Moments of success are fleeting, here one moment, and then it’s on to next with no time to think. It’s easy for that feeling of ambition to slip away for good once it’s gone, that’s unless you keep your hands ready and grasping, much like Ian Lara. Pacing around his New York home as he takes a break from studying routines and preparing for his next show, he tells us all about the inconsistencies of the comedy business that make him consistent. Ian speaks with a confidence that’s expected from a man who frequently does three shows a night in the bustling New York comedy scene, a great step forward from the post graduate days where he was paying $5 entry fees for an open mic. Born in Queens to parents from the Dominican Republic, Ian remembers cracking jokes with his buddies at school on the basketball team “We roast each other to death, even now when we get around each other they still have me laughing harder than anyone.” Yet although he was always a playful jokester in school, it wasn’t until his senior of college when he saw a comedy show at school “He was just murdering it, he was just so funny, I just thought that this was something I could do.” From that point on, it took Ian about year just to prepare what he thought was a decent five minute bit just for open mics, and that was way back in 2011.
“Comedy changes and evolves, depending on when you start the comedy scene could be different.” The ever evolving scene kept Ian hunting through open mic for his first two years as he sought a breakthrough. However, his ambition to be a standout and never the weakest link in a show kept him grounded and mindful that he had to pay his dues for the time being. “After that it starts to grow, when you work towards a goal and if you’re serious and legit about it, the universe will help you out.” The path soon started filling itself with a wider network of people throughout the industry. Surely it was far from a smooth process “It’s like climbing a mountain, but the top of the mountain is in the clouds, you just know if you keep walking up eventually you’ll climb a mountain, but you don’t know where you’re going.” Having no idea what would happen kept him on his toes as he continued working a day job at the airport, something his family encouraged since he still had too make money, which he wasn’t opposed to since he never saw the charm in being a starving artist. Having a task that tall meant dedicating a lot of time away from relaxation and rest sometimes, but it was a necessary evil, one that was embraced “I’m not a fan of being comfortable, there’s a lot of pinnacles I haven’t reached.” Staying the course of the journey has been one of the most challenging, yet fruitful parts of chasing the dream.
“You’ll always have moments where you’re like what am I doing? Am I wasting my time? That’s normal, it’s a part of it.” Those thoughts that Ian, and essentially any artist deal with are always easier to weather down once perspective is taken. Even he claims that if he would have been told when he first started that he’d be where he is today, he’d be shocked since he didn’t see a path towards it, which makes him grateful for what’s come to him today. What’s come today includes features on Comedy Central and NBC, which are the fruits of a tree that grew after a lot of due diligence.
“I recorded that Comedy Central bit in September of last year, I was already doing comedy for seven years so it’s new to people but behind the scenes it’s not overnight.” Doing the clip to speak up on the topic of what race is for Dominicans in regards to the African history, which isn’t exactly known around the country to those that don’t live in the big city. It was the same hispanic group in the big city, as well as nationwide, that helped propel the clip into a collective count of 10 million views across social media. The importance of this representation and support meant a lot to Ian, who looks to be one of the faces and role models for the young and growing afro-latino community years to come while breaking many stigmas rooted in colorist and racist beliefs that were set by older generations of Dominicans, “I know this was a thing for that generation and we’re happy with a lot of the things you guys gave us, but this is not a thing we’re gonna be carrying on.”
Although it is nice to see a seemingly out of nowhere come up for Ian, there was a lot of backstage mingling as well as on-stage delivery that got him to this point. Whether it was receiving managerial referrals from other comedians, or his management remaining patient and diligent in their work to find him shows, there were a few hands that gave him some extra help. In an up and down business it’s well needed, for every Comedy Central showcases, there are more than a handful of venues that don’t even have a working mic or just don’t put comedians in positions to succeed even though it can be simple to do. “They think that comedians are clowns and you can just set them up in any back alley, they don’t understand stand-up comedy is an art.” That’s why he doesn’t just pounce at any opportunity to do a show for money’s sake, because although they may be well intentioned, the overall quality of the entire show isn’t up to the standard that Ian has worked himself into.
Even though a lot of spontaneity is certainly in the stand-up scene it’s still similar to any job in terms of routine, so Ian simply looks to control what he can and stays prepared to perform his jokes no matter what the circumstance is once he gets there. “I’m not thinking about my set for my show later this week, I’ve got my jokes, if I got new ones I’m just trying to learn it.” It takes a level of confidence to do that, one that Ian has made a requisite for himself to carry on stage, where he never debuts a rehearsed joke. Carrying that stage presence becomes intuitive enough that he trusts the dynamic with the crowd more than he would in front of a small group of people he can test it out. “I don’t really keep a back-up plan, if I do a show and they don’t laugh or they don’t like me, it’s honestly ok, you get off stage and you go home just like if they do laugh.”
Comfort and confidence have now taken Ian a long way through the process, trusting the the journey for what it would be from the start has certainly helped. Ian knows when he steps on that stage he’s looking to evoke emotions from a group of strangers and that nobody else can handle the execution except for himself. “You just keep going, you don’t know what’s up next or what’s coming, then one day you just get a phone call one day saying Comedy Central wants you.” As a frequent opener and closer of shows, he’s usually in an unenviable position, but he wouldn’t have it any other way since those are positions where one is trusted to get the job done. Such trust is certainly no result of pure luck, “Some people make it with more luck than hard work, and as they keep on going it really shows.” The main key is to remain calm and confident within self, the relationships will change, the crowds will never be the same, and the scene will always evolve, but there should be no anxious fretting over these issues since all those things are to be expected, once a crowd can see you’re out of your element you might as well call it a show from there because they’ll be able to tell.
Through the ups and the downs, Ian has practiced what he’s preached and steadily continued climbing the mountain with a path full of surprises. These days the surprises are turning out to be sweeter and sweeter as he promises that he has a lot of new things under the wraps for fans to expect in the upcoming future. Every step has had an action, starting from the day he went to a school show during his days as a pre-law student, some may say that those years spent in college studying something he didn’t even pursue after were a roadblock for those years, but the thing we agreed on about college is that it can lead you to a grand prize if you trust it. “If you told me it would have cost me $40,000 to find out my passion and what I loved doing, I’d definitely say it’s worth that.” From being the kid in the crowd, to performing in front of college students, Ian is using his platform to not only tell jokes, but to tell a message that hard work can take you places that you had never envisioned, much like it’s happened for him. For now, the vision continues to manifest and you can catch some live glimpses by staying in tune with his show calendar on his website where you can also find his social media accounts where he also posts his NYC appearances.
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