Al Madrigal Talks with Radio Titans

This week, the team at Radio Titans talked with Al Madrigal, Chief Latino Correspondent  on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”  Since 2011, Madrigal has helped Jon Stewart skewer some of the most ridiculous stories on the world news stage. And as a co-star on the NBC family sitcom “About a Boy,” he plays Andy, a married friend of the show’s lead character – a committed bachelor whose life is turned upside down when he befriends an odd boy and his single mother. But above all else, Madrigal is one of the most in-demand standup comedians in the country.

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Growing up attending San Francisco Catholic schools, Al Madrigal was never the class clown. That fact is surprising, considering that the still-Catholic, now-married-dad is also one of America’s freshest comedy talents.  Madrigal roots his jokes in his life as a family man. In fact, he says marriage saved his life.

“My character Al on About a Boy is not the typical married guy who hates his wife and family who lives vicariously through his single friends and their sex exploits,” says Madrigal. “He is trying to tell Will to settle down, that married life and kids are great. That’s not too different from me.

“Standup is great, but I have two kids, my son is 12 and I’ve always had kids in my time in comedy,” he continues. “I love marriage and the balance it brings to your life. I would be a dead man without my wife and kids for sure. Comedians are out all night and have access to alcohol and I have no willpower! I love the character, and also as a Latino actor, a lot of comedy roles are exaggerated stereotypes and that’s the furthest thing from this.”

The spark to perform comedy came from San Francisco’s highly creative comedy scene.  He got a late start at age 28, “which is ancient starting in comedy.” He broke free from working for his parents four years later, and his unique storytelling style – influenced by such comics as Patton Oswalt, Dave Chappelle, Garry Shandling and Greg Behrendt – helped him stand out from the crowded field of comics tossing one-liners about clichéd topics.

His unique takes on life helped him draw the attention of the producers of “The Daily Show,” where his prime status as the show’s Latino voice – one he exercised regularly when pitching topics for the show’s biting satire. He likens the taped segments he regularly “reported” in from across America as “doing news ’60 Minutes’-style but taking it 10 steps further.”

“We’re taking on subjects with a little more substance, and that means, right now the show’s doing stuff that has meaning, proposes solutions and says something,” says Madrigal, who remains involved with the show part-time. “They take a lot of chances and he’s won Emmys so many times because he’s not only drawing attention to difficult subject matter but suggesting possible solutions, which you don’t see a lot of shows doing. There’s certainly not other late night shows offering answers, they’re just jokes, which is great but to have substance night in night out is a challenging thing and that’s clearly why people are fans of us.”

Madrigal notes that ‘The Daily Show’ gives its correspondents a lot of leeway in proposing stories themselves, saying he “can’t even remember an idea that got killed.” He also says that most of the people who are being mocked on the show – such as Tea Party politicians – are aware of what’s happening to them. In fact, he was most pleasantly surprised by an episode where the show took two male actors to a small town, red-state Waffle House and had them kiss each other to see what the reaction would be from the locals – and found that most of the people in the restaurant applauded the display of affection.

“We give them the opportunity to say what they want to say, and we don’t manipulate them in any way. We’re giving them a forum,” says Madrigal. “We are a national show that allows them to express their opinion for three minutes, which is a great opportunity no matter what side you’re on.”

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To learn more about Al Madrigal, visit www.almadriga.com. His sitcom “About a Boy” airs at 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC and “The Daily Show” airs at 7 and 11 p.m. Mon.-Fri. on Comedy Central. To hear the full audio of this interview, link here: http://archives.radiotitans.com/Kozversations/AlMadrigal.mp3

 

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