Vanessa Gonzalez’s New Hour Is Real Austin Comedy

Austin’s comedy scene is different from when Vanessa Gonzalez did her first tight five at Fallout Theater. At the time, Gonzalez had been sticking to sketch and improv because, as she puts it, “stand-up was the most intimidating one to get the guts to do.” Thankfully, her friend Lisa Friedrich saw the comic’s potential and wrangled Gonzalez into doing a set in a variety lineup.

“She kind of just threw me in the deep end of the pool,” Gonzalez recalls. “And she was like, ‘You’re funny. You’ll figure it out. Just tell a story, talk about your mom or whatever.’ And that’s what I did.”

Three Best of Austin awards, a spot in Variety’s 2022 “Top 10 Comics to Watch” list, and a comedy album (My Birthday’s Tomorrow) later, the stand-up stalwart returns to Austin’s ever-shifting comedy landscape to record her first-ever hour set – a massive career goal accomplished and totally self-financed. On the Creek and the Cave stage this Friday and Saturday (Dec. 12-13), she’ll be cracking into topical subjects with the personal touch that’s always marked her comedy style, from what life’s like in 2025 as a 40-year-old woman to her childhood and upbringing in Laredo, Texas.

Family’s always been at the heart of her work, Gonzalez says, and in this new set she plans to dig into how her parents previously worked for Customs and Border Patrol. Her hope is that through opening up about these experiences during the current rush of ICE raids, at least one person might be deterred from taking a job with the much-derided department. “With everything going on, it’s hard not to talk about politics,” she explains, “especially when they affect you. You know, being a woman [and] Mexican American in Texas, it’s like my whole life is political now.”

Her return to Austin represents, to Gonzalez, a pushback against the current reputation our Bat City comedy scene’s gained since a certain mothership landed here. “I find talking with other comics that I started with in Austin,” she says, “we’re kind of discouraged about the gentrification of our stand-up scene that’s now, you know, Joe Rogan-ized and doucheified. It’s sad because now Austin comedy has that reputation, and that’s not the scene that we started.” To her, taping her hour in ATX is a way to reinforce that “there’s still good comics here, damn it!”

“We were here first,” Gonzalez adds. “They Christopher-Columbus-ed us, and we’re the real Austin comedy.”

Performing the special in Austin also made sense to Gonzalez given that she feels “Texas audiences just get me the most.” When touring other cities, she finds people are often shocked she still lives in the Lone Star State given its current conservative leadership. While Gonzalez understands the concern, packing up and leaving isn’t in the cards for her right now. “This state is very oppressive,” she acknowledges, “but there’s a community of us, and we’re sticking together.”

“That’s what it feels like when I do my comedy show,” Gonzalez says. “It’s my people coming to see me that get me, and you don’t feel as alone after that.”

This article has been updated to reflect that Vanessa Gonzalez was not 17 when she first performed at Fallout Theatre.

This article appears in December 12 • 2025.