George Lopez: A "Hall" Of A Comedian

Related Stories

• Does Harvard Equal The Golden Ticket?
• A Commitment to Greatness
• Saint Jack of the Road
• Why I Love Lucy
• Celebrity: Don't Confuse It With Fame

I know more than a few career comics now. Very funny guys who knock down a 100 grand or more a year knocking around the country a couple of hundred nights a year, headlining clubs or entertaining corporate clients. And they earn every penny of it. George did the same thing for years. Becoming exactly what he never wanted to be: a career stand-up. He would have stayed that way, too, if one night after working at Caroline's in New York City if Dave Becky, Chris Rock's manager, hadn't stopped by his dressing room and had this conversation:

George Lopez with LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

"Do you mind if I give you some criticism?" Becky said.

"Fire away," George said.

"Well, I thought you were funny, but there's nothing in your act that tells me anything about you. What you like, dislike. You need to do what guys like Chris do. You know what he likes, what he dislikes, how he feels about things."

It proved to be the turning point in George's career. Now, when you go see a Lopez show, what comes with the price of admission is a front-row seat into a life full of tears of sadness, joy, but ultimately, laughter. George doesn't do a show as much as he pours himself into it. He works a stage. Many a night during my time on the "Team Leader" tour he returned to his dressing room dripping in sweat, the psychological need to please compounded by the pure physical demands of his 90-minute set.  

One of the hardest things for a comic to do is make another comic laugh. HOFMAG.com asked George Lopez about his favorite stand-up comedians. Here's George's wish-list of the comics he'd pay to see live:

Richard Pryor, Freddie Prinze, Cheech & Chong, Eddie Murphy, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles, Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, Paul Mooney, Dana Carvey

I remember three sold-out shows he did on Father's Day 2003 in San Antonio. From the moms, dads, kids and grandparents at the matinee, right through the hard-core rowdies who showed up for the nightcap, George played them all to perfection. Stripping away the four-letter words for the PG crowd before letting it rip for the R-rated revelers.            

It was that late show where I witnessed the connection only the likes of Cosby, Carlin, Dangerfield, Rock, Roseanne, Prinze and Pryor – not a damn degree of separation between Lopez and his audience. Where I heard the sound every "Hall" of a comedian craves: the echo of acceptance rocking around an arena.