Growing up in the Bushwick borough of Brooklyn, New York, Chris Salgado always knew how to make people laugh, under any and all circumstances.

“I was always a class clown,” Salgado, also known as Fresh The Barber, states. “From kindergarten through high school I always remember making people laugh no matter what the situation was. I always tried to bring some sort of laughter to people’s lives. I guess I always knew that comedy and performing would be part of my life.”

To say that comedy is a part of Fresh’s life is an extreme understatement. Currently living in Miami, Florida, Fresh multi-tasks as a Celebrity Barber, Comedian, and Writer. He has made a name for himself while interviewing the likes of DJ Khaled, Dennis Rodman, Sickamore and Jim Jones, and having also cut hair for Akon, Smitty, and Nu Jersey Devil, just to name a few.

Fresh initially came to Miami roughly three years ago to help take his career as a comedian to the next level and doesn’t hesitate to say that he has a great love and connection to Florida. At the end of this month, however, Fresh will be returning to his roots and moving back to New York for a new venture in his life as he will be working with a major network as a writer for an upcoming series.

While citing Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor as influences, Fresh’s style of a comedian is both upfront and outspoken, but not without a serious sense of modesty and appreciation for the everyday rigors and lifestyles of human beings. Fresh’s down to earth approach is both likeable and easy to relate to, while also serving as the foundation from where many of his thoughts and viewpoints as a comedian stem from. While he may admit to needing laughter in his life, Fresh has a serious and passionate side to him that comes across on many levels.

Fresh is on the verge of a new beginning in his life and had much to say recently during a candid one on one exclusive with 24HourHipHop.com. In his own words, this is what Fresh had to say about his love for comedy, the pros and cons of being a barber, the women in his life, his thoughts on the world today, and more…

The Laughter In It All…

“A lot of times in my life I had a lot of drama going on. Comedy and laughter was just a way for me to escape. Through any situation I just always tried to find the humor in it. I draw a lot of my comedy from everything that I went through as a kid. Family situations and things like that might have been hard to go through but you have to find a way to see the laughter in it all.”

The Best Medication…

“Everybody has their own sense of humor. They say that everybody is different but at the same time I feel everybody’s sense of humor is unique towards each others. Laughter is some of the best medication you could possibly have. Laughter takes your darkest hours and turns them into the brightest thing that you will probably have all week. Laughter is an important thing.”

Being Myself…

“When I interview people I don’t try to be anybody that I am not. When I interview somebody on camera I am just basically myself. I just try to make the other person feel extremely comfortable and try to think of all things possible to get the other person to relate to. I often try to pull things from left field that I am sure will make the other person laugh. I’m not trying to be Eddie Murphy or John Leguizamo, or anybody who is famous. I am just trying to be myself. I think that is why people gravitate towards my interviews and like them so much.”

Creating My Own Audience…

“I have done stand up before but I came to the realization that my material is much better when it’s viewed on videotape. Something about stand up just doesn’t really feel right to me, and I instead would rather have my material on footage so that it could be viewed years from now. Take Rick Ross, for example. He isn’t the type of performer to really come out with a song similar to someone like a Nelly, because he specializes in one style and that’s what works for him. Referring back to my situation, just like Rick Ross, I can do a lot of comedy but stand up is something I can only do occasionally. I find that if I can create my own audience off of being in the camera that it works much better for me.”

Immediate Gratitude…

“When someone becomes a fan of your work it is just immediate gratitude. For example, look at it like this. I am a barber in my free time and say I just finished cutting somebody up. If someone pays me my money and gives me a tip on top of that it is immediate gratification. It’s basically like someone telling me ‘Thank you for the work that you have done. I greatly appreciate it’. That’s the way that I feel when I do my particular comedy and I am able to reach people with it. Compare that if I was to do something on stage, I just don’t feel that I have the same effect. I like the effect where you can see me over and over again. That’s another reason why I am also into writing and movies as well.”

Remarkable and Beautiful…

“I am going to be working on a new show for a network. I don’t want to state specifically what network or what show it is going to be, but all I can say is that I am very excited about it. Really, this is something that I have worked really hard for. It’s been very remarkable and beautiful for me to get to this point. When you keep doing the things that you love, the right pieces to the puzzle fall into place.”

Networking Through Barbering…

“Basically it was like I grew up in barber shops and I was about eighteen years old when I started cutting hair full time. I am 30 years old now and I own two barbershops in New York. About three years ago I left New York and came down to Florida. In coming down here I got introduced to some local celebrities and people in different industries. I mixed with a lot of people from the music world and ended up cutting their hair. I also did work on a lot of rappers and things like that. I’ve met a lot of people, from the world of sports to the music world, and it has been interesting. All I can say is that there is definitely more than what you see on the surface.”

Like Second Nature…

“Barbering is something that I enjoy. It’s something that I will always do for the rest of my life. It’s almost like breathing to me, because it’s so second nature. As much as I enjoy it, it is definitely something that has its limits. With any job or anything you want to do, there are going to be certain limits. I always wanted to further my comedy career and that’s why I came down to Florida, to focus on that. Basically right now I appreciate the fact that I can cut hair but it’s more like a hobby to me. Creating comedy is my main focus right now.”

Listening to My Clients…

“I’ve had people sit in my chair and just tell me everything about themselves. Some people have really opened up to me and I pay close attention to everything. Some people tell me that they feel like killing their wives, some talk about how they have just lost their jobs, while others talk about how they almost got into a fight at school. I turn everything negative into something positive if I can. I end up playing the role of psychologist and therapist to a lot of people.”

The World Today…

“I think everything is a lot deeper than what we see on the surface. I think the world is extremely deep in a lot of ways. I think as we go into the year 2009 we aren’t even focused on all of the problems that are out there. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed these days. Everybody’s broke. I mean at least that is what everybody says, ya know? I do know that if Diddy can have a $600 invitation to his New Years Eve Party with $6,000 a table, people can’t be that broke.”

Entertainment and Media…

“I think entertainment and media are going to radically change and you can quote me on that. I see entertainment and media just changing and evolving. I see networks such as NBC, ABC, Fox, and some of the other companies such as Viacom, TNT, all changing. Everything these days is based off of generated content. If you go to YouTube you will see a lot of generated content. I see YouTube as the future in a lot of ways, as well as the internet. If people didn’t know that the internet was the future before, they need to realize it now. I mean nowadays you can order a pizza through your television while you are going through your programs on your TiVo. I just think that the way things are going, entertainment and media is going to broaden. Within the next ten years I see entertainment being on a whole different level.”

Short Term Goals…

“One of my short term goals is to write for Saturday Night Live. That’s been one of my childhood dreams. I also want to get into acting, especially on Saturday Night Live. I also want to be very successful and just try to surround myself with the right people. Just to be able to surround yourself with good people can be really hard and sometimes you have to keep things simple.”

Watching People…

“One of my major passions in life is human beings. I love to watch people. It’s weird because when I watch people I pick up on little parts of their personality and I notice the way they respond to certain things. I try to capture people in their natural environment and I just love studying people and the way they interact with one another. I look at people and I am just amazed. I’m not even talking about celebrities and famous stars, just regular, average people surprise me with what I pick up from them”

Female Companions…

“For some reason I end up meeting a lot of strippers. I’m not the type of guy to go to the strip club, but for whatever reasons I just come across a lot of strippers. I like strippers because they don’t always need money, they just need attention. There is this girl who I just met and she happens to be a stripper. She’s a really cool girl and I didn’t even know she was a stripper at first and I didn’t meet her at a strip club. I guess that’s just the way it works out for me when it comes to women; I end up meeting a lot of strippers.”

The World is my Muse…

“My comedy doesn’t come from one particular thing; I just speak from the heart about my everyday life. I notice a lot of things going on today and basically, the world is my muse. Every little thing that takes place is my muse. I was washing my clothes yesterday and I didn’t fold my underwear because something occurred to me. As I was folding the underwear I realized that there is certain underwear that I like and certain underwear that I don’t like. When I wear this one particular underwear I feel unstoppable but when I wear this other underwear it feels like a miserable, cloudy day. Something like that right there is a perfect example of my comedy because it’s simple and it’s part of my life. I just like to talk about regular things and I try to be myself no matter what. That’s just how it is and that’s how I am going to keep it going.”

Also noted is that Sickamore, former A & R of Atlantic Records, put his exclusive video with Fresh among his favorite things in 2007 on his blog, www.thankgodimfamous.com. The video can be checked out exclusively below

For more information on Fresh The Barber, please check out the other videos below, and also go to

www.myspace.com/fresh2deathcutz

Questions and Comments can be sent to Chris at Trimond@aol.com or www.Myspace.com/BoxingHarmony