“Paul Rogriguez and the Whole Enchilada”
When I read that Shayla Rivera, who is the opening act in “Paul Rodriguez and the Whole Enchilada” is a rocket scientist, I just had to talk to her. She’s a comic, but she’s a rocket scientist, she’s a mom, but she’s a comic! I had to meet the woman who actually finished reading “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. I’m pretty smart, but he lost me somewhere in quantum whatever, so I never did finish it.
I had a few questions for Shayla Rivera. I buddied up to a cute guy while I was waiting for Rivera and Rodriguez to get done on the stage in the Lounge at the press junket. As it turns out, that cute guy is her boyfriend. Damn, another one taken.
How did she go from rocket scientist to comedy?
“It’s a long process,” she laughed. “You go to NASA. You work there, then you realize you’re too funny for the space program and you just have to leave.” Which is what she did around 1993. I commented that she‘s been at it for quite some time now. “You have to pay your dues before you become an overnight sensation!”
When I asked her if she actually finished the book “A Brief History of Time” she exclaimed, “Yeah! I’m a huge geek!” She has even started the website FunnyRocketScientist.com. There are some videos on there so you can see just how funny this lady is.
Shayla Rivera and Paul Rodriguez speaking to the press
“I don’t really care for, like, Brad Pitt, George Clooney. I would rather, you know, the ones that turn me on are Albert Einstein (she named another guy I never heard of). That is the kind of guy I like,” and she laughed. “I mean, look at him!” and she grabbed her boyfriend to show me what a true geek looks like.
All the time I hear male comics say that women comedians just are not funny. I wanted to know what Rivera had to say to all of them.
“Well, you know, what I say about that is, um, sadly, a lot of them are not, but a lot of men are not either. Everything goes by individual. It is E=MC2. It’s all relative. There are a lot of very funny females. There are a lot not funny and the men are the same way. But the thing is with the women, something else is expected of us as a comedian. And it doesn’t quite click sometimes. It is almost like there is some material that’s tabu, that you can‘t really talk about and they expect you to do humor about female stuff. And maybe you don’t, but even if you mention one bit then they go, ‘Oh, there it is.’ You know what I mean? You’re going to find what you’re looking for.”
“But you know what? They can come see my show and then after my show if they still think I’m, you know, not all that funny, they can keep it to themselves.” We all had a good laugh on that one. “I really don’t want to prove anything, you know? I’m doing it for me.”
The three of us chatted for a while longer and joked while Rivera danced around to the band’s music. Her boyfriend and I joked that I could chase them through the casino with my camera and cause a stink about her being ‘caught with some guy.’ Maybe I could sell the photos to TMZ! (He isn’t used to dating someone famous, so I had to tease him.) But that sounded like entirely too much exercise.
Then I needed to find a spot to smoke before the show started. What I didn’t know at that point was just how hard she was going to make my laugh.
“Paul Rodriguez and the Whole Enchilada”
Tropicana Casino’s Tiffany Theater
Ticket prices are $39 – $49, plus tax
Two for One special available for locals
Show is Monday – Saturday, 9pm
Performances completely in Spanish are on June 5 and June 12 at 7pm, followed by the 9pm show in English.