Kings and Queens of Latino Comedy highlight variety

Sometimes, it takes extra effort to get a show onstage.

After several months of delay, shifts in the lineup and a name change, the Kings and Queens of Latino Comedy show is finally set to take the stage Oct. 22 at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.

“This is just a fun show to highlight the diversity of the Latino community. We’re not all from the ’hood and we’re not all Ivy League,” said comedian Dennis Gaxiola of Richmond, who organized the event.

The show will co-star Southern California comedians Gilbert Esquivel and Johnny Sanchez, who tour with Paul Rodriguez as part of the Latin King of Comedy, as does Gaxiola, who recently did a show with the troupe in Atlantic City.

For the Luther Burbank Center show, Gaxiola has added two more comedians from Southern California, Cat Alvarado and Tania Estrada, plus longtime Sonoma County comedian and comedy promoter Juan Carlos.

This was not the original plan. It’s a long and winding tale, and it involves stand-up comedy superstar Dave Chappelle.

In July, the Latin Kings of Comedy 20th Anniversary Tour was booked for the Luther Burbank Center.

Then Chappelle breezed onto the scene on short notice, selling out a string of performances at the same venue — five performances over three nights — just a few days before the Latin Kings date.

Figuring there might not be much audience left over by the time some 7,000 comedy fans turned out to see the sometimes-controversial but consistently popular Chappelle, Gaxiola thought a postponement would be prudent.

“There’s no way we were going to compete with Dave Chappelle,” he said.

The show would go on, eventually, but not before other changes along the way.

The show’s previous headliner Paul Rodriguez, a member of the Original Latin Kings of Comedy dating back to the 2002 documentary film of the same name, won’t be part of the Santa Rosa show.

“No Paul Rodriguez. He had a schedule conflict. He’s working on a movie,” Gaxiola said.

“So I’m now producing the show, without a big-name headliner,” he explained. “That is my new adventure this year, producing shows and performing in them. I’m hoping to plan some new ones.”

But there is no shortage of Latino comedy talent, Gaxiola declared.

“There’s more than just Paul Rodriguez, George Lopez and Gabriel Iglesias,” he said.

“There are different facets of Latino culture in America, and this show will represent that. It’s a wide-ranging group, with most of the comedians leaning towards clean comedy and trying to make it fun for everybody.”

Gaxiola sees himself as an example of how inaccurate Latino stereotypes can be.

“I was just a kid from a middle-class neighborhood,” he said. He didn’t travel around in a customized car with a lowered body. “I’d never been in a lowrider, except when they put me in one for a show.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.