Q+A: CARLOS MENCIA

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman and Carlos?

Carlos Mencia's "Mind of Mencia" ranks second in popularity behind "South Park" on cable TV's Comedy Central. The second season of the show premieres Thursday.

Mencia brings his irreverent humor to the Palms for two shows Friday .

Ned Mencia was born in Honduras, one of 18 children of a Honduran father and Mexican mother. He was raised by an aunt and uncle in Los Angeles.

He was studying electrical engineering at California State University, Los Angeles, when he discovered his knack for stand-up comedy. While pursuing his career onstage, he also acted in television and movies. His break-out performance on "Comedy Central Presents" came in 2002 and led to his own show, which mixes his stand-up comedy with sketch comedy.

During an interview, Mencia talked about his raw, racial humor and brushed off allegations by comedian Joe Rogan that Mencia steals material from other comedians.

A word of warning: While we've made an attempt to tame his language for a family newspaper, he's still more suited to cable.

Q: Joe Rogan made some unflattering comments about you recently, saying you steal your routines. How do you respond to him?

My response to that is it's really simple: I'm his latest target. I haven't and I'm not going to dignify him with a response.

How did it come up? Did you have words at some point?

Like I said, I'm his latest target. That's basically what it is.

In this age of political correctness, you don't seem to be walking on egg shells when you do your comedy.

It's just something I'm not going to do. The weirdest thing is I wanted to be on network television so bad and I was like, "Cable? What are you talking about, cable?" But when this opportunity came about I looked at it and thought, "Here's an opportunity for me to be a little bit different. For me to be able to try to do what I want to do and say it the way I want to say it as opposed to being put in the mill of what network television makes you do."

So I went for it and it has been the most amazing thing. I come up with ideas, do them on the show the way I want. It's so liberating and free and fun. We get the opportunity to do things on the show - because we're on cable - that can't be done on network.

Comedy is supposed to be cathartic. It lets a lot of pressure off of situations that can be tense. Have people forgotten that?

You're right. What people forgot is "intent." Our intent is to be funny. Not to demean anyone. Is it my fault that there is a stereotype that black people are not good swimmers? I know that's a joke, but somebody will say, "I can't believe you would say that." Well, first of all it's just a joke, and second of all if you watch the Olympics, black people win medals in jumping, running. They don't win any in swimming. That's just the way it is. I'm not making this (stuff) up.

Are audiences becoming too serious?

Some people are. I had one guy say, "I watched your show and didn't agree with what you said." And I'm like, "It's a joke. How could you not agree? I can understand you saying it's not funny." But it's like my going onstage and doing a knock-knock and somebody going, "I disagree. There's no door here." Of course there's no door, dumb (expletive). And of course there are black people (who) can swim. Of course there are black people that hate chicken. Of course there's a black guy with a small penis. Of course there's a Mexican guy who can't jump a fence. Of course there's a white guy who's not a serial killer.

Yes, there are those people out there. There's a Jewish guy who doesn't give a (expletive) about money. All these people exist, but you know what? We're just in the business of being funny and exploiting societal BS and that's what we do in my show. I love doing it live, in concert. It's unedited, raw. I can use any language I want and it's the best way to capture things I do and say.

Between your TV and movie work, do you have time to do many concerts?

I am limited in my time. It's not the same as it used to be. I just don't have the same amount of time.

How do you change your concert from what you do on TV?

It changes in the sense that in television you have to be really concise. It's really, really short. On television there's one explanation and that's it. We're done and I get to the joke. The beauty of stand-up is that I can really build a spider web. I can weave all these thoughts together. I can manipulate, and because it's live, it's raw and it's unedited. You leave with a clear view of what I think is funny.

You started out to be an electrical engineer. How did you get into comedy?

I was only 20, 21. I was basically going to college to get me out of the ghetto. A friend suggested I try stand-up.

How did comedy change you?

Before I got into stand-up, I was a really quiet guy who had all these thoughts, all these things I wanted to say but there was never anyplace for me to say them because my mom would look at me and go, "You better not say what you're thinking. You better not." I say, "Well, Mom, what am I going to do?" And she said, "You better not say it here and you better not say it now." And I ask her, "When, then?" And she says, "I'm not going to tell you where. I'm just saying you can't say it now or here."

The day I did my first stand-up I found a place where my mom couldn't tell me, "You can't say it here and you can't say it now." I found a place where I could say it. It was like opening the floodgates.

Then I saw this guy named Paul Mooney (who wrote for Richard Pryor). He did a lot of ethnic humor. I realized at the moment he was edgy and saying things that were funny, but they just didn't feel like jokes. It was like he was saying reality. And I went, "Oh, my God. We don't have to tell joke jokes, we can go up there and interweave stories and tell people what we think and feel and how asinine and stupid other people are. We can do all that and not be cutesy." That's when I truly discovered comedy.

Did you continue working on your degree?

No. I quit my job with Farmers Insurance. I quit school. When I started doing comedy my parents went, "What the (expletive) are you doing? You're going to throw your life away. For what? You want to be a clown?"

A couple of years later I won an international star search competition and then my family was like, "When you were little, you were so funny. We knew you were special."

Has it been tough making it as a stand-up?

I've been doing it for 19, going on 20 years. The thing is, I don't know how tough or easy it was for somebody else. For me, it's been amazing, unbelievable. It's been great. I'm not making anywhere near (Dave) Chappelle money, nothing like that. But you know what? I have a fun life and it's been a phenomenal ride. It's been rocky at times, great at others. In the end I'm an immigrant and I know I could be out there picking strawberries or standing in front of Home Depot.