COMEDY REVIEW : Secret Service: Laughs to a Latin Beat : The trio, headlining a voter registration benefit at UC Irvine, offers an energetic program of poking fun at the Establishment.

Martin Padilla is being interviewed by IBM, and has just been told that despite his academic credentials he “just doesn’t fit the corporate image.” Just when things seem their bleakest, a voice is heard asking, TV-commercial style:

“Are you too Mexican?

“Don’t panic. Get Hispanic!”

Hispanic Spray, that is. And after just a couple of squirts, Padilla (played by Tomas Carrasco) is fitting right in with the white-bread corporate Establishment, even turning down an invitation to grab some lunch at Taco Bell because it’s “too spicy.”

Performing to benefit Voting Inspires Participation, a group working to increase Latino voter registration in Orange County, the Chicano Secret Service comedy team was at UC Irvine Saturday.

The young, raggedly charming trio (Carrasco, Lalo Lopez and Elias Serna) aimed at a range of targets, doing everything from musical numbers (MC Chorizo rapping out “Chicanos From Outer Space”) to a mock news report from CNN (the Chicano News Network). The thread running through the evening was an assertion of cultural identity against the white tide of the ruling class.

While the energy never flagged, the quality of material varied considerably. Bits that worked best included a phone call to the new White House 800 number: When they pushed the button for the Spanish recording, they got instructions on how to apply for a job as Chelsea Clinton’s nanny.

The troupe apparently has no qualms about poking fun at figures within the Latino community as well. There was a commercial with Edward James Olmos hawking a new candy bar: “You can’t blame anyone but yourself for loving the Olmos bar.”

One of the goofiest yet funniest physical bits was “Chicano Studies 101: Serape Technology” with Lopez as a surly college instructor and Serna as his student assistant demonstrating the many uses of the serape, from “Chicano power tie” to skiwear (though “if God had intended Chicanos to ski,” Lopez offered, “he would have given us money.”)

Too often, however, the skits meandered, missing the targets entirely or hitting only the obvious ones. Performances skills also varied. Lopez is the most polished comedian; Serna had his moments but could stand to play things a little more broadly. Carrasco got by with a luggish likability and a quick way with impromptu one-liners.

The three, who met in Berkeley, obviously are learning, and with tighter writing could increase their hit-to-miss ratio dramatically. In any case, they deserve applause for working sometimes difficult political ground at a period when topical humor may be at an all-time nadir. They also deserve admiration for not abandoning their core audience at a time when they seem poised for larger success: Many of the punch lines and best asides still are given in Spanish. Carrasco, Lopez and Serna will return to UC Irvine on May 7.

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Opening Saturday’s show were O’Brien and Valdez, a comedy duo notable for their timing and polish, who relied heavily on traditional comedy team banter and on Jim O’Brien’s uncanny vocal sound effects.

The opening bit, done in total darkness, featured dead-on impressions of bored Western film stars sitting around the fire (“You ever make a cow laugh real hard,” asked the voice of Jimmy Stewart, “and make milk come out its nose?”).

There was a musical number called “White Trash” (“I don’t want you to go to work in a coal mine, come home all dirty and tired and sweaty like your mom”) and plenty of bits on the ethnic differences between Illinois-raised Irish-American O’Brien (whose “rural street gang” engaged in “drive-by shoutings”) and lifelong Santa Ana resident Alex Valdez. Some were pat and predictable, but others, such as a tightly written “who’s on first?” parody, hit nicely.

Much of the set centered on the fact that Valdez has been blind since childhood. Except for a few standard blind jokes, the material dealt with how others see Valdez, in a way that was gentle and affirming while still being funny.