ROAD WEARY : Comic Paul Rodriguez Turns to Producing, Writing as He Phases Out Stand-Up Travel

Cruising down the freeway from his home in Pasadena to his production office in Hollywood, comedian Paul Rodriguez was talking about the crossroads he has encountered in his professional and personal life.

“I’m doing less and less stand-up because I’ve been trying to get into producing and basically writing because, to be honest, I’m 38 years old and being the young, hip comic ain’t going to last too much longer,” he said by car phone last week.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m getting to be the grand old man of Latino comics. And there’s a lot of young, faster, funnier cats coming up, so basically this writing, producing and directing is something I’m doing to see if there is a future for me after stand-up.”

Rodriguez, who has produced several specials for the Fox network, was about to begin shooting a low-budget film that will be his directorial debut. It’s an updated version of the Mark Twain story “The Million-Pound Bank Note” called “A Million to Juan.”

That doesn’t mean the comic, who’s making a rare Orange County appearance Saturday at the Rhythm Cafe in Santa Ana, is ready to abandon stand-up. Like many comics with frequent flyer status, however, he wants to spend more time at home.

“Basically, I have played every state and every major and minor city twice for the last 11 years,” he said. “I woke up in Memphis, Tenn., one day and said, ‘What in the hell am I doing here?’ ”

At the time, he said, he was away from home about 22 days a month “and one of the biggest motivating factors (for getting off the road) is I’m a single parent. I have an 8-year-old boy and he’s growing up really fast. I was just some guy trying to parent him by phone and it doesn’t work.

“I think I’ll always do stand-up, but I’ll refrain from just playing anywhere.”

Which makes his Rhythm Cafe gig so appealing.

“It’s right here in the neighborhood. I’ll go make a few people laugh, make a few bucks, and sleep in my own bed at night.”

Rodriguez rose to national attention in the early ‘80s with a short-lived sit-com, “a.k.a. Pablo”--the first of four failed prime-time series. (“I feel like McLean Stevenson,” he quipped--”I’ve been canceled as much as he was.”)

Rodriguez has had better luck as host of his own weekly entertainment television talk show for the Spanish-language Univision network. Now in its fourth season, “El Show de Paul Rodriguez” is considered a groundbreaking bilingual program that reaches an international audience in the United States and 17 other countries in Central and South America.

The comic also has produced and starred in three specials for the Fox network: “Behind Bars,” “Crossing Gang Lines” and “Back to School.”

“It gave me an opportunity to produce and I found I had a knack for it and really liked it,” said the comedian, who recently signed a three-year production deal to develop series for HBO and for network consideration.

The Mexico native wrote the treatment for “A Million to Juan,” which is set in contemporary Los Angeles and deals with an out-of-work Latino father whose 8-year-old son “makes a prayer and it’s answered in a weird way”--a computer mistake gives the father a $1 million line of credit.

Rodriguez, who will play only a minor role in the film, has enlisted old pals Edward James Olmos, Ruben Blades and Cheech Marin to appear.

The comedian has sold several other screenplays to major studios but nothing has become of them.

“They’ve basically given me the money and said, ‘Go away,’ that there’s no market for Latino themes and ideas,” Rodriguez said, referring to the old idea that a movie must be able to “play in Peoria” if it is to succeed. “I understand what they mean, but I think they should realize there are more Mexicans in East L.A. than in 20 Peorias and we do go to the movies.”

Rodriguez, who has appeared in 13 films, said he always dreamed of going to USC film school, but his parents didn’t have the money. With “A Million to Juan,” he said, “I’m given a golden opportunity for on-the-job training.”

The son of a migrant farm worker, Rodriguez was born in Mazatlan and moved to East Los Angeles as a boy. He was working in a Gardena upholstery shop when he began appearing at open-mike nights in L.A. comedy clubs in the late ‘70s.

Starting out, he said, “I did every hubcap/taco joke there was. I don’t really apologize for it. It was the only thing I knew. But, as you grow older you talk about more than just your ethnicity.

“Right now, I’m talking about getting old. I’m talking about ‘You know you’re old when you and your teeth don’t sleep in the same bed.’ I talk about being a single father. I talk about traveling. I talk about the dangers of dating. There’s a myriad of things. Naturally, I speak about it from my own particular perspective.”

But, as he says, “you don’t have to be Mexican to laugh” at one of his shows.

“If the road has taught me anything, it’s taught me if you’re going to play the Catskills in New York, you’d better have material that can travel with you--stuff that people can get.”

Rodriguez describes his stand-up comedy style with a laugh.

“‘The comedy stylings of Paul Rodriguez’ . . . Sounds like I work with a hair dryer. . . . I don’t know; It’s observational, it’s common. I’m not the kind of comic where you go, ‘Wow! That was deep.’ If anything, it’s shallow. It’s blue-collar. It’s a family product, but I try to connect with those who are there.”

And that includes the Rhythm Cafe show.

“I’ll re-tailor my work to appeal to the Republican Latino,” he said with a chuckle. “What’s really weird, the first Mexican-American on the (Orange County) Board of Supervisors, Gaddi Vasquez, was my Sunday school teacher. He used to come and teach in Los Angeles. If I’d known this guy was going to (wind up) a supervisor I’d have paid more attention to him.

“We’re still in touch,” Rodriguez added. “We’ve become good friends. I still get parking tickets, though.”