Hulu’s hit original comedy This Fool returns with ten new episodes in Season 2, streaming on July 28th. A trailer hasn’t been released yet, making ATX TV Festival attendees the first audience to see footage from the show’s sophomore season. Series co-creator Chris Estrada was joined by his co-star Frankie Quiñones to present two clips, plus talk about highlights from Season 1.
(ATX/Teodora Pogonat)
With Hugs Not Thugs having imploded just as Julio and Luis move in together in a rented garage, things aren’t looking up. With Julio having been Luis’ case manager, the script was flipped in the first clip, which showed Luis getting ready for his first day of work at a new job as a security guard. Things hilariously don’t go well for his first day of work. Meanwhile, Julio has resigned to the fact that he doesn’t have his life together and seems content just to sit back and be a non-participatory bystander to the world around him.
Moderator Daniel Feinberg from The Hollywood Reporter drew stories from Chris Estrada about moments from his life that inspired scenes in the first season. His mother, for example, was a janitor who would bring home “horrendous” rolls of toilet paper (she’s now retired, he added). Or, at age 19, he and a buddy tried and failed to assemble a crew to meet them at a park for a fight, which didn’t go down because police officers were in the park when they arrived. His neighbors really did get angry at a homeless person for stealing their recycling because they were planning to get the money back for turning it in. And Chris joked that he even failed to change a character name, with a real cousin named Luis.
Frankie Quiñones recalled first seeing Chris Estrada performing stand-up comedy at an open mic night, which was also Chris’ first exposure to the actor who would eventually play his cousin. Frankie got misty-eyed while talking about his journey to this moment, feeling like he was disappointing his parents while getting fired from a string of busboy jobs while juggling auditions, stand-up sets, and putting his own content online. The role of Luis was originally conceived as a big, muscular thug, but the casting team was having a tough time finding an actor with those proportions who could balance the comedy and heart the character required. Eventually, Chris suggested Frankie, and he was brought in to audition. This Fool was partly inspired by Chris’ love of the film Friday, and he said their chemistry test was instantly reminiscent of Ice Cube and Chris Tucker.
A show about the working class, Chris Estrada teased that the show’s format will always find character progression to be one step forward, two steps back. For a long time, that was the case with his own life, recounting walking away from a week of overtime with a fat paycheck, only to find that his car was vandalized while he was at work, and the damage would eat up all of his overtime pay. While Chris and Frankie have found success with This Fool, Season 2 promises more hilarious ups and downs for Luis and Julio. The fun returns on July 28th on Hulu.