Despite hitting the stage for the first time when he was in his 30s, Martin Moreno has become one of the more respected—yet underrated—voices in comedy. His brand of humor has evolved to include various elements of every day life that’s both relatable and highly intelligent, yet not too high-brow. 

Moreno recently returned from Europe from a two-week run with long time pal Gabriel Iglesias, where they performed gigs in support of their Fluffy Breaks Even show. Airing on FUSE, Fluffy gives insight to the crew’s life on the road and the antics that coincide with their time spent exploring. 

Ahead of the season one finale of Fluffy, we caught up with Moreno at his home in Santa Monica where he discussed the big differences between a European and American audience, his interesting backstory and how important Iglesias has been to help his career.

What are the crowds like in Europe versus the ones in the States?

Way different. They give it up like 100 times more.

Why do you think that is? 

I think it’s a combination of a few things. First of all, Gabriel’s popularity is huge, so his fanbase if tremendous up there. Then the fact that we come from the States makes it different than the local humor. Other countries look to the United States for entertainment. 

Do you appreciate their hunger for humor more than maybe a routine gig here? 

It’s a lot more special. We’ve been going out there since 2010 and it’s been growing and growing ever since then. It’s actually humbling how much love they give you out there. I can’t even describe it, it’s an amazing freakin’ rush. 

Unlike other comedians, you got started a little bit later in life. What was the impetus for you getting that comedy itch later in life and being one of the rare people to start late and actually turn it into a career? 

I caught lightning in a bottle, bro! I wanted to do comedy my whole life and it is not one of those things that you can go get a degree and be a comedian. You never know how to go about it or anything. I used to go to comedy shows and be wowed by them. I used to think they made everything up in the moment. I didn’t know there was a set that people had. I always thought they knew about every single topic in the world and infallible. As I got older, the things started pushing me in that direction. I took some speech classes over at Cal State LA and every time I’d go up and talk to people, I’d make them laugh. I thought I wanted to be a speech major and everybody kept telling me I should do comedy and I finally went for it and doors just started opening up like at no other point in my life. I tried a lot of things and it was always dead ends. Once I started doing comedy, everything fell into place really quickly.

What are the differences between a routine comedy show and the stuff you do on Fluffy Breaks Even?

As far as the tour goes, it’s very personal and intimate. Usually, we’ll do a little show and there will be comics performing. There’s an opening comic, a middle comic and the headliner. Sometimes they don’t know each other, sometimes they do. This show is different in the sense that we go out there, do our thing then it incorporates and ties into one story. Each bit incorporates every bit of the show and it ends up being this whole experience where they see one full show instead of three comedians. I think once we started doing the TV show, it’s evolving into basically just us hanging out like we always do. A lot of the times, that’s where a lot of the comedy comes from.

You and Gabriel have been pals for a long time now. How has he influenced and helped your career?

First of all, he opened my eyes to a lot of things. When I first started doing comedy, I had a lot of tunnel vision and close-minded in the sense of the things that I knew. He always a bigger vision. He always knew it was bigger than the Latino market or an LA market or United States market. He wanted to make a global audience laugh. It made me change the way I approached a lot my material. When I first started, I was talking about Gs and hood rats, and the more that I worked with Gabe, I realized that there’s more comic ground with everybody not just a niche audience.