By Mina Briseño

Part comedy, part social commentary, part travelogue, Roots of Comedy With Jesus Trejo gives you an inside look of the other side of the laughter, revealing how the most memorable comedy traces back to the roots of a community with themes that are central to the series. Jesus Trejo, an LA based comedian embarks on an emotional odyssey as he visits with comedians from all walks of life, delving into their childhood, style of comedy and their why.  Why they become a comic, why they choose the jokes they tell, and just plain piercing the facade of the comedian.

Along his journey, Trejo visits six U.S. regions (Denver, Portland, Minneapolis, Austin, Los Angeles and Chinle, Arizona).  He meets with six rising comedians who explore the mosaic of our nation through the lens of stand-up comedy. The six episode series with 30-minute episodes is executive produced by Jesus Trejo, Juan Devis and Danny Lee, and co-produced for PBS by PBS SoCal and BIPOC-production studio CALICO in association with the National Multicultural Alliance. 

Trejo is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor and writer. Born and raised in Long Beach, Trejo’s first hour stand-up special Stay at Home Son recently premiered on Showtime. He was a Staff Writer on Hulu’s now cancelled TV comedy  This Fool and also the host of Tacos Con Todo. a web series in which he navigates the LA taco scene with celebrity guests. Also an author of two upcoming children’s books, Trejo was named in “Variety’s Top 10 Comics to Watch” in 2017 and is a paid regular at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles.

Beginning on Friday, May 24 all six episodes of Roots of Comedy With Jesus Trejo will stream for free on the PBS app and PBS.org as a special release. The series will also be available to stream on the PBS YouTube channel, following the television broadcast premiere on PBS stations across the country on Fri., June 21 at 10 p.m. ET/ 9 p.m. CT.

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The hour-long pilot is a generational drama about two Latino families looking for wealth and power in wine country, Sonoma Valley in California.

Considering there are 52 Mexican-American-owned California wineries according to wine-centric website https://www.jancisrobinson.com, this seems like a timely topic. The website goes on to add “as pioneering Latinos and their children, many of whom have spent their entire lives working in the California wine industry, establish their own wine project”.

The timing for a TV series that does not revolve around Latino gangs, maids, or narco kingpins, is refreshing. ABC gets it; they had already delved into Latino stories — sans the negative stereotypes. Just last year, they premiered The Baker and The Beauty, which, although not wealthy Latino families, the family were middle-class business owners. However, that soon ended when ABC decided to cancel the series after only one season.  

Once The Baker and the Beauty went off the air, there remained no Latino-themed TV series on any of the broadcast networks. Although Latinos are the largest minority in the U.S., they are still woefully represented.

Lopez is also writing the feature about a Latino family, Father of the Bride, for Warner Bros., with plans for it to become the first of a Latino movie franchise. 

Originally Lopez started in the industry as an attorney for Dreamworks right after graduating from Florida State University with a law degree, and with an end-goal of being a screenwriter.  

He sold his first script to Dreamworks in 2002. However, it was never produced, but it did jump-start his writing career. Some of his films that were produced include Bedtime Stories, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Race to Witch Mountain.  On television, Matt Lopez created the NBCUniversal International drama series Gone. 

Promised Land is written and will be executive produced by Lopez and Adam Kilbrenner of Lit Entertainment Group.  ABC Signature is the producing studio.

— Bel Hernandez

Featured Photo: Matt Lopez

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