WEBVTT - The Constant Evolution of Shea Serrano 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.120 Creating a TV show. Getting to make a TV show 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.120 is very much like a far fetched dream, is what 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.639 it feels like, because how many people are trying to 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:10.480 do it versus how many people get to do it. 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.560 I think the last time I looked, like three percent 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.480 of book authors are Latino, which is crazy, like three percent. 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:26.440 From Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino Usay, I'm Maria 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.560 Ino Josa. Today writer Shay Serrano and his journey from 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:40.760 school classrooms to TV sets. Say Serrano is a Mexican 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.519 American author born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.280 is the co writer of Miguel Wants to Fight, a 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.680 movie that was released last year. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.360 Miguel, have you ever gotten into a fight? Yes, it 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.720 was me and that one dude. We're both aggressively hugging. 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.880 Does that count? Oh my god. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.120 He's also the creator of the TV series Neon streaming 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:04.880 on Netflix. 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.920 We're Moving to Miami, I Love You, the biggest eight 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:09.920 thumb show in the world. 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.160 And he's also the author of Primo, a semi autobiographical 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.520 comedy that got a stunning one hundred percent rating on 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:21.400 Rotten Tomatoes. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.679 How many uncles are that five? It feels like fifty 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.560 most of the time. Now, look still, guys, we don't 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:27.119 have all day. 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.280 But if you think that writing a TV series was 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.959 Shay's biggest dream, well you're going to be absolutely surprised. 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.080 Today Shay is going to take us from his first 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.520 job in construction to the unexpected encounters that, paired with 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.119 his talent, allowed him to create and run his own 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:51.000 TV shows. In his own words, here's Shay said Reno 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.040 on how he carved a space for himself in an 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:58.720 industry where Latino representation remains pretty scarce. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:04.080 My name is Chay Serano, and I write about things 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.440 for a living. So far, I've written four New York 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.079 Times bestsellers, created a couple of TV shows, co wrote 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:16.239 a movie, and started an independent publishing company that I 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.480 now run out of San Antonio, Texas. So I worked 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.239 for this construction company called Ryland Homes, and this was 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.359 in Houston, Texas in the mid two thousands. It was 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:29.400 a first job that I got out of college because 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.640 my brother in law he asked if I wanted to 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.080 come work, and I thought, oh cool, Yeah, I want 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.440 to learn how to build houses. 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:36.639 And like that seems like a fun thing to do. 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:38.800 It was awful. 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.760 No, I did not get a ton of muscles from 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.440 doing that job. I just got bored and sunburnt. I 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.639 wasn't out there for twelve hours a day like those 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.400 guys are put in the brick or painting the houses 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.359 or land tile or whatever. I was doing like customer 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.840 service calls. So if something went wrong with a house, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:02:59.400 they would send me out there. 0:02:59.440 --> 0:02:59.840 I would go. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.600 I would figure out what the issue was and then 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:04.080 try to get it fixed. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.960 Shay soon realized it wasn't the kind of job you 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.120 wanted to get stuck with. So after two years. 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.560 I had intentions or dreams of being a middle school 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.919 teacher with a job I had wanted to do since 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.760 I was a kid, And so while I was working 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:26.280 at Ryland, I started taking night classes and weekend classes 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.720 to get an alternative certification to be a teacher, and 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.600 then eventually left to do that. It seemed like an 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.960 important job to have because when you're growing up you're 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.680 in a teacher's classroom. That's like the ultimate level of authority. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:41.960 You get to go to work every single day and 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.720 you have the chance to make an impact, like a 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.720 direct impact on somebody's life. I applied at all of 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.080 these Title I schools, which are schools that serve the 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:57.320 like a poorer population is how they describe it. And 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:58.880 it was important to me to work at a school 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.120 that was predominant le people of color. Growing up in 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.000 San Antonio, that was all that I saw that I 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.680 got a job in South Houston as Scho was ninety 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.120 seven percent of Hispanic, started teaching there, started coaching all 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:12.200 of the sports. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:12.960 It was great. 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:19.080 Both Shay and his wife, Laramie, were middle school teachers 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.040 early in their marriage, and that's when they found out 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:23.960 they were going to be having twins. 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.000 At four months into the pregnancy, who went into labor, 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.280 like one day at work, they rush her off to 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.400 the hospital, they do this emergency surgery, and then they 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:33.040 tell her, you can't work anymore. You got to like 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:34.800 lay down for the next four months because if you 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.600 get up, the babies could just come out. We were 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.000 a family of two living on two teacher salaries at 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.440 that time. We were probably making like maybe around forty 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.360 forty one thousand dollars a year each, so eighty two 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.560 thousand dollars total for two people were doing okay. And 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:50.360 then we went from that to now a family of 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.520 four soon to be on one teacher salary. And it 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.520 was very apparent, very quickly, that the money that I 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.280 was bringing in about eleven hundred bucks every two weeks, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.919 was not enough to pay the money that needed to 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.880 be going out, Like our rent was sixteen hundred dollars, 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.240 and you know, you have student loans, and you have 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.120 electricity bill and groceries, and then all of a sudden, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.760 two babies as well, Like I fits me, my wife 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.960 lared me and the two twins, and everybody's got to 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.200 eat at least three times a day at minimum, that's 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.000 twelve meals I got to provide. And so I needed 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:26.080 another job. I started applying at Target and Poppadot and 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.359 Walmart and wherever I could, trying to get just like 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:30.600 a part time job. But nobody would hire me because 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.560 I was working a full time job, so I couldn't 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:34.920 work the hours they needed me to work. I just 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.320 started googling work from home jobs. A writer was one 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.200 of them the things that you need the internet and 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.039 the computer, and I said, well, I got both of 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.560 those things, so I'll try and do that. But I 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:47.760 was not trying to be like a full time writer. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.840 When you grow up where I grew up. They're not like, oh, 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.200 you can go be a writer and you could like 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:56.120 write about sports and. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:57.560 Music and people will pay you money. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.000 All I was trying to do when I first started, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.080 I need to make like four or five hundred bucks 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.479 a month. And then the sucky thing that ended up 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.800 happening is we make it through those months of like, 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.760 all right, Laramie's ready to go back to work, and 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.159 then we go to like look and see how much 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.080 is daycare going to cost? Because if Laramie's going to 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:17.120 be at work and I'm going to be at work, 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.080 who's going to take care of the twins? Full time 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.320 daycare for twins was like two thousand dollars a month. 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.040 That was the cheapest we could find. It was such 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.920 a weird position to be in because you know, you 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.400 grow up and you watch my mom worked at the 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.960 corner store for thirty plus years, right and my dad 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.159 drove a bus for the city for thirty plus years. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:41.760 You watch them get up every morning at four in 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.160 the morning to be out there to drive the bus 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.839 or to be at the store when it opens. Every 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.760 single day of your whole entire childhood life. You just 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:51.440 watch them do it, watch them do it, watch them 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.000 do it without even really thinking about it, And then 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.560 you become an adult and you're in that position now, 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.000 and then you realize, oh man, they were really busy 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.560 in their butts to make sure that we had our 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.599 plates of food and to make sure that we had 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.480 a place to lay down and a. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.440 Place where we felt safe and comfortable in love. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.000 Like they were doing all of the hard parts without 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.760 talking about doing the hard parts, And so you end 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:17.560 up in that same position and you're like, all right, well, 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:18.520 I guess it's my turn. 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.640 For about seven years, Shay would keep his full time 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:32.080 job as a school teacher and coach while freelancing as 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.520 a writer at any publication that would give him a chance. 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:37.840 The first real publication that I got to write for 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:39.880 was this place called the Houston Press, which is an 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:44.080 all weekly in Houston. That was really where I learned 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:45.840 how to be a writer. I had an editor there 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.360 named Chris Gray. The editor in chief was this woman 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.840 named Margaret Downing, and they both decided they were going 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:53.560 to sit me down and teach me how to be 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.360 a writer. Here's how you report a story, Here's how 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.000 you interview somebody, Here's how you request public records for information. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.040 They're teaching me all of this stuff for whatever reason. 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:04.920 I have no idea why they chose to do that. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:09.080 Then I started writing for La Weekly or The Village Voice, MTV, ESPN, 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.400 Rolling Stone. You're trying to work your way up through 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.320 those ranks. And then eventually what ended up happening is 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.600 in two thousand and thirteen, somewhere around there, one day 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.040 I was on the computer. I went on Facebook. I 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.840 had a message from this woman named Molly Lambert, who 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.720 was a brilliant writer, a pop culture writer, and she 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.000 was at the time working at this place called Grantland, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.599 which was the pop culture section of ESPN, created and 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.080 run by Bill Simmons, and he was running this website 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.199 that everybody wanted to write for. It was like writing 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.120 Utopia because they didn't care about web traffic and they 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.400 didn't care about reporting something as fast as possible. All 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.719 they wanted to do was make cool stuff and make 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.760 good stuff. I started pitching them stuff, and I remember 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.040 I wrote something for them. They published it, and then 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:00.679 when they posted a link on Twitter, I got a 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.600 hundred messages about it, more than I had evergotten about. 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:04.280 Anything that I'd written. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.120 And eventually they were like, hey, we like the stuff 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.160 that you're doing for us, and you should come right 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.800 for us full time. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:17.480 I was still teaching. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.520 I didn't want to leave teaching, and I told them that, 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.679 So now I really enjoy teaching. This is like the 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:24.280 job I want to do for the rest of my life. 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.920 Maybe there's a part time sort of situation we can 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.040 work out. Then they were like, we see what you 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:31.440 have done if you're working on this part time. Let's 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:33.160 find out what it looks like if you're working on 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.600 it full time. And I talked with Laramie about it, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:38.000 and I said, I think this is the thing I 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:38.480 want to try. 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:39.199 What do you think? 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.000 She sort of walked me through the pros and cons 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.640 of the situation, and eventually we decided on all right, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.440 we'll try it for a year. All right, I'm going 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.240 to leave teaching. I'm going to go try to be 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:55.560 a writer full time. And then, like a jackass, I 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.240 signed this contract in July of twenty fifteen, and then 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.600 in October of twenty fifteen, three months later, ESPN shut 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.240 Grantlin down, and all of a sudden, I didn't have 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.720 a job. It took me a year to talk myself 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.920 into taking his job, and then I did it, and 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:15.880 then immediately it was taken away and welcome to journalism, baby. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.600 But Shay had also been working on his first book, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:24.040 which was published that same month, October of twenty fifteen. 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.920 The Rap yearbook would become a New York Times bestseller, 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.559 and it was turned into a documentary series for AMC. 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.319 I was very excited about all of that, but then 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.800 also I lost my full time writing job. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:40.760 Then it was this weird glimbo. 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.160 It felt like, so me and my buddies started a 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.720 newsletter through Mailchimp that eventually became the next book that 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.520 we did together, basketball and other things. That book came 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.360 out in twenty seventeen, and that's when things really changed 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.839 in a way that felt almost tangible, because that book 0:10:57.840 --> 0:10:59.439 came out and it made it to number one on 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.520 the best seller which is like a whole different thing, 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.080 and it's sold, I don't know, thirty three thousand copies 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.680 the first week. It was like a oh man, this 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:09.640 is a real I could just write books for the 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.040 rest of my life if I want to do that. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.360 And then Bill Simmons is starting a new website. Everybody 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.040 it seems like everybody's talking about the Ringer, and I 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:18.480 was like, all right, all I got to do is 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.600 hold out until they start that and then maybe they'll 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.559 let me go work over there, which. 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.640 I eventually ended up doing, and that ended up being like. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.920 Another very meaningful I worked there for six years and 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.319 I was like, man, this freaking rules, and I started 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:38.079 doing more books, creating a TV show, getting to make 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.320 a TV show. It's very much like a far fetched dream, 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.240 is what it feels like, because how many people are 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.040 trying to do it versus how many people get to 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.760 do it. The numbers are pretty abysmal. I think the 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.520 last time I looked like three percent of book authors 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.680 are Latino, which is crazy, like three percent, and so 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.640 that's in your head a little bit. But it's also 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.040 it's not easy for anybody to try to go do 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.520 so it wasn't like a thing I was fixated on. 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.160 This is going to be harder for me because I'm Mexican. 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.560 I didn't think about that part of it, probably just 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:17.360 because of because I was a naive, but I just thought, 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:19.559 I don't I want to try a thing. It probably 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:21.280 won't work, but I'll try it. And I didn't have 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.440 any experience in TV. I had never written the on 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.720 a show before, or had any sort of like meaningful 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.080 experience writing the script or anything like that. But again, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.360 same as with the books, or same as with writing, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.160 I've never written before, and then I'm going to try it. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:36.560 I've never written a book before, and then I'm going 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.240 to try it. I said, all right, I think I'll 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.040 try and create a TV show that seems like a 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.280 fun thing to do. And again, this all sort of 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.480 ties back to the writing that I was doing before, 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.520 because I ended up taking a bunch of meetings. One 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.720 of the meetings that I took was with Mike Sure, 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:57.640 and like an idiot, I'll never forget this, I walked 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:58.360 into Mike's office. 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.400 I didn't know who he was. I just looked and 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.040 I saw him and it was it's Mo's from the office. 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.520 Oh my god, this is great. I walk in and 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.000 I shake his hands. I'm like, oh, man, big fan 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.120 of gear, of your work on the office. I think 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.000 maybe he thought I was talking about the writing or 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:15.559 what I didn't even know he wrote on the show. 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.360 And I sat down and in his office he had 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.720 a framed picture of parks and rec and a framed 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.719 picture of Brooklyn ninety nine and a framed poster of 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.840 The Good Place, and like all of this stuff. And 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.840 in my office I have a framed poster of the 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.040 movie blood Sport and a framed poster of the movie Desperado, 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.559 and a framed poster of the movie blood In, Blood Out, 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.280 like my favorite sort of movies. And I thought, Oh, 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.280 he's got these posters like I do. Like he's a 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.160 big fan of these shows. Didn't even realize that he 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.760 had created or co created them. We talked for an 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:52.199 hour and as I was leaving, just very casually, oh, 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:53.959 we should you want to do that show? We should 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.680 do that show. I'll help you with that. And I 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.920 was like, yeah, sure, that's sure. If you want to 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.040 do it, I'm down. And then when I let the 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.360 agents know who had set up all the meetings, I'm like, oh, yeah, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.120 that guy Mike seemed cool and he said he wanted 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.520 to work on the thing together, and they'd lost their minds. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.640 They're like, you don't know who this guy is. He's 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:14.559 the king of comedy showrunners. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.920 It turned out he's the biggest guy doing it, and 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.120 we went and made a TV show together, which was great. 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:25.280 My dad left when I was little, so all my 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.440 uncles are always around and they're super protective of my 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.120 mom and me. What was that for, Like, mostly it's 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.520 like being inside of cart of these except that these 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:35.680 are always cussing and punching at each other. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:44.040 Primo is a coming of age comedy in the tone 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.280 of Parks and rec or the Office. I worked on 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:47.760 it with Mike. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:48.000 Sure. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.080 It's a show that you watch and hopefully when you're done, 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.320 you feel a little bit better about the world and 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.880 your place in it. They might be arguing or fighting 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:00.600 amongst each other, but they're doing it in a way 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.200 that lets you know they all care about each other. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.920 It's interesting because a family and the show is made 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.320 up of a mother and her five brothers. They don't 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.880 speak Spanish because it's loosely based on my life growing 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.640 up and in my family we don't speak Spanish. My 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:22.120 dad is like directly from Mexico, right and when he 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.000 got here back at that time, it was like a 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:26.880 bad thing if you spoke Spanish. They put you in 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.040 special classes in the school and it prevented you from 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.760 having certain opportunities. So him and my mom made a 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.840 decision when I was born, when my sisters were born. 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:38.760 We're not going to teach them Spanish. They're just only 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:40.880 going to speak English. That way they could fit in 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.160 and we don't got to worry about them being shoehorned 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.240 into the ESL class because they heard them say a 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:46.720 sentence in Spanish or whatever. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:48.440 It just felt more natural. 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:50.760 Like if I would have gone in there and changed 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.400 things around and had it to where they were speaking Spanish, 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.440 to me, it would have felt been sincere. It would 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.560 not have felt as real. I would have been less 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.800 comfortable making the show trying to pretend that we were 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.760 one thing that we weren't, and that authenticity was more 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.680 important to me than trying to pretend otherwise. I've been 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.560 taking Spanish classes for a while, and eventually I'll get there. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:15.120 I speak a little bit. 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:16.960 If you're going to say some stuff in Spanish, I 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:18.800 might be able to understand it, but I'm not going 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:20.400 to be able to say anything back to you. 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:24.920 At this moment. 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.960 I don't have like aspirations of trying to direct I 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.680 don't think I have. It's a little too intimidating of 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.120 a process right now to be in control of all 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.520 of that and have to make all those decisions I 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:38.320 like to write a thing and then let a director 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.040 direct the thing. Right, But I would like to write 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.800 another movie. I want to write a teacher movie, or 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.720 a heist movie, or an action movie. Or what would 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.480 be really cool is a thing that I've not done 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:52.720 yet that I would like to do. Is same as 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.160 what Mike did for me, where he was like, come on, 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.080 I'll teach you how to do this, or same as 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.560 what Bill did at grant Lander the Ring, come over here, 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:02.880 I'll teach you. I'll do this, or Chris and Margaret 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.959 at the Houston Press, like I would like to be 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:09.560 in that position to do that for another like a 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.399 writer who's coming up right, let me help, Let me 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.679 help you make a TV show. Let me show you 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:17.520 some of the things that they taught to me. I 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:19.960 think that would be a cool career accomplishment to just 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.920 look and be like, oh man, that show that everybody 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.040 loves that's on TV, or that movie that everybody saw, 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.080 it's on in the theaters, like the person who wrote it. 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:30.680 I got to help a little bit. 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.560 I would say, if I had to recap my career, 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.280 it's been a bunch of work and a bunch of 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:51.360 luck and a bunch of help all roll together. When 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.840 I look back, there are definite moments that I can 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.000 point to and go, oh, that's when a thing changed 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.760 right there. In every one of those situations, it was 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:04.760 a reaching down to pull me up, and not because 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:06.879 it was going to make their career any better. All 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.480 that was more work for each of those people. But 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.119 they did it because they wanted to do it, and 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.840 so I'm very thankful, and I just want to make 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.000 sure that when it's my turn to do that, that 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:24.520 I'm doing that any chance that I can. I gave 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.000 a talk at a career day and here in San Antonio, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.080 and it was for like seventh and eighth graders, and 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:32.879 it was so nice to just be back in a 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.919 school and standing at the front of the classroom and 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.719 answering questions and making jokes. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.200 And I do that maybe like once or. 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.080 Twice a year, and it always I fill that pool. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.520 I fill it inside. All I wanted to do was 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.080 be a teacher. That's the only job I wanted to have. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.920 I didn't have aspirations of being a full time writer. 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.360 I wanted to teach at a school for twenty five 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.720 thirty years and be part of the community. And feel 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.919 important in that way. At some point, I would like 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.600 to find myself back in a classroom and teaching middle 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.639 school kids and coaching a middle school football team and 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.040 a basketball team, and a soccer team and a track team, 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:12.680 just like I was doing before. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.240 That would be awesome. 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:24.520 That was writer she Last month, News wrote that Primo, 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.479 the show Shay created, had been canceled after what he 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:33.080 called a short but beautiful run, but Shay continues to create. 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.000 In May, he released a new book under the title 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:50.840 A Real Human Being, dissecting nine essential Ryan Gosling movie roles. 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.640 This episode was produced by Fernando Nandez and edited by 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.359 Andre Lopez Crusado. It was mixed by steffrie Lebo and 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:08.480 Julia Caruso. The Latino USA team also includes Victoria Estrada, 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:13.720 Renaldo Leans, Junior, Lori, mar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.920 Nur Saudi, and Nancy Trujillo. Benille Ramirez is our co 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.640