Julio Torres Makes Everything Funny—Including Color Theory
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This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Julio Torres is one of the most original minds working in comedy right now. He first made his name as a writer on Saturday Night Live, and then he went on to make two shows for HBO that remain cult favorites, Los Espookis and Phantasmas.
Torres also wrote and directed the film Problemista about a toy designer who's facing deportation. There's a really unique surrealism to his humor, and when staff writer Michael Shulman profiled Julio Torres for The New Yorker, The piece ran under the headline, Extraordinary Alien. You know, of all the people that I've profiled for the magazine, Julio is one of those people where I just don't think his mind works quite like anyone else's. His comedy is not a straightforward setup joke, setup joke.
It's more like he's a guest lecturer at an art school. or something and he's laying out his very particular way of seeing the world. He's very design and visual oriented. He's very in tune with the inner life of objects. His new HBO special, which comes out this month, is called Color Theories.
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