17 December 19-25, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | Culture | Cafe | MusiC | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | Just for Laughs Street Talk is Miami’s newest local comedy hot spot. BY OSVALDO ESPINO M ax Manticof was just looking for new ways to entertain people when he came up with the initial concept of Street Talk. “I had some friends come with a camera; it’s actually kind of a wild story. We would show up with voting registrations, and we were telling people, ‘Yo, this is, uh — we’re doing something for the community,’ just so that people didn’t think we were running a show. Then, we would run a show after giving out voting slips, and we would run it for an hour just to have some funny homies on the show. We built audiences of like 150 people just walking by Balboa Park in San Diego.” At least, that’s how Manticof remembers it as he speaks to New Times from his relative’s home in California. Fellow comedian Carlos Hernandez, also on the call, chimes in on how their partnership and friendship began — during one night at E11even, naturally. “He was featuring for Tim Dillon at the Miami Improv, where I normally per- formed,” Carlos shares. “I hit him up, and then I saw him before, and he crushed it, and I was like, ‘Yo! Good shit!’ Then he asked me, ‘Yo, what’s good to do later?’ and then I was like, ‘Let’s hang out.’ I remember Max that day had reached 50,000 followers so we cel- ebrated by going to E11even. That was almost three years ago.” In those three years, much has happened for the pair. Manticof has a growing career in the New York City and Miami comedy scenes, while Hernandez has become a local fixture thanks to his contributions to Only in Dade. During that time, Manticof also brought his Street Talk comedy series to Miami, pop- ping up at venues like Savage Labs in Wyn- wood and the clothing store Daily in Allapattah. Eventually, Hernandez helped Manticof bring the series to the CitizenM Mi- ami Worldcenter hotel downtown, where the show has taken up residency at the Night Swim Rooftop Bar on a bi- weekly basis. “I had somebody hit me up, and they told me that the Citi- zenM had a rooftop and was looking to do stuff, so I hit them up. We met, and then it was just a really good turnout. We had like 70 people there. We put the show together in less than two weeks. The audience included fans of Street Talk and also liked what I had myself. We were able to kind of just pack it out, and they were really happy with it.” Street Talk has quickly become a staple of the local comedy scene. Owing to the de- mand, Manticof and Hernandez say they host the show more often in Miami than in New York. Past special guests have included Ken Flores, Ricky Cruz, Cisco Duran, David Nihil, Luis Diaz, and Chris Renois. Ultimately, Street Talk serves as another much-needed space for local comics to test out material they’ve been waiting to share. “I think a lot of cool things have happened with Miami comedians that we would have never guessed and unfortunately hadn’t hap- pened before. Having someone, you know, coming out of Miami, like Marcello Hernan- dez, who is on Saturday Night Live, or Brit- tany Brave, who just did a show at the Arsht Center, or like us who are running these shows — it’s cool, and we think we can grow that,” Carlos says. “There wasn’t much of anything just because the only club in Miami is the Improv as opposed to, for example, in New York, there’s like 20, 30 clubs through- out. I think having a room like CitizenM and having shows like Street Talk that are inde- pendently run give that much more opportu- nity for the comedians who are trying to grind it out or take comedy seriously.” Manticof, naturally, has more of an out- sider perspective on Miami’s comedy scene. “The show’s grown so much; we’ve seen it firsthand,” Manticof shares. “We went from audiences of 50 from us pushing hard to now it’s a guaranteed 70 to 100 people a show. Ev- ery single time we ask people who it’s their first time, it’s always a handful of people. Per- sonally, I love Miami. I’ve just been meeting a bunch of people out there, too.” Street Talk Comedy Show. With Max Manti- cof and Carlos Hernandez. Night Swim Roof- top Bar at the CitizenM Miami Worldcenter, 700 NE Second Ave., 11th Floor, Miami; night- swimrooftop.com. Check schedule for upcom- ing events at linktr.ee/StreetTalkComedy. [email protected] ▼ Culture STREET TALK HAS QUICKLY BECOME A STAPLE OF THE LOCAL COMEDY SCENE. Carlos Hernandez and Max Manticof host Street Talk at CitizenM Miami Worldcenter. Carlos Hernandez photo
