The first time comedian Julio Torres stepped foot in America from his home country of El Salvador, he came to Miami.
"I remember just being so wowed by the American malls — I remember going to Marshalls and being like, 'Whoa,'" Torres said. "I remember seeing the fruit in the supermarket … it just looked fake."
After passing through Miami, he eventually moved to New York to attend university — where he would later build his career in comedy, writing for Saturday Night Live and performing stand up on The Tonight Show.
Now, Torres is back — this time as a performer. He's in Miami, where he will perform his comedy routine at Gramps in Wynwood on March 14.
Those familiar with Torres' brand of wry humor — see his "Wells for Boys" sketch for SNL or his HBO show Los Espookys — can expect to see same absurdist tenor strung throughout all of his work.
That includes his new film, Problemista, where he applies his surrealist treatment to the American Dream.
"[Problemista] is a term that I would use to describe someone who is either attracted to problems or thrives in problems or creates art from problems," Torres told WLRN in an interview.
It's hard to imagine that a story about securing a work visa could involve a battle with a dragon, cryogenics and portraits of eggs. But if anyone can imbue whimsy and vibrancy to something as monotonous as the U.S. immigration system, it's Torres.
READ MORE: Under Biden immigration program, a Cuban dissident finds poetry in building a new life in Miami
Torres plays Alejandro, an aspiring toy maker from El Salvador who moves to New York and encounters a slew of problems in an effort to secure a work visa. After losing his job at a cryogenics lab, Alejandro meets Elizabeth, a mercurial art critic played by Academy-award winning actress Tilda Swinton. He gets wrangled in becoming her assistant in hopes that she will become his work sponsor.
Torres said he wanted to tell Alejandro's story through a magical realist lens and drew influences from anime and fairy tales.
"When you think about how your whole day can be derailed through a text message — these are the approaches that I've found to tell what that feels like," Torres said about using surrealist elements to amplify the mundane aspects of daily life. "Through these touches of the fantastical."
Born to an architect and engineer, mother and father respectively, Torres has a proclivity for playing with shapes and perspective. Much of the film features playful set pieces such as M.C. Esher-like offices, ominous hourglasses and anthropomorphized Craigslist.
"The pieces visually coming together is so exhilarating and just taking a little sketch in your notebook and having that blossom into a set is so, so fun," he said.
Significant traces of Alejandro's journey hearken back to Torres' own struggles switching from a student visa to a work visa. For example, Alejandro's character finds a job on Craiglist asking women on the street about their hair — an actual job Torres once had.
"At least in my case, so much of the immigrant experience is just waiting, and having your fate in other people's hands and just like really the anguish of being in a waiting room," he said. "I feel like the experience of immigration in so many ways is the experience of bureaucracy and just like being stuck in it."
As the character of Alejandro embarks on fantastical side quests — from serving up an apology to a spurned artist to fetching egg paintings across New York — the film leans into the messy, less glamorous parts of life.
"His ultimate goal is how you find dignity, and how you say, 'okay, this isn't great, but what am I learning from it?' Torres said.
An education through experience is par for the course for Torres who took an unconventional route into writing and comedy. Instead of going to film school, he landed a job as a writer at SNL, which later blossomed into an HBO comedy special called "My Favorite Shapes." Many of his contemporaries also joined him in producing and acting in the show Los Espookys about a group of friends who turn a love of horror into a side business.
"I knew the dance and the joy of communicating with different departments and how to talk, how to give notes to an actor and how to translate your vision into a reality," he said.
Problemista, which had a limited release earlier in the month, will be shown in theaters everywhere from March 22.
"I'm very encouraged by the willingness so far of people to see something that they haven't seen before. I think audiences are very curious right now and are craving new ideas," he said. "I think you should wander into it and if you find something you like, put it in your pocket."
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The PROBLEMISTA Tour: Julio Torres and Friends
WHERE: Gramps, 176 NW 24th St., Miami, F, 33127
WHEN: Thursday, March 14, 2024, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
