So, as some of you may know, I'm a comedy fanatic. I've been watching stand up and listening to stand up albums since I can remember. I used to sneak into my brother's room and put on his George Carlin albums and Cheech and Chong albums and would memorize bits. Sometimes I would get laughs from the family, more often though I'd get yelled at by Mom or Dad for saying something I shouldn't have at that very young age.
For example, when I was maybe 7 or 8 after listening to a George Carlin album pretty constantly, I ran into the kitchen and said something very dirty. My mother responded with the typical, "watch your language or I'll wash your mouth out with soap!" I responded back with Carlin's classic, "Well I'll blow bubbles out my ass!"
Mom tried her best not to laugh, but I broke her.
I take in comedy like a lot of people take in music, and when a comedy legend comes to my office I get excited because these guys are my Michael Jordan's, my Babe Ruth's.
So when I got told today that Carlos Mencia would be coming on my show this Thursday I about fell out. Not only have I been following his career for the last 25+ years, I've met him before and he has a direct influence on my life and career right now as it currently is.
When I started working in radio 22 years ago, I was an intern for a popular morning show in Birmingham and the comedy club in town brought Carlos in to our show to promote his shows that weekend at the Comedy Club.
He was as nice as can be and of course he was hilarious, but what stuck out to me was the fact that he stood up for me.
Interns back in the mid 90's were regularly crapped on. We did all the jobs no one wanted to do, grabbed superiors coffee and breakfast and lunch, put up with tons of abuse. It wasn't very glamorous. So when one of the morning show hosts started berating me loudly and angrily for some minor mistake I made, Carlos jumped to my defense.
Carlos told him not to treat me like a piece of crap just because I was an intern. Told him that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and reminded him everyone was young once and made mistakes and that I may very well be his boss some day. He told me he thought I was doing a good job, not to listen to them and to keep working my tail off. For the rest of the day, the morning show treated me a lot more decent than normal...it didn't last beyond that morning, but I'll never forget that little act of kindness from someone who didn't have to be kind, but especially from someone that I was a huge fan of.
Carlos is a great guy and his comedy is hilarious. Listen to him on my show this Thursday at noon, but more importantly, make sure you check out his show this Thursday only at Huntsville's Stand Up Live. Click here to purchase yours for this one show only special event!