#111 - Al Madrigal

Al magical, my friend. Thank you very much for joining us.

Sure.

It's good to see you, budy, as always. And you came here with great news. As you pulled up, you said that you're a correspondent now on the Daily show.

Yeah, that happened. And actually, I did my first piece, I think, like two weeks ago.

That's awesome.

And it was one of the most incredible things because you want to be on that show and part of something you really like. I mean, it's like you at the UFC, this is something you enjoy, and so you're a part of it. It's like now I'm on.

I go both ways on the Daily show. In one way. I love it. I think it's a great show. I love, it's so know some of the breakdowns that he does on stories and news, they're just so brilliant. And he's so good at it now and so comfortable at it now. He's my favorite talk show host. It's him and Jimmy Kimmel.

Incredible Kimmel a lot as well.

But John Stewart's so fucking smooth and he's so good. That show is, it's, to me, it's like way better than being on Saturday Night Live.

And in terms of him being loose and having a good time, people tell you, always tell you that with stand up, have a good time, right? That's an important part of it.

I did his show once, and it was really cool, I think at least once. But I did it once when fear Factor was coming out, and he was really funny. He's so fucking smooth and good at it that to be on that show is like, God, you just nailed an.

I'm not really one of the coolest in considering the past comics they've had on and comic Rob Riggle at Cordry go on. And the people that they have on now, and he's going to Lewis Black and Wyatt Senec and just Larry Wilmore. And so here are all these comics, and it does an incredible amount for your career. And I'm still at the point with standup is not a lot of people know me because I haven't been on anything that's really stuck.

A friend of mine went to see you a few years ago, my budy David Herwitz, who's one of the producers of Fear Factor, and he didn't know you. He went to see, there was a bunch of people, some sort of a benefit. I don't remember who the comics were, but it was you. It was years back, you went up and I remember he called me up, he goes, God, I forget this fucking guy's name. But he was so good. He was doing all this shit about his kids. I go, Al magical.

He goes, yes.

This was years ago. You're one of those guys to me that your talent and your ability and how funny you are on stage. People haven't caught up to it yet. You're fucking hilarious, dude. You're really funny.

I really appreciate that because I chose to take on doing longer stories, and that's what I really enjoy doing. But it takes a while, too, as you know, with the bigger chunk, like one liners that come in, but the bigger chunk, hard to keep people on the hook and then to say goodbye to them because you don't want to do them anymore. And you're always hoping that another story comes up. I hope some shit happens to me quick.

Your stuff is so fun, man. It's really good, solid stand up. And that's why I'm like, where you are in the public eye, your talent far exceeds that, I think. And I think a show like this is just going to let people see your stuff. Yeah, come see Al live. Okay. Because, God damn it. Tv sets. Tv sets are like a commercial. It's a commercial for the live show. The live show is the real deal. Sure.

And I do tend to, I've been sort of snapping on people a little bit by interacting the audience.

Yeah.

Well, this is why, for example, the other day, and I insist on being a glutton for punishment and going to the store, and there's this black girl on her phone.

Oh, no.

And I address it right away. She was not even looking up. And I say, hey, how are you doing? She refuses to get off it. So I'm talking to her the whole time, but she's going to make a point and be stubborn.

Oh, my God.

And I'm going to be stubborn at the same time. And I'm not going to let her off the hook. So it's me, like, versus. And I can't help but address it. So I think when you get in the live show is. Yeah, that loose atmosphere where. And you've had me at a couple of these sal's shows.

That message to that woman's phone was, by the way, this is your doctor. You have breast cancer and your child's on fire.

Yeah. No, they try to say that a lot of times. Sometimes when you catch somebody on the phone, they'll go, well, I don't have a sitter and I have my kids and they try to make you feel bad, some shit up about these fake kids that they have.

Even if you do have kids, you should know you're being annoying to other people.

Yeah, go outside. I have no problem people going outside. I got in a big beef in south by southwest because some asshole had his iPad two out the day after it came out. So he's sort of showing everybody, right, I got an iPad two, and check it out.

Is he filming you front row?

No, he's not filming. He's tweeting. We found out that he was tweeting to 32 people in the front row. And I go, dude, put away your iPad. Everybody knows you got an iPad. It's nice. I go, if you were a reporter or a journalist and you're on iPhone or iPad in the back, you're in the front row. There shouldn't be this disconnect between audience. You're at a live show. Quit. Look me in the face. I hate it when I'm at the laugh factory and people look in the fucking monitors that are on the side. And now there's this guy with this iPad, too. And so I told him I was going to put my foot through it. Now I was going to put my foot through his face because he got shitty with me. You have temper.

I forgot about that. You have a huge temper.

You wanted to hurt this person physically?

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I was trying. Then I tried to bring.

What if he was crazy, man?

He was crazy. He did jump up.

Really?

I feel like I'm in a good position. I don't know if I would have fought at that point, but I love the vantage point of a comedian come up to you, and then they'd have to go down low, and then immediately.

You would get the first shot. Yeah, but if he was a big crazy guy. You said he was big.

No, he's a little foreigner. Little foreigner strutting around his fucking iPad.

That's what it was. Little foreigner says Al Madrigal.

Yeah.

You get lumped into the latino comedy thing you did for a little while.

No, still. I mean, still getting a lot of those shows and opportunities that. Because I feel like it's like with Greg Giraldo, who know, loved as a comic, and I thought, he's incredible.

But he was a comic, period.

Just a comic.

Yeah.

That's why I didn't even know I was Latino comic until I fucking moved to LA. They do all those chocolate Sundays shows.

They used to have me do the Guido. I did the Guido show a few times at the comedy store. But it's like, man, I don't want to be on the show with these fucking guys just because we share some patch of dirt where our grandparents fucked.

Yeah, I just think comic first. I think those guys also a lot of latino comics, you end up doing those same latino shows over and over and over again. And then when you finally get put in a situation that they're ill prepared to handle, regular people that aren't specifically latino.

I'm so glad that there's a lot of different styles, though. I'm glad that there's black comedy. I'm glad there's latino comedy. I'm glad because it's very interesting seeing with different cultures and different sections of society, what they laugh at and what they think is funny and when they cross over and when they don't, because there's a lot of really funny white comics that go up in black rooms and eat dicks, and it's a different fucking thing. First of all, it's very hard to pull out of a hole in a black audience. Once you go into that hole, the booze start coming and the get off, get off. If you're not prepared for that, if you haven't done a lot of black shows, if you bomb at one of those shows, it's like the Apollo thing.

It's like everybody grew up watching the Apollo.

Oh, yeah.

And then they're at stand up, and they're waiting for the guy with the clown and the cane to come out because. Horrible. So they're not shy about going, oh, my God.

Isn't it weird that a whole group of people will collectively decide to be, that's. That's the most ridiculous thing ever. You're all booing and hissing, get off, get off. And they'll attack. Like, they want dudes to fail. They want dudes to fail.

I don't know what Wesley snipes movie I was watching. It wasn't new Jack City. It was something like he was a drug dealer and he was going to court. I think it was Robin Givens, somebody to look this up. Robin Gibbons goes, I just want to hang out with you, baby. I want to go to the Apollo and boo the know. That's what we'll do. And so that was his pickup line. He goes, we do fun things.

Go to the Apollo. The comedian.

Yeah.

The comedy store was a fun place for us all because there's no one watching that know. And it's good and it's bad. It's good in know. You're forced to deal with this chaotic world that is that place, this unpoliced comedy club.

I think Don Harris at one point, I heard the stories about him having chicks on stage. He's got naked women.

Yeah, I've seen that.

And then there's no manager at that point or something where the manager, he's drinking an hour ago.

Nobody gives a fuck or didn't at one point in time in that place. There was one time when Joey Diaz took his pants down and, you know, the original room has a curtain behind it. Did I tell the story before? There was a girl named Judy Cincinati.

Oops.

Shouldn't have said her name. Damn. Anyway, she was on stage and Joey was behind her. And every time she would hit her punchline, Joey would open up the curtain and show his balls and the fucking place she was killing. And she was on stage, like, so confident. All of a sudden, you could see her light up. Like it was the best set she's ever had. She was just fucking nailing every joke.

The audience was going crazy because Joey's balls are sticking out of the curtain.

I would love to, because you can.

Go through the back bar and sneak up behind into those curtains.

Yeah, there's a total back way to get on stage. You know, the old days, they didn't go on stage through the room like we do. They would go on stage through