In Defense of Ska Ep 153: Anna Valenzuela (Comedy Central Roast Battle, 12 Questions, Murderpuss)

Comedian Anna Valenzuela has gone to Fest for the past 3 years. She feels right at home there because she grew up going to punk and ska shows, and when she started comedy in 2014, she often performed on the same bills as punk bands. She got involved in LA’s roast battle scene in 2015 and even participated in the Comedy Central show Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle the following year. This week, we discuss the pockets of comedy in Anna’s world and see where they overlap with ska. 

Fest comes up a lot this week, as does the band Folly. She even tells us an entire story about Folly’s merch person. She also talks about Devon Kay covering Kelly Clarkson, the joys of seeing Eve 6, and her friendship with Jon Graber (Who’s worked with We Are The Union, NOFX, and MxPx). 

She tells us all about LA’s roast battle scene (including The Wave), about being a blackbelt in karate, teaching Esteban Flores how to stretch, and she tells us about recording her new special Murderpuss, which she will release in 2024 on Brandie Posey’s label, Burn This Records. 

Plus, she heaps copious praise on Adam Davis and his band Omnigone. Will she use an Omnigone song on her new special? We shall see! 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.