Al Madrigal
By Tom Sharpe
Al Madrigal is a natural. And while the television characters he portrays may be stylized (he’s starring alongside Jay Mohr in Project Gary this fall, and he was hysterical as Jesus, the concierge in the short-lived CBS sitcom Welcome to the Captain with Jeffrey Tambor), seeing him with a mic in his hand, I’ve never once thought, “This is an act.” At his show, it’s Al telling you stories and talking to you, and it happens to make audiences laugh and laugh. I don’t know if his nickname, “Latin Breeze,” is a joke. I know it fits him.
This Wednesday, Madrigal (along with Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, and a cavalcade of stars) brings his act to the Avalon in a do-goody kind of benefit for 826LA.
–Tom Sharpe
L.A. CityBeat: I thought I could just fire some random questions, because I don’t want to do a “how did you get started in comedy and who are your influences”-type thing.
Al Madrigal: Yeah, that’s horrible.
Al Madrigal, what bothers you? What gets under your skin?
I think, in L.A., actors ... actors in acting classes. There was this guy – this just happened. It was an exercise in acting class. The whole thing is, you had to bring in a personal object and say what it meant to you. And I brought in a colander filled with heirloom tomatoes. And everyone was bringing in, oh, music that made them sad and they started crying in front of everybody. And I go, okay, I can think of something sad, let’s try to do something different. What am I proud of? Here, I’m a dad with two kids, but I have these heirloom tomatoes that I really spent a lot of time with, so I brought in this basket of tomatoes. I got some laughs, I was doing pretty well, and this guy, this actor guy, says to the teacher, “Do you think Al is just masking his sadness with comedy?” What ... what do ... why is the fat actor guy critiquing my object? This is horrible. I hate this acting guy, and they were all like that.
What was your reaction?
I got really upset.
And did you cry at that point?
I was very upset, and I spent the rest of the class heckling the guy. I’m bothered by people who take themselves way too seriously.
And how did you get started in comedy and who are your influences?
That answer was that bad that we had to go to that?
No, it was awesome, what are you talking about? Well, I was watching some of your clips online ...
I’m trying to get rid of the clips online. That’s what bothers me.
You came to standup circuitously. I read that your family had a human resources business.
My mom has this great story: She was cleaning houses for $6 an hour for this business, and worked her way up and bought the business. Took it over. My job was to fire people.
My family’s company had about 3,000 employees all over the Bay Area, and everyone’s screwing up constantly so what our company did is professionally manage your staff, like outsourcing your HR department. People needed to get hired and people needed to get fired. And I would play this song by Brand Nubian. And it was this song about shooting people, like doing a drive-by. [gangsta rap voice] “Are you ready to do this shit, man? Are we gonna do this shit?” I’d play it before I’d go fire people. “But if you’re down, say you’re down/If you’re scared say you’re scared/This is the shit don’t come unprepared/Cuz you might slip.” [laughs] And I’d go fire somebody. I’d get fired up and I’d say, “All right, let’s do this shit.” I’d straighten my tie and walk in there with a briefcase. It was horrible. I fired over a thousand people.
Wow. So do you think you have enemies out there?
You know, one time I was onstage, when I was still firing people, I looked out in the audience and there was a guy stage left, in the middle, and on the right: three guys I’d canned – in the same show – glaring at me. “Hey fellas, what’s going on?”
You do well in a variety of rooms.
You know, there’s all these ethnic theme nights – I’ll do “Refried Fridays,” I’ll do my exact same act that I do at Largo or the Comedy Store on a regular night. But I get a little nervous. Like I’m doing this thing, 826LA’s Yukfest Benefit, listen to this line-up: Tim and Eric, Patton, Janeane ... .
Jimmy Pardo ...
Jimmy, Dana Gould, Bill Burr – that’s comedy legends.
And 826, this is a literacy program for kids.
Yeah, schools are doing the best they can with what they have. My wife is a first grade teacher and 826 sends tutors out to her classroom. They’re going to the schools and they’ve opened up a series of storefronts in L.A., there’s one in Venice, there’s one in Echo Park. I believe the Echo Park is a time-travel supply store – everything for time-travel you might need – and you go to the back and there are huge tables, after school programs, help the kids with their writing homework, give them extra writing assignments.
My two good friends started 826 with [Dave] Eggers. I taught a comedy writing class at the Hammer museum, and the kids come out, and I’m walking around punching it up, you know, “Put boogers in it. Fantastic.” The kids are loving it. You know, just the funniest story possible. Little kids at a table coming up with a story. And it’s amazing, and the kids are having fun writing, and they’re becoming great writers.
And I get this phone call to do a benefit in L.A., so I met the guy and he mentioned this theater show, and could we help ... . Yeah, and they got a horrible theater deal. The Avalon really screwed them. They got this phone call – I tried to get them out of the deal, but now we’re trying to embrace it – because they got a corporate rate and somebody donated a deposit. It was just this big sticky situation where they have to spend over $8,000 at the bar the night of the show, or there’s a penalty.
So we need to tell people to drink.
Drink, drink, drink! And please come to the show. Not only is it a wonderful lineup, but if we break even we’re going to be thrilled. So help 826LA not lose money.
826LA’s Fall-Time Yuk-Fest featuring Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, Tim & Eric, Jimmy Pardo, Bill Burr, Al Madrigal, Bob Moore’s Amazing Mongrels and special guests. Wed., 9 p.m. (Doors open at 8 p.m.) The Avalon Hollywood, 1735 Vine St., L.A. $25-$35. 18+www.wantickets.com.
Published: 09/03/2008
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