Las Vegas Weekly

Chatting with Gabriel Iglesias

Gabriel Iglesias plays September 12 and 13 at the Monte Carlo.

Courtesy of Gabrieliglesias.com

More so than most comics, you’re very high-energy on stage. Do you have to get into a particular headspace, or do you have any pre-show rituals to pump you up?

There’s no real rituals. I’m just like a bull inside the thing; the doors open and I come flying out. I can pretty much be backstage, snacking on something or talking to somebody, but then come out like a bull when I’m introduced. Some guys get all weird …

If you’re the bull, what’s the red cape?

That’d be the laughter!

After the multiplatinum success of Hot and Fluffy, have you been actively working toward another special or perhaps another CD, or have you been more enjoying the ride, weighing your options?

I have a double CD coming out pretty soon called We Love Fluffy, and I’m getting to record a new special for ’09 in late February. The CD will be out in about three months. I had a CD special that I recorded back in 2003, and I used to have it at my live shows, and I never released it. Basically when I made the new one, I decided, “Well, it’s been a long time, and I wouldn’t want to just release the old CD by itself,” so I just figured it could be the present stuff and the way old stuff in one album.

It’ll be nice to see how you’ve evolved.

Yeah. Gotta put some disclaimers on there.

Looking back, what are your thoughts on how things went down a few years ago on Last Comic Standing [Iglesias was kicked off for using a banned BlackBerry]?

I guess the best way to put it is they gave me a rule and I didn’t follow it. I made history to be the first Mexican ever imported off television. But it worked out because they cancelled my contract, which was for a year, and it freed me up to do the one-hour special on Comedy Central. So that was a good thing.

Do you have a favorite brand of Hawaiian shirt that you’d like to shout-out?

It used to be Hilo Hattie until they stopped carrying my size [laughs]; now if I find a pattern I like I have somebody make me a shirt. I’m an independent man.