Carlos Mencia brings his act to Connxtions

You might know comedian Carlos Mencia from his former show on Comedy Central, Mind of Mencia. Or maybe you've seen one of his comedy specials on the network or bought one of his comedy albums. Perhaps you'll even watch his upcoming special on the network after he films it in July.

And if you don't know Mencia -- who's performing four shows tomorrow and Saturday night at Connxtions Comedy Club -- here are five reasons the comic said during a phone interview you need to see him live in Toledo.

●"In this pessimistic world, especially in America, a positive outlook is very necessary. The majority of people are in a place where we need to have fun and to be happy, and I'm there to bring happiness."

●"If you've never seen me perform live, I'm a must see. I'm very funny. I have a different perspective sometimes on a lot of what I do and the world itself, especially America."

●"I'm not good looking, but I'm not bad looking."

●"On stage, I'm really, really tall. I'm five-foot-9 but on stage I'm like six-foot-5."

●"I really can't wait to show this special that I've been working on. It's such good material. It's the best work I've ever done. I not only can't wait to perform it, I can't wait for people to see it."

Carlos Mencia performs at 8 and 10:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday at Connxtions Comedy Club, 5319 Heatherdowns. Tickets are $30. For more information, call 419-867-9041 or visit connxtionscomedyclub.com.

McGinnis: Comedian Carlos Mencia to perform at Connxtions | Toledo ...

. Then he started singing a Johnny Cash song he feels a special kinship to: “I’ve Been Everywhere.”

“When he sings that song, and he says all those cities, I’ve been to all those cities,” he said with a laugh.

But for all the stops the famous comic has made, one specific performance will always remain firm in his memory. He had been studying at California State University in Los Angeles when one night he decided to perform at an open mic night at the famous Laugh Factory.

“I remember it exactly. I remember the fact that, you know, my entire life, my parents were very strict about  not saying stupid things in front of other people. My mother was always catching me, saying, ‘Hey, you better not say that here, and you better not say it now,’” Mencia said.

“I said in this one show what I had been thinking. And everybody laughed. And I realized, Oh my God, this is the place where I can say the things that I’ve been thinking my whole life.”

From there, Mencia said, he knew that he was onto something. “I’m one of those people that doesn’t believe in ‘try.’ I believe that, if you have the talent to do it, you gotta do it. It’s like watching an athlete. The difference between the greatest athletes and the guys that are really good is in between their head. It’s not physical. As soon as I got laughs onstage, I knew I could do this. And at that point, it’s all up to me.”

It was that competitive nature that drove him in his early years, though looking back now, Mencia noted how as a result, his early material was tinged with a lot of anger.

“It’s probably why the earlier 22 years of my career were very aggressive when I was onstage. Because I didn’t want to fail. And I knew I had to work hard, and I knew I had to do whatever it took. It’s funny how, as a comedian, I’ve changed. It seems when I’m onstage, I’m not as aggressive anymore. And it seems to be funnier than it used to. It’s just a different perspective.”

It took more than a decade of toil on the road and in clubs before Mencia got his biggest break with the Comedy Central show “Mind of Mencia.” He said that, generally, he had creative control over the show’s content but his network always had a hand in reshaping and filtering what was presented.

“Most of the time, because of the type of show that I did, and the material that we were talking about, and the edginess of it, yeah, they were always, ‘Well, don’t say it like that, say it like this. Don’t do it like that, do it like this.’ Massaging. It was annoying. But it’s the process, that’s all it is.

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