07-02-2025
Equal opportunity jokester: Comedian Carlos Mencia comes to new comedy Hyena's Albuquerque
Feb. 7—Comedian Carlos Mencia is coming back to his roots of playing intimate comedy clubs.
He will be the first comedian to perform at the Duke City's newest comedy club, Hyena's Albuquerque, located at Winrock Town Center. He will perform five shows Thursday, Feb. 13, through Saturday, Feb. 15.
As much as Mencia enjoys performing big shows with thousands of people at casinos, there is something special about playing clubs where his shows do not have to be "bombastic and loud."
"Through the club, you get to see the people," he said. "You can speed it up. You can slow it down. There's a rhythm of musicality to it that you can't get at a big theater. When you're doing good shows, there's a subtlety that you can do. Shows can run a little longer, people are drinking. I mean, it's just a completely different environment."
He said being able to do multiple shows at one venue allows him to get a feel for the city it is located in and its people.
"I get to kind of live in Albuquerque for a week to go to the restaurants, to go find the best taco place, to go find the best green chile, red chile place," he said.
Mencia believes one of the most genius concepts to come out of New Mexico is "Christmas," that combines green and red chile on a dish, to offer the best of both worlds.
Mencia does not know exactly how the creation came to be, but jokingly envisions it is a result of a married couple driving in a car trying to figure out what to eat. The banter goes back and forth after the husband asks his wife what she would like to eat, and her reply is "whatever." After the husband is shot down after suggesting a few restaurants, he then asks if his wife is in the mood for chile which piques some interest. Then the dilemma becomes whether she wants red or green chile and her craving for both.
"'You know what, we're getting both, you're eating both' (her husband says)," Mencia said. "That would be the joke version of how red and green chile was born."
Staying in a location for more than one night allows him to "connect with a city as a city," he said.
"Aside from all the performance stuff, that creates a connection in my mind that helps me when it comes to performances, because the stuff that I talk about, you kind of have to trust me," Mencia explained. "I'm playing with kind of fire, so to speak."
Mencia is an equal opportunity comedian that pokes fun at all races, cultures, sexual orientations. He doesn't feel that, as a Latino, he is limited to cracking jokes about Latinos or being Latino. Instead, he ignores social boundaries and makes fun of all walks of life.
"The Civil Rights Movement wasn't so that we could be segregated," he explained. "It wasn't so that this group can go with their group. And you know these groups go with these groups. It wasn't like that. It was so that we can come together and share commonality, to share truths about life, to share truths about relationships, about children, about school, about life, about whatever it is. And so my show right now is about that."
Mencia said he does not like the "hypocrisy" of comedians and how they do not write jokes about other cultures or sexual preferences. He also frowns upon audiences that limit themselves to only attending shows featuring comedians of the same ethnicity, cultural background or sexual orientation.
"You can go to Carlos Mencia's show and be seen and heard and recognized," he explained. "And while you're laughing at that one joke about whoever it is or whatever it's about, everybody else around you is laughing too, which means we're all enjoying the same thing at the same time, having a beautiful moment all together, and at that moment, everybody realizes, 'Oh, wow, we are the same.' "
He added, "It's not like Latino relationships are different than Asian relationships or anything. Human beings are human beings. And this is where it goes. And so I'm all about telling people to come to my shows. It's all about unifying. And the unification isn't just in the material, it's more in the fact that you're going to find yourself sitting next to a bunch of different people of all diverse backgrounds and ages, all laughing at the same thing, feeling and being in the same moment at the same time, that's the gift outside of just laughter that you get when you come see my shows."
