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Feliz Navidad
Local Latino comedy producer Mikey O scores his biggest holiday show yet.
A few weeks ago, I headed to Joe’s on Weed Street to catch Que Paso, Que Paso!, a comedy show housed regularly at the cavernous space. I hadn’t heard of Que Paso!, or ever stepped foot into Joe’s, but I figured the setting would be bare-bones—a few tables scattered here and there and, given the title, some newbie Latino comics trying to speak over the chatter and clinking of glasses.
But when I arrived ten minutes early, the place was already filled to the brim—so much so that I had to grab one of the few remaining seats at the bar. And the show itself—headlined by Manny Maldonado, who was part of this year’s Latin Kings of Comedy Tour, and South Side up-and-comer Joey Villagomez (Joey V.)—was really enjoyable, with a laid-back, ready-to-laugh audience making things even more inviting. Obviously, I’d been missing out on something.
Mike Oquendo knows the feeling. Thinking Chicago’s Latino community deserved a night of comedy that could “deliver home” (where local Latino comics could better connect with their audience), Oquendo founded Mikey O Productions in 2001, the company that produces Que Paso! and other regular shows. While things started small, Mikey O’s shows quickly grew in size. “If you go to the Latino community, in Humboldt Park or Pilsen, and you mention Mikey O, they know who I am,” the 41-year-old boasts with a smile.
To give you an idea of how much the production company has grown, just take a look at its annual holiday event. During the winter of their first year, Oquendo and his crew debuted the Holiday Giggle, a night of stand-up where all proceeds benefited local charities. “The event went from like 80 people to like 800 in five years,” he says. This year’s Giggle, which takes place Wednesday 12, has moved to the Portage Theater, a 2,000-seat venue.
That’s a drastic leap (Joe’s, where last year’s Giggle took place, holds less than half of that), and this year’s event offers another step forward with a national headliner: Frank Santorelli of Sopranos fame (he played Georgie). What’s more, every cent goes to charity; the theater, promotion and talent are all donated.
Even when he’s being altruistic, Oquendo lives and breathes comedy, a habit that started at a young age. “My sister came home with [a Freddie Prinze] album when I was a little kid, and I was just amazed at the fact that there was this comedian talking about what my life was like [as a Latino]. And I probably spent the next ten years mimicking this guy.”
But when he grew up and started to pursue his own stand-up career, he felt like he wasn’t getting his “This is where I’m from” message across. “I started doing some stand-up myself [and] I just really felt like, you know, the audiences are great in Chicago, but I wasn’t reaching home,” says Oquendo, who grew up in the Logan Square/Humboldt Park area. “I heard the great comedians like Carlin and Pryor and guys like that. Even though they were hysterical, they didn’t deliver home for me.”
But recently he has stretched beyond Latino-only acts. Santorelli, Giggle’s headliner, of course, doesn’t have a Latino ring, and that’s something Oquendo and company take pride in. “What I think is kinda cool is that we have a Latino comedy show, [and] you’ll see non-Latinos on our stage. I love the fact that we can take a guy that’s not Latino [like one of his recent faves, Michael Palascak], put him in an audience of 90 percent Latinos and he absolutely takes the audience home,” he says.
“Listen to the math,” he says of his gigs at Watra Night Club on the Southwest Side, “it’s a Polish nightclub with a Latino comedy show. The comedians that are non-Latino go in there and absolutely smoke the room, they kill ’em there.”
Deck the halls of the Portage Theater (with laughter) Wednesday 12 at the Holiday Giggle.
