At one point, the only shirts Gabriel Iglesias wore were colorful Hawaiian prints.He didn’t have a choice. They were all that fit.
So, the hefty, family-friendly comedian did the only thing he could: He made the colorful threads his trademark, adopted a nickname and penned a slogan: “I’m not fat ... I’m fluffy.”
“I did not always like being known as ‘Fluffy,’ but now I’ve embraced it,” Mr. Iglesias, who maxed out at 450 pounds, said last week in an email. “It’s my brand. If you Google ‘fluffy,’ I’m the first thing that comes up—before bunnies!”
Now, with a handful of film credits and hundreds of stand-up performances under his much smaller belt—he’s down a full one-quarter of his former body weight—Mr. Iglesias’s career is taking off, sending him on a tour around the country before the release of his stand-up film, “The Fluffy Movie,” on July 11—including a stop on Saturday night at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center.
All material from his upcoming release has been shelved, he said, with a completely new show in store for his first visit to the village—revolving around stories about what has happened after Mr. Iglesias told “this joke” or “that joke,” he said.
“Most of my stories are from real life. My friends and family are crazy,” he said. “You can’t make that stuff up.”
As a kid, the California native was not an obvious pick as a future stand-up comedian. He was far from the class clown and kept to himself, listening more than speaking. But when he saw “Eddie Murphy Raw” at the tender age of 10, the young boy found himself a stage.
And, years later, movie sets. In 2012, he landed his first big break as a drug-dealing male strip club DJ in “Magic Mike,” starring Channing Tatum, who called Mr. Iglesias personally to offer him the part, and Matthew McConaughey. It was a role that required him to curse more than he has in all of his stand-up specials put together, he said.
That won’t stop him from acting in the sequel, “Magic Mike XXL,” though he assures that he’ll be keeping his clothes on, despite requests to take them off. “I get a lot of attention at any weight,” he said. “From women, and even men.”
But while the movie world has been “interesting,” Mr. Iglesias said, he doesn’t love it.
“Being on set means a lot of waiting, for lighting and shots to be set up. So much happens before they call ‘Action!’” he said. “Stand-up comedy is my true love. The reaction from the audience is intimate.”
At no time in the near future will audiences be seeing any less of Mr. Iglesias on stage, he insisted—only, perhaps, less of his Hawaiian shirts.
Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias will perform stand-up on Saturday, May 31, at 8 p.m. at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. Tickets range from $110 to $150. For more information, call (631) 288-1500, or visit whbpac.org.
on May 27, 2014