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[ previous ] [ main ] [ next ] George Lopez comes to Foxwoods with . . . 04/07/2003 Comedian George Lopez's story seems more appropriate for a weepy, made-for-TV movie than the ABC sitcom George Lopez. His father abandoned the family when Lopez was an infant; his mother remarried and left the child in the care of her parents, who did not exactly lavish young George with affection or material goods. On stage, Lopez talks about swimming in a garbage can instead of a pool while he was growing up. Lopez, whose TV show has been renewed for a third season, comes to the Foxwoods casino on Saturday. Both his stage act and his TV show use Lopez's childhood as a source for material, Lopez said, but the stage act is a lot edgier and adult than a sitcom that airs at 8:30 p.m. "Don't bring the kids," Lopez advises. "Hey, it's a casino; it's supposed to be for adults." Lopez was inspired to become a comedian, he said, after seeing Freddie Prinze on TV in the '70s, and realizing it was possible for a Hispanic comedian to succeed. (Prinze's old manager, Ron De Blasio, also handles Lopez's career.) "I created a sense of humor as a wall, so things wouldn't affect me," Lopez said. "Everything I couldn't do, I made a joke about it." But it took a while, he said, before he was able to integrate his harsh childhood into his act. In the '80s, Lopez remembers taking some criticism from Chris Rock's manager, who told Lopez there was nothing personal in his comedy. "I used to joke about Taco Bell, or cars that had Latino-sounding names," Lopez said. "It was about nothing that mattered. Even when I was talking about my grandmother, everything was glowing. In my act, I made her into a wonderful woman." Lopez credits couples therapy -- he is married and has a 7-year-old daughter -- with helping him become more honest about his past. Now, as Lopez told an interviewer from TV Guide, he gets to use all of America as his therapist's couch. Thanks to Bullock Sandra Bullock was instrumental in bringing Lopez to the small screen. The actress had been looking for a TV project that could reach the Latino population -- although she is not Latino -- and when she saw Lopez's standup act in 2000, she figured she'd hit paydirt. "She came backstage and told me she wanted to take what was in my act and create a TV show," said Lopez. "It was Sandra who gave me the opportunity to move to the next level." Bullock is executive producer of the show and guest stars as a klutzy character named Amy. Bullock and Lopez hooked up with Bruce Helford, once head writer for Roseanne, a man who knew something about wringing laughs from edgy situations. On George Lopez, Lopez plays a husband and father with two kids. For TV purposes, his tough-as-nails grandmother has been turned into a tough-as-nails mother. To complicate the character's life, George and his mom work in the same airplane parts factory. Part of George Lopez is standard sitcom fare -- Lopez dealing with his teenage daughter, for example. But there is a darker element as well. Father figure A running storyline this season is Lopez's search for his father. On the show, as in real life, Lopez's father walked out on his family. On next month's season finale, the fictional Lopez will finally come face-to-face with his dad. In those scenes, Lopez said, he was able to say some of the things he would tell his real father. "I think I got it out. . . . It was a highly charged, emotional scene. It was pretty heavy, man," Lopez said. "When a guy walks out on his kid, and then you finally get to meet him, there's so much going through your mind." Lopez said the actor who plays his TV father, Willie Marquez, didn't know his father, either. Lopez said he's pushing the idea that, next season, his fictional father comes back around occasionally, trying to win his way back into the family. In real life, Lopez has never heard from his father -- he thinks he might be in Mexico -- and has limited contact with his mother and grandmother. Latino silence George Lopez is the most succesful sitcom starring Latinos since Freddie Prinze's own Chico and the Man in the mid-'70s. So far, Lopez said he hasn't heard much from Latino activists about his show, one way or the other. And he's fine with that. "Latinos yell the loudest of anyone when there's something they don't like," Lopez said. "When you can silence the community, that's OK. I'm happy with the silence. My theory is that no news is good news." After George Lopez has run its course, however long that may be, Lopez said he'd be interested in producing another show, but not acting in one. "After you've purged your soul for America, where do you go? Be a cast member on someone else's show?" And Lopez is hoping that, in 20 years or so, a young Latino comedian would come up to him and find some inspiration and guidance. "Of course, he'd have to track me down on Maui first," Lopez joked. You can't take the comedy out of a comic. George Lopez performs Saturday in the Fox Theatre at the Foxwoods Resort Casino at 9 p.m. Tickets are $38.50 and $44; call (800) 200-2882. [ previous ] [ main ] [ next ]
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