Photo: Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz
Latinos loved to be entertained. We love, laugh, cry and yearn to see our cultural truths and customs depicted – especially on social media. And in recent years, many comedic Internet superstars have emerged and drawn material from their Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican heritage with hilarious content. Taking it to the next level, with popular audio streaming services, is Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz, who co-hosts the weekly podcast“ “Latinos Out Loud” on the Revolver Network with Michael “Juan Bago” Diaz, Jaime “JFernz” Fernandez, and Frank Nibbs. Now in its 7th season and winning a Tecla award for “Best Podcast Content Creator” this Latino vehicle is amplifying Latino voices throughout the country. We chatted with comedienne/actor/producer Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz to get the inside scoop as to why this multi-hyphenate star on the rise, merits the spotlight. Apart from cohosting “Latinos Out Loud,” Rachel is part of the comedy troupe Room 28, featured on NBC’s “Bring on the Funny,” hosts and produces HERlarious, a diverse and all female collective featuring the best sketch, stand up and character acts in New York. With her involvement in variety of entertainment projects, Rachel is primed to shake up the Hollywood status quo for Latinx.
Room 28 Comedy Troupe on NBC’s “Bring on the Funny,” Photo: Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz
DSMC: What’s your earliest memory of wanting to be in entertainment?
Rachel: I can remember as far back as age 9 when my parents would go out on Saturday nights and leave me behind with my older siblings. They were 9 years older than me. And they’d let me stay up late to watch Saturday Night Live so I’d stop annoying them. I was in awe. These actors would interpret these different multiple roles and act them out. I remember thinking to myself: That’s the coolest thing ever! I want to do this! I was always involved in the performing arts in school, growing up in South Brooklyn, I was very much part of after-school life. Participating in plays, rehearsals, dance, and theatre. Growing up with a Dominican mother, my mom was like “No, mija that’s not going to make you money…Aaa-aah.” So I went to college. Pursued a career in marketing and I never let the acting bug go, once it’s in you – you never let it go. It’s like a parasite and it creeps into your system, until finally, you’re like fine! It has to come out. When my son Donovan was born 4 years ago, that’s when it came seeping through my pores. I said to myself: Why am I here, in corporate America? The money brings me some happiness, but there’s nothing like making other people smile, laugh – entertaining them. I gave all the corporate stuff up and said: Fuck it! Let’s see where this goes. I want to be the mother that I always wanted to be and the actress that I wanted to be. Those are the two things I’ve been pursuing hard body full-time the last four years.
DSMC: Brooklyn College is both our alma mater. At one point they had a thriving diverse performing arts program? Did you receive formal acting training from Brooklyn College?
Rachel: I took a few undergrad classes, but when I decided to pursue acting full time with formal training, I enrolled in private acting lessons with well-known teachers. I’m a two-time recipient of the diversity scholarship at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. With a career in comedy it’s smart to understand the methods and approaches of the different schools of comedy that are recognized and accredited throughout the world. I began with Improv Comedy 101 and heard about the diversity scholarship. I saw the lack of diversity within the student body. I went for it. I didn’t get it the first 3 times I applied. I just kept at it. Finally, I got the good news in 2016. Since then, I’ve been nonstop. The beauty of being a diversity scholarship recipient is that they hook you up! If there are open seats, in other classes that don’t sell out, the scholarship recipients are the first to get the notifications about open seats at UCB. I’m so thankful. Now that I’m 40, I’m super focused, and want to do everything I can to add “sazón” to the comedy bucket. I’m trying to hone in on where my passions lie and that’s sketch comedy right now. I just finished the sketch writing circuit at the school. I’ve touched on the 3 pillars of the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB).
Center: Amy Poehler, Photo: Courtesy of UCB
Side note: The Upright Citizens Brigade, which readers in case you didn’t know – was co-founded by the supremely talented, Amy Poehler, which also founded Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, bringing to the spotlight incredible women making strides in varied industries. The Upright Citizens Brigade is the only accredited Improv and sketch comedy school in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. To learn more about the Upright Citizens Brigade, click here.
DSMC: You have a lot on your plate with acting, parenting two toddlers, producing, podcasting. You co-founded the podcast: “Latinos Out Loud” What’s it like sharing the airwaves with 3 men?
Rachel: Finding your voice is so important, but maintaining it, is equally as important. Sometimes, all the testosterone around me can easily drown me out. We have this ongoing joke that they have crowned me the Queen Bee of the podcast. And, “Dejame decirte!” I’m not about that life: Oh, bow down! You know, Beehive, but I have to maintain that position. I can get stepped on, not literally, but figuratively. I gotta represent. The female voice within this crowd of funny men is so important. I feel I have to play multiple roles. I modulate and sometimes I have to be the voice of reason, or the voice of femininity. When there’s too much dick talk, and I’m like, all right guys let’s bring it back to comedy.
DSMC: You have a knack for switching up character voices on the podcast, after listening to the 100th episode with Lin-Manuel Miranda Jr. and Sr. as guests, I observed that. Congrats on this milestone! You’re able to do urban, prim and proper, corporate voice, whereas the others on the podcast panelists struggle at times.
Rachel: Thank you, I don’t think I code-switch. I do think it’s important to know your audience. I actually attribute and thank my corporate background for having that ability to modulate, because we need to. I could be hood, but there’s a time and a place. I’m working on me also. I’m a work-in-progress on the Mic. I went from dropping F-bombs on the 1st season every other minute to occasionally using the N- word and that’s not who I wanted to be on the Mic. I still struggle with the F-bombs. I’m from Brooklyn. You know what Im sayin’? I would like to get to the point where I don’t need to say it. The same way I don’t need to say the N-word or curse every other 3 words. I want to be who’d I like to listen to on a podcast. I listen to every episode of the podcast 5 times. It’s my method. I look for errors to edit and fix in the car. To make sure the episode is the best it can be audibly. I’m very structured and anal with voice and what I’m projecting. We take a lot of pride in the audible quality. I get angry when I listen to some of my favorite podcasts and the jokes fall flat, and not because they’re not funny, but the crispness of the sound isn’t there. Nobody wants to hear white noise, black noise, and hear anything else other than the podcast host. We’re all on the same page and I love that. It’s our friendship and our interdependence that makes it thrive. Collectively we’ve been friends for a little over 10 years. We hang out with each other on the side, holidays too. We’re still friends. It’s cool.
Top (L) Jaime Fernandez, Bottom (L) Juan Bago, Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz, Frank Nibbs, Photo: Revolver Network
DSMC: I remember listening to Howard Stern and Robin Quivers, when it was free on local NY stations. And they had great chemistry. They did pop culture, comedy sketches. Sure, it was controversial, but funny. There doesn’t seem to be anything like that for Latinos. What comes close is New York’s 97.9 FM La Mega, and they seem to fall short. What are your thoughts on this?
Rachel: I would love that – to eventually be the Howard Stern, Robin and Bababooey for the Latino market. We don’t have that. We recently had the president and CEO, and co-founder of Casanova Advertising Agency, Ingrid Otero-Smart. She’s Puerto Rican and has been in the industry for a while. We asked her about the current state of Latinos in podcasting? And she mentioned: “You guys are pioneers right now. You are setting a path for those that are going to follow in your footsteps and it’s so important to make the best decisions you can.” There is a huge weight on our shoulders. She’s right. We don’t have a textbook to read, handbook or manual or someone that came before us. What comes close is La Mega, “El Vacilón de La Mañana.” That’s not a podcast!
DSMC: Whenever I heard “El Vacilón De La Mañana,” I’d interpret the skits and majority of the listeners as gullible – a dumbing down of the Latino population that I never liked. That’s not who Latinos are. We’re educated. We’re smart. We are not here to be disparaged.
Rachel: I appreciate what the Luis Jimenezs’ of the world do. My mom still thinks he’s hilarious. Sadly, I do not. I don’t relate to most of the content. He’s a funny man. I get it and he’s talented. No disrespect. I’m 40 years-old. I’m on a different comedy wavelength than those guys. We have to do our part to elevate this void. I watch SNL, white/black/Asian sketch shows. When I was out in L.A. to do NBC’s “Bring on the funny.” I was in The Ubers – hittin’ up the dispensaries, left and right. One night I was with the director of Room 28, Jerry Diaz, in the back seat. And, the Uber driver turns around and says: “Rachel “La Loca” – Latinos Out Loud.” Yeeees! That’s me. “I listen to you guys all the time. “You don’t know how much we need you.” I said, really, how so? “They feed us this chancletazo bullshit or Mexican-American comedy that we don’t find funny anymore. My friends and I listen to you even though you’re Caribbean, Dominican, even though your jokes have a New York-centric attitude, my friends and me think it’s hilarious. It’s still Latino, it’s still cultural, and we can still relate.” I think this divide we saw in the past, among different pillars, one of them comedy, is fading out – it’s fizzling away. Finally, we are approaching this convergence that black comedy has already crossed, where we are just about each other and NOT where we are from anymore and it’s about the cultural relevance and the unity, especially with 45 right now. Comedy will always be a universal language.
Daniel Craig on SNL, Photo: Mary Ellen Matthews
DSMC: What’s next for Rachel “La Loca”? Are you doing more sketch comedy? Continuing with the “Latinos Out Loud” podcast?
Rachel: Collectively, the 4 of us are treating this as a business. We are rebranding and redoing our website and looking to elevate the brand for 2020. We are looking to do more live shows – especially with the markets that have shown us a lot of love; right now it’s a tie between New York and L.A. Our top five markets are New York, California, Chicago, Texas and D.C.; it fluctuates. We want to bring more live shows, hopefully with sponsors attached to them across the country. Our listeners hear themselves when they listen to us. They feel like they’re chillin’ with their cousins snappin’ on each other in a living room. We want to do pop-up podcasts across the country.
Rachel con’t: We took 2019 to focus on our network television debut, branded content development and performing in the comedy festival circuit, as well as a bit of company restructuring, and are really looking forward to our off-Broadway return after our stint on NBC’s “Bring the Funny.” We’re proud to have released a 5-part web series written, produced and starring Room 28 players for the non-profit organization Somos Community Care. The goal of the content is to connect our community with in-culture and in-language primary care doctors that can target the ailments that plague our community before they get to urgent levels. The organization’s research has shown that on average, our people wait until the last minute to seek medical attention when it comes to the ailments that attack their health, thus making it harder to combat at that stage. We partnered up and created the “Sick!!” series where our very own Jaime Fernandez plays “El Profeta de la Salud,” a Walter Mercado-like character that can predict your health future. I believe this is Jaime’ best character yet! He’s a stellar writer. The series is available on the MiSomos app or on their web site https://misomos.com/sick.
Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz and Jaime Fernandez
DSMC: You mentioned acting as your passion, apart from the sketch comedy and podcasts, what are you looking to do acting-wise?
Rachel: I’ve set this goal for myself: my manager and I are trying to get me booked on networks with co-starring roles. I’m coming so close! I’m out there. I’m auditioning. I’m getting callbacks. I had booked a gig for Identification Discovery. I did a crime-scene reenactment; I was the principle for one episode. I would love to do a recurring role on a network. Pilot season is coming up. I did background work recently. Over the summer I got a taste for film, I did background for West Side Story, working with Spielberg was amazing, and every now and again I do background for SNL. I don’t want to do steady background work anymore unless I’m absorbing and learning something from it. The goal is to book a feature film gig.
With the ongoing global pandemic grinding life, as we know it, to a startling halt, Latinos everywhere know how to persevere and make the best of the current situation. And that means getting creative when producing comedy. Whether we turn to memes (JLo and Shakira’s history-making halftime show performances are still on people’s minds and social feeds) or creating TikTok videos to Bad Bunny’s or J. Balvin’s tunes, our resilient spirit will never wane. We just can’t hug or kiss like we used to when greeting people – but we make do! Recently, Latinx has made significant strides with shows like Gentefied making its debut, and with the returning season series: On My Block – on Netflix. Latino visibility only accounts for 3% of representation in Hollywood – a dismal situation at best. But, with personalities like Rachel “La Loca” Strauss-Muñiz committed to breaking barriers in the entertainment industry and paving the way for more Latinx stars, our stories will finally be told and knock mainstream entertainment on its head. Check out and subscribe to the “Latinos Out Loud” podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, iHeart and Stitcher today.
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