Adrian Villegas, el Jefe of the Latino Comedy Project,
is bringing back his 2003 one-man show of character monologues about inner-city lives during a fateful day in the barrio.
If you’re Hispanic, it’ll resonate.
If you’re Anglo, it’ll inform.
If you’re whatever, but you want to laugh?
It’s so good and funny that we’re recommending it
even though, oralé, it’s not part of
this weekend’s concurrent
Out Of Bounds Comedy Festival juggernaut.
We checked in with Villegas recently to clear up
a few points of contention:
Austin Chronicle: Is there a particular reason
you’re bringing the show back right now?
Adrian Villegas: I’m amazed how little the material’s become dated.
In fact, with the predictable and renewed scapegoating
of immigrants that always accompanies an economic downturn,
the show’s themes are probably more relevant now than when
originally written.
AC: Is the current Texas drought and heatwave – or global warming, in general –
actually part of some Vast Latino Conspiracy To Burn The Skin Of Paler Americans?
AV: Yes, the “Browning of America” is a devious and multifaceted process.
AC: Would you rather have, as President of the USA, Rick Perry
or the desiccated body of a goat that was killed by the chupacabra?
AV: I’d rather have Barrio Daze‘s Latino political candidate
Manuel Gonzalez Jr. as President. You’ll have to come to the show to see why.
AC: Then we’d better tell the readers that it’s up for two nights only.
This article appears in August 26 • 2011.