Las Vegas Weekly

November 23, 2008 · 1:37 PM

Caliente Comedy serves up a trio of laughs at TCF

By Allison Duck

MADtv alum Anjelah Johnson took the stage at TCF as part of the Saturday night Caliente Comedy show.

Photo: Edward M. Pio Roda

Caliente Comedy at TCF featured three of the brightest stars in the Latin American stand-up community. Anjelah Johnson has become a big star on You Tube and MADtv with her impression of the Vietnamese nail salon lady, a character she brought along to her performance. Her impressions highlight cultural stereotypes without being overly critical – they’re still politically incorrect, but not so bad you couldn’t share it with your mom. She pointed out that she had been an Oakland Raiderette before becoming a stand-up comedian. “It’s an easy transition when you cheer for the Oakland Raiders.”

Next on stage was the energetic Pablo Francisco, another MADtv alum, who danced his way to the mic to the tune of a standing ovation from the crowd. He appeared to have jotted notes to himself on the inside of his hand; either that or he had a very strangely placed tattoo. While Francisco’s sound effects were amusing, the bits went on for a very long time. His impression of a heavy metal singer’s guttural groans wore on me after five, six then seven minutes of the same noises with few jokes in between.

Francisco’s actual jokes were more interesting. He mentioned that he was invited to host the “Porn Awards” (presumably the AVN Awards) and had to go meet with Jenna Jamison to discuss the event. He met her at home where she was busy shooting a porno that day and trying to chat with him during taping. He said Jamison bragged about her various porn awards – including one for best anal. “What does that award look like – a big onion ring?” Francisco asked. “Mom, Dad, I won the Crammy!” Keeping with the adult theme, Francisco recounted his previous evening at the Spearmint Rhino where he was asked to take his hat off at the door. “The doorman said it was disrespectful to the dancers.”

Last for the evening was Gabriel Iglesias, who took to the stage with an addendum to his “Five Levels of Fatness” joke saying that there are now Big, Healthy, Husky, Fluffy, DAAAAMN and Aw Hell No! Another reference to his “fluffiness,” he said they made him come out earlier to test the stage. “It wasn’t a sound check, they didn’t give me a mic, and then said, ‘It’s a go; he didn’t fall through the stage.’” He said that on Thanksgiving, the security guard at the grocery store says to him, “So, today’s your big day” then he reflected, “That doesn’t happen on Halloween to ugly people.”

Iglesias kept his show pretty clean, because he pointed out that his girlfriend and her son were backstage. At one point he brought out the son, whom he is trying to adopt, and showed what a mini-me he was, despite not being related. He looked like an exact replica of Iglesias down to the plumped up no-neck, and Iglesias said the boy really tugged at his heartstrings the other day when he said, “Gabriel, I want my last name to be Iglesias.” Then his girlfriend chimed in, “Yeah, me too!”

Iglesias also recounted getting drunk after a show on tour and wanting to send his girlfriend a text message before he went to bed. Hesitant to reveal he was out drinking he told a friend, “I can’t lie,” to which the friend asked, “Are you really that honest?” Iglesias replied, “No, I just can’t remember the lie!” He wrote a text saying, “I made it back to the hotel. I went out to Cine Bar with my friends. I love you. Kissy face.” He was shocked when she wasn’t mad the next morning, only to discover that he had typed, “I went to Cinnabon with my friends.” He rejoiced saying, “Oh my God! My iPhone lied for me!” If only we could all be so lucky.

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