TV REVIEWS : Winning Showcase for Latino Comics

In this era of multiple (and growing) TV channel options, the simplicity of the stand-up comedy show must be a tempting format for programmers and producers--rent a club, line up a few comedians and hope for the best.

In the case of “Comedy Compadres” (premiering at 11:30 tonight on KTLA-TV Channel 5), the difference is that the program is a showcase for Latino comics. Luckily for the producers, the talent they lined up for the first two shows bodes well for life beyond the eight-week commitment KTLA has offered.

Taped before an audience at the Las Palmas Theater in Hollywood and hosted by Carlos Mencia, each of the first two shows features three acts who represent the wide spectrum of Latino culture. Tonight’s premiere features Carlos Alazraqui, who is part Argentine; Jackie Guerra, who is Chicana, and Jim O’Brien, who is Irish but gets on because his partner, Alejandro Valdez, is Chicano. (Host Mencia is Honduran.)

Guerra is the gem here as she talks about growing up in the San Fernando Valley. When Guerra tells her new aerobics instructor that she’s lost more than 90 pounds, the instructor replies: “Wow! Like, you must have been really fat! Like, I work on my body four hours a day.” Guerra’s reply: “Like, try working on your brain for five minutes a day.”

Alazraqui has his moments, as does the duo of Valdez and O’Brien. Their act relies on a recurring theme: Valdez’s blindness. And they conclude with a humorous variation of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” routine, taking off on the confusing vagaries of Spanish pronunciation. Mencia is energetic, amiable and, most important, funny.

Executive producer (and comedian) Jeff Valdez has the right idea. He has assembled a group of comics whose material has a good mix of accessibility for English-only viewers and inside jokes for bilingual watchers. Plus, the show allows the comics to escape the anonymity of all those other stand-up shows on all those other channels.

And just think, when your cable system expands to 500 channels, there might be a service called TLC--The Latino Channel. And there will be a show just for Chicano comics, and one for Puerto Rican comics, and one for Cuban comics. . . .