Standup Ian Lara can finally laugh now that tough times are over

It took Ian Lara nearly a decade to get to the point where he was a steadily working standup comic with a loyal following and a bright future. Then the pandemic struck. Lara, a Brooklyn native from a Dominican family who grew up in South Ozone Park, Queens, suddenly was in the same trap as many of his fellow up-and-coming comedians — struggling for steady work as New York nightlife shut down.

But things have turned around lately for Lara, 31. Last year he taped a set for “Comedy Central Stand up Featuring” and appeared on NBC’s “Bring the Funny” and “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” He was also a regular on ‘This Week at the Comedy Cellar” on Comedy Central, and this week he debuted his Comedy Central half-hour special.

How hard was it not to be able to work before a live audience during the pandemic just as your career was starting to roll?

It’s been a strange last few years for everybody. It think it’s the first time in our lives where everybody is affected. So I try not to complain too much. I started doing standup in New York City when I was 20, 21 years old and I worked almost every single night for 10 years basically to get to a point where I was performing at the best comedy clubs, and I was a working comic in New York.

It took me eight to nine years to get there. I was doing it for, like, eight months, and then the pandemic was like, “Yeah, all this is going away for you now.”

So I was worried. You don’t know when things will come back. Am I going to be where I left off, or do I have to start at the beginning?

Do you feel the city’s comedy scene is getting back to where it was?

Well, omicron came out of nowhere and affected the comedy scene again. For one thing, I caught it. But it seems just as soon as it came in December, January was suddenly better. The shows are back to being sold out. It was like, everyone got it, so we can go out now.

You’re different from a lot of comics who are Latino because your act is more universal. Di you feel that’s what helped you get more attention?

When I write my material or write my jokes, I never set out to be universal. I just write what I think is funny to me. Having people see my standup, I realized there’s a group of people like me in the world, in the States, who are from Hispanic parents and come from a Latino background and are assimilated and are second-generation. I found that this is my lane, I’ll kind of stick to those people [for my comedy]. So it’s not about being universal, it’s about my experiences. All of my family is Dominican, they all speak Spanish, and I touch on it in my standup, but my perspective is more universal because I’m an American.

Are you where you thought you’d be at this point?

It’s been a wild ride to get to this point. Literally like my whole twenties. So I just want to keep working and keep entertaining people. My whole goal when I started out was if I’m in another city I just want people to go, ‘Yo, Ian Lara’s in town, let’s go see him.’ I feel like I’m getting there, but it’s a marathon. I feel like all these things, like being on Comedy Central, are just pieces that I want to keep adding and keep moving forward.