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the new Gabriel Iglesias CD - "Picachu...I see you" today!
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Stand-up heavyweights By
CHRIS PAGE, First off, no, Gabriel Iglesias isn't related to sexy singer Julio Iglesias. But while the aging Latin crooner's incessant übersexiness offers its own weird humor, baby-faced Gabriel aims his jokes straight for the gut. Mostly, his gut. In his stand-up act, the 26-year-old riffs around his girthy middle -- whether it's talking about how little dancing it takes for him to work up a sweat at a nightclub, or how hearing his girlfriend coo the words "chocolate cake" over the phone works for him like phone sex. Iglesias' current comedy road tour, which stops in Bakersfield on Sunday night at the Fox Theater, manages to cram Iglesias onto a bill with fellow over-250-pound stand-ups Felipe Esparza and Armando "Big Spin" Cosio. "We did a prison show at Lompoc State Penitentiary," Iglesias said in a recent telephone interview with The Californian, "and this killer guy comes up to us and says, 'You think you're bad 'cause you make jokes? Look at this.'" -- pulling up his shirt to reveal a violent wound. "So Felipe grabs my shirt up and says, 'You see these stretch marks? Denny's, 1992.'" That Iglesias has hit the big time, playing theaters instead of strip-mall comedy clubs only five years since taking on comedy full time, comes as a surprise even to the comedian himself. "At five years, I'm not where I should be at," he said. But that doesn't mean he hasn't paid his dues. The Long Beach native cut his teeth on gigs like a season of Nickelodeon's youth-aimed comedy show "All That" (they made him dress up like a woman an awful lot) and the ubiquitous Galavision stand-up shows in order to get his name out. To this day, he still takes the occasional small-time gig, whether it's playing a house party, wedding or backyard barbecue. "You gotta go with the moment," he said of his comedy style. "I'll talk about the situation I'm in. I'll talk to the guy who's flipping burgers at the barbecue: 'Hey, dude, I think you need a little more salt on that one. Who you gonna listen to, that little skinny guy next to you, or me?" But Iglesias doesn't just focus on his belly to get laughs these days. In fact when he started, he said, his shtick was impersonations of, say, cartoon characters having sex (at one point in the interview, he launched into his version of Marvin the Martian getting naughty with Bugs Bunny). His stand-up has come to encompass every aspect of his life. "Any drama that's in my life, I put it out there," he said. In the process, he's earned enough fans to get some recognition. He's a hit network sitcom away from getting hounded for autographs, but he'll get recognized from time to time. Copyright
© 2003, The Bakersfield Californian The
Big Ass Comedy Tour Young funnyman Gabriel Iglesias headlines a triple-threat Latino Comedy Jam this weekend with fellow comedians Armando "Big Spin" Cosio and Felipe "Doesn't Have a Nickname" Esparza. It's sure to be a plus-size joke-fest, with bits about everyday life, family and the sheer joy of snacking. Not that these touring professionals get extravagantly catered food backstage at gigs like this one. "We'll be lucky," Iglesias said, "to get a pizza." Copyright
© 2003, The Bakersfield Californian © Copyright 2002-2003 LatinoStandup.com |
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