MAKING IT LOOK SO EASY
Comedians Jake Flores and Mishka Shubaly create an interesting show
Jake Flores is excited to hit the road — again.
It’s what he does as a comedian. “Whenever I can, I’ll get on the road,” he says in a recent phone interview. “I operate out of New York, and I’m building my audience through my shows. Nowadays, I’m able to get out more and I can draw an audience in places I’ve never been.”
Flores began stand-up comedy when he was 19.
Now 32, he’s found his voice and uses it to talk about a myriad of issues.
His comedy has gotten him raided by the government for a 2018 tweet, retweeted by everyone from Tom Morello to Bette Midler, and published in The New York Times.
He has toured nationally, opening for Doug Stanhope, Tig Notaro, Greg Fitzsimmons, Jim Norton, Felipe Esparza and Patton Oswalt.
He’s signed to Stand Up! Records and tours regularly while not running his popular Brooklyn show, “Yoko.”
“What’s attractive about comedy is that you do have a point of view,” he says. “But you also have to get to the point and make it funny.”
For Flores, there’s something selfish about performing comedy.
“Being on stage and getting laughs is the best thing in the world,” he says. “Especially when you’re doing comedy. I get to hang out with people in the audience and it’s very unpretentious.
I love traveling around and having an experience when I’m directly talking to people.”
Flores will be joining fellow artist Mishka Shubaly in Albuquerque at O’Niell’s on Tuesday, Feb. 12.
The pair have a fairly long history of friendship.
“Me and Mishka make for an interesting show,” he says. “I was a fan of his the first time I saw him opening for Doug Stanhope. I really liked his stuff and had been following him online. Years later, we performed together on some shows. We became fans and friends of each other. It’s been a great friendship for the both of us.”
Flores says that, as a comic, he’s constantly writing because everything has to be fresh for each show.
He says reading a room is also a skill he’s picked up over the course of his career on stage.
“The biggest part of a show is that you’re making a painstaking difficult effort to make it look easy,” he says of comedy. “I try not to get stuck in my ways and learn something new from each show.”