Michael Foulk 
• Open­ing on Chelsea Han­dler’s Vac­ci­nat­ed and Horny tour Octo­ber — Decem­ber 2022 — Dates/​tickets
• The Com­e­dy Store, LA — Head­lin­ing Octo­ber 12, 2022 — Tick­ets
• Alter­ca­tion Fes­ti­val 2022 — Head­lin­ing Octo­ber 19, 2022 — Tickets/​Passes
• Debut Album — My Birth­day’s Tomor­row (Avail­able on all platforms)