Latina Comedian Jesenia Bailey Creates Her Own Showcase
Jesenia Bailey found her way into a career in comedy in the most unlikely way — by doing as everything else first. She’s the co-creator and co-producer of the Latino comedy project Ay Que Funny, a Puerto Rican from the Bronx, a dreamer, and someone we wanted to profile in our occasional series on News Taco about how people achieved their American Dreams.
Bailey is a comedic actress and improv performer who believes she found her way into comedy through fate. She told NewsTaco she was someone who never knew the direction of her life. She wanted to be a singer, but couldn’t sing. She went to beauty school, but hated doing hair. She went to trade school and became a disgruntled secretary.
But, oddly enough, she says that’s when fate intervened.
“It was a very depressing environment and I became the person in the office who told the jokes to lighten the air, aka, office clown! And so began my comedy career,” she told us. “After working there for five years, I dared myself into doing standup comedy, which led me to develop my own sketch and improv comedy show, and behold – here I am today, still working in an office! But working every darn day on my craft and performing my passion for comedy every chance I can get — which is mainly on the weekends.”
Ultimately, Bailey hopes to be able to support her family with this passion. She told us she wants to work in TV, because more Latinos need to be on TV, and she’s working on webisodes and a pilot to this end.
“I also want to inspire young and older Latinas to live their dream — there aren’t many people who ‘look like me’ in the entertainment industry and I want to be the one to break the stereotypical Latina mold. Yes, we’re sexy and fabulous, but we’re also smart and funny,” she told us.
Being a woman and a Latina has been a “challenge” in the entertainment industry, Bailey told NewsTaco, but this only inspires her to work harder she said. “As a Latina in comedy, well unfortunately, it’s as if we don’t even exist. Bottom line – I know I have to work my butt off to make my mark in this industry. So instead of playing the waiting game for gigs that are casting ‘someone like me’ – I make my own gigs.”
Like many other Latino entrepreneurs we’ve spoken to at NewsTaco, Bailey decided to make her own platform to feature her work. Instead of waiting to hear for work, she made her own, “That’s why I began producing my sketch comedy show Ay Que Funny. Before doing my show, nobody was calling me because casting directors/agents/managers didn’t know that I can bring it – so, by producing my own work, I’ve been able to show them that I am very well capable to produce the comedic goods that need to be brought.”
