By BRIAN ARGABRIGHT
The 830 Times
EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of this article and its subject have been in a romantic relationship since 2022.
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Del Rio deserves to laugh.
It’s a simple sentence, but it’s the motivation behind comedian Selina Gomez’s return to the Queen City to headline KDLK 94.1’s Borderline Funny comedy show Saturday night at the Ramada Inn Ballroom.
Doors open at 7 p.m.
Gomez, a Del Rio resident who now calls San Antonio home, was a fixture on this city’s comedy scene for more than 10 years. Working at KLTO, now KDLK 94.1, Gomez honed her skills through interactions with her co-hosts including morning show host Jay Gonzalez and the radio audience, which was unafraid to bring out the best, and sometimes the worst, out of Gomez.
“I love attention. Whenever I was younger, I was always trying to do little plays and skits and stuff. I loved theater. I didn’t think I could do that in my adult life. When I was a kid, I wanted to be on SNL or be an actress, but I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me doing the things I enjoyed,” Gomez said.
“It was around 2014, and I watched someone doing stand-up comedy and thought to myself, ‘I could do that.’ I was already working at the radio station and I said it on air the next day and someone said there was a show coming up and here’s your chance and a month later I did my first set. It was 15 minutes, and I went full throttle into it. After that I would do that maybe once or twice a year, but I was always trying to do something funny like our segment ‘Eye on News’. I wrote jokes for that,” Gomez said.
Gomez did events on and off for the next 10 years and performed on shows featuring comedians such as Alex Raymundo, Mario Salazar, Felipe Esparaza and Raymond Orta.
In late 2024 Gomez realized that for her to really make a career out of comedy she’d have to take the next step … leaving Del Rio behind for a bigger city with more opportunities. So in January she made the move from Del Rio to San Antonio. A new city meant new challenges, especially for Gomez who is blind.
“I truly felt I could make a career out of this, but I didn’t have a lot of opportunities because I couldn’t see. I had the support of my friends in San Antonio and friends and family in Del Rio, but I also wanted the opportunity to navigate the world now that I accepted the blindness,” Gomez said. “I started losing my vision about 20 years ago, around the summer of 2005. In 2010 I completely lost sight in my left eye. In 2020, my right eye started to go. All of that was due to retina detachment which eventually turned into glaucoma. I didn’t have enough retina for my long eyeballs, at least that’s what the doctor said. Depending on the right light, I can see the sparkle of my cane or sequins on a dress. That’s why I wear a lot of sparkly things, to help those in the audience with low vision as well.”
“My rough plan in San Antonio was to give myself three months. If I didn’t start making moves in three months I would just move back to Del Rio. When I told any other comedian my plan they were shocked and said I couldn’t do anything in three months and I said, ‘Watch me!’, Gomez said.
She began the San Antonio phase of her career attending open mics. After a few months of performing in a variety of venues, Gomez decided to attend a comedy seminar hosted by the LOL Comedy Club and organized by Brian Hart, a former writer for MAD TV; local comedian and personality Cleto Rodriguez, “Big” Al Gonzalez, a comedian who has performed all over the country; and Steve Trevino, who has his own comedy specials on streaming services.
“I wanted to learn more about the craft, like how to structure a joke. I really wanted validation that I was doing things correctly. Plus I wanted to do some networking because that’s a big part of the business,” Gomez said. “And that’s how I met Bill, Gina and Joey.
Bill, Gina and Joey are Bill Williams, Gina Santi and Joey Montalvo. All three of them will be a part of Saturday’s show.
At the end of the seminar was a showcase designed to see who would earn an opportunity to perform on the same show as Trevino. With 20 people vying for one spot, Gomez said everyone had five minutes to give it their all.
“I felt my set was phenomenal. I was super relaxed and everything came out kind of perfectly. I was just in the moment and wasn’t stressing about it. I was just enjoying the craft and everything that went into it,” Gomez said.
A few days later, Gomez learned via group chat that the person who won the competition had already been contacted and that they knew they’d been selected for the Trevino show. Gomez was dismayed it wasn’t her but turns out it was something of a misdirection. She had actually been selected to perform at August’s Together for Texas: A Benefit Concert for Hill Country Flood Relief at San Antonio’s Tobin Center.
The event, hosted by Trevino, raised more than $400,000 to support flood recovery efforts in Kerrville.
“The next day I got a call from Al, and he asked if I could be ready by 4:30 and do five minutes. I didn’t know what the show was until three days before. When I found out I would be a part of the Kerrville fund raising show I was very excited but was nervous because I didn’t want to mess up,” Gomez.
Adding to her anxiety was that Gomez wasn’t going to be an opening act or someone brought in to keep the audience warm during commercial breaks. Instead, she would get the chance to perform her set on television and was tasked to introduce Grammy award winners Los Lonely Boys.
“It was nerve wracking. I’m a nobody and there I was on a stage with people who had been doing their craft for many years. I didn’t want them to look at me like who is she and why is she here,” Gomez said. “Now I can look back and say I have a TV credit now and that show validated what I needed to know about myself. It motivated me to continue going and keep pushing forward. It helped me believe in myself more.”
Now Gomez returns to the place it all started, and she’s excited to show how far she’s come.
“Del Rio can feel so isolated. Bringing people down to do shows means something fun to do in Del Rio, and hopefully it’s something we’ll do for the foreseeable future,” Gomez said. “For me, it shows that I did something I said I was going to do and I’m proud of that. For the listeners who said I could do it, I want to thank them for believing in me. And for those that doubted me … what did they know.”
Tickets for Saturday’s show are available at the KDLK studios, 107 Center Drive, or at the door.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
