The last decade or so has resulted in Latino culture, especially comedy, breaking into the American mainstream.  One example is comedian George Lopez who, through his sitcom, comedy specials and well received Latin Kings of Comedy tour has reached America’s consciousness.  While he is hardly the only working Latino comedian, there are many others that are on their way to reach such a level.  One such rising star is Detroit’s own, Frank G.

He has been doing comedy for the last 14 years and has appeared in places as diverse as Iraq, Japan and in Europe.  Frank has also been on Showtime At The Apollo.  He is also an actor.  Oddly enough, it was around the time that Frank started studying theater that he became a comedian.

“I studied theater in college.  I was going to get into acting.  I was always cracking my friends up and they were like, ‘You need to try comedy.’  You find out making your friends laugh is different than stepping up on stage and making a crowd laugh.  I bombed hard.  I don’t think that I had three minutes worth of material.  If you have your worst night and come back, it’s when you know you have it,” said Frank.

The whole sense of “craft” and constant improvement  is something that permeates everything that he does.  Hard work and persistence are inseparable.  Never one to rest on his laurels, Frank admits that there is still plenty of room to keep developing further as an artist.

“Stand up is the hardest art form because you have to make someone laugh. If somebody doesn’t like a song, they won’t boo but still move to the music.  Comedians need to have something that everybody can relate to.  As a comic, you need something for everybody. We say that we’re the same but we’re different.  Different people relate to different things,” he expressed.

One of the most important challenges is for his material to have broad appeal.  Rather than appealing just to African-Americans or Latinos, his themes appeal to everybody and deal with everyday experiences.  On occasion, Frank’s jokes do involve “insider information,” where certain cultural knowledge is useful to completely understand the joke.  Nonetheless, his jokes are not pidgeon-holed.

“Here’s the thing.  I can play any kind of audience.  You need them all to be a true artist.” He also added, “Every Mexican family has a guacamole bowl.  Puerto Ricans don’t eat tortillas.  People who don’t know the culture might laugh, but they won’t get it because they can’t relate and know what’s going on.”

When looking at Frank, some people think that he’s African-American, while others aren’t so sure.  While other multi-racial individuals might acknowledge just one side, Frank acknowledges both of his.  Growing up in Southwest Detroit, he lived in an relatively integrated neighborhood, where various ethnicities were represented.  The concept of “color” wasn’t really something registered on his radar.

“My mom’s Mexican and my dad’s black, so to say that I’m black is to deny my mom,” he commented.  “I grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood.  My friends—we had everything in the neighborhood.  When you’re poor, people don’t look at color.  Everybody’s in the same situation.”

As a comedian and as an actor, Frank is an artist that shatters labels.  Not being stuck in one pursuit, pursuing many provides many paths toward artistic self-expression.  In addition, he recognizes that as far as he has come, he still has further to go and room to improve.  Frank still has one ambition that he has yet to realize.

“My thing is to be on a soap opera.  I really want to be on General Hospital, but I’ll take All My Children or One Life to Live.”

Author: Jose A. Rodriguez