For Grace Parra, a Houston, Texas born, Mexican-American comedian, writer, actor and co-host of Fuse’s “White Guy Talk Show,” there’s no need to take one’s self so seriously.
Instead, she wants America to lighten up and have some laughs when it comes to diversity, politics, immigration and religion — because God knows life can be a drag if we don’t use our sense of humor!
Parra, who also worked for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” is relishing in her latest role on late night TV, co-starring on the “White Guy Talk Show” alongside Saurin Choksi — purposely also a non-white guy. She is also delighted to be surrounded by a diverse cast and writing staff.
The smart and witty talk show, which is executive produced by Brian McCann (“Conan”) “celebrates the things we all love about music, movies, trending social media, celebrity and tech news, but from a point of view that’s 100 percent unique to the talk show world: a younger, multicultural and Millennial point of view.”
With an ironic, simple and humorous title, such as “White Guy Talk Show,” Parra, who also loves and admires white guys (one of her idols is Conan O’Brien) is thrilled with its tongue-in-cheek approach.
“I am so grateful that they wanted me to do a talk show and that they wanted a Latino co-host,” she told Latin Post in an exclusive interview.
“They brought me to New York and I started to develop it with the executive producers and the writers. We started thinking how would this show distinguish itself from all of the other shows, particularly in late night. Most of the late talk shows in America are hosted by white men,” she pointed out. (This was before South African comedian Trevor Noah had been announced to replace Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” she added).
“We thought, ‘What do we call it in a tongue-in-cheek manner? We called it ‘The White Guy Talk Show’ to poke fun of what is going on in television in America today and we are quite keenly aware of it,” she explained. “It kind of gave us a mantra, in a way, and a motto to live by in a comedy…It’s like the ‘White Guy Talk Show’ approach to it, and we love it.”
One perfect example of the silly, satirical, goofy approach to the show involved the recent California drought and the worry of an avocado shortage.
“He (one of the show’s writers) came up with a character called the ‘Abogado Avocado’ (the ‘Avocado Lawyer’ in Spanish),” she said. “So, basically, it’s an avocado dressed as a lawyer that sits on top of a stick with a very heavy Spanish accent. It’s so funny. It’s so weird. He’s so sad, so he decides that he’s going to end of his life, and he kills himself for being a puppet. He explodes onto the wall and somebody comes in with a chip and eats the guacamole.”
While there are other Latino representations on late night TV with Chelsea Handler’s sidekick Chewy and and Jimmy Kimmel’s Latino side-kick Guillermo, Parra is proud of her type of role as a co-host.
“I love that I am a Latina on television who is not a sideckick. I am not a maid. I am not a vixen… stereotypes that are thrust upon particularly Hispanic women,” she pointed out. “I get to rap on the show. I get to do like raunchy humor and I get to do political humor too. It’s incredibly rare to find that for a Hispanic woman on television, especially in late night.”
At the same time, she says: “I don’t begrudge anyone for their sense of humor.”
Instead of focusing on the typecasting of Hispanics, Parra said that “actions speak louder than words and that she wants to just keep her head down and focus on what she’s doing.”
“To actually be a Hispanic woman on TV is more impactful than saying we need more Hispanic women on TV,” she said.
The “White Guy Talk Show,” a Fuse Networks production, also has a powerful Latina connection with the multi-facted Jennifer Lopez. “The parent company of indie cabler NUVOtv, (whose shareholders include Lopez) “reached a $226 million deal with MSG to acquire the music-centric cabler Fuse.”
“I really respect and admire her (Lopez). She’s a hard worker and she’s really talented,” she said.
Also having worked with another media titan, such as O’Brien in the past, Parra has had a positive takeaway from both Lopez and the comedic genius.
“He’s so smart and nice,” Parra said of O’Brien. “He’s everything that you would want him to be in an idol. When people meet their idols and they’re disappointed – not this guy!”
Since the show’s March 2 debut, Parra and co-host Choksi have featured guests from “Black-ish” star Yara Shahidi to Iranian American author-comedian Maz Jobrani; actor Ernie Hudson from “Ghostbusters” and Japanese American DJ Steve Aoki, whose father founded the Benihana restaurant chain.
“He’s amazing,” she said of Choksi. “We just clicked. There are some unspoken things that just make our chemistry work. A lot of it comes from the fact that we are from Houston, being around the same age and having the same references being from Houston. We’re pretty similar. It’s pretty crazy how that happens. We grew up going to the same mall.”
“Another thing is our work ethic,” Parra added. “Being children from immigrants instills in you a certain work ethic. I think that Choksi and I have the exact same approach to work and dedication that you can’t ever discover in an audition and in an interview, but you only discover with working with somebody — and the fact that we have that in common is such a blessing.”
Armed with a killer sense of humor, Parra realizes that “with comedy you have the power to be impactful,” but at the same token, you can’t take yourself too seriously. She welcomes “the sillier, the weirder.”
“For me it’s a super-fun challenge to find the intersection of silly and also impactful,” she said.
The younger sister to three older brothers, Parra was a little jokester at the young age four, who was dragged along on her brothers’ dates.
“They basically used me as bait to flirt with girls – and I loved it,” she laughed. “I have always been an extrovert for sure.”
With older siblings, some of Parra’s earlier influences stemmed from “Beavis and Butthead,” “Office Space,” MTV’s “Oddville” to Weird Al Yankovic, who merged comedy with music.
Parra has appeared in numerous television series, including “The Collective,” “Powered by VEVO (NUVOtv),” “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS), “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” (NBC), and “Zeke & Luther” (Disney XD), as well as films “Farah Goes Bang” and “Greenberg.”
She is also an accomplished television comedy writer, with credits that include “Work It” (ABC), “Glory Daze” (TBS), and “Jonas L.A.” (Disney). She also has a political-comedy webseries called “Pretty Strong Opinions,” where she tackles subjects like immigration, pornography and the corruption of the pro-sports industry in America. Parra also created and starred in the webseries “Frida Kahlo, Junior Marketing Exec,” an Official Selection in the 2013 New York Television Festival.
“White Guy Talk Show” airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on Fuse.
By Melissa Castellanos [Latin Post]