Fighting for Attention: Latin comics, musicians hope to attract more than boxing fans

The Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad fight and Mexican Independence Day have attracted several Latin acts to Las Vegas for the weekend including Tito Puente (performing Saturday night at the MGM Grand).


George Lopez


Elvis Crespo

      It happens to be two Latin guys," comedian Carlos Mencia says of both this Saturday's main event and a secondary one that he's starring in.
      In the past, the stand-up comedian from East Los Angeles has had good reason to grumble about Latin comedians getting hired in Las Vegas only for Cinco de Mayo or the Mexican Independence Day weekends.
      But this time, even in the wake of Mexican Independence Day, Mencia feels good about being in town on the heels of Saturday's Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad welterweight championship.
      "I like the fight and I like who they are, and that it's being billed as the fight of the millennium," Mencia says. "And in all reality, on the books it's really one of those fights. ... We're talking about arguably two of the best pound-for-pound fighters going against each other."
      Or, to put it simply, De La Hoya is "actually fighting an opponent that could kick his butt."
      Mencia is teaming up with George Lopez for 8 and 11 p.m. concerts Saturday at the Riviera's Top of the Riv ballroom, 2901 Las Vegas Blvd. South.
      Just as the fight matchup speaks for itself, Mencia believes the two comedians will surpass their "Latino Comedy Explosion" billing to stand on their own merits.
      "I think that what's cool about this is that (Lopez) and I are such different people onstage, it dispels a lot of different people's beliefs that we all do the same thing," Mencia says.
      "It's a good thing to go up there and show this isn't Def Jam," he says, referring to the cable series for black comedians that he maintains is "pretty much seen as one black comic going up there and saying the same (thing)."
      Further diversity comes from the Latin world's best-known comedian, Paul Rodriguez, sharing the stage with Alex Reymundo at 11 p.m. today and Saturday at the Monte Carlo, 3770 Las Vegas Blvd. South.
      But if music instead of comedy were to determine the fight's outcome, the odds would be in Trinidad's favor. Special concerts lined up for the weekend feature the music of Trinidad's native Puerto Rico and the West Indies.
      The Afro-Cuban dance orchestra Los Van Van performs at 8 p.m. Sunday at the House of Blues, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, while mambo master Tito Puente and his big band play a post-fight ballroom dance at 11 p.m. Saturday at the MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. South.
      Another fight-weekend, post-Mexican Independence Day attraction includes Puerto Rican merengue heartthrob Elvis Crespo at 8 p.m. today at the Las Vegas Hilton's Hilton Center, 3000 Paradise Road.
      Mencia's own affinity lies with De La Hoya, and with good reason. His younger brother, Albert, and De La Hoya were childhood friends at Griffith Junior High School in East Los Angeles.
      Moreover, the 31-year-old Mencia has faced the same backlash that De La Hoya has weathered from "the fans who are more Spanish than not.
      "It's not an Oscar thing," he explains. "It's an acculturation thing.
      "It's really difficult being in the position that Oscar and I are in," he says. "We're brought to this country by our parents" -- Mencia was born in Honduras but raised in East Los Angeles -- "and we're told, `Look, you've got to become an American in order to be successful in this country.' You definitely need to be bilingual, definitely need to be an articulate person in English to get ahead in this country. There's no getting around that.
      "But, when we do that, our parents or grandparents kind of look down on us for becoming acculturated. It's kind of a Catch 22. It's like: `Wait a minute. You brought me to America, and now you're mad at me because I speak English in interviews? What kind of retarded behavior is this?' "
      But, he adds, "it's food for my comedy." Mencia takes up that subject, as well as any issue ranging from school violence to the Kennedy family, in a stage act that "goes right for the jugular."
      Lopez, on the other hand, has a completely clean act and "tells stories about his family that are just hilarious," Mencia says of his stage partner. The two first worked together last New Year's Eve, and have done a handful of dates throughout the year.
      While Mencia has signed a development deal for a sitcom, Lopez is savoring his dramatic role as a union-busting boss of migrant workers in an upcoming movie, "Bread and Roses," filming in the Denver area.
      Prospects for Hispanic actors in TV and movies are "so bleak, a three-legged dog works more than we do," Lopez says. "There are more pets in prime time than (Latin) actors."
      Lopez worked so hard to break into the business that he's paying the price for it. His role in the 1990 comedy "Ski Patrol" "follows me around like a supermarket drunk."
      Things are starting to improve, though. Lopez is set to record a follow-up to his debut comedy album, "Alien Nation," and he already has another movie, "Tortilla Heaven," set to roll after the current one.
      His comedy has evolved from "car culture and Taco Bell" jokes to more insightful, personal humor that gives non-Latinos a peek into the reality of Latin family life.
      "When it's over and you look back, you want to have left behind some of your heart," he says.