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If Margaret Cho and George Lopez had a love child, it would be
Sandra Valls! - Georgia Ragsdale, comic
Sandra Valls
is a brash, high energy, outrageously funny, in-your-face
Latina comic… and then some! Her comedy career
began just after an ex-lover broke up with her then signed
her
up for comedy
classes as a consolation prize. (That’s no joke !) An
expert at “making lemonade”, Sandra quickly learned
to use the stage to motivate, provoke, entertain, and… oh
yes… above
all, make audiences LAUGH THEIR @#$% OFF!
Sandra performs
all over the country and at local comedy clubs in Los Angeles
including
the world-famous Laugh Factory, The
Comedy Store, and The Hollywood Improv . She recently just
returned from a very successful run at London’s Comedy
Camp where they’re still gasping for air (and no,
it’s
not because the Brits smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day).
Her television credits include BET’s ComicView, Galavision’s
Que Locos, Mun2 Loco Comedy Jam, SiTV’s Latino Laugh
Festival, Funny is Funny, Inside Joke, and, more recently,
HBO Latino original programming “Habla ”. (Uh…that
means, “talk” in
Spanish. The ‘H’ is silent.)
Sandra’s
honest, explosive comic flair, original writing talents, and
her
bi-lingual proficiency, have opened the door
to such gigs as joining the comedy writing team of Nickelodeon’s
smash hit, Taina ;writer, producer, and on-air personality
for Off The Roof ,an international show on Mun2 Television,
as well
as producing and writing for SiTV networks on shows including
The Drop (a music show), The Rub (a talk show on sex…imagine
that), and, currently producing, Breakfast, Lunch, and
Dinner (a talk show on controversial issues… yes
she believes in gay marriage). GLAAD has honored
her work at Mun2 with a Special Recognition Award for her
groundbreaking
achievements
on behalf of the gay and lesbian community.
But the story
begins much earlier in a little town called Scottsbluff,
Nebraska (yes you read right) when Sandra
was born into a
Mexican family (what’s a Mexican doing in a red
state?) who quickly moved to Mexico where Sandra spent
her formative years and then,
at age 6, subsequently, made the “big move” to
America (for the record, there was no swimming involved)
and then settled in Laredo, Texas (yes, the very one
made famous by that
annoying song). Sandra attended catholic school but experienced
a very
difficult first day of school as she didn’t speak
one word of English (que?) and the nuns would charge
5 cents for every
Spanish word spoken. (dios mio !) Needless to say, she
never had lunch money throughout the first grade. As
the years passed
by, the only way Sandra coped with catholic school was
acting a fool, playing in a garage band, and the assurance
that, every
now and then, a strong gust of wind would come along
and blow the girls’ blue plaid skirts up to the
heavens. (Thank god for uniforms.)
Sandra attended
the University of Texas at Austin where
she studied acting and starred in numerous musical
productions including
Sweeney Todd, Cabaret, and Merrily We Roll Along, for
which she won an Austin Circle of Theatres Best Actress
Award.
She then
ventured forth to New York City (What? An unmarried,
childless, Mexican, catholic girl off to NYC by herself?)
to study
Musical
Theater and then found herself in Boston fronting an
eight piece R&B horn band. Yes, this girl can sing! I
mean, really sing! R&B, rock, blues, you name it!
Just ask her when you see her. She’ll break into
song for you! This girl can SAAAHNG! It was in Boston
where she began doing some serious
comedy (oxymoron alert) after that breakup mentioned
earlier. It wasn’t until after yet another breakup
that Sandra moved… ran… well… escaped… clear
across the country to Los Angeles to start anew!
So,
if Margaret Cho and George Lopez had a love child
it would be Sandra… only she’d have a
really big, brown, Asian head.
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