Gabriel Iglesias

It was Comic View.

Def Jam was a lot more challenging to get into.

Unfortunately, I never got to perform on Def Jam.

I wish I did.

I had a lot of friends that got to do Def Jam, but I never got that opportunity.

I will tell you the opportunity I did get though.

The first time I performed in New York, first time I performed in New York, was on It's Showtime at the Apollo.

And for those of you that don't know, It's Showtime at the Apollo,

was the most, I don't think there's a room or a venue or a show that was more challenging than its show time at the Apollo because its show time at the Apollo was one of those places where, man, if you even flinched and felt like you were not supposed to be there, the audience would know.

There's a show called American Idol.

There's a show called America's Got Talent.

And you have an opportunity to go out on that stage.

You present yourself.

You do what you got to do.

And you have four chances.

to impress that audience because if the judges don't like you and okay and all right okay and you you have and then you have that dynamic of the audience and the judge right so if the audience still loves you and the judges don't the audience is like stop doing that they're good give them a chance

It Showtime at the Apollo was the rawest, most honest form of an audience because you had seconds to show them what you could do.

And if they didn't like you, they could smell through anything you were trying to present.

So I went to It Showtime at the Apollo in 1999.

Okay.