WEST PALM BEACH – Steve Trevino sees all of it.
He sees the COVID pandemic and the effects that range from inconvenience to tragedy.
He sees Europe erupting into a war that has already cost innocent lives and will almost certainly devastate tens – maybe hundreds – of thousands of families.
He sees that the current state of politics is causing a rupture in the fabric of Americana.
He sees it. Everyone sees it.
But don’t expect him to talk about it on stage.
“To me we were living in it, now we want to go to the comedy clubs to not live in it,” Trevino said of the pandemic. “I don’t do politics for that reason. I personally don’t talk about coronavirus for that reason – because we’re inundated with it day in, day out. There’s a horrible thing happening right now in Europe. We want to forget about that when we go to the comedy club and have a laugh for an hour.”
That hasn’t always been Trevino’s policy. In September of 2020, some six months into the pandemic, he recorded an outdoor, socially distanced special called “My Life In Quarantine” which dove deeply into how the life of his family changed amid the pandemic.
That was then. Now he’s returning to what made him successful and earned him the moniker “America’s Favorite Husband.”
“Now I’m pretty much going back to the day-to-day, the things that me and my wife are struggling with in our marriage, in our parenting, and all the things that we’re going through as husband and wife,” Trevino said.
It’s what he wants, and it’s what his audience expects.
Americans, Trevino reasons, need a mental escape from the 24-hour news cycle.
“I can’t tell you how many people leave my show and tell me, ‘I needed to laugh,’” Trevino said.
His sets make people feel like normal has returned – if only for an hour or two.
“I think I live a very regular life,” Trevino said. “And I talk about a very regular life, and I also think we need more of that. The idea of this celebrity that doesn’t live in the real world I think is no longer as attractive. I think people really enjoy seeing the real day-to-day life that we all live.”
Trevino brings his real life comedy to the Palm Beach Improv this weekend for five shows – Thursday at 8 p.m., two shows on Friday and two more on Saturday. Having performed at the Dania Improv in November, this weekend will be Tevino’s second set of South Florida comedy shows in less than half a year.
Pointing out that he’s already released four one-hour video specials in a relatively short eight-year time span, all featuring different material, he’s not worried about this weekend’s shows being a reprise of November’s Dania appearance.
“Are you going to see a couple of things the same? Sure,” Trevino said. “But the stories are always growing and changing and there’s always new stories.”
Austin-based comic Dave Jay, who Trevino describes as “Just a really funny, sarcastic comic,” will be the feature comic this weekend. The duo will forego a host.
“I do about an hour and 15 minutes every show,” Trevino said. “If we have a host, the host eats up those 10 minutes. I also rather pay that middle act the opener and the middle money so they can make a little more money on tour.”
