MAS Magazine / 9 - 28 - 2007

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C O M M U N I T Y Presorted Standard US Postage Paid Mercado Nuevo

September 28, 2007 Volume 2, Issue 2

www.masbakersfield.com P.0. BOX 2344, Bakersfield, Ca 93303

THIS WEEK

CONTENTS 12-15

COVER STORY

Comedian Carlos Mencia practices mind over matter

BLOGGER OF THE WEEK

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HEALTH & SAFETY

9

Do you blog? Then you just might be the MÁS Blogger of the Week!

State Farm offers tips to protect our most precious cargo: los niños

HEALTH

10

VIDA

16

Problem periods needn’t be a problem anymore, thanks to new treatments

Local group helps to carry on culture, tradition through dance routines

COSITAS WE LOVE

20 31-34

SEPTEMBER ■ 28 ■ 2007

12-15 6

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It’s fair time! Take a trip to La Villa Festiva

CLASSIFIEDS Buy, sell and hire

General Manager

Did You Know?

Delia Carson dcarson@masbakersfield.com 716-8632

Managing Editor

32.2 million The number of U.S. household residents 5 and older who speak Spanish at home. Spanish speakers constitute nearly one in eight U.S. household residents. Among all those who speak Spanish at home, more than one-half say they speak English very well.

(Source: 2005 American Community Survey)

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Olivia Garcia ogarcia@masbakersfield.com 395-7487

Editorial / Advertising Cover photo: Icon Entertainment

716-8640

MÁS Magazine (USPS number Pending) is a weekly publication of Mercado Nuevo LLC with main offices at 1522 18th St. Bakersfield, CA 93303. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Rate is pending at 1822 Pegasus, Bakersfield, CA 93303. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to: Mercado Nuevo Publications PO Box 2344 Bakersfield, CA 93303. MÁS is a new weekly magazine focused on Hispanic people, style, culture and issues in Kern County. MÁS is a publication of Mercado Nuevo, LLC, a subsidiary of The Bakersfield Californian. For questions or more information about MÁS or other publications of Mercado Nuevo, contact us: Mercado Nuevo LLC P.O. Box 2344 Bakersfield, CA 93303; 716-8640; www.mercadonuevocorp.com or www.masbakersfield.com. The MÁS name and logo design are trademarks of Mercado Nuevo and cannot be used without the company’s permission.

Even through a controversial smear campaign, Comedy Central’s Carlos Mencia ’em laughing, keeps ‘em keeps it real.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL YARISH / COMEDYCENTRAL.COM

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PHOTO BY MICHAEL YARISH / COMEDYCENTRAL.COM

Carlos Mencia on the set of Comedy Central’s “Mind of Mencia.”

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BY M AT T M U Ñ OZ

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MÁS STAFF

arlos Mencia knew the job would be a tough one when he took it.

Working the nightclub circuit in search of laughs as a fledgling, up-and-coming comedian in the early ’90s, a young Mencia scored small gigs to pay the bills and more importantly — build an audience.

Mencia’s last local performance drew two sold out shows at the Fox Theater in downtown Bakersfield back in January 2006. This time, he’s in the big house — Rabobank — with a bigger show and more room for laughs.

“It’s gonna be a different show,” explained Mencia, who, like on his TV show, is never at a loss for enthusiasm. “People can say, ‘I’ve seen him perform before,’ — Yeah, but those aren’t the jokes that you’re going to hear this time.”

Born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras to a Honduran father and Mexican mother, Mencia’s upbringing was a combination of all things Latino Americano, including growing up in East Los Angeles.

The 17th of 18 children, one could only imagine what his young During his early days hosting HBO’s Latino comedy showcase mind had soaked up traveling back and forth from Honduras to Loco Slam in ’97, and Galavision’s Funny Es Funny in ’98, Mencia the U.S. was a regular visitor to Bakersfield stages.

“I was 7 months old when I left Honduras the Today, he has his own hit show — Comedy first time, but then I moved back for one year Carlos Mencia Live Central’s “Mind of Mencia” — and regular when I was 10, then I lived there for three years headlining comedy gigs, all of which keep the when I was a teen,” he said.

■ 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 5 the outspoken comedian busier than ever. But To this day, Mencia travels to his homeland ■ Bakersfield Rabobank Arena that’s doesn’t mean he’s forgotten his roots. for a reminder of those humble beginnings and ■ Tickets: $43, $38, $34 Appearing live at the Bakersfield Rabobank the beauty of his Central American birthplace, ■ Details: 661-322-2525 or Arena Friday, Oct. 5, Mencia’s latest tour de much of which still exists frozen in time with www.ticketmaster.com funny marks another return to the city that warm farming communities populating the ■ Hear the rest of the interview with remains home to one of his most loyal fan tropical region as well as poverty stricken Carlos Mencia on Bakotunes Podcast, bases. areas.

Episode 57 at: “I’ll never stop coming to Bako,” said Mencia “I go there to center and ground myself to www.bakotopia.com/blogs/bakotunes — who turns the big 4-0 on Oct. 22, just a few remind myself how fortunate and lucky I am,” weeks after his B-town visit — via cell phone he said. “Any of the petty BS that I think about with MÁS during a recent tour stop in Miami. “What can you say is just that — petty. It teaches you humility.” to people that have supported you and your career from the Life in Honduras for Mencia as a child may not have been luxbeginning? There’s nothing you can say to pay them back.”

Continued on page 14

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“What they (the audience) basically said without saying anything was, ‘Look, you’re a comedian, make us laugh, that’s what we care about.’”

— Carlos Mencia

PHOTO BY IAN WHITE / COMEDYCENTRAL.COM

The coup against Mencia’s comedic crown failed, and he emerged triumphant.

Continued from page 13 urious, but it was fulfilling.

“The beauty of that is there’s no pressure. I mean, you work really hard, but there’s no ‘You gotta get that done today!’” he said. “It’s like you plant your crops, you wait to go visit them every once in awhile, and make sure birds aren’t eating them up.

If they are, you put up a scarecrow, and three months later, you harvest it, sell it and trade whatever you have for something else. You have everything you need.”

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Not that he’d give up his fame here in the U.S. for a farm in Honduras, but Mencia has learned that popularity and success doesn’t always equal happiness.

During the earlier part of 2007, Mencia became the target of a smear campaign by fellow comic Joe Rogan (“Fear Factor”), who accused Mencia of stealing material from other comedians.

Rogan went on the warpath, producing videos on YouTube, appearing on talk shows, even jumping onstage during one

of Mencia’s comedy club appearances with one goal: to discredit Mencia’s success.

Through it all, Mencia never backed down, even when things got really testy.

“That’s just the way it is,” he said.

“Everyone wants to hate on Britney (Spears) because she made it. Tom Cruise has two hit movies — then everyone says he’s gay. That’s our industry. We build people up, tear them down and build them up again.”

As fans and critics battled away, debating the accusations out on message boards and the talk show circuit, Mencia eventually decided to go directly to his audience about the issue.

“I went on stage one night, it was on my mind, and I was killing the audience, man,” he said. “Then I brought up the issue of what people had said, and the audience stopped laughing, and they didn’t give a (expletive) about it.”

At that point, the message was crystal clear for Mencia.

“What they basically said without saying anything was, ‘Look, you’re a comedian, make us laugh, that’s what we care about. We don’t give a (expletive) that people say you suck, we paid good money, do your thing.’ At that point I was like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry!’”

The attempted coup against Mencia’s comedic crown failed and “Mind of Mencia” successfully completed its third season as the second highest-rated show on Comedy Central after “South Park.”

“After that, it was like … whatever,” Mencia said of the controversy.

Producing a show like “Mind” is no laughing matter to Mencia, who feels the pressure like any artist whose name is in a show’s title.

6%

of Kern Hispanic adults went to a comedy club in the past 12 months.

— Source: Scarborough Research 2007 R1

“It’s really difficult, because I come up with an idea, then I pitch it to the writers,” explained the comic of the show’s grueling creative process. “In the middle of taping, and press interviews to promote, I have to maintain the integrity, so to speak, of the writing, so that it’s exactly what I want it to be.”

If you’re familiar with the show, viewers understand that no topic is safe from his “mind” and cast of characters on the skit comedy show, one of which is his popular castmate and brother, Joseph — who seems to be enjoying his fame just fine.

“Joseph doesn’t have to deal with any of the pressure,” said Mencia. “It’s usually like this … I’ll wake up after a long day of talking to people, and look forward to just chillin’ out, and then Joseph will show up with 10 people, saying (in a thick accent) ‘Hey! I met these people last night, and they recognized me and I told them, ‘It’s OK, Carlos won’t be mad if we come over and party!’”

Besides utilizing his sibling’s comedic nature in his act, Mencia wisely stays in tune with the latest tabloid buzz for material.

“OJ, Michael Vick, Sen. Larry Craig, Britney — there’s four premises right there.

Some of them may get three minutes, some may get four,” he said. “Owen Wilson trying to commit suicide — it’s all pop culture, and I seem to have a pretty interesting perspective on it, and people seem to enjoy it.”

As local fans anxiously await Mencia’s return to Bakersfield next week, the comedian looks forward to showing his appreciation the best way he can, keep the gente laughing. It’s the very least he can do, Mencia said.

“All of the people that are going to read this article, they don’t allow my life to exist the way it does, they don’t even facilitate it — they make it, and how do you say ‘Thank You’ to that?”

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