Julio Torres On Surrealistic Comedy

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4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

You'll know when you're watching a Julio Torres project. The comedian, filmmaker, and comedy writer's work is surreal, aesthetic, and delightfully absurd.

His most recent works include "Problemista," a film about a young man looking for work in New York City. And it has something to say about the nightmarish aspects of the American visa system.

"Fantasmas," a six-part HBO series, finds Torres in search of a lost golden oyster earing, navigating through otherworldly vignettes.

His "Saturday Night Live" skits like "Papyrus" draw attention to absurdity in the smaller parts of life most of us overlook.

We talk to Torres about his work and his artistic style.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On through line from NPR.
0:03.1	The consequences for the country would have been enormous.
0:06.8	It would have been a crisis.
0:09.0	The man who saw a dangerous omission in the U.S. Constitution
0:12.6	and took it upon himself to fix it.
0:16.7	Find NPR's ThruLine, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:32.1	Music Find NPR's ThruLine, wherever you get your podcasts. Comedian Julio Torres sees the world in a way that is distinctly his own.
0:37.5	Wait, but what do you do?
0:40.4	Like, I am a teacher.
0:42.5	You are a...
0:44.4	A Julio.
0:45.8	It's what he does.
0:47.8	Elaborate, please.
0:49.1	I mean, you know, I wake up and I just sort of Julio.
0:52.1	It's amazing.
0:53.1	Just today, he was consulting for Crayola.
0:55.8	And tomorrow he's meeting with NASA to rebrand a constellation.
0:59.6	That's from the HBO TV show Fantasmus created by and starring Julio Torres.
1:05.1	Fantasmus is a Spanish word for ghosts.
1:07.5	And as the name as character suggests, for a clear crayon, he pitches to
1:10.9	Creola in the opening seed. Fantasmus' first season came out last year, not long after the
1:16.0	release of the movie Problemista, which Julio wrote, directed, and stars in. So it was a big year for
	...

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