Join us for an Evening of Cuentos & Parranda as “Made in Puerto Rico” Celebrates 10 years on the stage! Elizardi Castro combines his Puerto Rican heritage with American Culture to create a Spanglish riot of laughter. This 10th Anniversary Edition will feature the parranda band Gabriel Muñez & Melodias Borinqueñas. A show for the entire family with an unforgettable experience.
ABOUT ELI — One of the most innovative comedians around, Elizardi Castro combines his Puerto Rican heritage with American culture to create a Spanglish riot of laughter and fun in all his shows. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, this New Yorican comic has been blazing the stages and delighting audiences of all ages.
His animated and physical comedic style has made him an audience favorite everywhere he performs. His critically acclaimed shows have been reviewed and recommended by numerous publications including the Chicago Sun-Times and the Orlando Sentinel. His shows have also been featured on WGN-TV, Telemundo and Univision. He recently won “Best Stand Up” at the acclaimed United Solo Festival in NYC.
Elizardi’s performances have been seen in colleges and universities throughout the country, including University of Connecticut, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, St. Augustine College, Emerson College, University of Central Florida, Shepard Broad College of Law and Northwestern University Law School. He has also performed for various organizations and corporations, including the GOYA Corp., U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, the U.S. Census and the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.
Before following his dream to become a standup comedian, Elizardi worked as a prosecutor before running his own law firm where he worked as a criminal defense attorney. He is a licensed attorney in Florida, Illinois and New York. He also possesses a Master’s Degree in Communications, along with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. However, Elizardi soon discovered that making people laugh was more rewarding than any paycheck he had ever received practicing law.
ABOUT GABRIEL — Gabriel Muñoz was born in Puerto Rico in 1976. When he was 2, his family moved to New Jersey, where he grew up and still resides. He was introduced to the cuatro—a traditional Puerto Rican musical instrument similar to the mandolin—at the age of 14, which he says changed his life forever. He then began honing his skills on the instrument through constant practice and immersing himself in the cuatro and in Puerto Rican music. In his musical career Gabriel has had the privilege of recording 5 albums, has collaborated with many artists on recordings, and has been featured on tv and radio shows. Gabriel had the distinct honor of opening for grammy nominated and world renown Cuatro player Edwin Colon Zayas at the Harris Theater in Chicago in 2014 during the National Cuatro Festival. More recently Gabriel was one of the first Cuatro player's to perform at both the Library of Congress and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D..C. where he was featured in concert and had an oral history interview conducted for the library archives as part of American history! Using these unique sounds, he hopes to introduce Puerto Rican folk music to many people around the world, and also to provide a nostalgic experience to Puerto Ricans living away from their homeland.
ABOUT AMY — Amy Colon is a Latina comedian born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her comedy is greatly inspired by her upbringing, being one of four children from a Cuban immigrant mother and a Puerto Rican father.
She brings many of her personal stories to the stage including those as an inner city school teacher working with youth from kindergarten through high school for the past ten years. Although she is a newcomer to comedy, Amy has always been a performer; comfortable to being on stage since she her childhood dancing, singing, and acting in school and community productions.
Amy was introduced to improvisational theater in 2014 and has found that to be the catalyst to her career as a comedian. Amy has since performed at numerous comedy clubs throughout the New York Metro area namely Broadway Comedy Club, Carolines on Broadway, Gotham Comedy Club, and at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick. NJ. She recently took her act on the road and performed in Atlantic City, Chicago, Florida and looking forward to hitting many more cities by year’s end.
