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Many claim that college is the turning point in one's life, when one finds his or her future. This was the case for San Francisco Bay Area comedian Rex Navarrete, when Navarrete's college professor told him he was wasting his talents. "He told me, 'Get out of my office-we shouldn't be joking here, you should be taking those jokes to the stage," recalls Navarrete of his Asian American Studies professor Dan Gonzales, the teacher who supported his dream to be a comedian in 1989. That spring, 19 year-old Navarrete was baptised by fire, entertaining a crowd of 800 at the annual Asian Pacific Islander Student Union conference at UC Santa Cruz. "I was looking for my identity then just as everyone else was at that age," says Navarrete. "Much of my material was very serious, it lacked comedy. I figured that I had some important stuff to say, so say it in the format of stand-up. This is where I started to take comedy as a vehicle seriously." By the early 1990's, Navarrete began seeing his routine evolve through the use of characters, many of whom were struggling underdogs. His portrayals, which ranged from his ESL teacher Mrs. Scott to his Uncle Boy and to Maritess the domestic worker, gave him the voice to air his thoughts on issues and speak about things that otherwise wouldn't be mentioned. Navarrete gathers all of his material from what he calls "real Rex moments," reality and shared life experiences. "I think everything has humor; you will always find humor. I don't always make stuff up. Even though most of my material is geared for a Filipino audience, if you're smart enough you'll understand the universality of it. Look at the comedy traditions of Jewish and African American comics, which are now the mainstream through Seinfeld, Bruce, Allen, Rock, Pryor and Murphy. Our struggles become our comedy." A lot has happened since then. Navarrete has performed his brand of comedy all across the nation touring numerous colleges, universities and community events. He has become a household name in Filipino American homes. In 1998, he released his first comedy CD entitled, "Badly Browned", which was followed by another CD in the summer of 1999, "Husky Boy". Both have become bestsellers on the Classified Records label and have brought high praise by listeners across the country. In the summer of 2001, he released his third CD album this time under his own label Kakarabaw Productions entitled, "Bastos". As a major follow-up to the three CD's and touring like crazy in Asia and North America, he produced, directed and released "Hella Pinoy", his first ever, live standup DVD concert. Shot in San Francisco, it has all the hidden goodies including a feature-length performance, a behind the scenes documentary, his early days of standup and much more. Navarrete remains to be a one of the hardest working, relatively unknown American comedians today though he's performed alongside notable national headliners as George Lopez, DL Hughley, Paul Mooney, among others. Presently, he lives on the island of Oahu in Hawaii where he just loves to relax quietly, swim and fish when he can.
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