Morir Soñando Makes History at the United Palace

If you are Dominican, likelihood is you are conversant in morir soñando, a easy however refreshingly crisp batida (milkshake) made with milk, orange juice, and vanilla extract. As easy as the three-ingredient drink appears, there is a cause it is given such a poetic title. “Morir soñando” interprets as “to die dreaming,” and after only one sip, one immediately appears like they have been transported right into a dream — even when only for a matter of seconds. That was precisely the feeling Dominican American comedians and real-life besties Sasha Merci and Glorelys Mora, who each grew up in uptown (Merci specfically in the Bronx), needed audiences to really feel after they created their first all-Dominican comedy present again in 2019. On Monday, Nov. 6, the Morir Soñando present took over the historic United Palace, previously Loew’s one hundred and seventy fifth Street Theatre, in Washington Heights. It was the first present in the New York Comedy Festival to incorporate an all-Dominican lineup, and similar to the beverage, it felt like a dream for the Dominican neighborhood.

The present opened up with a particular musical efficiency by Dominican bachata artist Jae Camilo and included a formidable lineup of Dominican comedians, from up-and-coming stars like Julio Diaz, Mr. Nuevayol, and Dee Nasty to established comics with HBO Max specials, together with Aida Rodriguez and Ian Lara. Mora was the night’s host and Merci additionally had her personal stage time, making it a jam-packed lineup full of eight proficient Dominican comics that offered out the present inside weeks.

Aside from the United Palace, sponsors included Led Black’s The Uptown Collective, Dominican Writers, Word Up Books, Little Dominican Republic, mitútv, and Jalao NYC, which hosted the occasion’s afterparty.

Located in el Alto Manhattan’s Washington Heights, residence to the nation’s most outstanding Dominican neighborhood, the United Palace is one among the island’s largest and most spectacular theaters. Occupying a full metropolis block, the theater’s lavish design replicates that of a royal palace. It opened its doorways in 1930 and was initially constructed with the intention of showcasing movies, and it is since grow to be a cultural hub for the performing arts — the place everybody from Bob Dylan and Lenny Kravitz to Aventura, Bad Bunny, and Becky G have carried out. It has additionally served as a filming location for “John Wick: Chapter 3” and TV sequence like NBC’s “Smash,” Netflix’s “Luke Cage,” HBO’s “Crashing,” and Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.” But earlier than Morir Soñando, it had but to accommodate a comedy present, not to mention one with solely Dominican comics. This is one thing Merci and Mora had dreamed of with the ability to pull off for years.

“It means so much to have Morir Soñando as part of the New York City Comedy Festival, because the festival doesn’t have a lot of Latino representation and it definitely doesn’t have Dominican representation. It’s the first time it has ever been done where there’s a whole Dominican lineup at the festival,” Mora tells POPSUGAR. “I keep telling everybody this was a dream come true. Obviously, I still want to record a special at some point in my career. But this right here, what happened on Monday, was my dream come true in comedy. Anything that happens after this is a cherry on top. I feel like I really made my community proud.”

The present happened at the Palace’s lobby, with audiences seated round the stage and gathering upstairs in the mezzanine space, which included a VIP lounge, a step and repeat, a bar serving drinks and lightweight snacks — together with empanadas from a neighborhood Dominican spot — and a desk with copies of Rodriguez’s new memoir “Legitimate Kid.” There was even a big Dominican flag hanging from the lobby’s balcony in honor of uptown’s Dominican neighborhood.

“The Uptown Collective was significant in making the introductions and the connection and really building that trust with United Palace. They have the relationship, and we’ve been talking about wanting to be there since we started the show,” Mora explains. “Led [Black] is a person who works really hard with the Uptown community. We told him we needed help. We were like we just need someone that’s going to make this dream bigger, and that’s what this project is — it’s really bigger than Sasha and I. It is a community project. We wanted everyone that is uptown working to really be a part of it.”

While every comedian’s model and set was totally different, all of them highlighted their experiences being Dominican Americans, whether or not it was Lara pertaining to what it is like for Black Dominicans to lastly have their second or Merci joking about being a Dominican residing in Los Angeles, the place we’re hardly acknowledged as Latines, to Rodriguez, who’s half-Dominican and half-Boricua, sharing how the Dominican neighborhood has warmly embraced her since she actually began embracing her Dominican roots after lastly reuniting along with her father in the Dominican Republic. Whether they grew up uptown, in the outer boroughs, and even exterior of New York, each comedian and their distinctive story was embraced and celebrated by the posse of Dominicans who got here out to point out their help that night. There was no competitors between expertise or shade thrown by any of the visitors. It was all love and a festivity of los angeles cultura.

“I remember when I had first started doing social media and when I did the movie ‘De Lo Mio’ and seeing the impact that had on the Dominican community and how they came out for the film. I was like, man, Dee [Nasty] and I should do a standup show,” Merci tells POPSUGAR. “Then I met Glorelys and we came up with Sancocho (a smaller-scale comedy show the duo produced for the Dominican community), and after that, we wanted to do something that was very intentional. We wanted to do something that was going to bring the Dominican community together and showcase our community’s talent. Morir Soñando stemmed from the idea of making a comedy show for and by Dominican Americans.”

Merci and Mora insist that they are simply getting began and hope to host a Morir Soñando present at the United Palace yearly — with the dream of sooner or later with the ability to fill each seat in the venue’s primary theater. It’s not a far stretch, contemplating how shortly tickets offered out this time round.

“This was a very special moment, and I addressed that during my set. I started doing comedy in 2011, and at that time the landscape of standup comedy was very different. There weren’t that many Dominican comedians doing comedy at the top level,” says Lara, who was the present’s nearer. “So to see a lineup strictly based off just Dominican comedians who are all in their own right killing it and coming together on a standup stage was surreal. Doing it at United Palace was just the cherry on top, because anybody who’s from New York, especially Uptown, you know how legendary of a place it is.”

Everything about the occasion felt like a neighborhood effort — from the Dominicans in the viewers who confirmed their help and pleasure for everybody who hit the stage to the quite a few methods the present’s producers and sponsors labored to point out their devotion to everybody concerned. It was clear that this was extra than simply your common comedy present. This was a neighborhood effort to have a good time and help Dominican creatives and entrepreneurs at each stage, as a result of after we present up for our individuals, we go large or go residence. Morir Soñando is not only a dream anymore. It’s a actuality made potential by each Dominican who was concerned in the occasion’s manufacturing, y créeme we’re simply getting began.