Gabriel ‘Fluffy’ Iglesias’ branding in comedy was inspired by wrestling

In the pantheon of stand-up comedy’s living legends, few names carry more weight than Fluffy. Though Gabriel Iglesias found major success using the moniker that has stuck with him for the majority of his career, he wasn’t really a fan of it at first. “It made me think of a cat or pillows or comforters or cotton candy,” he said recently sitting in his 14,404-square-foot Signal Hill compound, where he stores his touring merch, rows of custom VW buses, Marvel collectibles and more. “But [the name] stuck.”

With his distinct style, business sense and comedy that’s been steadily consumed by the masses for over a quarter of a century, the comic has developed a fabulist folklore around his rise to fame akin to his favorite things outside of stand-up — videogames and professional wrestling. It’s no surprise that his latest Netflix special, “Legend of Fluffy,” out Tuesday, takes fans through a giant retrospective of his career grinding onstage while zooming in on certain aspects of life: dating as a newly single man, trying to age gracefully, a robbery that happened at his former home in Long Beach. Through the ups and downs of life, one thing that’s helped him achieve the heights of selling out Dodger Stadium multiple times and cranking out tours and specials one after another is his ability to stay persistent, continuing to build a brand and always having a story to tell.

Can you tell us about coming up with the title of your new Netflix special?

The title of the special was supposed to be “Hard Rock Fluffy” because I shot the special at the Hard Rock Hotel [in Miami], and everybody was on board with it, and then we get a call from Netflix, who said there’s money to be made on this and you can’t be promoting other brands. They didn’t like the fact that I was promoting Hard Rock on Netflix, and they’re like, “Well, if something like that’s gonna happen, there needs to be compensation for it.” I’m like, “Well, it’s cool because I’m there and I play the Hard Rock so it helps me out,” but they’re like, “Yeah, no, can’t do it,” so then just to be a jerk I was like, what about “Rock Hard Fluffy”? You know, to try to open up the audience a little, but no, they didn’t go with that either, so we had a lot of back and forth. They gave me about eight different titles but they sucked. Finally we landed on “Legend of Fluffy” because I figured there’s a lot of pieces of this special that have to do with the amount of time I’ve been doing this, and I was a big gamer back in the day, I had my gold cartridge, so I liked “Legend of Zelda,” so I said let me just play with that a little bit. So that special is called “Legend of Fluffy.”

In the special you also talk about people who saw you early in your career and now are bringing their kids or maybe their grandkids to see you perform. What’s it like to be one of these generational comedians in the world of stand-up?

A few years ago, a buddy of mine [told me], “You’re generational talent.” And I said, “What does that even mean?” He said, you got all these different generations coming out to see you, people that were kids the first time they saw you and now they’re adults and now some are bringing their kids. The fans are the ones that created that and now having kids showing up and they’re like, “Yeah, my dad told me about,” you know, I’m like, that just sounds weird, and I’m like, “Oh my God, I used to have hair,” so it is really, really cool to see that. I think it’s really beautiful that people come out and tell me, “I grew up watching you.” Every time they say that, another gray hair comes out [on my beard] and then another [hair] falls off my head.

Gabriel Iglesias sits in one of his many customized VW Buses inside his garage compound in Long Beach.

(Marcus Ubungen / Los Angeles Times)

You’re probably one of the most positive, uplifting comedians in stand-up, but in so much of the special you talk about recent stuff that happened to you that was very intense — some near-death experiences and a break-in that happened at your house.

I think some of the best bits came from something really messed up. [Thieves] broke into my house here in Long Beach. I talked about it in the special, I made light of it. … I no longer live there, by the way, in case anybody’s wondering, I sold that house. But yeah, any time things happen, good or bad, I will try to put it onstage. When it’s bad it probably resonates more.

Nobody wants to hear about you having a good day. They wanna hear about the struggle.

Your style of wearing Hawaiian shirts, shorts and Kangol hats has become part of your brand onstage when people think of Fluffy. Was that something that evolved over time or did you always dress like that onstage?

When I first started doing stand-up in 1997, everybody was wearing dark colors. It was all about the cool dark shirt, the leather jacket, the black suit button-up. … I asked myself, “How am I gonna be different here and also comfortable?” Because I don’t wanna wear a suit. I didn’t want to wear a suit when I had the 9-to-5 and I don’t wanna wear it now to do this. I remember watching Robin Williams, who was one of my comedy heroes, and he was always into Hawaiian shirts, just bright, colorful, nothing threatening about that, unless you’re Scarface. But if you’re wearing a Hawaiian shirt, you’re here to have a good time. With the shorts, same thing, I wanna be comfortable. I’m a California guy, we wear shorts here. You wanna have things that are memorable aside from having a great presence onstage. People are visual, so what do they remember? They remember the comedian that wears the Hawaiian shirt.

The short nickname “Fluffy” [came about] because I tried using “Gabriel Iglesias” — I thought that was a beautiful, nice, wonderful name, and nobody remembered “Iglesias.” At the end of the night they remembered “Fluffy,” and that’s why I stuck with that. A lot of times you’ll try something and you don’t give it enough time to catch. And I learned a lot of that from watching wrestling. They just give a guy enough time and you’re like, “Oh this sucks, this sucks, this sucks.” [Then finally] “I get it.” That’s why every single special I’m wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and then with time the Kangol hat started happening, so right now it’s part of the style. It was planned a long time ago and I just stayed with it and didn’t change.

“More than anything, I’m just grateful that I’m still here,” Iglesias said. “This career has a shelf life. It’s not supposed to last this long and so I feel very fortunate that I’m still able to do it, and the fact that we’re still going up, it’s insane to me. “

(Marcus Ubungen / Los Angeles Times)

Where did you learn about branding and marketing when it comes to comedy?

Before I got into comedy, I was actually working a lot in sales. I was always watching how people would promote their products and stuff like that. I worked inside of a Walmart inside of a kiosk selling cellphones back in the day, and so we were always trying to come up with ideas for how to brand things better. I also go back to wrestling on this one. I watch a lot of wrestling and I see how they do their promos, how they dress, the lighting, the sound, the experience. A lot of that goes into it and I did have the idea of branding early on and I think a lot of times entertainers don’t take themselves serious enough to be considered a brand.

I didn’t like the nickname Fluffy at first because it made me think of a cat or pillows or comforters or cotton candy, but [the name] stuck. A friend of mine many years ago says, look, man, we’ll get these algorithms going and trust me, the Internet’s gonna take off. That’s how far back we were talking about it. He goes, we’ll start branding this now and you watch what happens and he was right, you know, now if you Google “Fluffy,” I’m the No. 1 thing that pops up.

Fluffy Funko Pop dolls also became a hit in terms of a product people associate with you. How did you get involved with Funko to start making your own toys?

Funko is known worldwide. It’s like the modern-day Beanie Baby. I had gotten into toys, making my own self into toys with other companies in the past, and I’ve been trying to evolve that, and eventually we came upon these Funko Pops.

I wasn’t a fan of them at first, I didn’t know what they were. Someone pulled me aside and they’re like, these are really popular and I’m like, “It’s weird-looking.” I started looking into it and next thing I know we make a phone call to Funko and said, “Hey look, you guys have television Funko Pops, you guys have movie Funko Pops, you don’t have comedians. You guys should have comedians. There’s a lot of funny comics out there,” I told them I’m interested in being the first. And they’re like, “Well, we know who you are, but that’s not our thing.” Two years later we tried again and they said, “Well, we know who you are and we’re not interested in licensing, but if you’re serious, we’ll produce the figures for you but you have to buy so many and you sell them exclusively — we won’t even carry them in our stores, but we’ll make them.”

Mike Becker, the founder of Funko, later admitted to me they should have licensed my doll when they could because I sold so many. I think we’re on model No. 11 now on the Funko Pops. Again, it’s about persistence. I think a lot of times people give up easily and, you know, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

People know you for collecting VW buses and Marvel memorabilia. Is there something you collect that maybe people don’t know about?

I collect watches. I’m not wearing one right now, but I collect watches.

“Nobody wants to hear about you having a good day,” says Gabriel Iglesias. “They wanna hear about the struggle.”

(Marcus Ubungen / Los Angeles Times)

Where does that drive to collect stuff come from for you?

That comes from not having s— when I was a kid. I’ve always wanted this, this and that, and Mom’s like, “No, we can’t afford it, mijo.” So when I got in a position where I could get those toys that I wanted as a kid, I made sure that I did it. I figured I don’t have any crazy habits. There’s no drugs, there’s no nothing that’s like, you know, that I’m spending money on, so I’m like I’m gonna buy the toys. I’m gonna buy the goodies.

The collection for Marvel, that comes from me being a fan of the brand. I love Marvel, I watch DC but I’m pretty one-sided on that one. I even got offered an opportunity to be in a DC film and I turned it down because I’m like, I’m gonna be a hypocrite if I do it. As far as the buses go, my first car was a 1968 Volkswagen bus. Many years later, I had gotten my ex her first car back and I said, you know what, I wanna get my first car back. I got one and then the guys that got me the car said, “If you want another one, let us know,” and then I was like, “Well, if you come across something cool let me know,” and it just kept going and going and going and now it’s, the whole building’s full. … I recently got a free car from Volkswagen because they found out about the collection. They came down here and they said, “Wow, you are passionate about our product.”

What’s one thing that you would like fans who’ve watched you over your entire career to take away from this new special?

More than anything, I’m just grateful that I’m still here, you know what I mean? This career has a shelf life. It’s not supposed to last this long and so I feel very fortunate that I’m still able to do it, and the fact that we’re still going up, it’s insane to me. So I’m enjoying every day and I want fans to know that I feel lucky and I’m grateful, and if this goes away tomorrow we can say that we did all this.

[On a personal level], I think what resonates a lot is I make it clear I’m very flawed. I’ve got issues and problems and I’ve got no problem putting it out there. I’m confident in putting my business out there and letting people know what I’m like, so when they run into me in the street, they’re not surprised I’m the same dude.