Paul Rodriguez talks with a reporter
After being a fan for like the past twenty years, I finally got the opportunity to talk with comedian Paul Rodriguez. No, not the skate kid, his dad. It was awesome, Beeetches! End of article. HA! Not really, I’ll tell ya about it.
First of all, and this is important only to the ladies, he’s a lot sexier than you might think going into this situation. So much so, I did something very wrong with my not so trusty recording device. I got an awesome interview and the next day I discovered I had no recording of it. I knew someone was recording me on video during the interview so I managed to track down that reporter. She told me that she too is missing her interview! We kvetched, wailed and rent our garments via cell phone over our mistakes. Lucky for me, she did have a small sound byte of part of my interview, which she shared. Not so lucky for her, she has no video or sound of hers. The best we can figure, we both hit our record button twice on our equipment, which in effect, shuts it off. I don’t know who she blames at this point, but I think we can blame Paul Rodriguez. He’s isn’t exactly what you’d expect and this caused two women to fumble their equipment.
Shayla Rivera and Paul Rodriguez
Paul Rodriguez was a big, big name in the 1980s, in comedy. He was doing stand-up, in movies, on TV, and adored by so many. When I was told he was starting a new show at the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas, my first thought was, “Where the Hell has he been?” When I mentioned the name Paul Rodriguez to people, many had the exact same first question.
So, my first question to Rodriguez was, “Where the Hell have you been?!”
“What do you mean? Just now?” Rodriguez said.
“No!” I laughed.
“Earlier today?” he quizzed me innocently.
“No,” I was losing it, laughing, “Like the last ten years!”
He then had mercy on me and told me all about his work with Arnold Schwartzenegger and the California Latino Water Coalition. They helped with the needs of the farmers, helped the water infrastructure throughout the state, in particular the Central Valley, which has been the worst hit in the water shortage. He said he had worked very hard on that issue and now it was time to get back to comedy.
Rodriguez had become gravely ill last October and was briefly hospitalized. I asked him what had happened? It was food poisoning from something he ate, he said. He had ingested corn smut, or cuitlacoche in Spanish.
“It is an Aztec fungus which grows on corn. I know people might think ‘well, he was using drugs!’ But it is a drug a in a way…it didn’t sit right with me and I got very, very ill.”
“They say if it don’t kill ya, then it’ll make ya stronger and boy, that thing made me really strong!” he added.
His new show “Paul Rodriguez and the Whole Enchilada” at the Tropicana Casino, is going to be an ongoing show?
“Hopefully, it’ll be ongoing. I have another commitment. I’m going to be doing a movie with Eva Longoria. I’m going to try to revive her career,” he laughed and shouted “Just jokin’. Just jokin’! I play her husband and I can’t pass that up. But I would like to come here. I think with what the new owners are going to do in Las Vegas is something that should have been done a long time ago. Make this a hub for all the artists. It’s going to have a Latino slant. There is a reason there is a Latin Grammys. That is because there is such a need for it. The Tropicana is going to try to fill that niche and I hope it does.”
Paul Rodriguez on stage in "Paul Rodriguez and the Whole Enchilada"
When I asked him if he was nervous about having to play in Arizona he said he wasn’t. He explained what happened to that law. The federal government got involved and the end result was they rewrote that law. “Arizona has the right to protect their borders!” he said, and added that he felt they should have that right. The way the law stands now, they can ask people to prove their citizenship only after they have committed a crime. He told me as it is now, he’s all for the law in Arizona.
Carlos Mencia? Friend or Foe?
He said, “Definitely a friend!” He knew what I was getting at by asking the question. There has been a lot of hating on Mencia of late because of his reputation of using other people’s material without their permission. He told me that Mencia is an incredibly talented guy, a guy he helped bring up in the business. But, like a child, he chastises him for using other people’s jokes and tries to get it through his head he has to write his own material. It was clear that Rodriguez has a great fondness for Mencia and would like him to stop stealing jokes. It would have been awesome if you could have heard his answer, but like I said in the beginning, he doesn’t seem to come out on digital recording…
We talked for what seemed to be a long time. Paul Rodriguez talks very fast and gives very long, intense answers, the kind of answers you really need a recording to repeat. I felt like I was hogging all the small amount of time there was and there were others waiting to speak with him before the show started, so I ended it there and didn’t ask my other questions.
He’s a very interesting and funny guy. You can see that when you see him in person at his show. They have a meet and greet after the show where you can talk to him too, have your picture taken with him, get his autograph and T-shirts.
“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.