Today’s Latino Comics Can Even Play in Peoria

“I like to show the stupidity of stereotypes. Like how come when white folks see Latinos traveling together, it’s always a gang, but when they travel together, it’s a car pool?”

--Latino stand-up comic Larry Omaha

It may seem strange to some that Hollywood is now in the process of “discovering” the pleasures of Latino comedy. After all, in the long view of California history, it’s the Anglos who are the newcomers, and Latino humor has been a part of L.A. life since well before a single talent agency existed.

Nevertheless, the spotlights of the entertainment industry move in a quirky and fitful fashion, and so, as 1993 comes to a close, Latino comedy is hot.

Latino comics are being seen and heard more than ever in comedy clubs, and many are beginning the jump to television with development deals. Their backgrounds and points of view are as diverse as the Latino community itself, but as each entertainer achieves greater success and recognition, he or she must grapple with the same troublesome issues: How does one cross over to an Anglo audience while respecting Latino roots, and how should lingering ethnic stereotypes be handled?

“Latino comics are getting attention now, but there’s still work to be done,” says comic Jeff Valdez. “I’ve gone in to pitch sitcom projects, and TV executives say ‘We don’t believe in negative stereotypes.’ Then they tell you that the only way to market a Latino show is to use negative stereotypes: ‘We love your characters, but shouldn’t they be selling oranges for a living?’ ”

Valdez can laugh as he describes the attitudes he’s encountered among Hollywood deal-makers, but he takes the topic of Latino comedy very seriously. Over the last year, he’s served as producer and host of KTLA’s “Comedy Compadres,” a weekly showcase for Latino comedians. “Somebody asked me what I was going to do after I used the two funny Latino comics out there. They were wrong. There are a lot of hilarious things that happen in our culture, and there are a lot of funny, talented performers who just haven’t had access to TV before. We’ve shown 60 Latino comics so far, and they’ve covered an amazing variety of material.”

Valdez will be at the Comedy Store tonight and Tuesday to introduce El Barrio USA, a New York comedy troupe making its West Coast debut. The group has enjoyed an ongoing run at Caroline’s in New York, and the edgy antics of its satirical revue have won dedicated Latino and Anglo fans. Producer-director-comic Angel Salazar, who is of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, says that watching his group’s audience expand has been a satisfying, though anxious experience.

“We began at the Village Gate, and 98% of our audience was Latino. The humor came from a lot of inside jokes. I wanted to expand, because eventually it becomes self-indulgent to keep doing Spanish jokes to Latinos. When we moved uptown to Caroline’s, I was nervous and concerned that Latinos might think we wanted to whitewash the show. But it’s possible to have growth without losing your roots or your Latino flavor, and I think we succeeded, because now we’re simply bringing a Latino crowd into a different club.”

One way to expose Latino comics to a supportive crowd is through specially billed evenings at comedy clubs, like the longstanding Monday Latino Nights at the Laugh Factory. Most comics agree these nights offer an important opportunity to hone their craft, but some worry that Latinos need to work harder to broaden their audience.

“We’re not seasonal anymore. We should be everywhere,” says George Lopez, a Chicano who’s been working steadily as a stand-up comic since 1987. He’s made numerous TV appearances, has done Arsenio Hall’s show 11 times, and has completed a Showtime special, “A Pair of Jokers,” to be shown in January. A community activist as much as a comedian, Lopez worries that Latino comics who play strictly to Latino audiences are not making any progress.

“Ignorance is the problem in this country, whether it’s Mexican against Puerto Rican, white against black, or black against Asian. I don’t like Latino nights in clubs, because performing to that crowd isn’t the solution. The solution is being a Latino comic who can perform to an Asian crowd or any other crowd. When you do Arsenio or ‘The Tonight Show,’ you’re speaking to America, and that’s who’s thinking we have to change. We need to go where no Latino has gone before.”

Cha Cha Sandoval is making sure that Latinas are heard as well. Since a back injury ended her career as a stuntwoman four years ago, she’s been bringing what she describes as a “staunch Chicana” point of view to comedy clubs. Over the last year, she’s also produced the Funny Ladies of Color showcases at the Comedy Store.

“I’m adamantly Mexican-American, and I’m adamantly pro-woman,” Sandoval says. “I don’t get up on stage just to wiggle. I think it’s important to address the strong male bias in the Latino community and the community at large. There’s a lot of disrespect to overcome. When I started, there were times that I went on stage and people were shocked that I wasn’t there to work in the kitchen. ‘My God--she’s not a bus girl! There’s something wrong here!’ ”

Many Latino comics wrestle with the idea of using stereotypes for humorous purposes. Puerto Rican comic Bill Torres, who has recently scored a deal for a pilot with ABC, says it’s a comedian’s responsibility to deal with unspoken attitudes.

“I took a meeting once with some well-heeled white producers,” recalls Torres, “and I asked them what was the first thing they thought of when they thought of Mexicans. They were stunned, and silent. Finally one guy said, ‘The food’s good.’ We have to deal with what people are thinking, whether they say it or not. And we also have to remember that stereotypes can be ridiculous, but they don’t come from nowhere. We have to deal with reality.”

The members of Culture Clash have been wielding their sharp-edged brand of satire for 10 years, and they believe that toying with stereotypes is an important way of commenting on the realities of life in the Latino community. With a successful sketch comedy show on Fox, and a theatrical engagement of their “Carpa Clash” piece just begun at the Mark Taper Forum, Richard Montoya sees no reason to tone down his group’s humor.

“We’ve gotten criticism about our use of stereotypes, but we’ve given ourselves license to do with Latinos what Norman Lear, the Simpsons or even Beavis and Butt-head have done with others,” Montoya says. “Comedy to us is a weapon, and it should hurt a little bit to laugh. Chicano humor still has some anger and some bite to it, and we can inform and educate through satire. Culture Clash are not about to become the Hispanic Huxtables.”

And other challenges remain.

“Comedy has the power to help when its intent is to change,” says Lopez, “but it hurts when it feeds back into stereotypes. Latinos still have an image problem. Being a comic, you’ve got to be funny, but you’ve also got a pulpit, and you’ve got to preach something positive.”

Salazar says both integrity and comedy can be maintained as Latinos cross over, and that the wider laughs can be exhilarating. “It’s a thrill when you have your own people saying they loved the show. But when Anglo tourists say they’ve been in town for two weeks and never had so much fun as they did at our show, that’s a great feeling.”

Whatever the future may bring, Culture Clash’s Montoya says that Latino comedy has already passed the oldest of show-biz tests. “The big question is always, ‘Will it play in Peoria?’ Well, we’ve partied in Peoria. They get it.”