Dallas comedian Dante Martinez. Photo courtesy of Dante Martinez.
Latino Dallas comedian Dante Martinez will host a stand-up and sketch comedy night at Arts Mission Oak Cliff on September 7.
Martinez has performed in other cities like Austin, New York and Chicago. But, he always comes back to Dallas whenever he gets the chance.
Martinez said his mom inspired his comedy career. Growing up, he would stay up late and watch late-night improv television shows with her. He also said that he thought HBO’s Def Comedy Jam was “the coolest thing ever.”
Martinez had never been a stranger to the spotlight. He went to UNT to study theater and was used to being in front of crowds and performing.
“I didn’t realize somebody like me could do stand-up- I thought you had to be a famous actor first to go up and tell jokes,” Martinez said. “It wasn’t until a friend of mine invited me to go watch an open-mic show that I saw others do it themselves.”
Since then, he made the jump from theater to stand-up. Martinez started going to open-mic nights in town and figuring his way through this new-found passion.
He recalled holding the microphone cable while on stage, pacing back and forth like he’d seen other comedians do.
“When you start off, you’re always doing an impression of your favorite comedian, and mine was Chris Rock,” Martinez said.
He said he quickly realized stand-up comedy was similar to “playing an instrument but instead of making music yourself, you’re trying to make the audience make a certain kind of sound.”
He said he went two-and-a-half years without a single laugh, but his breakthrough moment was when he realized there’s “a good level of not caring.”
“I think to be yourself on stage, you have to think to yourself ‘I don’t care what y’all think about me, but this is who I am’ and once you can be true like that, I think you can talk about yourself in a more real way,” Martinez said.
Martinez’s calling to comedy was about more than seeking validation from a room full of strangers to make them laugh or creating jokes out of the ideas in his head, he said it’s about feeling like everything has fallen into place in the right way.
“The day I can be a comedian for a living full time will be the marker of ‘making it’ for me, but until then, the creative fulfillment that I get from actually doing it brings me joy and a sense of my identity,” he said.
Both of Martinez’s parents and his sister have passed away.
Martinez is inspired to live out his dream because of the lessons his family has taught him- life is hard, and anything that brings joy is worth doing.
“When [my sister] died, there was a moment of clarity, ‘you know what, I’m gonna do comedy until it’s no longer fun’ because life is so short and so full of pain,” Martinez said.
In Oak Cliff, Martinez feels grateful to be a part of the rise and blossom of Latino comedians and creativity.
Now, he’s working towards cultivating a following after discovering how important relationships are on the business side of stand-up.
Martinez said he used to live in Oak Cliff and hopes his upcoming performance in Oak Cliff will be a repeat of last year’s great turnout when he did the same show at Arts Mission Oak Cliff.
“I’m glad to be a part of [the community of Latino comedians] and to put my little voice inside,” he said.
