“It means a lot to have Morir Soñando as a part of the New York Metropolis Comedy Competition, as a result of the pageant does not have numerous Latino illustration and it undoubtedly does not have Dominican illustration. It is the first time it has ever been executed the place there’s a complete Dominican lineup at the pageant,” Mora tells POPSUGAR. “I hold telling everyone this was a dream come true. Clearly, I nonetheless wish to document a particular at some level in my profession. However this proper right here, what occurred on Monday, was my dream come true in comedy. Something that occurs after it is a cherry on high. I really feel like I actually made my neighborhood proud.”

The present befell at the Palace’s lobby, with audiences seated round the stage and gathering upstairs in the mezzanine space, which included a VIP lounge, a step and repeat, a bar serving drinks and lightweight snacks — together with empanadas from a neighborhood Dominican spot — and a desk with copies of Rodriguez’s new memoir “Legit Child.” There was even a big Dominican flag hanging from the lobby’s balcony in honor of uptown’s Dominican neighborhood.

“The Uptown Collective was important in making the introductions and the connection and actually constructing that belief with United Palace. They’ve the relationship, and we have been speaking about eager to be there since we began the present,” Mora explains. “Led [Black] is an individual who works actually exhausting with the Uptown neighborhood. We informed him we would have liked assist. We had been like we simply want somebody that is going to make this dream greater, and that is what this challenge is — it is actually greater than Sasha and I. It’s a neighborhood challenge. We needed everybody that’s uptown working to essentially be part of it.”

Whereas every comedian’s fashion and set was completely different, all of them highlighted their experiences being Dominican People, whether or not it was Lara relating what it is like for Black Dominicans to lastly have their second or Merci joking about being a Dominican residing in Los Angeles, the place we’re hardly acknowledged as Latines, to Rodriguez, who’s half-Dominican and half-Boricua, sharing how the Dominican neighborhood has warmly embraced her since she actually began embracing her Dominican roots after lastly reuniting along with her father in the Dominican Republic. Whether or not they grew up uptown, in the outer boroughs, and even outdoors of New York, each comedian and their distinctive story was embraced and celebrated by the posse of Dominicans who got here out to indicate their assist that night. There was no competitors between expertise or shade thrown by any of the visitors. It was all love and a festivity of los angeles cultura.

“I keep in mind after I had first began doing social media and after I did the film ‘De Lo Mio’ and seeing the impression that had on the Dominican neighborhood and the way they got here out for the movie. I used to be like, man, Dee [Nasty] and I ought to do a standup present,” Merci tells POPSUGAR. “Then I met Glorelys and we got here up with Sancocho (a smaller-scale comedy present the duo produced for the Dominican neighborhood), and after that, we needed to do one thing that was very intentional. We needed to do one thing that was going to carry the Dominican neighborhood collectively and showcase our neighborhood’s expertise. Morir Soñando stemmed from the concept of creating a comedy present for and by Dominican People.”

Merci and Mora insist that they are simply getting began and hope to host a Morir Soñando present at the United Palace yearly — with the dream of someday with the ability to fill each seat in the venue’s predominant theater. It is not a far stretch, contemplating how rapidly tickets bought out this time round.

“This was a really particular second, and I addressed that in my set. I began doing comedy in 2011, and at that point the panorama of standup comedy was very completely different. There weren’t that many Dominican comedians doing comedy at the high stage,” says Lara, who was the present’s nearer. “So to see a lineup strictly primarily based off simply Dominican comedians who’re all in their very own proper killing it and coming collectively on a standup stage was surreal. Doing it at United Palace was simply the cherry on high, as a result of anyone who’s from New York, particularly Uptown, you know the way legendary of a spot it’s.”

The whole lot about the occasion felt like a neighborhood effort — from the Dominicans in the viewers who confirmed their assist and pleasure for everybody who hit the stage to the quite a few methods the present’s producers and sponsors labored to indicate their devotion to everybody concerned. It was clear that this was extra than simply your common comedy present. This was a neighborhood effort to have fun and assist Dominican creatives and entrepreneurs at each stage, as a result of after we present up for our individuals, we go large or go dwelling. Morir Soñando is not only a dream anymore. It is a actuality made doable by each Dominican who was concerned in the occasion’s manufacturing, y créeme we’re simply getting began.