Rex Navarrete

During his time as a student in the San Francisco Bay area, Filipino-American comedian Rex Navarrete first uncovered his gift for humor by sharing Eddie Murphy's classic album Comedian with classmates. Although his parents expected architecture as his college path, a professor's urging prompted him to test stand-up comedy, instantly revealing his true vocation. Spring 1989 saw the 19-year-old deliver his debut routine to 800 listeners at the annual Asian Pacific Islander Student Union conference at U.C. Santa Cruz, after which he never turned back. Several years of refinement led, by age 28, to a fully developed act built around a roster of "characters" that included an old teacher and a domestic worker, each drawn from what he describes as "real Rex moments," or genuine episodes from his own life. His first comedy album, Badly Browned, arrived in 1998 on the Classified label and was followed a year later by the sophomore release Husky Boy, also on Classified. In 2001 he issued Bastos, the initial title on his own imprint, Kakarabaw Productions.