The Latino Comedy Project

LCP in the house

Congratulations to our very own Latino Comedy Project on receiving its very first ... no, wait, this can't be right. Emmy nomination? How in el mundo did these jokers rate a nod from TV's highest honor? As LCP Artistic Director Adrian Villegas explains it on the comedy team's blog, LCP was approached by MTV producer David Grad and director Michel Rothschild about collaborating on a series of commercials for the cable channel's Latino-oriented offshoot, MTV Tr3s (the fusion of MTV en Español and Más Música), as well as some commentaries on Latino life and culture. "For a group like the LCP that relishes pushing things too far," Villegas writes, "the challenge was to help David and Michel create an amusing and culturally relevant campaign that wouldn't get them both fired." In a brainstorming session with the producers last spring, the team contributed a few vignette ideas for the commercials, which were filmed over three days during the summer, along with the monologue-style commentaries, aka "Rants" (which were shot, to the group's surprise, "pretty much as written," he notes). The campaign aired from September 2008 to January 2009, then on May 14, when the Daytime Entertainment Emmy nominations were revealed, in the category of Outstanding Promotional Announcement – Institutional, Comedy Campaign MTV Tr3s was listed – alongside MTVU, Nickelodeon's Noggin, The Ellen Degeneres Show, and a second MTV Tr3s nom – with the names of LCP members Villegas, Danu Uribe, Mical Trejo, Karinna Perez, Guillermo DeLeon, Sandy Avila, and Nick Walker included with those of Grad, Rothschild, and New York comic and writer Ian Gelfand. LCP has to wait until Aug. 30 for the results. For more information, visit www.lcp.org.