By Joel Langton
(We strive for transparency at www.830Times.com. Jose Sarduy and this story’s writer, Joel Langton, have produced comedy shows together and are friends.)
Google lists long-time Del Rio resident Jose Sarduy as a TV actor. That’s like calling a Swiss Army Knife a pocket knife because he does so much more.
Some roles he fills in life: Air Force instructor pilot, nationally touring stand-up comedian, Youtube host, was in the running for a writer’s slot on Saturday Night Live, Weather Channel commentator, Cuban deportee, and the list just goes on and on.
However, now Sarduy has another label he can add to Google, or wherever else he wants to: Dry Bar comedian. Dry Bar is a Utah-based comedy club that features clean comedy and has a huge internet following. More than 100,000 views is common and many have several million views. A huge win for comedians trying to find success right around the corner.
So, when you ask him how he got on there, you get “I knew a guy,” via instant messenger. I want to roll my eyes and say, dude, “I knew a guy,” doesn’t make for a good quote nor does it leave readers smarter. After some back and forth, he disappears from instant messenger. Figuring I’d completely frustrated him, I do the only thing that makes sense when I’m halfway through writing a story, I take a nap.
When I wake up, I have the following on Messenger, which pretty well tells the story of how he got on Dry Bar Comedy and is a snapshot of parts of his career.
Events that led to Dry Bar, Jose writes.
-2007 opened for Brad Upton (who has 3 million plus views on Dry Bar making fun of millenials) at River Center Comedy Club in San Antonio
-2008 got picked for the San Francisco Comedy competition on Brad’s recommendation. (He was a semi-finalist)
-2009 finalist in Seattle comedy competition. Got in because I knew the people from the SF competition who also ran Seattle. Keith Stubbs was a judge at one of the shows.
-2011 applied and got accepted into Rocky Mountain Laugh off in Utah, owned by Keith Stubbs. (Sarduy won)
-2012 Worked at Wiseguys Comedy Clubs in Utah; owned by Keith Stubbs.
-2010-15 worked through networking and recommendations to become regular at Ice House in Pasadena California.
-2018 Now manager Tony Camacho was looking for Latino comedian to be part of a trio tour later called the Undeportables. Camacho talked to booker at Ice House for recommendations, the booker suggested me. Tony became my manager
-2019 Tony got in touch with Keith Stubbs who owns Dry Bar about a booking. Keith knew me as described above, so he booked me.
Jose closed his message with, “Like I said, I knew a guy.” I can almost see him sighing and rolling his eyes, like, can’t you just take my word for it.
Not included in the above was in addition to winning national comedy competitions, he’s been touring nationally, appearing on television and the big screen. As an actor, he’s appeared on “Gringa,” a short film; “The Other Client List” and “The Blackout.” He’s appeared on a variety of networks on stand-up specials as well.
Sarduy has lived in Del Rio on and off since 1999.
His Dry Bar special can be seen here:
