George Lopez’s comedy has always been about America — the America of the barrios, of crazy tíos and tías and about those on the outside looking in confounded by it all.
That his bilingual humor rings true no matter where one falls in his self-described Neapolitan demographic explains his status as a Forbes-worthy superstar.
When Lopez returns to the AT&T Center on Saturday, Aug. 8, for a live (and edgy) HBO special, “Tall, Dark and Chicano,” he’ll do so in front of more people than the typical rock concert draws.
His conquering hero act never gets old here. (Make that anywhere. Forbes listed Lopez among the top comics with $20 million in concert, album and DVD sales last year.)
Lopez, however, arrives with a new future looming — that of late-night TV talk show host on “Lopez Tonight.”
“It’s not your father’s America anymore,” Lopez said at a recent news conference in Los Angeles, according to the New Orleans Time-Picayune.
“That is what this talk show is going to be about. There is music that’s not touched. There’s actors and actresses that are brilliant, and this place is going to be that place. It’s going to be the place where you greet everybody.”
The comic is confident “Lopez Tonight” will be a hit when it airs in November on TBS.
“It’s a Neapolitan night,” he told the Television Critics Association last week. “It’s fantastic.”
Hammering home the point at his presentation that it’s a new world, and that time has come today, Lopez unveiled a pilot of the talk show featuring a cameo by President Obama.
According to the Associated Press, the clip spoofs Obama’s call for “change you can believe in.”
“The first Latino to have his own late-night show! What’s next, a black president?” Lopez said in the clip.
It’s not exactly as if Lopez’s other ventures have faded.
The New York Daily News called him the busiest man in show business.
The syndicated “George Lopez” show is the No. 1 series on Nick at Nite. Nickelodeon’s original movie “Mr. Troop Mom” recently debuted at No. 1.
“I like the fact that, between Nick at Nite, HBO and TBS, not a lot of other performers get that kind of [exposure] on TV,” Lopez told the New York Daily News.
“I love it because not only do kids see me and freak out, but then their parents say they’re fans, too.”
But the rubber-faced comic is equally intent to stay on message and to inspire and uplift Chicanos.
“As we grow as a demographic and go through issues that are important and unique to us, whether it’s immigration or the jobs that we hold in the U.S., I wouldn’t want to go silent at a time when we should be a little bit louder,” Lopez said in the same interview. “But I still want to maintain a crossover sensibility. There are probably some people who think I’m out there and too vocal, but it’s important to me.”
