The latest Vegas comeback effort: Paul Rodriguez at Tiffany Theatre

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | 5:40 p.m.

A generation before George Lopez and Carlos Mencia were burning up such cable-TV outposts as Comedy Central and TBS, Paul Rodriguez had his own network sitcom. It was called, "a.k.a. Pablo." Rodriguez was Pablo, the product of a big Mexican family who was trying to make it famous as a stand-up comic.

The great TV visionary Norman Lear produced this show, which debuted amid great fanfare as the next inspired cultural commentary from man who produced "All in the Family," "Maude" and "The Jeffersons.

The show premiered on ABC on March 6, 1984.

It lasted seven episodes.

A few years before "a.k.a. Pablo," there was Rodriguez's fork-in-the-road decision to either accept a film role or pluck a regular role on "Saturday Night Live" at the time Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo were summoned to the post-Not Ready For Primetime Players cast. Rodriguez opted for the movie role, heeding the advice of powerhouse manager Sandy Gallin to sign on for a film called, "Miracles." Teri Garr, Tom Conti and Christopher Lloyd were the big stars in the project.

"Sandy says, 'Saturday Night Live? You don't need them. Make movies.' But this was a debacle, and it was quickly forgotten." Rodriguez says during an interview at a hightop bar table outside Tropicana's Tiffany Theatre, where he is headlining a comedy show called "The Whole Enchilada" through June 20. "Teri and Tom got into some dispute over who was getting the better star treatment or something. Christopher Lloyd and I were just waiting around for them to work it out. It was miserable."

Over the years, a new order of Latin comics have blown past Rodriquez, who still struggles to find regular work.

"No disrespect, but I look at Lopez and Mencia, and I've done all that," the 55-year-old comic says with another of his frequent bursts of laughter. "They've lapped me, though, and I had position! I had pole position!"

The new show at the under-renovation Tropicana is a kind of last-ditch effort for Rodriguez to regain his footing as a relevant stand-up. He enters the Trop stint with no regular gig. He's found it maddeningly difficult to get himself booked on late-night talk shows, even Lopez's, who has mentioned Rodriguez as an inspiration.

It hasn't helped his comedic creativity that Rodriguez has taken a somewhat clumsy role as a campaigner for the rights of farmers in Central California to be afforded ample water use. He embarked on this mission after authorities cut off the water supply to his mother's orange grove near Fresno. Rodriguez's efforts in trying to convince the California Latino Legislative Caucus to join him in a fight for the rights of farmers led critics to accuse him of being a tool for "big agriculture" in the state.

He also took a stand, briefly, in protest of Arizona's undocumented immigration bill SB 1070, calling off a May 1 show at Wild Horse Pass Casino in Chandler, Ariz. Rodriguez didn't like some of the vague wording in the bill, feeling (as have millions of protestors) it could lead to racial profiling against Latin and Hispanic residents of Arizona. Problem was, the Wild Horse Pass Casino is on American Indian tribal land near Chandler, and officials with the resort were not interested in refunding the tickets for a crowd of 1,100.

So Rodriguez performed, and donated the proceeds to the nonprofit League of United Latin American Citizens. Earlier, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer invited Rodriguez into a meeting at her office to ask for his support to help quell unrest among the state's Latino voters. That meeting led to a call from confused aides to Jerry Brown, the ex- and maybe future California governor who was convinced Rodriguez was a Democrat.

"I was hearing it from all sides," he says. "Everyone wants my support. A farmer named Jose was in the meeting with (Brewer). Afterward, he says, 'Hey man, that lady thinks you're important!'"

But not all of this quasi-activism is especially fertile ground for writing comedy material, and Rodriguez is eager to get back to what he does for a living — tell jokes to paying customers.

"Let's face it, there must be a real vacuum of leadership among Hispanics when you have a clown like me at the tip of the spear. To quote the great poet Billy Joel, 'It just may be the lunatic you're looking for,'" he says, laughing. "But all I want to be is a stand-up. TV would be fine, yeah, but just to keep my name out there for stand-up work."

A few more bits of info culled from the interview:

• The show at Tiffany Theatre will include a dance troupe, similar to the Fly Girls on "In Living Color," and an appearance by Shayla Rivera, who once worked on the Space Shuttle program for McDonnell-Douglas Space Systems at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This is where the 'Follies Bergere' performed, so we're putting whatever money we can into it. I'd like for someone from Fox to see it and say it's 'Latino Living Color.'"

• Rodriguez says he has been pitching an idea for a "Sanford & Son"-styled Latino sitcom with his son, Paul Jr. (the pro skateboarder and sometimes actor P-Rod). No takers. No problem. "My son has done so well without me," Rodriguez says. "I just stay out of his way." The younger Rodriguez has been featured in a few of Tony Hawk's video games and also was the central figure in the Ice-T Nike commercial titled, "Today Was a Good Day."

• Rodriguez is among the comics who complains about Mencia stealing material. "He has said he takes other people's jokes and makes them better. Word-for-word, his bit on his daughter and football is taken from Bill Cosby. Check YouTube, you'll see it (the clip accompanies this blog; judge for yourself). How can you say, 'I make it better?' Why should I sit home and grow old and bald if I can look at somebody else's act and make it my own?"

• Rodriguez says he was "black-balled" from "The Tonight Show" after a misstep involving, of all people, Emma Samms. "She was sitting next to him and I was sitting next to her. I said something to her during the interview, and at the commercial he says, 'Just sit there and shut up.' Afterward it got back to me, people saying, 'What did you say to Johnny Carson to piss him off so bad?' I don't know! I'd been on the show eight times and I thought we were fine, then this happens. But Johnny Carson could be really great and flippant, but when the lights went off he would smoke in secret and was a really morose man."

• Rodriquez once parked cars at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, in 1979. "(David) Letterman would host there. Andy Kaufman, Robin Williams, a bunch of guys came through there. You know who was big back then? The Unknown Comic. Huge. It's where I met Richard Pryor. I parked his car, a Rolls Royce Corniche, beige. The most beautiful car ever. He gave me the keys and says, "Boy, you can drive, can't you?'"

• Rodney Dangerfield was a friend and inspiration to Rodriguez. "We were great friends and he was fascinated by young comics. He was crazy about them. When he started dating Joan (Child), I said it wasn't a good idea (Dangerfield was 72 and Child 41 when they wed in 1993). I said, 'Rodney, you're b***s are hanging out of your pant leg, and this young woman is interested in you? Are you serious? And he says (adopting a credible Dangerfield impression), 'If she's after me for my money, at least I have something she wants, ya know what I mean? You think all the beautiful women who hang around you would be hanging around you if you were a busboy?'"

• "I don't need great fame, just a good level of fame," Rodriguez says. "I just want to be as famous as Sandy Hackett, you know? I was great friends with his father (Buddy). Wonderful man. But I want it to work here, it's the ebb of my career, and should it pass and a don't get another break, I won't leave bitter or angry. If I put a lot of butts in the seats, they'll name the place after me. If not, I'll go the way of the 8-track tape player."

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