Still Fluffy and funny, Gabriel Iglesias returns to Modesto

Like many a plus-size jester before him, from Oliver Hardy to Chris Farley, comedian Gabriel Iglesias understands that it’s his size that counts.

But not for everything, admits the man known to his legions of fans as “Fluffy,” a nickname bestowed on him by his mom as a way of “telling me that I wasn’t fat,” he said.

“I was Fluffy.”

Iglesias returns to the Gallo Center for the Arts for two back-to-back sold-out shows Sunday, Oct. 9. Last year he sold out two shows at the performance arts venue as well. He is performing on his Fluffy Breaks Even tour.

After close to two decades in the business, the 40-year-old funnyman has progressed through the stand-up comedy ranks into a healthy movie career split between live action (the “Magic Mike” films) and animation (the “Nut Job” series), and currently as the star of his own reality TV series, “Fluffy Breaks Even,” via Fuse TV.

“I never started ‘using’ it,” Iglesias said of his Fluffy alter-ego. “I started talking about it in my stand-up and people started calling me Fluffy. At first I didn’t like it … what grown man would want to be called Fluffy?”

Especially one who was already dealing with a weight image in the tough Long Beach neighborhood of his youth, where his single mom raised him in a housing project.

“I was walking three miles to school every day, each way, in some of the worst neighborhoods.”

But the name stuck and became an instant identifier.

“As it caught on, I just had to embrace it, and it became synonymous with my name. When you Google Fluffy … I come up first.”

As the story goes, he landed a phone company gig in Los Angeles while juggling his burgeoning comedy career, eventually hanging up on his day job at the expense of his car and home (the former repossessed, the latter evicting him).

“When I first started out, my goal was to be able to pay the rent from performing comedy,” he said of the plan that didn’t initially work out but that, 20 years later, most assuredly has.

His first breakthrough occurred in 2000, three years after the repossession and eviction, when he landed a role in the Nickelodeon series “All That” with Nick Cannon and Amanda Bynes, which led to his first starring stand-up special on Comedy Central in 2003.

He was a contestant for the 2006 season of “Last Comic Standing,” with a burgeoning career in animation movie vocals following in short order (“Planes,” “The Nut Job,” “Norm of the North,” “The Nut Job 2”).

In 2014, he headlined his own concert film, “The Fluffy Movie,” and co-starred in “Magic Mike” and “Magic Mike XXL” as the male strip club’s drug-peddling DJ, Tobias.

At his “fluffiest,” he claims to have tipped the scales at 445 pounds, and at one point was given only two years to live, per a serious diabetic condition related to his size.

“When faced with a serious health condition, you should take it seriously,” Iglesias admitted of this no-laughing matter. “Mostly for yourself, but also for your loved ones, who want to have you around for a long time.”

The challenges continue.

“Traveling as much as I do, it is very difficult to balance,” he admitted. “I gained some weight back, and it is a constant struggle. Trying to make good food choices and working out as much as possible is all I can do.”

Then along came the reality series, which debuted last year, “Fluffy Breaks Even,” which involves Iglesias and an entourage of comedians traveling around the country, asking fans where to eat and, in order to “break even,” where to work out.

“Before it started, I had a clear vision of the show and wanted the workouts to burn off the calories of the great meals we were eating,” Iglesias said.

“I do love the way that it has turned out, and I hope it is showing people to learn to find a balance in life. I love to eat over-the-top meals, but you have to find different ways to balance that by working out.”

So where is the best place to eat out, then work out?

“Chipotle,” he replied.

“It has all my favorite food groups, especially cheese. Most of my workout tips come from my trainer in Long Beach, Hilda Pastoriza, aka Kill-da. It is usually her voice I hear in the back of my head when I’m ordering from a restaurant.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Still Fluffy and funny, Gabriel Iglesias returns to Modesto."