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Friday
Aug072009

CINE EL REY - COMEDY NIGHT

 

Two women and a man dressed in black stood outside amidst a cluster of red vinyl couches, smoking and laughing. I assumed they worked there. I love it when I’m right.

 

 

 

I must admit that when I pulled up to Cine El Rey—early, as I tend to be everywhere exaggeratedly early—I was just a little skeptical of what I was getting myself into. Comedy night? Really? In McAllen?

But as soon as I climbed the elegant winding staircase to the balcony seating area, my opinion was instantly transformed.

“Ever since 1947, we’ve had live entertainment here at Cine El Rey,” boomed a loud, commanding voice.

“Over 200 comedians have graced this stage.” 

The balcony where I sat was divided into three levels on a sloping plane, the bar in the back, alluring with its mellow lighting and colorful bottles of liquor. But this was not your typical balcony seating. Where else can you sit on stylish red and beige couches, surrounded by a marble-topped rail lit from the inside with soft light? No other theater in the Valley that I have ever been too.

Cine El Rey doesn’t just have one bar and one plush seating area though: it has three bars and plenty of comfortable seating. And if couches aren’t your thing, there are table downstairs near the stage, and regular theater seating on the sides of all levels. And the three people dressed in black I saw when I first arrived? Two cocktail waitresses and a bartender, all three extremely willing to help with whatever you need from the moment you walk in front doors.

As far as the comedians themselves, I don’t know what I expected. I certainly didn’t expect to hear the venues “Comedy Central” and “30 Rock” being announced in the lineup of performances for two of the evening’s performers.

I settled into my spot on the red couch, munching on my free popcorn and awaiting the first performance.

“I’m one of those guys always stuck in the friend frame. Anybody out there relate to me?”

“Sweets.” That was the name the wiry guy with a ponytail gave as he bounded out onto the stage with enough energy to power all of McAllen’s 17th Street. But this was no sugar-coated comedy routine.  It was gutsy.  Raw.  Sexual.  It may have just been the anticipation of the evening and what was to come, or maybe the nervousness of the audience because of the explicit subject matter, but I noticed at the end of the night that everyone seemed to laugh the loudest with “Sweets” from the RGV. 

It was an R-rated romp of a routine. And though Sweets was by far the raunchiest of the three, the sex and profanity continued through the night—and the audience ate it up. 

Enter Jade Esteban Estrada, (getjaded.com) stage right. If the audience wasn’tready for the racism and sex humorin the first routine, they certainly weren’t ready for the gay humor in the second routine. 

“I didn’t come out of the closet. Oh, no. I was chased out…by the cockroaches!”

I was impressed when the emcee announced that Jade had been on 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, and Comedy Central. And I have to admit that I found some of his stuff funny. But the majority of his routine revolved around gay humor, a comedy form somewhat lost on Valley residents whose leaning is generally socially democratic and otherwise conservative.

It was the times that he pulled from his Hispanic background and tapped into the Latino culture that the audience really seemed to connect with him and respond positively.

“I overheard someone saying that President Obama needs to come up with a better plan for what to do with Mexicans. ‘We should have an isolated place to keep all the Mexicans,’ they said. ‘We do. It’s called McAllen,Texas.’” The crowd erupted with laughter. They knew exactly what he was talking about. What we didn’t know is what he revealed later: this was only his first time inMcAllen! He obviously did his research before coming up with his material. Smart guy. Made for better comedy. 

Intermission time. More drinks were in order for the people around me. I managed to run into a friend and talk for a bit before sitting back down. I was beginning to notice, after having run into to a couple other people I knew, that McAllen was a smaller town than I had once thought, and that Cine El Rey was a more diverse spot than I ever anticipated.

The last act was touted to be the best. As Jay LaFarr took the stage, Dos Equis in hand, I wondered how this was going to go. Never had I seen a comedian try to drink while performing. Somehow he kept his composure as best as a large white man dropping f-bombs and bashing Hispanic culture can.

I was surprised that he wasn’t too well-received. But it may have been because of his thick accent and slightly slurred speech. Or it may have been that people were already tired. It was nearing 11-o-clock.

But he wasn’t giving up. He shocked us by pulling out a guitar, telling us he would sing us some songs he had written.

“I bought this guitar at a pawn shop,” he said. “Everytime I play it I hear the failed dreams of another man.” I giggled a little, thinking about the poor guy who had to sell his guitar for cash, never knowing he’d be made fun of by a drunken white guy on a stage in McAllen—a comedian not afraid to touch any subject, from barbacoa to family issues. 

When he finished, people rushed for the bars again for one last drink, and I had one last thought: relation, relation, relation. If you’re going to go put on a comedy show somewhereyou’ve never been, you should get to know your audience first, that way they will be able to relate to your comedy. I always find that the things I laugh the loudest at are those I can honestly think about and say, “Oh, my! Yes! I have done the exact same thing!”

 

Rebecca Ward
Free Lance Writer
Blog Editor
rnward4.0@gmail.com

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