It doesn’t matter what race, religion, sex or sexual orientation a person is, Carlos Mencia will make fun of him or her. As host of Comedy Central’s ‘Mind of Mencia,’ Mencia has a controversial comedic styling that examines the world’s stereotypes and mocks them. Tomorrow, he will be bringing some of this humorous observational wisdom to Syracuse. The Daily Orange interviewed him by phone.

The Daily Orange: So what do you think of the Upstate New York region?

Carlos Mencia: It’s weird. When anyone says New York you think of Manhattan, you never think of it as a giant state. It’s cool to drive from Manhattan to Buffalo to Albany and Syracuse because you get the feel that there’s countryside and basically people living who aren’t city people. It’s a very interesting experience.

D.O.: In October, I interviewed comedian/actor Joe Rogan, who had some pretty horrible things to say about you.

CM: I think he’s in love with me; I’m being completely serious. Anytime (reporters) interview him, he brings up my name. He says (I’m a fake). (People) know I’m not from Mexico, I’m Honduran. (People) know my first name is actually Ned. If I didn’t want you to know it, you wouldn’t. I gave it out … it’s like, you know when you’re in the playground and you’re a kid and you have a crush on a girl but you don’t know what to do. So you kick her to get her attention. I hope he finds someone to love because I’m taken already. But if I ever divorce my wife, I’ll think about it.

D.O.: There is such a wide range of reviews for your show, why is that?

CM: It rides against a lot of beliefs that a lot of people have. A lot of people in America think that if we all homogenize and become one, we’ll become a better country. But we’re not built on that. We’re all about celebrating that mixture of people. We as a country totally embrace that, but some people totally want to separate us.

D.O.: So is your standup the same as your show in that regard?

CM: If you watch my show or you come to my comedy show outside, I make fun of everybody. We were in Daytona last night, there was an albino, a black guy, a white girl, another white guy with blonde hair, a Hispanic guy, we had everything. All in the front row! I bring people together by talking about what those differences are.

D.O.: What do you think of college students?

CM: Anytime you do a college show … the staff and the faculty want to keep it clean and nothing edgy. And all of the sudden you get there and you’re like, ‘Titties,’ and they just (go nuts), and it’s the opposite of what all these people say you should do. It’s a cool environment.

D.O.: So as a comedian, what’s your take on the Michael Richards situation?

CM: Look, he got pissed off. He said the most hurtful thing you could possibly say. The problem with him, like anyone else, he’s like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I did that,’ he should have just said, ‘Look, I got mad. I just wanted to hurt someone’s feeling.’ He deserves everything though. He’s hateful to a point where I don’t know he could get away from that one … but the number one thing is, he wasn’t trying to be funny at that moment. So you can’t put that into context of comedy. It was on a comedy stage, it was not funny.

If You Go

What: Carlos Mencia

When: Saturday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

Where: The Landmark Theatre, 362 S Salina St.

Price: $37.50 & $42.50

Published on December 6, 2006 at 12:00 pm