'America's Mexican' live this Saturday at the Dodge Theatre
Lopez filming HBO special
By Cathalena E. Burch
cburch@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.22.2007

Comedian George Lopez is putting Phoenix on HBO.

On Saturday, Lopez will film his first-ever HBO Comedy Special at the Dodge Theatre. It will air live, and the cameras will zoom in for audience close-ups.

"I always felt comfortable in the Dodge Theatre the times that I've been there," Lopez said in early January, as tickets for his performances there tonight, Friday and Saturday were selling fast. "I've been going to Phoenix a long time, like since '86, '85. It's kind of a place where I started."

Lopez could have done the show in Texas — he couldn't decide which Texas city — or in Chicago — he didn't want to perform on East Coast time.

"I didn't want to do it in Los Angeles because I think it was kind of predictable that I would do it in a homefield advantage."
So he opted, happily, for the 5,000-seat Dodge to film the hour-long "America's Mexican," which airs live Saturday night. (It repeats several times in the coming weeks.)

"HBO is the first name in comedy on cable. . . . Every comedian who's ever really been successful has done an hour," said Lopez, whose namesake ABC sitcom goes into syndication this fall. "Dennis Miller, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Robert Klein, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Lewis Black — to add yourself to that category, it's impressive."

Lopez, who blipped the national radar when his sitcom hit the airwaves in 2002, said "America's Mexican" will feature 57 minutes of unrecorded material centered on the theme of being Mexican in America. He has a serious point hidden beneath his comedy: America needs to understand that Hispanics influence everything in our society.

"Everything people touched, a Latino has touched first. And that's important. If you want some produce, you go to the market, but it starts in the ground. I'm sorry but I think I can speak from reliable sources: Very few of the people picking are non-Latinos."

Allow him and Lopez will go on a rant about how America is quick to dismiss Hispanics "until they don't show up for work," he joked.

Mexico needs to be involved in the immigration solution; Lopez suggests the country start by building more roads. "The roads would be enough to keep people employed for years," he joked.

His solution to the immigration problem also wouldn't involve fences or deportations.

"If you're going to send people back, then let's just rebuild the Mayflower and send everybody who's white back," he reasons. "It's just turning the page back further in the book.

"I think we can build the Mayflower for a lot less than people imagine. The labor would be free. The only cost would be materials," he added.
Lopez said the timing is right for his big HBO moment. In six years, he's gone from stand-up comic on the club circuit to having a star on the Walk of Fame and being named one of Time magazine's top 25 influential Hispanics in the United States.

"I'm excited. I'm not nervous at all," he said. "I've been doing this for years. You never know what's going to happen, but I've tested the show out and I've been doing well for years. . . . I have found tranquility in success."

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