The Era of the Multi-Hyphenate: An Interview With Comedians Cristian Duran and Bret Raybould [SERIES]

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

What’s this life without a little laughter? That question in itself seems valid enough to justify the existence of comedy. But comedy is, or can be, a lot more. Great comedians use jokes to bring up topics that make many uncomfortable. By evoking some laughs, they address the elephant in the room and unite people on opposite ends of the societal spectrum.

To them, comedy is the means—not the goal. Do they tell stories and trigger debate through stand-up comedy? They might. But in this day and age, many comedians find themselves at a crossroads sooner or later. When everyone’s said no to a project, they should either give up on it or take matters into their own hands. If they choose the latter option, it usually sets them on a multi-hyphenate path.

“Comedy is about bridging the gap”

“The biggest laughs come from something that is actually conveying a message,” says Bret Raybould, a New York City comedian, writer, and stage actor with an ever-expanding BCU (Bret Cinematic Universe). “If there’s a really interesting thought, or something you’re pushing up against, comedy can be the best way to deliver that because sugar helps medicine go down.”

“You can reach somebody that isn’t necessarily like you,” says writing partner Cristian Duran. He’s been a comedian for many years and recently made his directorial debut. Comedy, he believes, “reinforces that we’re all together and we all recognize certain truths. So that’s what I really gravitate towards. It makes me feel a little less alone, and a little more normal. If I go on stage with a weird thought and people laugh and relate to it, I go, ‘Oh yeah, I guess I’m not that weird.’ Or, ‘We’re all weirder than I thought.’ So that always feels good. And it’s just a fun thing to make people happy.”

Bret and Cristian believe comedy creates connections. It helps bridge cultural and political differences by putting a smile on people’s faces. When we laugh, we’re more likely to listen to each other and be open to ideas different from our own. Both comedians are well aware of that. In their stand-up shows, they use comedy to address touchy subjects.

Bret, for example, performs for audiences that hold political views opposite to his. “How wonderfully diplomatically articulated that was,” he smiles when I ask him about it. “I work anywhere as a comic, including conservative rooms. There was an era in comedy where it was the cool idea to almost cast off anyone with politically different views, and I just completely disagree with that mentality. Comedy is about bridging the gap.” In Bret’s experience, a room doesn’t care if you don’t share their political beliefs, as long as you’re funny and honest about who you are. “I love performing for a room that isn’t like me in some ways.”

When doing so, Bret tries to balance sharp comments with things he and his audience have in common. “The funniest stuff is just universally true. No matter who someone was in the voting booth, they’re going to have had an argument with their mom, or whatever.”

Cristian also uses comedy as a unifying force—for example, when it comes to a complex topic like racism. He has a bit in his stand-up routine where he asks people to clap if they’re anti-racist. When you watch the clip on social media, you can almost hear the audience’s confusion and panic. “In that moment, there’s something true that happens in the room,” Cristian says. “About nine out of 10 audience members don’t know how to react to that because it’s weird. Everybody goes, ‘That sounds like the right thing to say, but I don’t even know if I’m allowed to say that. I’m not going to say anything.’” When Cristian asks people whether it feels like a trap, they shout in agreement. He then reassures them by saying, “I don’t trust people who tell me they’re anti-racist. It’d be like me going up to a bunch of fourth-graders and being like, ‘Guys, just to let you know, I’m an anti-pedophile.’” As Cristian puts it, “Nothing makes you sound like more of one than having to say you’re not.”

Cristian’s joke elicits a good laugh and gets a message across. It points out the ridiculousness of declaring you’re anti-racist—a type of social media activism that seems hollow and mostly there for self-promotion purposes. “Just be it,” Cristian says. “Don’t say it.”

“Bret just goes, ‘Let’s do it’”

It’s not difficult to see why Cristian and Bret have been good friends for about nine years. And given their similar views and creative approaches, a collaboration seemed inevitable. One pre-pandemic night, when they were talking to comedian Nick Whitmer and a few other friends, someone coined an idea that sounded pretty crazy (if not controversial) at first—Not Another Slave Movie. But, Cristian says, “that title stuck with me for a week. I was brushing my teeth going, that’s funny.”

He mentioned it to Bret, who got the ball rolling. Cristian explains, “Bret just goes, ‘Let’s do it.’ If it was up to me, I would be like, ‘Whatever.’ But Bret’s tenacity really made that happen. I think I’m 80 percent cynical and 20 percent optimistic, and Bret is 80 percent optimistic and 20 percent cynical.”

Bret quips, “I’m the engine and Cristian is the brains.”

The two friends joke about their Venn diagram, but it’s a combination that works. A transformative project was born—they joined forces and sank their teeth into their first screenplay, Race: The Movie. The question, of course, is why two stand-up comedians picked this format to tell their story. “It had been my goal to finish a screenplay for about 31 years of my life,” says Bret—who incidentally is 31 at the time of this interview, meaning he set himself this objective long before he was born. (Then again, anything is possible in the Bret Cinematic Universe.)

When the world was put on pause for the pandemic, Bret could no longer justify not writing a screenplay. “I didn’t have work,” he explains. “I was living with friends or family members at the time. I didn’t even have rent. That was a huge component of it for me—having to confront the reality of, ‘You’ve got to do this, man.’”

Cristian’s background in film came in handy, despite the bump in the road he’d encountered in his late teens. He once tried to get into the film program at the University of Central Florida, but he wasn’t accepted (he still plans on winning an award and, when time comes to give a thank-you speech, read his rejection letter out loud). After getting rejected, he decided to major in cinema studies, which he describes as, “You can stand over here and watch everybody learn how to make movies.” But he did take a production class, which taught him the logistics of making a movie. At the time, he felt so discouraged by the size of movie budgets that he ventured into stand-up comedy. In the past 20 or so years, though, he’s kept his filmmaking dreams alive by diligently documenting his script ideas.

During the pandemic, Cristian and Bret both felt it was time for a fresh perspective. They hadn’t always loved the output of comedy movies in the past decade. So why not create an original work that veers from the norm? As Bret puts it, “We all have access to pens. Try yourself rather than just being like, ‘I should tweet about how no one’s doing a good thing.’”

“It’s funny, but this is a touchy subject right now”

Although writing the screenplay may seem like the hardest part, the real challenge started after Bret and Cristian deemed their creative work ready to share with others. How to get the movie made?

A huge milestone was winning one of Script Pipeline’s contests. “Quick shout out to Matt Misetich and Pipeline,” Bret says, “because their first yes made us go like, ‘We actually do have something here.’ But make no mistake—there were many rejections after that.”

The biggest note the comedians got was, ‘It’s funny, but this is a touchy subject right now’—to which they said, ‘Right now, as opposed to… two weeks from now?’

They didn’t let the feedback discourage them. The more industry professionals told them people wouldn’t like their story, the more they believed in it. Cristian explains, “We wanted to say, ‘I think people will—I think people can handle this.’”

“Rejection is great if you keep going,” Bret says. “You need to still believe in it and do what it takes to make it happen.” The two comedians are now glad that everyone rejected the movie version of their screenplay. Because that’s why they decided to turn it into a play aptly titled Race: The Movie: The Play. It won the New York Theater Festival’s Best Script and Best Actor awards and got picked up. Cristian directed the play and Bret starred in it alongside SNL’s Dean Edwards. In the spring of 2023, it had a very successful run at SoHo Playhouse in New York. And in November 2023, it will return to the stage for two nights, making its Brooklyn debut at 275 Park.

“It’s not like Cristian and I are the only two in the rowboat rowing”

Race: The Movie: The Play turned the two comedians into multi-hyphenates overnight. They did everything from finding theaters to producing the play. In true comedian fashion, they decided to improv their way through it. “It was a DIY thing,” Cristian says. “We don’t have theater experience. Only a couple of people in the cast did.” That made the project a collaborative effort. For example, Cristian and Bret had organized all props into nine cardboard boxes and written scene numbers on each. They thought this was as good as it’d get. But during rehearsals, two experienced actors asked about the prop table. “We were both like, ‘What’s a prop table?’” Cristian laughs. “And so they set it up for us, and it was the greatest thing to happen to the play.”

Rehearsals, too, have been collaborative in nature from the get-go. “Always hire comedians because they will give you free rewrites,” Cristian jokes. But it’s true that the actors often pitched ideas that made the play better, funnier, and leaner. “We had discussions about things we hadn’t even thought of.” Even now, two years later, Cristian’s philosophy as a director is to keep listening to other creatives. “There are always opportunities for new jokes and ideas. We’re open to that.”

This approach seems to have been accidentally effective. Bret says, “Because of our complete and utter bankruptcy of experience in theater, we were like, ‘Whatever is funniest, wins.’ It’s not a competition. I don’t care if I wrote it. I don’t care if someone else in our play said the line. We all wanted that because we’re all winning. That does start from the director—in this case, Cristian—always being open to stuff.”

This lack of ego and creative hierarchy is likely the secret to the project’s success. In the words of Pipeline Media Group’s Matt Misetich, who associate produced the play, Cristian and Bret are “very humble, very grounded people.” As Matt puts it, “They weren’t thinking about their own self-interest, really. They just wanted to put a good piece of art out into the world, and when you have that sort of perspective, good things may happen to you.”

His impression of the two comedians seems to be accurate. They can’t stress enough how fortunate they’ve been to have their cast and crew on board. “To be clear, it’s not like Cristian and I are the only two in the rowboat rowing,” says Bret. To illustrate his point, he shares how actor Justin Dinkins went to the park to go through the “not fun process” of handing out postcards and inviting people to the show. “No one asked him to do that,” Bret says. “He just likes the project and believes in it. I was like, that’s the nicest thing ever.”

Experienced theater actors Amanda Van Nostrand and R. Alex Murray also offered a helping hand, especially to Cristian. He explains, “I was like, ‘Look, I’m new to this directing thing. So if you see I’m doing something wrong, tell me. Because I don’t know what I don’t know.’” The actors didn’t mince their words—and Cristian was grateful for it. “I wanted this to be the best thing it could be.”

“I’m in more control of my projects than previously”

Cristian and Bret have become multi-hyphenates out of necessity. But ultimately, going down this path has empowered them and enriched their creative lives.

Bret, for one, wouldn’t have been in the play if they hadn’t gotten all those rejections. He jokes, “They weren’t going to be like, ‘That guy with 3,000 Instagram followers, half of which are bots—you are the lead of this production.’” But in a surprising twist of events, he has starred in the play, which has allowed him to work on his abilities as an actor and meet collaborators who love the project as much as he does. “That’s the most important yes—the one from creative collaborators. Chief among them Dean Edwards, the lead of our show. I think he’s one of the modern comedy greats. He has certainly done so much to lift every aspect of the production.”

Looking back on his multi-hyphenate journey, Bret says, “It makes me feel like I’m in more control of my projects than previously.” A few years ago, he thought he couldn’t accomplish anything without the approval of a gatekeeper. Now, he has experienced the power of self-reliance. He believes you can’t wait for the clouds to part and for someone to tell you the velvet ropes of showbiz have opened. “I’m living the dream. Is it on the scope and scale of what I think the project’s potential is? No, but I’m living the dream. So I just use that to guide me.”

Cristian couldn’t agree more. He adds that he’ll likely use his expanded skillset for his next projects. “I plan on making movies. Now, when I go on to a film set, I know exactly what I want to do and how I want to handle rehearsals.”

Bret, too, feels he’s developed a method to tackle future projects. He says, “I was pretty proud of the movie script, but I know the script we have now is better because audiences have done the work.” This insight has made him embrace a new process—do a table read, stage it as a play, get some audience feedback, and let that live experience inform the next draft. “I want to do that for the rest of my career.”

“You have to do things that you gravitate towards”

Both comedians stress that creatives should only pursue what they like to do. “You have to do things that you gravitate towards or enjoy,” Cristian says, noting that many comedians start podcasts or post videos with viral potential because they think they have to—not because they want to. “When you do stuff that’s a little bit different, it stands out more. As long as you are invested in it and you think it’s a good idea, then I think it’s worth doing.”

Bret adds that too big a focus on the result will leave creatives feeling hollow, unfulfilled, and sad. “You’re not even making these things because you think they’re funny and they feel like an expression of you,” he says. “You’re doing them solely to get a result, and so that result isn’t always going to come.”

Although less concerned with results, Cristian and Bret do have a vision for the future. “If you’re putting out sketches or films or plays, learn more about the craft of it,” Cristian says. “Because there are opportunities that you’re missing out on comedically when you don’t. I would like to see people really stretch their wings creatively.”

To do that, Bret believes, you should work with people you like. You’ll feel comfortable pitching ideas in an environment that feels like a set or rehearsal stage. And that approach might get you pretty far—with or without gatekeepers. “Admittedly, I want to work with them,” Bret says. “But I also think you have more chances at creative independence and autonomy over your projects than you did in years past.”

“If you really want to do it, you can do it”

Although Cristian and Bret don’t know exactly what the future holds, they’re already working on their next play, a slapstick comedy sequel to A Christmas Carol. Bret co-wrote the script with his mom. Several cast members from Race: The Movie: The Play will return. For example, Dean Edwards will be playing Ebenezer Scrooge, and Bret will take on the role of his trusty, optimistic sidekick, Bob Cratchit. The villain is yet to be named. But with Cristian as a director, the play seems to be in good hands.

“We’re doing a table read in December,” says Bret, who’s already looking forward to getting audience feedback at these early stages. He and Cristian will reveal the exact location through Instagram closer to the date, but one thing’s for sure—it will be held at a comedy club in New York.

In the meantime, Cristian has a few interesting opportunities on the horizon and hopes to direct his first feature soon.

For both comedians, Race: The Movie: The Play has triggered a multi-hyphenate journey that’s only just begun. Cristian and Bret believed their story should be told. When few seemed to agree, they looked beyond the confines of one format to see how they could reach the right audience.

It’s not just persistence that has gotten them there. At the core of these two comedians’ creative evolution and success are a like-mindedness and a strong friendship. There’s a lot of banter, which keeps them sharp and makes for an entertaining conversation. “Cristian has more vision, but I have more work ethic,” Bret quips at one point. And when it comes to his acting skills, he jokingly seeks Cristian’s approval. “He never compliments me,” Bret says with a semi-sad face, which is an opportunity for Cristian to give him a hollow pat on the back—“Bret, I will say it on record. You’re a tremendous actor. OK?”

Underneath all that, though, there’s a deep understanding between the two of them. These are two unpretentious people who want to make a difference. They realize that in the grand scheme of things, their two cents are just that—two cents. But that’s no reason not to try.

Making people laugh is an important goal to them—nothing seems to make them happier than bringing some joy to a sorrow-filled world. But they don’t do it to sweep difficult topics under the table (which is what jokes are sometimes used for). Cristian and Bret’s comedy has the potential of starting a debate about topics many believe should only be whispered about in the dark—or, ignored altogether.

Topics such as racism and politics make a lot of people uncomfortable. They’re often brushed aside, turning the most outspoken individuals into Switzerland. That’s how problems are kept alive and how society keeps polarizing.

Cristian and Bret use comedy to break through walls. Through edgy jokes, they help their audiences relax. And once people see the water’s fine, they might start conversations that are, in most cases, long overdue.

The question is, who will give creatives a chance to address ‘touchy subjects’ in today’s tense society? If you want to tell stories that matter, you might find yourself forced to take matters into your own hands.

Does that mean the multi-hyphenate path is one you choose out of necessity? Initially, that might be the case. But it can be very rewarding. For example, it has allowed Cristian and Bret to develop their skills and their voices as storytellers. They’ve been able to make an impact. And they’ve put together a committed creative team that will likely continue to tell stories that should be told.

Perhaps most importantly, though, the two comedians seem to have grown closer together as friends and collaborators. When I ask how Race: The Movie: The Play has affected them as storytellers and as human beings, Bret highlights one major takeaway—“I can make it happen with people I care a lot about.”

Cristian confirms that—not by going to great lengths to praise Bret’s acting skills, but by giving his friend of nearly a decade a profound and much more meaningful compliment. “One of the great contributions to my life that Bret has made,” he says, “is making me believe that if you really want to do it, you can do it.”

Watch the interview below. This video has been edited for length and clarity.