Mind of Mencia

On Friday, December 30th, Ingrid and I headed to our second major comedy event. About a year ago, Ingrid took me to see Chris Rock at the Universal Amphitheatre and I still laugh to this day whenever I think back. Next on our list was Carlos Mencia. I had never seen him perform before, but heard he was hilarious, so I grabbed some tickets off of StubHub. Apparently, he's got his own show on Comedy Central.



Ingrid rolled out in her brand new, fully-loaded 2006 BMW 330i and picked me up at work. Wowza! I love this ultimate driving machine...



I hopped inside and we headed to J-Town to find a spot to grab dinner before the journey to Riverside Municipal Auditorium. Check out the ultra hip brushed aluminum trim around the dash... way cool.



We ended up scoring a seat at what seemed to be a very popular sushi restaurant, but Ingrid and I weren't huge fans. In any event, to prepare for the trip, I ordered some sushi and brandished a pair of fully-loaded sake pistols. Don't get too close because you might get a shot.



We finished dinner quickly and made our way to Riverside. For some reason, I thought Riverside was just a stone's throw away, but Ingrid informed me it's at least an hour away as the crow flies. According to her handy navigation system, she was right. After driving for about a half hour, we still had 52 miles to go, with an ETA of 9:17. Man, I love this car.



We arrived with time to spare and scored a great parking space on the main street just a couple of blocks away from the venue. To my surprise, this street in Riverside turned out to be a beautiful, historic part of town. While we were there it felt like we went back in time...



Way back in time...



Well, maybe not that far back in time, but I think the last time I saw a station wagon like this was in the 1980's. In fact, my mom used to own a Ford Country Squire station wagon that looked very similar to the one in the picture. It had red interior and I recall many great naps in the back as a child.



Here's Ingrid doing her best impression of a Japanese tourist... Or is it Nixon. Can't tell, but it ain't that great either way.



We eventually made it to the auditorium with time to spare. Despite getting our tickets a month in advance, they were selling for five times their face value, and the best tickets I could get my hands on were 20th row seats, which didn't sound that bad.



After a few drinks in the waiting area, we were let inside. The crowd was very diverse but there was a single common thread uniting us all -- We were all there to laugh.



I soon realized that the 20th row ain't as close as I thought... especially in the Riverside Municipal Auditorium. When we attended Chris Rock's show at the Universal Amphitheatre, it seemed that no matter where you sat in that place, you had either a good direct view of Chris Rock, or a view of one of the two huge screens. Well there was none of that here. "Amphitheatre" v. "Auditorium"... I should've known. That said, however, the distance between us and the stage didn't affect our enjoyment one bit, and we couldn't stop laughing at the warm-up acts.



By the time Carlos Mencia rolled out on his chopper, it was already pushing 11:30 and my stomach already hurt from laughing too much. Boy, was I in trouble...



For the next three hours, Ingrid and I laughed uncontrollably at Carlos Mencia's stand-up act. In the words of Ingrid, "Mencia was completely vulgar, inappropriate, and racially insensitive, but had us hysterically laughing the entire time." To repeat any of what I heard wouldn't do it justice, but suffice it to say that we had an amazingly enjoyable, gut-wrenchingly good time. Excellent!