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| '''Ned Arnel Mencia''' (born ], ]), better known by the ] '''Carlos Mencia''', is a ], ], and ]. He was born seventeenth of eighteen children in ], ]. His father, ], is from ] and his mother, ], is from ] and are both ]. He was raised in ], ] by his aunt Consuela and uncle Pablo Mencia, going by the name '''Ned Holness''' in honor of his father. By his own admission, staying out of trouble was difficult growing up, but with the help of his family he excelled in school and stayed out of ]. He majored in ] at ] but left early to pursue a career in ] after a successful performance at ] night at ]. | '''Ned Arnel Mencia''' (born ], ]), better known by the ] '''Carlos Mencia''', is a ], ], and ]. He was born seventeenth of eighteen children in ], ]. His father, ], is from ] and his mother, ], is from ] and are both ]. He was raised in ], ] by his aunt Consuela and uncle Pablo Mencia, going by the name '''Ned Holness''' in honor of his father. By his own admission, staying out of trouble was difficult growing up, but with the help of his family he excelled in school and stayed out of ]. He majored in ] at ] but left early to pursue a career in ] after a successful performance at ] night at ]. | ||
Revision as of 06:06, 26 May 2006
Ned Arnel Mencia (born October 22, 1967), better known by the stage name Carlos Mencia, is a comedian, writer, and actor. He was born seventeenth of eighteen children in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. His father, Roberto Holness, is from Honduras and his mother, Magdelena Mencia, is from Mexico and are both Catholic. He was raised in East Los Angeles, California by his aunt Consuela and uncle Pablo Mencia, going by the name Ned Holness in honor of his father. By his own admission, staying out of trouble was difficult growing up, but with the help of his family he excelled in school and stayed out of gangs. He majored in electrical engineering at CSULA but left early to pursue a career in comedy after a successful performance at open mike night at The Laugh Factory.
Early career
Taking his stage name, Mencia was a quick success at such venerated LA stand-up venues as The Comedy Store and The L.A. Cabaret. This led to appearances on The Arsenio Hall Show and Buscando Estrellas, where he attained the title "International Comedy Grand Champion". Then, in 1994, Mencia was chosen to host HBO's latino comedy showcase Loco Slam.
Mencia followed up Loco Slam by hosting Funny is Funny! on Galavision in 1998. He would continue to do stand-up, including a very successful tour in 2001 with Freddy Soto and Pablo Francisco, "The Three Amigos". Mencia also did two half-hour specials on HBO, the second of which won him a CableACE Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. After the release of his first comedy album by Warner Records, Take A Joke America, Mencia performed his break-out performance on Comedy Central Presents in 2002.
By the time his career began to take off in the early 2000s, Mencia was also working as an actor doing guest appearances in the television shows Moesha and The Shield, and starring in the film Outta Time and the animated show The Proud Family.
Comedy
Mencia's comedy markets itself under the perception that his material is highly controversial. Like many comedians, he focuses on race, politics, religion, class and society, but in a style which intentionally violates rules of what is politically correct for example making a point to use racial epithets or terms such as "retarded" rather than "differently abled" or "special", and otherwise going out of his way to offend liberal sensibilities, such as by advocating capital punishment and sustaining a generally high level of raunchiness in his material. A staple of his material is diatribes denouncing the actions of people he considers to be "retarded," often using his trademark "dee dee deeee." He has stated that the phrase doesn't refer to people "who were born retarded", but rather people "who were born, and are now retarded". He often advocates Social Darwinism survival-of-the-fittest type solutions to this perceived problem of too much stupidity. Some consider his jokes to be intentionally provocative, or racist, focusing on stereotypes for the sake of publicity or easy laughs. Mencia, however, says he does not focus on any one race, instead creating comedy about all races, ethnicities and religions equally. Despite its "controversial" nature, Mencia's comedy has yet to provoke a true public uproar.
Criticism
In a 2005 interview by Howard Stern, comedian George Lopez claimed that he and Mencia were involved in a physical altercation at a comedy club. Lopez alleged that Mencia appropriated 13 minutes of Lopez' material, without permission, for Mencia's HBO comedy special. Lopez told Stern, "It's not really a feud, I mean, I think I won." Shortly afterwards, comedian Joe Rogan wrote a post on his website publicly accusing Mencia of being a plagiarist, alleging that Mencia stole jokes from a number of comedians. .
Mencia responded to the accusations while being interviewed on Tucson's The Frank Show, stating that Joe Rogan had fabricated these allegations out of jealousy. On his own website, Mencia denied accusations of plagiarism, arguing that the material in question was too generic to be attributed to any single comedian. Additionally, he confirms Lopez's statement that there is no feud between them.
Filmography
- In Living Color (TV), playing a Valet in episode six of season two, October 28, 1990
- Moesha (TV), playing "Carlos" in the episode "Life Imitating Art," February 9, 1999
- The Proud Family (TV), starring as Felix (voice) (2001-)
- The Shield (TV) playing "Gabo" in the episode "Two Days of Blood," May 28, 2002
- Outta Time (2002), playing "Juancho"
- 29 Palms (2002), playing "The Comedian"
Not including his comedy specials for HBO and Comedy Central, Mencia has also appeared on Comic Relief, and hosted Loco Slam in 1994, Latino Laugh Festival in 1997, Funny is Funny! in 1998, and Uncensored Comedy: That's Not Funny in 2003.
He has released three comedy DVDs, Down to the Nitty Gritty, Not for the Easily Offended, and a compilation of his HBO specials.
Discography
- Take a Joke America (2001)
- America Rules (2002)
- Unmerciful (2003)
- Not for the Easily Offended (2003)
- Down to the Nitty Gritty (2004)
- Mind of Mencia (2005)
- No Strings Attached (2006)
External links
- Official Website
- Carlos Mencia at IMDb
- Mind Of Mencia website at ComedyCentral.com
- Carlos Mencia's Myspace page