All Rise...

Judge David Johnson reído mucho!

The Charge

You'll laugh so hard you'll pee Goya.

The Case

I'll keep this short and sweet: The Latin Legends of Comedy is damn funny. Following the recent trend of group stand-up comedy performances tied together with some kind of theme (e.g. "blue collar"), this disc brings us three premiere Latino comedians, performing to a raucous audience of fellow Latinos. The stand-up is flanked by some interviews and behind-the-scenes footage with all three comedians, who talk about their experiences on the stand-up circuit, the culture of Latino stand-up and what makes Latino audiences different from other audiences. The comedians for this round are JJ Ramirez, Joe Vega and Angel Salazar, and they perform in that order.

Each guy has serious game, with Ramirez and Vega employing "traditional" stand-up and Salazar doing crap I have never seen before. I laughed out loud during all three routines, though my favorites are Ramirez and Vega, who show they can write some good material. Salazar got his laughs from his unabashed lack of inhibitions; by the end of his set, the guy was in a Speedo and covered with baby oil while Village People loops played in the background.

I found the comedy to be pan-cultural, unlike other ethnic-oriented stand-up releases. Yeah there were plenty of shout-outs to the Latino brothers and sisters, but I'm a gangly Anglo-Saxon chump and I was digging the stuff. Also of note was the lack of rampant profanity; the material was solid enough to stand on its own merits and not need cheap vulgar bail-outs that some many hack comics employ when their sets are floundering.

The guys tackled terrorism, marriage, race, sex, family, and culture—all the stuff you would expect—and remained surprisingly apolitical throughout. Of course, when Salazar started flying off the deep end with his strip show I submit that anyone, despite an ideology affiliation, would throw up a little in their mouth. It helped that the crowd was into it to, as they obviously showed up to laugh, but it wasn't forced laughter. Again, these guys brought their A-games and provided some of the funniest stand-up I've seen on a disc in some time. The supplemental footage is the icing on the cake and really binds the whole presentation together nicely.

It's a decent DVD presentation from Fox, hamstrung by a fake widescreen treatment and a lack of extras. The non-anamorphic picture is fine, and the stereo track is adequate, but where's the beef?

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