On a recent Saturday night on Sunset Boulevard, a pair of black 1940s low-riders guided the diverse, sold-out crowd into the Comedy Store. Cypress Hill hung out in the green room. Los Angeles photographer and director Estevan Oriol oversaw six cameras and the taping of George Perez’s debut hour special, “Misunderstood,” presented by Foos Gone Wild.
“There were no fights,” Perez enthuses. “And,” with the mark of a successful Perez show traditionally measured in beer sales, “they sold out of 805s, Coors Lights and Peronis!”
Originally from Orange County (“the Republican L.A.,” he calls it), Perez’s material combines deeply personal narrative with sociopolitical insight. Before releasing “Misunderstood” in 2025, he headlines New Year’s Eve at the two-year-old Stand Up Comedy Club. He’s already working on new material for the occasion.
“That club has my culture all around it,” he says of the Bellflower venue. “Mexicans walk there; they don’t even drive. It’s by houses, apartments, by downtown, and every time I go there, it sells out. And I don’t even do Friday and Saturday. I do Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I love that club. I love the crowd. It’s dark and comics like to hang out.”
In Orange, Perez adored Cheech and Chong and was joking for his family by age 13. Later, he kept his construction co-workers cracking up. A girlfriend dragged him to an underground Wednesday comedy show at a Fullerton club called Rio. He recalls the warm-up comedians on the show being pretty corny. Toward the end when a headliner put his roasting skills against anyone in the crowd, Perez took the challenge.
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“Prison was the best thing for me; it humbled me,” he says. “There’s no more fighting. There is only using your words,” Perez said.
(Estevan Oriol)
“I went up there, I beat him, and I got the itch that day,” he recalls. “Then the next day, I quit construction.”
The show was hosted by Edwin San Juan (“SlantEd Comedy”), who mistook Perez for a ringer. The two remain close to this day. Perez recently bought a swap meet bootleg DVD of the 2001 evening labeled, “George Perez’s first time doing comedy.” Within eight months, he made his television debut on “LATV Live,” the primetime flagship series of L.A.’s first bilingual station.
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Early grinding involved “the craziest s—,” including shows for 30 people at tweaker houses where his cousin sold meth and a spot called the Wild Coyote, “the Mexican Apollo” where Felipe Esparza, Gabriel Iglesias and Ralphie May hung out. He started setting up chairs and doing bringer shows at Casa Latina in Rosemead. A year later, he was hosting to 300 people every Tuesday as well as doing spots at the Hollywood Improv. Whatever the venue, Perez knew tickets had sold well when venue managers laughed, “The Coronas are done! You did your job!”
Audiences and industry reacted with surprise. “You thought [I] was going to talk about drive-bys, tortillas and lowriders and [I’m] up there talking about Shakespeare,” Perez says. He subverted stereotypes about growing up in the streets, got deep about being a young dad and discussed politics as a lifelong local.
Perez appeared on MTV, Showtime and Comedy Central before a previous version of his life caught up to him. Before comedy, he had been a gang member since seventh grade. There was vandalism, carjacking, gun charges and a steadfast refusal to walk from fights. Perez was a felon at 18, the same year his son was born.
Nearly two years later, he recalls, “The guy that I beat up sees me on MTV’s ‘Yo Mama,’ and he’s like, ‘That’s the guy that beat me up!’ ” Then the gang unit raided the strip club he was DJing at. “I fight it, I lose, and I’m in prison. There’s no more freedom of speech. So the comedian is completely gone. I’m now in survival mode.” He did three years.
Guards remembered seeing him perform at the Ontario Improv. Everyone knew he was on TV. He did perform inside sometimes, including for the warden and 500 inmates.
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Most tattoos he sports today, he got as an inmate . He hid tobacco up his ass in a latex glove so he could sell it. He also saw riots, an OD, murder and fights, during one of which he lost a tooth. He continues experiencing nightmares and PTSD. When he got out in 2009, he met iPhones and his new baby daughter.
“Prison was the best thing for me; it humbled me,” he says. “There’s no more fighting. There is only using your words. It showed me discipline and being sober in there, I got to look outside myself and realize all the people that I hurt, that love me. I learned in prison when you make a mistake, you confess to it, you fix it and you grow.”
Fifteen years later, Perez’s credits include Netflix, HBO and the film “Taco Shop” with Carlos Alazraqui, Esparza and Brian Huskey. He records his first-hand “George Perez Stories” podcast and YouTube videos in a studio wallpapered with every vinyl comedy album he can find. His own January 2024 vinyl album “This Cholo Is Crazy” even featured sketch and music.
“I mean, you can’t cancel me. I went to prison for three years when my comedy was in its prime, came out and I’m doing better than I was before,” Perez said. “I’m not looking to be on a sitcom. I want to be an artistic comedian.”
(Estevan Oriol)
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Something else had happened that he didn’t address for years. “I dig deep,” he says of the impetus for “Misunderstood.” “I had a son that passed away because the babysitter left him in the tub.” He wasn’t allowed to attend services. Following three years out on parole, he tangled with cocaine. “Drugs would numb me and I wouldn’t think about my son and the bad things that have happened to me in my life, friends that I’ve lost.”
Today he continues to be more honest about past tragedies and new growth than ever. At most, there’s a little tequila now and then to celebrate. His time in prison, journeys with addiction and struggles with mental health; all of it part of Perez’s artistic expression. “I just started writing. I’m no longer up there going, ‘Latinos make some noise!’ It’s, ‘This hurts, and I have to find a way out.’ It’s personal.”
“I mean, you can’t cancel me. I went to prison for three years when my comedy was in its prime, came out and I’m doing better than I was before. I’m not looking to be on a sitcom. I want to be an artistic comedian. When someone sees me onstage, like, ‘This guy looks like me. He’s gone through the same thing I’ve gone through.’ That’s what I want to accomplish.”
by Sean P. Aune | January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 10:30 am EST
Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
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This time around, it’s Jan. 10, 1986, and we’re off to see Black Moon Rising.
Black Moon Rising
What was the obsession in the 1980s with super vehicles?
Sam Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is hired to steal a computer tape with evidence against a company on it. While being pursued, he tucks it in the parachute of a prototype vehicle called the Black Moon. While trying to retrieve it, the car is stolen by Nina (Linda Hamilton), a car thief working for a car theft ring. Both of them want out of their lives, and it looks like the Black Moon could be their ticket out.
Blue Thunder in the movies, Airwolf and Knight Rider on TV, the 1980s loved an impractical ‘super’ vehicle. In this case, the car plays a very minor role up until the final action set piece, and the story is far more about the characters and their motivations.
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The movie is silly as you would expect it to be, but it is never a bad watch. It’s just not anything particularly memorable.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Jan. 17, 2026, with The Adventures of the American Rabbit, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Iron Eagle, The Longshot, and Troll.
California helped make them the rich. Now a small proposed tax is spooking them out of the state.
California helped make them among the richest people in the world. Now they’re fleeing because California wants a little something back.
The proposed California Billionaire Tax Act has plutocrats saying they are considering deserting the Golden State for fear they’ll have to pay a one-time, 5% tax, on top of the other taxes they barely pay in comparison to the rest of us. Think of it as the Dust Bowl migration in reverse, with The Monied headed East to grow their fortunes.
The measure would apply to billionaires residing in California as of Jan. 1, 2026, meaning that 2025 was a big moving year month among the 200 wealthiest California households subject to the tax.
The recently departed reportedly include In-n-Out Burger owner and heiress Lynsi Snyder, PayPal co-founder and conservative donor Peter Thiel, Venture Capitalist David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures, and Google co-founder Larry Page, who recently purchased $173 million worth of waterfront property in Miami’s Coconut Grove. Thank goodness he landed on his feet in these tough times.
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The principal sponsor behind the Billionaire Tax Act is the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which contends that the tax could raise a $100 billion to offset severe federal cutbacks to California’s public education, food assistance and Medicaid programs.
The initiative is designed to offset some of the tax breaks that billionaires received from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently passed by the Republican-dominated Congress and signed by President Trump.
According to my colleague Michael Hiltzik, the bill “will funnel as much as $1 trillion in tax benefits to the wealthy over the next decade, while blowing a hole in state and local budgets for healthcare and other needs.”
The drafters of the Billionaire Tax Act still have to gather around 875,000 signatures from registered voters by June 24 for the measure to qualify on November’s ballot. But given the public ire toward the growing wealth of the 1%, and the affordability crisis engulfing much of the rest of the nation, it has a fair chance of making it onto the ballot.
If the tax should be voted into law, what would it mean for those poor tycoons who failed to pack up the Lamborghinis in time? For Thiel, whose net worth is around $27.5 billion, it would be around $1.2 billion, should he choose to stay, and he’d have up to five years to pay it.
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Yes, it’s a lot … if you’re not a billionaire. It’s doubtful any of the potentially affected affluents would feel the pinch, but it could make a world of difference for kids depending on free school lunches, or folks who need medical care but can’t afford it because they’ve been squeezed by a system that places much of the tax burden on them.
According to the California Budget & Policy Center, the bottom fifth of California’s non-elderly families, with an average annual income of $13,900, spend an estimated 10.5% of their incomes on state and local taxes. In comparison, the wealthiest 1% of families, with an average annual income of $2.0 million, spend an estimated 8.7% of their incomes on state and local taxes.
“It’s a matter of values,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) posted on X. “We believe billionaires can pay a modest wealth tax so working-class Californians have Medicaid.”
Many have argued losing all that wealth to other states will hurt California in the long run.
Even Gov. Gavin Newsom has argued against the measure, citing that the wealthy can relocate anywhere else to evade the tax. During the New York Times DealBook Summit last month, Newsom said, “You can’t isolate yourself from the 49 others. We’re in a competitive environment.”
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He has a point, as do others who contend that the proposed tax may hurt California rather then help.
Sacks signaled he was leaving California by posting an image of the Texas flag on Dec. 31 on X and writing: “God bless Texas.” He followed with a post that read, “As a response to socialism, Miami will replace NYC as the finance capital and Austin will replace SF as the tech capital.”
Arguments aside, it’s disturbing to think that some of the richest people in the nation would rather pick up and move than put a small fraction of their vast California-made — or in the case of the burger chain, inherited — fortunes toward helping others who need a financial boost.
A still from ‘Song Sung Blue’.
| Photo Credit: Focus Features/YouTube
There is something unputdownable about Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) from the first moment one sees him at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting celebrating his 20th sober birthday. He encourages the group to sing the famous Neil Diamond number, ‘Song Sung Blue,’ with him, and we are carried along on a wave of his enthusiasm.
Song Sung Blue (English)
Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi
Runtime: 132 minutes
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Storyline: Mike and Claire find and rescue each other from the slings and arrows of mediocrity when they form a Neil Diamond tribute band
We learn that Mike is a music impersonator who refuses to come on stage as anyone but himself, Lightning, at the Wisconsin State Fair. At the fair, he meets Claire (Kate Hudson), who is performing as Patsy Cline. Sparks fly between the two, and Claire suggests Mike perform a Neil Diamond tribute.
Claire and Mike start a relationship and a Neil Diamond tribute band, called Lightning and Thunder. They marry and after some initial hesitation, Claire’s children from her first marriage, Rachel (Ella Anderson) and Dayna (Hudson Hensley), and Mike’s daughter from an earlier marriage, Angelina (King Princess), become friends.
Members from Mike’s old band join the group, including Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli), a Buddy Holly impersonator and Sex Machine (Mustafa Shakir), who sings as James Brown. His dentist/manager, Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens), believes in him, even fixing his tooth with a little lightning bolt!
The tribute band meets with success, including opening for Pearl Jam, with the front man for the grunge band, Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith), joining Lightning and Thunder for a rendition of ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ at the 1995 Pearl Jam concert in Milwaukee.
There is heartbreak, anger, addiction, and the rise again before the final tragedy. Song Sung Blue, based on Greg Kohs’ eponymous documentary, is a gentle look into a musician’s life. When Mike says, “I’m not a songwriter. I’m not a sex symbol. But I am an entertainer,” he shows that dreams do not have to die. Mike and Claire reveal that even if you do not conquer the world like a rock god, you can achieve success doing what makes you happy.
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ALSO READ: ‘Run Away’ series review: Perfect pulp to kick off the New Year
Song Sung Blue is a validation for all the regular folk with modest dreams, but dreams nevertheless. As the poet said, “there’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” Hudson and Jackman power through the songs and tears like champs, leaving us laughing, tapping our feet, and wiping away the errant tears all at once.
The period detail is spot on (never mind the distracting wigs). The chance to hear a generous catalogue of Diamond’s music in arena-quality sound is not to be missed, in a movie that offers a satisfying catharsis. Music is most definitely the food of love, so may we all please have a second and third helping?
