Growing up, stand-up comedian Jose Sarduy originally aspired to be an astronaut.
But as he mentioned in his phone interview, “you have to fail your way into comedy.”
“Being an astronaut was my goal as a kid,” Sarduy said. “But I failed enough times as a kid that it didn’t look good.”
Safe to say, everything’s worked out well for the Cuban born comedian.
Sarduy will make his return to the Permian Basin Saturday at the Catholic Charities of Odessa’s Annual Banquet of Hope fundraiser.
The event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in the Permian Ballroom.
This year’s Banquet of Hope will return to an in-person setting for the first time since 2019 before the pandemic hit.
“Myself, the staff, the board, we’re all super excited,” Executive Director of Catholic Charities of Odessa Sara Aguilar said. “We were very fortunate to have our fundraiser that year. We’re excited to have this coming up.”
It’s also going to be the first time the fundraiser will consist of stand-up comedy in which Aguilar says will be family friendly.
“Before, it was just a banquet with a showcase on the programs and then a dinner,” Aguilar said. “This is the first time we’re adding entertainment to our event.”
Born in Cuba, Sarduy had a roller-coaster of a life growing up.
He, along with his family, was deported from Cuba in 1980 because of his father’s political prisoner status.
Sarduy’s father served six-years in prison in Cuba for writing a letter that disagreed with then-Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s regime and its polices.
“When he got out, I was born shortly after,” Sarduy said. “He couldn’t get a job and my mom got fired. My family eventually got blacklisted for everything.”
His family was eventually forced out of Cuba and came to the United States during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980.
After graduating from high school, Sarduy was accepted into the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Being a trainer pilot in the Air Force, Sarduy has made numerous flights to Del Rio as well as Odessa and Midland.
“I have lived in Texas before, being stationed there so it always has a special place in my heart,” Sarduy said. “Odessa is a blue-collar community. I always liked the audience there. It’s great to come back and see how the town has grown since the last time I was there in 2017 or 2018. During the pandemic, we did a lot of trips to Midland for training since I was on long duty so it’ll be nice to leave the airport in Midland and go to Odessa, especially since I’ve done a lot in Midland. Now I get to fill up my Odessa tank.”
Despite being a retired Air Force veteran, Sarduy still trains pilots in Del Rio as a reserve in addition to his stand-up career.
After being accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy, Sarduy’s goal was to be a mission pilot in the space shuttle program in the early 2000s.
But those plans got trampled after NASA made the announcement to discontinue the shuttle program.
“That meant that if I wanted to be an astronaut, I was going to have to compete academically with the other astronauts,” Sarduy said.
Sarduy would still become an officer in the Air Force, serving in Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in the early 2000s, flying cargo planes.
“It was a fun experience but I didn’t have a gun on my plane which is scary,” Sarduy said. “In that situation, it’d be nice to have one.”
While he has enjoyed his time with the military, he didn’t want to be in it full-time.
“I was kind of lost a little bit,” Sarduy said. “My childhood passion was dying a little bit. I had a good life. I was an Air Force pilot and had a good life set up but the passion was gone.”
In came his other childhood passion, comedy.
“I grew up loving it,” Sarduy said. “The power of comedy made an impression on me. The funniest teachers were always the most effective and humor can be used to diffuse tension and help you get through tough times.”
He didn’t originally think he would be doing stand-up comedy, though, as he doubted whether or not he could make a room full of people laugh.
“I loved to do stand up,” Sarduy said. “But I wasn’t very funny. I was an inside joke teller. So I never saw myself as a joke teller.”
Then, in 2003, while on a trip to Urbana-Champaign, Ill., something clicked for him.
Sarduy was with his girlfriend and her friends and he started telling stories about himself.
“Maybe it was the right amount of beer but they wanted to hear more about me and my life,” Sarduy said. “It was about 10 minutes where it was just me talking and everyone was laughing hard. One of the women fell out of her chair and another shot beer out of his nose. I don’t remember what I said. That’s when I really started looking at being a stand-up comedian and realized what it took.”
Over the years, Sarduy worked his way up, eventually doing an open mic at the New York Comedy Club.
“I got one legitimate chuckle from the hardened comedians that were there and that was it,” Sarduy said. “I was in. It’s been an interesting ride since then.”
Since 2007, Sarduy has been doing stand-up comedy full-time, travelling all over the country doing different shows.
He talks to audiences about his life experiences including the funny everyday moments from growing up with his family.
Just like Aguilar, Sarduy insists that next week’s entertainment will be suitable for families.
“It’s a charity event so they’ll get my clean comedy,” Sarduy said. “I know some people that are in the area that have seen me before that are probably thinking this might not be appropriate for a charity but I’m telling people that I’ve been doing comedy for a long time. I can do clean comedy. I have a couple of comedy specials under the belt. People can relax. It’s going to be a fun show. These are jokes that are about my life and all that but you can bring the kids.”
This year, Catholic Charities of Odessa is celebrating its 40th anniversary of helping the community.
“It’s a big one for us to be able to be here and serve all of those in Ector County,” Aguilar said. “This has been a staple fundraiser over the years so it’s just keeping on with the tradition.”
When Catholic Charities of Odessa opened in 1982, it was originally an adoption agency.
“They ran that for three years,” Aguilar said. “Several children were adopted through Catholic Charities during those three years.”
Soon after, the organization switched over to social services, providing the emergency services for food and clothing in the community.
“That’s what they’ve grown into ever since,” Aguilar said. “I know our learning center is really busy. We see on average about 450 students every year that successfully complete courses through the learning center so we’re very busy. The agency continues to grow.”
The work hasn’t stopped, especially with a pandemic and high inflation affecting a number of people with families who are in need of help.
“During COVID, we were hit really hard,” Aguilar said. “We never shut our doors to the community and our numbers soared through the roof. We were seeing triple, if not quadruple the numbers for emergency services, especially for the food pantry. There were a lot of people out of work.”
Those numbers are starting to rise again due to inflation, Aguilar said.
“This fundraiser has come at a crucial time because we need that help from the community to continue to serve those who are in need.”
For more information on Catholic Charities of Odessa, go to tinyurl.com/yc7wdza6.
Tickets for the Banquet of Hope can be purchased at tinyurl.com/yckjcybn.
If you go
- What: Catholic Charities of Odessa’s Banquet of Hope.
- When: 7 p.m. June 11.
- Where: Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.
- Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/yckjcybn
