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Carlos Mencia's squirm-inducing laughter |
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Written by Dan England
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Friday, 24 August 2007 |
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 Carlos Mencia is talking about how we — meaning all of us — couldn’t believe the guy who shot and killed 33 people on the Virginia Tech campus was Asian.
His voice rises a couple pitches, and a second later, he’s practically yelling over the phone and dropping a few unprintable words along the way. You’re pretty sure he’s standing up and probably waving his arms or something (he lists his mood as “hyper” on his MySpace page).
“I mean, can you believe it?” Mencia says during the phone interview. “He was ASIAN! I mean, we all thought he was some angry white dude.”
If that offends you in any way, and it probably does, that’s cool with Mencia. It’s his job — nay, his DUTY — as one of America’s hottest comedians to make you squirm and laugh at the same time. And clearly, Mencia is a guy who loves his job.
He’s loved it from the moment he went on stage after his friends kept telling him he was funny. Yeah, sure, every friend says that, except they would then say, “No, really, you are funny. You really ought to do it.”
“I went up there for the first time, and I was, like, ‘Are you telling me I can say ANYTHING I want?” Mencia said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I have always wanted to say how some of my teachers are stupid. And that’s what it is to be a comedian. You can say anything you want as long as it’s funny.”
Mencia may seem like an idiot with a big mouth, maybe a fraternity guy drunk on Keystone Light. His stand-up show, a show he’ll perform on Aug. 31 as the kickoff to the Thunder in the Rockies at the Budweiser Events Center, is stuffed with stereotypes. His show, “Mind of Mencia,” close to starting its third season on Comedy Central, is more of the same. His famous Bud Light commercial, one of the more popular ones that debuted during the Super Bowl, even pushes the edge, albeit in a much cleaner way.
 But Mencia pushes the edge — he loves to use blunt terms like “retarded,” “wetback” and the n-word — because he enjoys challenging those stereotypes. He gets uncomfortable in a world like northern Colorado, where silent racial tension bubbles just below the surface.
“I always make fun of both sides because there’s so much humor in each side,” Mencia said. “I do believe we have the ability to talk about issues that other people can’t and maybe see the humor in that. I mean, someone needs to point it out. When we as a society start not talking about stuff, that’s when the resentment begins.”
News anchors, for instance, wouldn’t stand in their chair and shout about the ASIAN guy who shot up Virginia Tech, and yet they seem to have an agenda of their own, Mencia said.
“Who isn’t feeding us a point of view?” he said. “The comedians are like the most honest people when it comes to that.”
Mencia insists he’s not racist. His Comedy Central show, he said, helped him establish his style, a style that could be traced to comedians such as Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx and Eddie Murphy.
“People quickly got it that I’m not racist because I make fun of everyone,” he said. “What I get is the opposite these days. I get , ‘Hey, you aren’t doing any jokes about Peru. What are you, RACIST?”
He’s not racist, but he’s also not afraid. So he plans on saying something about immigration and maybe the ICE raids at Swift’s meatpacking plant during his Loveland performance on Aug. 31. He’s not sure what he’ll say yet.
“But I’m sure I will,” he said. “I remember performing in downtown Denver three months after Columbine, and I was doing Columbine stuff.”
That’s Mencia, the guy who, rather than grumble about racism, laughs about it.
“Comedy is the best way, I think, to do that,” he said.
And if that offends you, well, that’s cool. Just don’t get TOO offended.
“I really do believe that anyone who takes comedians seriously is a little off their rocker,” he said. “We are still just telling jokes.”
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GO TO THE SHOW
Comedian Carlos Mencia, with opening act Josh Blue, will kick off the third annual Thunder in the Rockies motorcycle rally at The Ranch in Loveland.
The show will be 7:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at the Budweiser Events Center.
Tickets are $27, $37.50 and $50 and are available at the Budweiser Center box office, ComcastTix.com, Fort Fun in Fort Collins, Woody’s Newstand and Cafe in Greeley or by calling 877.544.8499.
Josh Blue
Josh Blue of Denver is one of the country’s hottest comedians since winning Season 4 of “Last Comic Standing.” Blue has Cerebral Palsy and uses his sense of humor to challenge the stereotypes that come with the disease.
For more information, go to www.joshblue.com.
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HE SAID IT
Carlos Mencia enjoys cracking jokes off the top of his head. Here are three during the interview:
“I was on the corner, and I saw some Mexican standing on the street, and he hadn’t been picked up for work all day. And he said, ‘There’s too many illegal immigrants in this country.’ Now the illegal aliens are starting to say there’s too much competition.”
On how there’s a lot of racial tension from Anglos against Latinos and how funny that is: “You have a city called Pueblo. You gotta think to yourself, ‘Some of these guys were here a really, really long time ago.’
”We live in a society that is trying to ignore ethnicity and pretend it doesn’t exist, and yet we also have problems with it. We’re not different, but let’s celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo.”
Some of his best (and squirm-inducing) lines during his standup routine:
On hurricanes:
“It’s a hurricane. It’s not like it hits overnight. You get a warning of about 10 days. How much of a warning do you need?”
On Mexicans working for KFC and black people working at Taco Bell and why those roles aren’t reversed:
“What, are they afraid we’re going to eat the food?”
School standards going lower and lower:
“Kids with Down Syndrome are, like, ‘This class is easy.’”
On how only “wetbacks” dress like “wetbacks”:
“Is there a law that says you have to wear the pointy shoes until you get your green card?”
HOW YOU MIGHT KNOW MENCIA
• Bud Light commercial — Carlos Mencia, known as “Mr. Mencia,” teaches English to a group, showing them how to ask for a Bud Light in various parts of the country.
• “Mind of Mencia” show on Comedy Central
• Discography — He has several albums and DVDs.
• Through his Web site — www.carlosmencia.com | Only registered users can write comments.
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