Name: Max Castillo
Hometown: Pensacola, Florida
Year: Junior
Major: Editing, Writing and Media
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Her Campus (HC): Can you give us a little background about the organizations that you are involved with?
Max Castillo (MC): I work for V89, the news department on campus. It’s a radio station. I read the news every Thursday. I may want to get into journalism, so getting on there and actually reading the news is great. I put on this whole persona and use my news voice. I’m also involved in 30in60, which is an on-campus sketch comedy troupe. I’ve been with them since February, and it’s pretty much changed my life to be honest. I’ve always liked making people laugh, but I never had the opportunity to really share it until I got to college. Now, with my involvement with 30in60, I have the motivation and feedback. I’ve learned so much, and learned that’s what I want to do. When I graduate I’m moving to New York City to do comedy full-time.
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HC: That’s great! That was actually going to be my next question. What are your plans after graduation?
MC: I really love entertaining. I’m in EWM so I can go into journalism or production writing. I love doing stand up, it’s my favorite, but I also love doing sketch comedy. I’ve been in plays and I really love improv. Quick shout out to No Bears Allowed; they’re the improv group on campus. They’re really great.
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HC: Would you say it wasn’t until college that you figured out you wanted to pursue entertainment in so many different mediums?
MC: I always loved performing, and in high school I was in SGA. I loved volunteering and just helping people, so I guess that’s where it comes from. I love making people laugh. It’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but it comes more from a place of just making people happy and giving people comfort.
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HC: Do you have anyone that you really look up to when it comes to comedy and writing sketches?
MC: My idol is honestly Donald Glover. I grew up watching him when he first started doing comedy on YouTube. Now to see what he’s become, I mean he’s so untouchable. Probably the best of our generation, because he’s so good at stand up, his music is incredible, and he was even a writer on 30 Rock for a while. Honestly, my career goal is to be involved in so much stuff that nobody knows exactly what I’m doing. When I look at Donald Glover, a lot of people are like “Wow I didn’t know he did this and that.” I mean, a lot of people don’t know that Childish Gambino and Donald Glover are the same person.
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HC: Within comedy, where do you find inspiration to write sketches? What are your favorite things to poke fun at?
MC: I draw my inspiration from both things that happen and my own observations. Whatever is happening, I’ll take that as a base and build on it. For example, I went on a cruise last week, and seeing these people staring at these slot machines in the casino got me thinking that is the worst possible thing. I mean if you were in a casino, you’d think you’d play roulette or be at a card table talking with people, not watching a screen. So I started writing a stand up bit that night about how slot machines appeal to this basic Neanderthal like sense, and added more on top of that. One of my favorite sketches I wrote is called “Toasted.” It takes place in a courtroom of Poptarts. This one Poptart is on trial for flavor fraud, because he got caught using Toaster Strudel icing. He was one of the healthy ones, the sugar-free unfrosted kind. I play the judge, Judge Hot Fudge Sundae, because those are obviously the best kinds of Poptarts. It’s like random stuff. I like to take simple things and make them extraordinary.
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HC: Where do you perform?
MC: Actually this Monday in the Condradi Theater in the Williams building I am doing a sketch show with 30in60. It’s free; it’s always free. We have two shows in the fall and three in the spring. I also perform at Comedy Grandstand pretty regularly at The Warehouse on Gaines Street. In the future, I want to look into hosting a comedy group with a few of my friends, and making a YouTube channel. Musically, I perform with a friend of mine name Sawyer. We have a group and we’ve done a few shows at people’s houses around town.
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HC: Do you have any favorite hobbies?
MC: I love cooking. My favorite thing to cook is fried chicken; it’s my great grandmother’s recipe. I just find cooking to be very therapeutic. We’ve all been there where you just want to get something to go and go home and eat it, but if I’ve had a stressful day, I take a lot of pleasure in going to the grocery store and picking out ingredients. It’s like this slow build to a climax of “I finally made it!” even if it’s just a BLT or something.
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HC: If you could be any animal in the world, which would you be and why?
MC: I’d probably be an otter, real talk. I feel like otters are just very sleek. Not only are they cool to look at, but also the way they hunt is really awesome. Not a lot of people know, but otters are vicious. If you corner an otter it will try to fight you. Plus they’re adorable.
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HC: Do you have a favorite quote or words to live by?
MC: I think my favorite quote is from an album by Isaiah Rashad, a rapper from Memphis. “You can’t handle pressure on your own, so why carry the boulder by yourself.” It’s a lyric from his song called “Heavenly Father.” I feel like that’s very profound, because people have a lot of insecurities, especially being our age in today’s society. We put so much pressure on ourselves to succeed academically and be bigger and better than our parents, and there is nothing wrong with that, but sometimes it gets to kids. People stress out about a lot of things they don’t need to.
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HC:Â Any other shout outs?
MC: I’d like to give mad love to V89, 30in60, and Jacob Herrelson, who is basically my best friend.