This 'SNL' Star's First Stand-Up Special Just Dropped on Netflix
Marcello Hernández: American Boy is now streaming on Netflix. The breakout SNL star’s debut stand-up special dropped today on the streamer after several months of fan anticipation.
American Boy Is Hernández's Debut Special
American Boy is the actor’s debut stand-up special, recorded at New York City’s Grisly Pear Comedy Club late last year. A relatively new face in comedy when he joined SNL in 2022, the special charts Hernández’s 2020 decision to abandon his soccer career for one in the performing arts just moments before the pandemic shut down the industry. “I always remember that feeling,” he said. “That feeling 100 percent drives me very hard,” he told The New York Times. Wrapped around stories of his upbringing by immigrant parents, Hernández weaves his rise to success through the ever-changing prism of the American dream.
“My first Netflix special,” Hernández triumphantly captioned an Instagram post advertising American Boy. “I started comedy at 18 in Cleveland, Ohio at dive bars, small clubs, and poetry slam rooms. Ten years later, stand up has given me everything. If you’ve ever been to a show, put me on a show, given me advice, or supported me in any way, THANK YOU.”
Special Weaves Personal Anecdotes with Reflections on the American Dream
Hernández, 28, was raised in Miami by his mother, Isabel Cancela, who moved from the Dominican Republic to Spain before eventually settling in America. The comedian’s father is also from the Dominican Republic. His mother is a frequent foil in his stand-up comedy, something she’s perfectly willing to accept in the name of her son’s craft. One bit in American Boy lampoons Cancela’s resistance to her son’s Attention Deficit Disorder diagnosis. “Everybody told me I have A.D.D., and I told my mom, ‘I have A.D.D.,’ and she said ‘no.’ So, I don’t have A.D.D.”
“When your children honor you in their own way, it feels like a pat on the back from God telling you that you did a good job even after everything you had to go through,” Cancela told NYT. Hernández added: “You can’t really judge her, because she was doing her best. She was learning the language, learning the culture, trying to figure it all out. And her kid was kind of a little psycho.”
Hernández is known for his breakout Saturday Night Livecharacter Domingo, who has become a recurring character on the series after first parodying Sabrina Carpenter's hit "Espresso."