- [Announcer] The next comic coming to the stage,
a dear friend of mine, super funny,
everybody make it real loud for Johan Miranda.
- It's been kinda scary times.
I will say this the first time in my life
where I've ever had the thought of, like,
well, maybe I should lose weight.
Because it just feels like at some point
in the next four years I'm gonna have to run.
Or like, climb a fence or something.
I gotta do something, gotta get my crossfit on.
I grew up in the Bay Area.
I was born in Lima, Peru, but I left when I was three.
So I didn't even know I was undocumented, really,
until like later in my teenage years.
I couldn't get a job, you know, I couldn't get loans,
or I couldn't drive, I couldn't travel.
That's when I was like, okay, being undocumented sucks.
I wouldn't recommend it.
- Yeah, let's do that one more time.
One and two.
Growing up, I never thought I was different.
Even though I knew, paperwork-wise, that we were different.
I was born in Korea, and as a child,
my dad actually wanted to come here,
not only for our education,
but he wanted to do ministry here.
We came here legally,
but the lawyer that we hired and trusted with our paperwork
had messed up our dates.
And from then on,
we started having problems with our documents.
We found out that we were illegal
almost a year after we became illegal.
- I've always been a big fan of standup comedy.
As a teenager,
I knew San Francisco had a great comedy scene,
so in high school I would go to watch standup comedy
anywhere that let me.
You know, a career in comedy seems kind like far-fetched.
But, given the lack of options I have,
it's like, what do I have left to lose?
I have nothing to lose by trying comedy.
So I gave it a shot.
I started going to open mics, and it was fun.
We moved to San Francisco in the Fillmore,
which, when I was there as a kid,
it was a black neighborhood.
Not really the case anymore.
It's been gentrified.
I have conflicted feelings about gentrification,
'cause, like, obviously, when it comes to
my migration here in this country,
I have liberal views on immigration.
Yet, when it comes to white people
moving into my old neighborhood,
I'm like, we have to build a wall.
I don't know what the compromise on that is.
- It was around, I guess,
junior and senior in high school.
That's when I knew that I was very different.
My friends were getting accepted
to all these great Ivy League schools,
and fulfilling their dreams.
My dreams were a little different than other people.
I wanted to be a performer,
but I couldn't even do that,
because of my paperwork.
Why was I, why was I in this country
if I can't fulfill my dreams?
- I saw two articles back to back and I had an idea.
I'll pass it by you guys.
The first article said it costs taxpayers $1.5 million
every time the U.S. government uses an airstrike.
And the second article I read right after that said
undocumented immigrants helped to pay for
over $13 billion in taxes last year.
So what I was thinking is a good
pro-immigrant commercial could be,
"Undocumented immigrants helped pay for over
500 airstrikes last year."
And think of how many more countries we could bomb
if we legalize undocumented immigrants.
I remember reading the headline,
it was like,
"Obama passed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,"
and it was just like, dang, I didn't even see this coming.
There was no, it was just like, one day it was like,
you know what, you can have what you want.
And I was like, all right, well, that's pretty dope.
Yeah, that was a very exciting day for me.
I felt like, all right, well now I can just do what I want.
- That was literally the happiest moment in my life.
I knew that...
Sorry.
I knew that everything would change for me.
I knew that I would be able to work legally
anywhere I wanted.
I could drive, I could apply to schools.
It just changed everything.
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