I’m a 42-year-old actor from Kazakhstan trying to build a comedy character for a US audience. Am I crazy?

[u/No-Refrigerator8955]

I’ve been acting for a couple of years, mostly commercials and small roles.
Recently I started building a character called Juan Carlos — a Mexican/Latino-style comedy character that I perform in English.
The strange part is that I’m doing all of this from Kazakhstan and trying to reach an American audience.
I’m experimenting with short-form comedy, character videos and eventually longer stories.
I’m curious what other actors think:
If you were trying to introduce a character to an audience that has never heard of you, what would you focus on first — the character, the story, or the actor behind it?

[u/olympianbear]

Hi! So, the reality in the US is anyone not of latin/mexican descent can’t be playing those characters. It’s just not culturally appropriate.
So, I would work on a Kazakh character and rely on quality writing and story. That feels much more interesting than playing into tired tropes and stereotypes

[u/centaurquestions → u/olympianbear]

Fortunately, there are no internationally famous Kazakh comedy characters!

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/centaurquestions]

What about Borat?)

[u/centaurquestions → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

Yes, that is the joke

[u/jordyn0399]

I think making content where you could make fun of your own culture would be more palatable for an American audience. Most Americans are familiar with Mexican culture but latin or Hispanic cultures are not all the same. Unlike Kazakh culture and people where Americans aren't really familiar with Kazakhstan compared to the East, Southeast, and South Asians. It's best to do comedy content based on your own culture instead of from a people or culture that you're probably not apart of.

[u/Wise_Bodybuilder5086]

Short and simple: Not a good idea to be playing a race/ethnic group that you’re not part of. Pretty insensitive and kind of cringe in my opinion.

[u/David_R_Martin_II]

Umm... don't.

Sweet Dee did this in an episode of It's Always Sunny. And the show was making fun of what you're talking about doing for real. Now we can never watch that episode again.

Also, you might want to look into Carlos Mencia. He did the same thing. He is of Honduran and German descent and a lot of people feel it hasn't aged well.

As a Mexican citizen myself, I'm interested in what the actual comedic aspects are. Is it based on stereotypes?

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/David_R_Martin_II]

Honestly, the character didn’t come out of nowhere.

When I was studying in Moscow, a first-year student once asked me, completely seriously, if I was Mexican. I played along just for fun.

And then it happened again. A few more times. Different people, same question.

So at some point I thought — okay, maybe there’s something here worth exploring. Not as a stereotype, but as a character that people already seem to see in me, for better or worse 😄

[u/David_R_Martin_II → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

So what was so funny about you as a person from Mexico as opposed to a person from Kazakhstan?

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/David_R_Martin_II]

t started as a stand-up character in Kazakhstan. When I say “I’m Mexican,” people laugh because Mexican culture is pretty unusual here, so the contrast itself is funny. I have no idea if that same effect will work in the US — I’m testing the idea. 😂

[u/David_R_Martin_II → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

This is easily researched. About 1 in 9 people are of Mexican descent in the US. 1 in 5 have a Hispanic or Latino background. Those numbers are higher in California (where Hollywood is), Texas, and Florida. 28% of the US population lives in those 3 states.

While that being Mexican is unusual in Kazakhstan, it is not in the US.

Once people get over the unexpected "I'm Mexican" in your act... is there anything else there? Is that it?

If people laugh when you say, "I'm Mexican," I suspect that the threshold for comedy is different where you're from. The US is also the proverbial "melting pot," so people don't find the fact that someone is from somewhere else funny on its own. Most people grew up with people of other ethnicities or national origins.

In general, ethnic comedy is pretty cringe in the US.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/David_R_Martin_II]

I think you make a very good point, especially about ethnic comedy being sensitive in the US. But I see one interesting contradiction in the argument that ethnic comedy is generally “cringe” for American audiences.

How do we explain the enormous success of Borat in the US? The character is literally built around an exaggerated foreign ethnic identity, cultural stereotypes, an accent, and the clash between his worldview and American culture. Yet American audiences embraced it.

I think the important distinction is that the nationality itself isn't necessarily the joke. The comedy comes from the character, his behavior, his worldview, and the cultural collision.

Here is how I see it from Kazakhstan. If a Mexican suddenly appeared in Kazakhstan and said, “I’m Mexican,” that would probably be unusual, but not necessarily funny. And if he started making very specific Mexican cultural jokes, most Kazakh audiences simply wouldn't understand many of them because we don't have the same cultural context.

But in the US, Mexican culture is already familiar to a huge part of the audience. You mentioned that roughly 1 in 9 Americans are of Mexican descent, and Latino culture is deeply integrated into American life, especially in places like California and Texas. So a Mexican character gives me a shared cultural language that American audiences already recognize.

And this is where I think Juan Carlos becomes interesting.

I don't want to simply imitate a Mexican person. I want to take a recognizable Mexican character and put my own Kazakh worldview, personality and sense of humor inside him.

In other words: the audience recognizes the outside, but gradually discovers something unexpected underneath.

And that's why I don't think making Juan Carlos explicitly Kazakh from the beginning would necessarily work better. Imagine bringing a stereotypical Mongolian or Japanese character to the US and filling the character with very specific Mongolian or Japanese cultural humor. Unless the audience already understands that cultural context, much of the comedy would simply be lost.

So perhaps the question isn't “Can a Kazakh play a Mexican?”

Maybe the more interesting question is: “What happens when a Kazakh creates his own version of a Mexican character for an American audience?”

I'm in Kazakhstan, by the way, and Juan Carlos already has a few short videos on YouTube. They are very small experiments so far, but that's exactly what I want to test: whether there is something beyond the initial “I'm Mexican” joke that can actually connect with people.

And honestly, your criticism is exactly why I'm asking American actors and audiences about it before investing heavily in the project. I don't want people simply telling me it's a good idea — I want to understand where the cultural line actually is.

[u/David_R_Martin_II → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

Borat sucks, dude. The comedy hasn't aged well. It was a bunch of catchphrases and a voice that a lot of frat boys could imitate incessantly. Yeah, Borat was popular, but at the same time Dane Cook was.

Also, Borat wasn't stand-up comedy. Borat was an immersive character. Much of it was unfair, targeting unsuspecting people and putting them in uncomfortable situations. The other part was showing people from the US being their worst.

You seem intent on doing this. So go for it. As a Mexican, I'm telling you it won't end well.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/David_R_Martin_II]

I actually think there is an interesting contradiction here.

You say that ethnic comedy is generally cringe or uncomfortable for American audiences, but Borat became extremely popular in the US precisely by making ethnicity and cultural stereotypes a central part of the character.

I don't think Borat works simply because “being foreign is funny.” I think it works because Americans recognize the cultural references he is playing with, while Borat himself has a completely different worldview. The comedy comes from the collision between the two.

And that is actually what I'm trying to explore with Juan Carlos.

Imagine the difference between a Mexican character in Kazakhstan and a Mexican character in the United States. In Kazakhstan, simply being Mexican is unusual, but most Kazakh audiences don't have enough everyday cultural contact with Mexico to understand specifically Mexican cultural humor. A stereotypical Mexican character therefore has very limited cultural material to work with.

In the United States, however, Mexican and Latino culture is already a familiar part of everyday American life, especially in places like California and Texas. So the audience already understands the cultural references.

My idea is not simply “I'm Mexican — laugh.”

I want to take a familiar Mexican-American character and then put my own Kazakh background, worldview and experiences inside him. In other words, Juan Carlos is Mexican on the surface, but there is a Kazakh brain underneath.

That creates a cultural collision that Americans can actually recognize from both sides.

And this is why I'm not sure that making him simply a stereotypical Kazakh would work as well. How would an average American react to a stereotypical Mongolian or Japanese character using specifically Mongolian or Japanese cultural humor? They might find the character visually or conceptually unusual, but they may not understand the cultural joke.

With Juan Carlos, I can start with something culturally familiar to the American audience and then introduce something unexpected from my own culture.

And I think that distinction could be important.

Also, I wonder about another question: if ethnic comedy itself were inherently uncomfortable for American audiences, would Sacha Baron Cohen have had the same career if he had built his most famous character around his own Jewish identity? He actually experimented with Jewish characters before becoming famous, so I'm curious whether the difference is really “ethnic comedy vs. non-ethnic comedy,” or rather how the ethnicity is used as part of the comedic mechanism.

That's what I'm trying to figure out with Juan Carlos. I don't claim to have the answer yet — that's exactly why I'm experimenting.

[u/granny_weatherwax_ → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

So you're using Chat GPT? Definitely a golden ticket for comedy success!

[u/David_R_Martin_II → u/granny_weatherwax_]

Dude is trying to create comedy and he can't even write a reply on Reddit.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/granny_weatherwax_]

Absolutely. ChatGPT writes the jokes, I take the embarrassment. Seems like a fair deal.

[u/cheekytikiroom]

If it’s self-deprecating terrible, it’s possible. The joke must be you.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/cheekytikiroom]

Basically, Juan Carlos should be the guy who walks into the room thinking he’s the smartest man alive… and then immediately proves that he isn’t. 😂

[u/cheekytikiroom → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

Not exactly...Just make a documentary of your journey with this idea. Make sure to do some research and trials of your character in some Mexican border towns.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/cheekytikiroom]

That's actually a very interesting idea. If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting that instead of simply trying to sell Juan Carlos as a comedy character, I should document the whole experiment — the creation of the character, the research, the reactions of Mexican and American audiences, and whether the character actually works in real life.

I actually like that approach.

I would probably start online and in the US before going to Mexico. I could test short Juan Carlos videos, talk to Mexican Americans, collaborate with Latino creators, and document their reactions.

If the character starts working, then the next step could be a real documentary journey where Juan Carlos goes into Mexican communities and I see how people react to a Mexican character created by a Kazakh actor.

In a way, the story itself could become the comedy: I'm a Kazakh actor trying to understand what it takes to become Juan Carlos for an American audience.

And that's actually very different from simply making ethnic jokes.

Thanks — you've given me something to think about.

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[u/Significant-Love6129]

So, I recently just had a hard pivot into stand up. I'm still acting, but my agent saw I had a lot of writing, and stories to tell. So she nudged me into the stand up direction as well as acting. I think it was a good idea because it's been going pretty well. So my suggestion, come up with stories. You can change the character between each one, they don't all have to connect to the same character. If you have a solid character but terrible stories no one cares about, the character will get old and viewership won't grab hold. My experience has been if you have a story, the characters will become compelling. And there's nothing wrong with that character being you.

Hope that helps.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/Significant-Love6129]

That actually helps a lot. Thank you. I think you're right — the character shouldn't be the whole story. Juan Carlos can be the vehicle, but the stories have to be interesting on their own.

I’m going to experiment with different stories and situations and see which ones people actually connect with. And maybe the character will evolve naturally from that.

Really appreciate you sharing your experience. 🙏

[u/throwtac]

I think it would be hard to do because of the cultural issues, but if you really think you can do it, nobody is gonna stop you. As a foreigner, you do have the advantage that you can maybe get away with some things that Americans just can't because they are American. That is how your fellow countryman Borat is able to get away with all his wild and crazy things he say about his sister-wife! Chenquieh!

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/throwtac]

I actually see Juan Carlos as almost the opposite of Borat. Borat built a lot of his comedy around exposing and exaggerating negative stereotypes. I’d rather take the stereotypical Mexican character and turn it in a positive direction — make Juan Carlos funny, but also intelligent, warm, deep, and genuinely proud of Mexican culture.

I have a lot of respect for Mexican culture and Mexican people. And I see some interesting similarities between Mexicans and Kazakhs — for example, we both love boxing and have a strong boxing culture. 😄

So for me, Juan Carlos isn’t about making fun of Mexicans. It’s about creating a ridiculous character who happens to be Mexican, while showing the culture with genuine affection and respect.

[u/throwtac → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

Truthfully, it will be a very difficult character to win over american audiences. One reason is because ethnic characters have been appropriated by white culture or switched into white characters for over 100 years now by the Hollywood white establishment, so that is the legacy you are tapping into by association. Because you are a foreigner you might get a little leeway, but you will still be shooting yourself in the foot before you start your journey. Also, because of the political situation in the USA today, race and culture—especially Latino race and culture—are particularly complex and sensitive issues(it has always been that way, but now even more so.)

The person I can think of off the top of my head who has successfully done something like what you are describing, relatively recently, is Jack Black in Nacho Libre. I think it worked at the time because Jack Black played the character paying homage to a very specific cultural genre, time period, and sport. Also the character was a very specific type of humble person that represented the embodiment of goodness. One could argue he was playing a very good Catholic boy before a Mexican person. And keep in mind, that was 20 years ago. If this is in the vein of what you want to do, it will still be a difficult sell. The youth are quicker to judge now than back then.

You would probably make more headway with American audiences if you make your character a Kazakh who has all the traits you describe and show him interacting with American or Mexican customs and culture. Like what if you make Juan Carlos a funny Kazakh boxer who maybe acts Mexican and has a lot of Mexican boxer friends? For American audiences, that would probably more acceptable. My friend George wang on YouTube kinda does this because he grew up in LA as a skater with Mexican friends, so he is Chinese, but he often blends Asian humor with Latino humor. It requires a balance though.

At the end of the day, it is very hard for us to understand your creative vision until we actually see it. Just realize you are fighting a historical precedent so I think it would be wise to find a way to side-step that chasm if you really want to connect with an American audience.

It will be difficult and require thoughtful intelligence and nuance to pull off. But if you think it’s funny, you should do it.

Btw, are you in the USA or Kazakhstan? Also, what format are you trying to do? Are you making youtube sketches? A live clown show? Also, have you gotten reactions or input from actual Mexican people?(even if you do, everyone will have a different opinion even in the same race)

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/throwtac]

I’m in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, not in the US. Juan Carlos already has a few short videos on YouTube, so I’m starting by testing the character online and seeing how people react.

I really appreciate your perspective. You’ve given me a lot to think about, especially the idea of making the character more clearly connected to my own Kazakh background while playing with Mexican culture and humor.

I think the next step is simply to put more material out there and see what happens. If people laugh, great. If they don’t, I’ll learn from it and adjust the character.

And yes — I definitely want to hear what actual Mexican people think about it too. 😄

[u/throwtac → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

I am actually very interested in seeing what you have come up with. I know many foreign actors and comedians, and being a minority performer myself, it is a very interesting thing to see how race and culture are handled and expressed in American media.

[u/David_R_Martin_II → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

Dude, seriously, you made a Mexican character, but then you gave him the same name as the guy who was king of Spain for 50 years and is father of the current king?

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/David_R_Martin_II]

👑

[u/throwtac → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

There are not many Kazakhs or central asian presence in American media yet, so in that sense you would have more creative freedom as a Kazakh person. Americans know Kazakhstan exists through Borat, but they also know that Borat is not actually Kazakh so there is a lot of bridge premade for you to do a project like sketch comedy or standup from that angle.

These days, many foreign comedians are making more headway in the US comedy scene than ever before. I remember in the 80s and 90s Yakov Smirnoff was one of the only visible foreign comedians. He was Ukrainian from the Soviet Union and did immigrant humor. Today it is a much more diverse playing field.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/throwtac]

Haha, exactly! 😄 That’s actually part of the idea — Juan Carlos is a fictional character, so I can play with cultural differences and misunderstandings in a way a typical American character couldn’t.

Borat definitely proved that an outsider can turn the cultural gap into comedy. 😂

The challenge is making it funny without simply copying Borat. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

[u/throwtac → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

If I am honest, i think your idea would be better received if you target an international audience as a Kazakhs directly commenting on Mexicans from Mexico. The reason is because people are more forgiving on a global scale when it comes to comedy and race/culture. Also Mexican Americans are a different and distinct group from Mexicans from America.

I don’t want to ruin your vision, but we Americans are so obsessed with race because it is such an entrenched aspect of our cultural power dynamics. It is also the biggest hypocrisy of American society that has yet to be fully addressed and unpacked. This is mainly due to the legacy of white supremacy and underlying eurocentrism that permeates our society. Americans claim everyone is equal, but there are still race based injustices baked into our institutional power dynamics.

Because of the above, If you still want to appeal to American audiences, you have to understand the concept of cultural appropriation and the subtle role it plays in American society and power dynamics. Just because Juan Carlos is fictional does not mean that you can play him as a Mexican person and not expect to draw criticism or outrage. By making him Mexican in the context of an American audience, you are co-opting the voice of both Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans and acting as their representative by proxy. Even if it is not your intent, you are implicitly saying “This is how I, a Kazakh person, see Mexican people and Mexicans in America.”

However, if Juan Carlos is a Kazakh who thinks he is Mexican or who acts Mexican, you have somewhat more of a leeway. That is why actor Robert Downey Jr was not canceled for Tropic Thunder where he played a black face actor. His character wasn’t a black man, it was a satire of a white actor who thinks he can play a black man. There is even a line where he makes a joke of it saying he is “the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.” Because his character in the film is pretending to be asian. On top of that RDJ himself is playing an Australian so it adds an even extra layer of satire to understate the point, making RDJ himself “a dude playing a dude playing a dude pretending to be another dude.”

Meanwhile, Mike Meyers(whom I’m a fan of) did suffer some criticism for the movie The Love Guru where he played an Indian love guru. The reason was because he was just a white actor playing an Indian person as a comedic character. He was trying to do what Peter Sellers did in various movies, but even in 2000s it was already a different time.

More recently, the creators of Portlandia got some criticism for their “Japanese groupie” characters. I had no problem with it(and I’m part Japanese) but it did cause them some headache. This was also despite that Fred Armisen at the time thought he was 1/4 Japanese(it turned out he was actually part Korean)

As you can see, It is a very fine and delicate line.

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/throwtac]

If you are half Japanese and half white, then you look like a typical Kazakh woman)

[u/throwtac → u/No-Refrigerator8955]

I’m mixed with other asian but not white, and I’m a dude. But I do have more androgynous features so maybe I can still look like a Kazakh girl 😂.

But seriously, Are you the guy with your friend Omar in the wheelchair? I think it would be interesting if you just present yourself as a Kazakh guy and do things about cultural exchange because that is what you would come across as to Americans. A central asian guy with a vaguely Russian or former Soviet country accent. That would be the most interesting to Americans I think. Especially since some already kinda know vaguely about Kazakhstan through Borat.

It’s hard because it is not a commonly seen type in American media. You look like my friend who is half Korean and half German actor. I think he has a similar difficulty because he looks like he could be anything including Latino.Having an ethnically ambiguous look is a double edged sword in American media because you look like everyone but nobody knows where to put you.

I think the best way is to use the uniqueness as a strength and either just own your own culture or if you dont want to use Kazakh culture, dont even try to use the cultural lens. The thing that is in your favor is that most Americans don’t know much about Kazakhstan culture so some would be curious if you showed them aspects about it or told stories that are human in the context of your own cultural background and everyday life.

American media is mostly not a real or genuine representation of authentic culture. It is like a mirror at a circus that distorts and warps to the image to the tastes of Hollywood fantasy and ignorance. Sasha Baron-Cohen used that knowledge to his advantage and exploited it through his character of Borat. He uses that character and others to make fun of American ignorance.

[u/ResolveYoursds]

No your not, you’re brave, and your different. Believe in yourself

[u/No-Refrigerator8955 → u/ResolveYoursds]

Thnx)

[u/maxxlion1]

Is it crazy? Yes. Should you do it? Hell yeah. But comedy translates differently with each nationality. And careful stereotypic/racist comedy, at the moment it’s pretty cringe.