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Phoenix loves George

A third Phoenix show is added for comedian George Lopez's first HBO stand-up comedy special

'By Popular Demand,' trumpets the news release sent out by Live Nation, about the third show that has just been added for comedian George Lopez's first HBO swtand-up comedy special, America's Mexican, at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix. Phoenix loves George. George loves Phoenix. Carve that on your backyard paloverde for eternity.

It's been a long-lasting relationship for the Latino funnyman and the Valley. The payoff is a three-night love fest during which HBO will broadcast the Saturday night concert in a live format, another milestone for Lopez.

"I didn't want to do it in Los Angeles because it seemed too easy," Lopez explained during a mid-January phone interview. "I didn't want to do it in Chicago because of the time of the show (it would have been on later). And Phoenix -- I've been going (there) since 1986. That's 20 years! It's perfect because it's a big small city, kind of a melting pot in an easier way than Texas, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York or Miami.

"The weather's going to be great. I can just relax and get ready for the show. I know that the crowds there have always been very supportive. That's why I chose Phoenix."

Broadcast live and uncensored. This is a very big deal, he knows.

"The fact that it's live shows, I think, more confidence. If we were taping it, we'd probably tape two shows and get the best material," Lopez says. "This one is going to be the way it is. I've always been able to connect. I'm freer in standup without editing."

The title of the show, America's Mexican, begged a little explanation, as Lopez's most recent CD release was El Más Chingón (The Baddest).

"I would have loved to call it El Más Chingón and have everybody go, "What's that?"

"It's pretty interesting, you know? I think America doesn't believe we're for real yet," he says, warming up for a not-so-short clarification. "And in America, people who are in politics, who are in the law field, in the working business, in the every day-to-day connective America, who are maybe not of any particular color -- I think even some people of color -- don't realize the power of the Latino because it's not cohesive yet, it's not at its strongest point."

Lopez says this as a prelude because he does not consider himself to be, in his words, "a push-button comedian," someone who says something provocative just to say it.

"I'm a Mexican American, but with all the heat that Latinos are taking for whatever they are (and every time the economy or the country is in a bad situation, they always go for the weakest link in the chain and it's always immigrants), so America's Mexican is (with everything being the way it is, and I'm on TV and I'm crossed over): I used to call myself a Mexican American, but now I think I'm America's Mexican. "

"I seem to go unbashed by all the other stuff, because I'm a comedian or I'm on TV. You know, I've said some pretty strong things on immigration and none of them have ever gotten on CNN or on any other kind of news outlet. This is my place, not to preach, necessarily, but through comedy and through one who is one -- I'm not half anything. I'm an American who was born in America and I'm of Mexican descent and that's never been on HBO before."

HBO's recognition of Lopez's star power shows a measure of respect for a man who used to be the kid no one thought would see success. And that may be one of the key reasons Lopez continues to please his fans: they recognize themselves in his stories of being a lonely child, brought up by heavy-handed grandparents who worked just to make ends meet, of trying to cope, to survive, to be somebody.

Now Lopez has marked milestones he once only dreamed of:

· His show, George Lopez, is now in its fifth season, looking to a golden sixth year and the start of syndication.

· He is now part of a Holy Trinity of Latino TV leads who has seen more than 100 shows (the other two are the late Desi Arnaz and Freddie Prinze, who Lopez idolized)

· He’s been named to Time magazine's top 25 most influential Hispanics and came in at 85 on the Forbes List. (He made $8 million of his $12 million income last year from stand-up gigs.)

· He is the new official host of the Bob Hope Tournament Classic, the first Latino to be chosen by the LPGA to bring in celebrities to play.

* Lopez overcame advaced kidney diseasewhen he recieved a kidney donated by his wife, Ann Serrano Lopez, in 2005

Lopez's ability to touch nerves is evident in the crowds he attracts. When he played the Gibson Amphitheatre last year in Los Angeles, about 50,000 fans saw his act. Concertgoers will often e-mail Lopez to tell him how much they relate to his stand-up material, although regionally he says there can be a difference in response.

"In Texas they're very Tejano and that kind of audience is okay, but it leans a little more toward not as assimilated, just a little more Texan," he says. "In Arizona and more on the West Coast, we're assimilated but still very Latino."

Lopez joined comedian who performed Comic Relief 2006 in Las Vegas (Mission: Hurricane Katrina Relief) where he joked that FEMA really stood for 'Find Every Mexican Available.' In reality, many Hispanic tradesmen are helping to rebuild New Orleans.

"My thing was about the country and about how really how everything that people touch, we've touched first, which is very powerful," Lopez says. "If you think about what this country is, the foundation of it was built by immigrant labor and it still continues to be driven by immigrants, people who are working hard and don't get respect."

The quest for respect has burned in Lopez's heart for decades, and a chance to add to his Latino legacy looms large.

"When I grew up in my neighborhood my grandfather worked his ass off every day. He was almost invisible to anybody because he was a worker bee. But the worker bees are very important to the colony and people don't understand that.

"The perspective for me is I'm not embarrassed of who I am, and even though I live differently than I do when I was growing up, I haven't forgotten where I've come from. I think HBO is the perfect outlet to lay down something that will live forever, really. I don't even think HBO realizes how big an audience can be and it's never been done bilingually, which is kind of the way I do my material. It's hard to have firsts in anything because we've been around for so long, but I think this will be a first from somebody who really cares about what the image is and cares that we're seen as a subculture or a hyphenated culture. I don't have any ax to grind other than just we want to be included."

He now sees more of a mixed audience in those rows of seats, a reflection of the changing American landscape as well as the acceptance of his brand of humor, something that's not lost on Lopez.

"In the beginning I was a little more concerned," he admits. But, "the stand-up guy got the TV guy his job. It's never been shock comedy, if you look at my work. It's more about what are the differences in the cultures, which a lot of comedians do, but I think I brought some characters who weren't ever out, like my grandmother or my aunt or my uncles who were so competitive. And that whole 'we don't want to show emotion until we're drunk,' or 'we don't go to the doctor when we're sick because we'd rather not know' -- I think that appeals to everyone.

He insists he has no other agenda "other than to make people laugh."

"There's not going to be a 20-minute gap of silence. It's going to be all laughter that's connective because it's about what the country's about."

Still, much is riding on the HBO special, a chance for Lopez to outshine his more controversial competitors.

"There've been comedians who have tried to have a say and a lot of them get a lot of respect," he says, citing Chris Rock and Dave Chappell as examples. "But I've been doing this for 25 years and I don't think I've gotten the notice that (I have) created a 'brand' of comedy. It's not going to come from Latino comedians because they're mad because it's not them. And it hasn't come from mainstream because I don't think I've proven to them that it's real yet. I've only been around (in their eyes), for five years. They didn't know me from anybody until the show. If this was a boxing match, I haven't proven to them that I can knock them out yet. And that's what the 24th will be."

For some of his fans, Lopez's brand of comedy has actually changed their lives.

"I got an e-mail from a woman who said she'd taken her ex-husband and son to the show. Her ex doesn't get that she wants to be friends only; she doesn't want a relationship with him. He drinks too much and she doesn't want to clean up after him when he gets sick. She says, "I'm not really into White dudes, but this guy's not the right guy."

"I was like, man, that's pretty good. That kind of stuff is really kind of nice," Lopez says, adding that making a difference makes him feel good. He's especially keen on getting a message through to parents to be more positive with their children, something he never got enough of when he was growing up.

"Nobody told me anything; they only told me that I would end up on the street. So it's specifically pointing out how we use negativity to drive the positive.

"In our house, my grandfather only complimented me when I f---ed up. One time I crashed my car and he just couldn't stop saying, "Muy bonito. Mas bien." You know, that kind of (sarcastic) stuff. Only when I did something bad did he tell me something good. And people have responded to that. That's really very young material, but it defines a memory that is strong. They're not really jokes, as much as they are Garrison Keillor almost, they're conversation."

Lopez had a kidney transplant, donated by his wife, Ann, two years ago.

"The doctor told me I had advanced kidney disease," Lopez recalls. " 'Didn't you feel like you were not energetic? Did you feel like you couldn't sleep? Like you never wanted to do anything?" he asked me. And I told him I thought it was because I was married, I didn't think it was because I was sick."

That experience led him to work kidney problems into his TV show.

In the show, his son Max (played by Luis Armand Garcia) wets the bed. A viewer wrote Lopez an e-mail to say he'd been yelling at his sons for wetting the bed, but after seeing the episode, took them to a doctor.

"They had something wrong with their kidneys, they way they were set up," Lopez says. "That's why they were wetting the bed. So, through the humor of it you can get people to go to the doctor."

He tells about a recent chance meeting with basketball great Kareem Abdul Jabbar at a Lakers game Lopez had attended with actor pal Andy Garcia.

"I'd never met him before. I'm a huge Laker fan and so to meet him would be like meeting somebody I'd idolized as a kid. And the first thing (Jabbar) said to me was, "Oh, man, I've got to tell you I'm a huge fan because I grew up in the West Indies -  from Trinidad and Tobago - and what you say about the house was true in my family."

"I hear that a lot. So I don't think I need to mess with that (stand-up) guy. That's what this special is. I don't need to adhere or apologize for what we are, because we are. We don't have to apologize."

While he might now be pointed to as a successful role model, Lopez only takes credit for being determined to make it as a comedian.

"I never was that guy. I was the total opposite. I was kind of given up. I was not the guy you would pattern yourself after. Everything bad happened to me. I remember saying, "Everything f---ing bad is happening to me, but it better only happen once."

"I had a 2.2 grade point average. I didn't go to college. But I'm doing what I've wanted to do since I was 11, so if you focus on what you want to do I think you can do whatever you want. I don't think it's ever too late to do anything or to change your life or whatever it is."

With a string of achievements under his belt, Lopez sees other projects that lure his interest.

My grandmother would say, 'The only friend in your pocket is a dollar.' 'What goes around comes around." 'Be careful what you ask for.' I think all those things are true. When you ask for something like this, when the show's over, there's a lot of directions to go in."

He's signed on to Creative Artists Agency, a powerful Hollywood talent agency. He would like to produce movies for Latino audiences in English and Spanish at Warner Bros, which produces his TV show. Moving from the footlights to behind the camera doesn't scare him.

"I don't know how much I need to be in front of the camera yet, but if I can live without it I think I'd prefer to slide into a more (producing role)," Lopez says. He adds that he admires George Clooney for stepping away from roles to make independent films.

"I like what he does. And I think that there's an opportunity to do that for us: Movies that are made for families. We need to build the family back. Movies that show strength and show disconnection and show what's wrong with preaching," he says. "I think there are great stories. I remember myself as a kid, what was missing is what is more positive. We (as Latinos) haven't gotten any of it yet.

"To inject myself in mainstream movies would be great, but also to create things better specifically for us (that) appeal to everybody, because no one's going to do that for us if we don't do it for ourselves."