Jesus Garcia is one of the Internet’s funniest, savviest content creators. Known to millions of followers as Mr. Chuy, the Mexican-American social media creator got serious about writing, acting and directing by being “the family clown.”
“I’ve always been like the family clown. Obviously, being Mexican-American we have a big family so I entertained my family as a kid. I always wanted to entertain more than just the family, so the only way I felt like I could was video-making,” said Garcia, who visits Houston Saturday, November 11 as part of a free event at Karbach Brewing spotlighting Liga MX soccer. “I started just doing a bunch of random videos and even as a kid I wanted to focus on my Hispanic heritage, my culture and how it is.
“Going to school – elementary and middle school and high school – life is very different being Mexican, Mexican-American,” said Garcia, who grew up in California’s North Bay area. “I found my niche, showing my Mexican-American side and a household full of family and how that really is, whether it’s getting whooped by la chancla or acting like 15 cousins stay over. “
Garcia started creating Mr. Chuy videos back in 2012 and said, “At that time it was ‘MrChuy0123’ because all the Mr. Chuys were taken by other people. So people in public would be like, ‘Mr. Chuy0123! Hey, what’s up?!’” About a year ago he was able to secure “Mr. Chuy” across multiple platforms, where more than 10 million followers laugh with Garcia about aspects of Latino life.
A sample of videos have titles like “When Parents Make You Lie About Your Age” (9.3 million views) and “How to Lose Weight When You’re Mexican” (2.4 million views). Some of Mr. Chuy’s biggest hits focus on Mexican moms and include titles like “How to Survive a Mexican Mom” and “If Mexican Moms Went to Therapy.” They’re loving but can be less than flattering, so we asked Garcia about his own Mexican mom.
“A lot of people ask me, “Is your mom really the way that she is in the videos?’” and to them, Garcia answers, “No, that’s not my real mom. The mom in the videos is every single tia, aunt, that I have, including my mom and my mom’s friends, combined into one. So, I’ve just got this general idea of a Mexican mom and I put her to be an overcaring mother.
“My mom is the nicest lady on earth,” Garcia clarified for his followers (and his mom). “Whenever I play a mom in my videos, that’s probably my mom.”
The subjects he mines resonate with people in and out of the culture, he found. A recent skit featured Mexican dads “doing the family whistle” to locate a lost kid. That one elicited comments from Brazilian, Nigerian and Ghanaian families recognizing some of their own heritage in the skit.
“It’s very surprising to me and I love to see that,” Garcia said. “I mean, with the whistling one, I really thought it was a family thing, but it turns out it really is universal, it’s a universal thing for each family. A whistle can sound the same as another one, but a family knows their family whistle, from a mile away, from next to you. I thought that was hilarious to see a lot of people have their own way, but it’s similar to our cultural experience.
“At one point, way back in 2019, 2020, on Facebook, 40 percent of viewership was coming from the Philippines. A lot of people there could relate to our comedy and looking at our cultures we’re not that different, actually.”
That relatability is what’s made Garcia a social media star. Well, that and a lot of comedic content, acting talent and hard work. He writes and does a lot of the acting – including multiple parts – in most of the videos, and there are a lot. Garcia knows for sure he’s produced more than 500 longform content videos, and many, many more shorts. Those TikTok ready shorts required “extra editing, extra finger-power.”
“All the editing, writing and directing, that’s all me. One of the reasons I haven’t added more help is I feel like I have a certain style and a certain way of doing things so finding a person to edit is really complicated. I feel like I could train somebody, but I don’t really have the time.”
That’s because as Mr. Chuy grows so do Garcia’s opportunities. He’s been to VidCon events, toed the red carpets at Marvel movie premieres and recently was part of Major League Baseball’s 2023 Creator Class. As the only Latino in the Creator Class mix this season, Garcia served as an ambassador for the sport.
“This year I’ve been blessed enough to partner with Major League Baseball for the entire season. We went everywhere. The Mexico series, London series, All-Star (game). I visited a bunch of parks,” he said. “I’ve also been getting close with the (San Francisco) 49ers as well.”
He’s also partnered with Liga MX, Mexico’s top professional football division. This weekend he’s in Houston for FIESTÓN, a free event hosted by Karbach Brewing and sponsored by Liga MX, TUDN and Univision. The fun begins at 4 p.m. and includes a watch party between Mexican soccer giants Pumas and Chivas, a live performance by Latin Grammy winners Costumbre, opportunities to meet futbol legends Oribe Peralta and Gerardo Torrado and, of course, Mr. Chuy himself, right in the middle of the proceedings.
“Live events like these, they’re really fun because it’s mostly improv, so you never really know what’s going to be happening,” he said. “It makes it very fun to not know what you’re going to do, although you have some outline. I know that during this event there’s going to be some legends there, like Peralta is going to be there, Torrado’s going to be there, so that’s really exciting as well because we may or may not be able to do some content with them. So, that’s really cool.”
Besides baseball, football and soccer, Garcia plans to attend his first basketball game in January, when he’ll have a courtside seat for the Los Angeles Lakers, territory designated for movie stars like Jack Nicholson and celebrities like the Kardashians.
“I think this new chapter that I’m coming into is sports-oriented and I can’t wait to find opportunities to integrate Mexican culture within the content,” he said of those partnerships. “My dad was never really into major sports like that, other than soccer, so I can’t wait to start putting that into the videos somehow.”
What about “Mr. Chuy the Movie,” we asked? Will the series go from our iPad screens to the silver screen someday soon? We asked about his acting aspirations beyond his beloved characters.
“I have auditioned for some stuff and definitely have done some stuff. One of the shows, I can’t mention now but it’s coming out early next year,” he said. “We have talked about how we could pitch some sort of show to a network, whether it’s a show, or something along those lines. A lot of fans have asked as well, they’d love to see more content behind Mr. Chuy so yeah, it’s something that is not underneath the carpet, it is on the table.”
Jesus Garcia, better known as Mr. Chuy, performs at FIESTÓN, Saturday, November 11 at Karbach Brewing, 2032 Karbach. The free, family-friendly event begins at 4 p.m. and includes a watch party of the Chivas-Pumas football match and a concert performance by Costumbre.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
