Comedy-club chaos with real backroom rhythm.
What's Up Fool? Podcast runs on loose panel energy, comedian drop-ins, and arguments that turn into bits before anyone can settle them. Recent episodes jump from green-room etiquette and famous comics to Tajin fruit cups, rich-person encounters, family revelations, and neighborhood food references.
PRESS PLAY
What's Up Fool? Podcast is a long-running comedy interview show shaped like a loud table conversation. It starts loose and usually gets looser. The recent episodes are built around comedians, recurring friends, and fast-moving panel banter where the main topic is often just the thing that gets everyone talking. Lance Woods brings the conversation into stand-up etiquette, prayer in green rooms, and the strange private rules comics develop on the road. Paul Elia’s episode swerves from old celebrity references to stories about extreme wealth, private shows, and the oddness of performing for people with impossible money. Dustin Ybarra’s appearance turns personal, with a family-history reveal about his father and last name, but the room still keeps the jokes moving around it. Pauly Shore’s visit leans into impressions, AI jokes, rough banter, and comedy-scene memory. Martin Rizo and Lisa Esparza help turn small observations into extended riffs, from old hoodies and yard-sale finds to dining etiquette videos and McDonald’s hypotheticals. Saul Trujillo’s episode spins from news and politics into panaderia talk, Mexican biscuits, mantecadas, and childhood candy-store chaos. Ian Edwards’ appearance lands in old-comic nostalgia, Chris Tucker memories, and stories about seeing famous performers before they looked famous. The show’s engine is interruption. Someone starts a story, someone else corrects the setup, and the funniest path becomes the new direction. Its Spanglish, food references, comedy-club names, and casual pop-culture callbacks reward listeners who like dense conversational texture. It can be abrasive. It is also often warm, because the teasing usually sits inside familiarity rather than distance. The result is a comedy room without much polish, where road stories, family memories, neighborhood habits, and absurd hypotheticals keep crashing into each other.
Made for: For listeners who like stand-up comics talking fast, teasing hard, and wandering through stories without a tidy interview format. It fits fans of Spanglish banter, comedy-scene lore, and neighborhood detail.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by letting the room stay messy: interruptions, callbacks, mock arguments, and personal stories all share the same lane. It feels closer to hanging around comics after a set than sitting through a polished celebrity interview.
Comedian Felipe Esparza talks with random people he finds interesting. It might be somebody kind of famous or it might be that homeless guy at the end of your street who you walk past every day without saying hello. Because everyone has a story to tell about how they got where they are - no matter who they are.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Felipe Esparza draws candid stories from guests, then lets a crowded room turn their details into restless, fast-moving comedy.
Felipe Esparza turns guest conversations into quick, unruly exchanges where a personal story rarely travels in a straight line. Talks with Lance Woods, Dustin Ybarra, Jiaoying Summers, and Paul Elia move between comedy work and family history, with Esparza and the room…
Green-room prayer becomes a debate about cocaine etiquette; you'll know if this is your comedy.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose guest spot that ranges from comedy lore to a Beverly Hilton rich-guy story.
What's Up Fool? settles into its familiar loose hangout rhythm, with Paul Elliott, Yakov Smirnoff, Martin Rizzo, and Lisa Esparza seeming more interested in riffing than in forcing a neat interview shape.
A loose comedy hang that turns prayer etiquette, road stories, and DJ dreams into one long riff.
Lance Woods' appearance on What's Up Fool? starts in the parking lot at Jaja Cafe and quickly folds into comic memory, tracing the talk back to Sacramento's Punchline, Daniel Dugard, and Ruben Paz.
A rowdy hangout that turns a family-history reveal into a running joke.
The episode opens with a rowdy Freaky Friday-style mix-up and then eases into family-history talk, with the back-and-forth doing most of the work.
A hoodie story opens into food arguments, old studio memories, and a very unserious McDonald's deal.
Lisa Esparza, a.k.a. O'Daniel, and Martin Rizo keep the episode centered on a hoodie with real history behind it: the first What's Up Fool sweatshirt, a yard-sale rescue from the old studio, and the ex who held onto the original.
A State of the Union riff drifts into bees, candy, and a committed argument about mantecadas.
Donald Trump's State of the Union prompts a loose, sideways conversation that has little interest in staying with formal politics. The speakers wonder whether the event had openers or a feature, admit they barely watched it, and joke about getting the play-by-play from white…
Rizzo and Ian Edwards turn rough beginnings, aging icons, jail talk, and vegan restaurants into a loose, lived-in comic hang.
Rizzo and Ian Edwards use stories about comics who came up rough to get at a bigger question: what happens when success suddenly changes the terms of a life.
A childhood butter-knife story gives way to a hard-cover dictionary story and a detour through Latin American geography.
A family memory turns into a comic survival exercise as a mother hands two brothers butter knives, has them strip, and leaves them hiding in the bushes while people pass by drinking beer.
A stranger calls. Chris Gethard listens. Anything can surface.
Comedian Felipe Esparza interviews Jiaoying Summers, a Chinese-American comedian.
Comedian Felipe Esparza interviews fellow comedian Ian Edwards on episode 560 of What's Up Fool?
Martin Rizo and Saul Trujillo join the host for a casual conversation about their hometowns and a theater in Stockton.
Matt Fulchiron says $80 Santa Maria gigs and long drives help build a stand-up comic's stories.
Paul Elliott is brought in for a loose, joke-heavy hang that zigzags from the show’s own name to Yakov Smirnoff, old comedy history, Christopher Reeves, horses, polo, yachts, Echo Park Lake, and the usual rich-person chatter.
The show opens on a chant and a parking-lot live setup at Jaja Cafe.
The conversation opens in full scramble mode.
Joey Diaz interviews Pauly Shore in a chaotic, humorous conversation filled with crude jokes and banter.
Martin Rizo and a friend chat about a homemade spicy fruit drink and air drumming.
Lisa Esparza and Martin Rizo come in hot.
The speakers open on Donald Trump and the State of a Union.
Rizzo interviews comedian Ian Edwards about their early days in comedy and memories of now-famous comics.
Comedians banter about the longevity of their podcast and Marcella Arguello's win on the show After Midnight.
Comedian Jason Ellis recounts a tense moment when police warned his neighbor about a raid and asked to use their backyard to shoot gas bombs.
Saul Trujillo joins the What's Up Fool podcast for a casual conversation about wrestling, haircuts, and soccer.