Ralph Barbosa calls himself a ‘bean without a cause’ but does what he can to help immigrants

From the outside, it appears that Ralph Barbosa has it all.

Aside from A-list comedian status hanging with superstars like Dave Chappelle, he’s known to show off his garage full of his favorite cars (even a few that actually run, he says), and he has a brand new comedy special on Hulu, “Planet Bosa,” that premiered earlier this month.

But following the release of his new hour, Barbosa claims he’s “broke.”

For comedians, specials aren’t just a celebration of your success, they’re also a funeral for your best material. Though he’s dubbed his latest trek across the country the Bean Without a Cause Tour, he’s also back to square one — a comic without new material, or at least not much of it. “I’ve got about 10 minutes [worth of jokes] to my name, I’m broke — comedy-wise, I’m broke,” he says with a sly grin. “It’s the funnest place to be.”

It’s a feeling most comics can relate to, though few in the last couple years have been on the ride Barbosa’s been on. Coming out of relative obscurity from the Dallas comedy scene, he garnered viral fame by being dissed and then apologized to by comedy legend George Lopez, who didn’t know who he was at the time despite Barbosa being at the forefront of the next wave of Latin comics, thanks in large part to a breakout set on Don’t Tell Comedy. Garnering nationwide buzz since his debut Netflix special “Cowabunga,” his latest hour on Hulu finds the 28-year-old reaching the top of his game.

Aside from getting more comfortable on stage, the spark of energy in this new phase of his career is a welcome surprise from a guy whose schedule barely leaves time for sleep. Yet somehow he’s still managed to squeeze in a second side career working on cars on his YouTube Channel Formula Bean. Recently, Barbosa spoke with The Times about finding his comfort zone in comedy and touring in honor of friend and fellow comedian Ken Flores, who was set to tour alongside Barbosa and comedian Rene Vaca before his tragic death earlier this year. He also discusses one of his more important challenges, writing cleverly authentic jokes about the shocking ICE raids that have led to widespread detention and deportation of immigrants. But it wasn’t just a laughing matter for Barbosa, who also helped people affected by the raids for a period of time by donating money to people who reached out to him directly through social media.

“I don’t like that people are getting separated from their families when they’re hardworking people,” the comedian said. “They’re people who go to a whole new country to learn the language and a whole new environment, in search of a better life, and it’s considered illegal.”

Usually when we do these interviews about comedy specials, they happen before the special is released. Now that “Planet Bosa” has been out on Hulu for almost two weeks, what’s it been like seeing the reaction to it and did it match what you were hoping for?

A lot of my fans have been watching it. There’s been a few people that reached out to me saying that they found me through [watching it], which feels really good — it’s what you want from a special. I feel like Spider-Man on “Spider-Man 3” when everybody’s cheering his name and he’s like, “They love me!” It feels good.

When I talked to you a couple years ago, it was right before your first special, “Cowabunga,” and I noticed with “Planet Bosa,” the energy just feels different. You’re more animated, you’re doing voices and stuff that I think people maybe weren’t used to seeing from you. How did you wanna change up your style or advance it this time around?

I think I just got more comfortable. When I did that first special with Netflix, I was really super nervous. I’d never shot a special before. Everything that’s been going on in my life, I feel like it came at me really fast. I feel I’m still very — especially compared to other comics — I’m very much like a rookie comic. Especially a rookie as in like a full-time comedian working in the industry. So like that first special, I was really nervous, I was very tense. I still had a lot of fun with it, don’t get me wrong, but I was really sticking to the script. By the time we taped this special, I’d been on the road so much, and my feet were a little more wet, so I was just more comfortable. So I think that one is me being myself more, this “Planet Bosa” is just like me being myself more.

What’s cool about what’s going on now in comedy with I feel is a very strong wave of Latin comedians like you, Rene Vaca, you had that obviously with the late comedian Ken Flores. What’s it like to be able to have that group around you of comedians?

I’ve always been a little introverted, though, especially with other comics, like I get kind of nervous. Rene helped me get out of that. Rene and Ken were always super close and they were always inviting me to stuff and I would always be too nervous to go. I used to be really intimidated by them. But once I met them and hung out with them a couple times, I realized that we’re a lot alike. Like we were the exact same age, the three of us. The three of us were all born in ‘96. I feel like we shared a lot of the same fears and anxieties, a lot the same stresses and family situations. I consider myself very lucky to be able to hang out with them. And I’m very lucky to still get to hang with Rene.That dude’s a fool, man — I love him.

Obviously, it was rough going on that tour with Rene because of the loss of Ken who was going on the road with you as well. But given what you guys had to go through emotionally and sort of mentally to press on, was it like looking back on completing that tour and doing things the way that Ken would have wanted?

I felt like that was our way of letting Ken get his proper rest. We found out Ken passed away on the day we were supposed to sign the paperwork to finalize all the tour details, which was heartbreaking. He passes away right before we’re supposed to start this tour together, the three of us. And now as we’re dealing with that within those same few days, we had to make a decision. They were pressuring us to make the decision do we still wanna do the tour or not. And so you don’t even wanna talk about that stuff. But I think me and Rene both knew that Ken would have wanted us to do it. Ken would’ve probably been really ashamed of us if we got all sad and just didn’t do it. Also I think it helped out his family a lot because we still gave his cut to his family. So I think we needed to do that for Ken. And I mean, it was still a fun tour. It was bittersweet, because every time we’d have a really fun night and we’re all laughing, we’d all have a moment where we knew it would be that much better if Ken was also here. But I know he was there in spirit, you know what I mean? I think Ken is anywhere Rene is. I think those two are inseparable. So anytime we’re with Rene, I still feel like Ken’s there too.

Why do you feel like the perspective you’re bringing along with Rene as the next generation of Latin comedians is important to be heard at a time in this country with so much going on politically with immigration?

I don’t necessarily think it’s important to get my voice out there but I do like making jokes about [ICE and immigration] because that’s like the only way I know how to bring attention to it. I’m not a big political dude or anything like that, but yeah, I’ve made jokes about things like immigration stuff, ICE stuff. But I guess that is my way of getting attention on that issue. I would like people to get attention on it. I feel like there’s certain topics, certain subjects that you can’t avoid after a certain point. We should talk about it, or we should at least put it in the faces of the people who aren’t gonna talk about it. Like if you’re not gonna talk about it that’s fine too, but you at least gotta hear about it.

One thing you mentioned that you were doing for a period of time was to help people affected by have family members detained during ICE raids by donating money to people who contacted you on Instagram asking for help to pay their bills. What inspired you to do that?

What I ended up doing is just sending hot dogs from Five Guys to all the families in need. I sent out over 180 hot dogs — I’m kidding. No, I sent out money. I hope it helped people out. I hope I wasn’t just getting scammed the whole time. I’m sure I got scammed by a good number of people. But I let people know that if they were affected by the ICE raids in any way and were behind on rent or groceries or if maybe the main provider in someone’s house was taken away or just going through something like that just to let me know and I’ll send what I can. I didn’t think I’d get as many messages as I got — I got a lot. I got to as many as I could and I sent out a lot of money before it started getting a little dangerously low on my end. Like, what’s the point of having money and having fans if like other people can’t enjoy it too? So I’m sorry for those of you that I wasn’t able to get to, and I hope the ones that I did get to were helped, even if it was just a bit. I don’t like that people are getting separated from their families when they’re hardworking people, they’re people who go to a whole new country to learn the language and a whole new environment, in search of a better life, and it’s considered illegal. Like I said, I don’t know about laws and government. I’m sure someone’s watching this thinking I’m just an ignorant idiot, but I don’t know, man. It just seems f—ed up to me.

It’s also about being able to deal with the situation by laughing about it. And that even includes making jokes about not being considered “Mexican enough” by immigrants and getting fed up enough to say “Go home! Well, not to your home.”

I think I fall under that category, there’s a saying in Spanish — “ni de aquí, ni de allá.” It means “not from here or from there,” it’s like the middle ground… I feel like it’s given me perspective — I hope it has at least, I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t know when I’m being ignorant or not. That’s why I tell people don’t take me too serious, because I don’t really take myself too seriously.

I don’t know how you really can as a comedian. You gotta be able to laugh at yourself, right?

That’s what I’m saying. But people still get angry in my comments just cause I make stupid jokes — I don’t understand it.

Is there any key piece of advice you’ve gotten from a comedian that you’ve looked up to that has helped you in your career?

Yes and no. Because every comedian’s so different… So not everybody’s advice works. It could sometimes work for you. My favorite advice has probably been from [Dave] Chappelle, “You just gotta keep getting on stage. Just keep getting out on stage. Keep working on material.” You gotta get the reps. There’s no shortcuts to it.

Even though you’ve been doing it now so much, has there been a time on stage, more recently, where you’re nervous?

I’m always nervous, and I’m always messing up jokes. I don’t think the audience can always tell, but in my mind, I’m messing them up.

You’re very even keel on the surface, so the fact that you say that is also kind of surprising.

Nah, I’m up there freaking out, man. Well, in a good way, you know? It’s fun. I’m always nervous. But it’s part of what makes it fun.

And when you’re not on the road, I know you’re working a lot with cars. Can you talk about your YouTube channel Formula Bean that’s all about fixing up old cars?

Over a year ago, I started hanging out with an automotive content creator. His name’s Luis Cisneros, the dude’s crazy smart. He’s showing me how to work on my own cars and he would make car content about it. And I asked him if I could make content with him too. I feel like everybody’s a content creator nowadays. I feel content is key, whether it’s, whatever type it is. I have a lot of fun working on cars and recording us doing stupid things with cars. So we made a YouTube channel called the Formula Bean. And we named it that because Formula One is like the pinnacle of automotive racing, like top of the line cars, top of line drivers, top of the line engineers. But ours is more Formula Bean because it’s just a couple of Mexicans in a garage on some Facebook Marketplace projects. The stuff we do, I think it’s stuff that most people can watch and be like, “Oh, I can learn how to do that easy.” So I’m hoping that’s what is getting across.

Do you feel like cars and comedy have some sort of correlation, like in terms of just working on them, or do you keep it like totally separate?

Nah, I keep it totally separate. I need something different than comedy so that I could continue to enjoy comedy. I get tired of stuff fast, man. If I’m really into one thing — I can hyper-focus on it. I’ll zone in on this one subject for a while, but I can’t keep it long-term. I need to do cars and zone in on cars for like a good month and a half, and then I need to go back into just straight up comedy mindset.

Never a combo? I was thinking like a Jerry Seinfeld like “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” type of thing?

I mean maybe if a comedian wants to come hang out, but I’m not gonna talk a whole lot of shop …

No “Comedians in Cars Getting Frustrated”?

Nah. I need cars to completely distract me from comedy so that I can come back to comedy with fresh eyes.

You mentioned that you only get about an hour and a half of sleep a night. When do you rest?

Whenever I just crash out, like randomly — and people get mad. Cuz they don’t know I guess but like I’ll be falling asleep at random events. I’ve never been the type of person like I can just put on my pajamas and lay down in the bed. I feel unproductive. I feel I need to go until I’m done thinking or until my brain just goes kaput. So even though we’re working on stuff, I feel like my mind is always thinking about other stuff when it can. I don’t really knock out until my body’s just like, “alright f— this, bro, I’m done.”

You’re on your second special on a major platform, you are selling out all over the country. Is there more that you feel like you still want to do?

I need a new hour, that’s all I know right now. I need a new hour of jokes. I got like 10 minutes to my name. Comedy-wise, I am broke. This is the funnest place to be, square one.