CSUS alum keeps ’em laughing

The University Union Ball Room was filled with side-splitting, pee-your-pants laughter last Thursday night, as the University Union’s UNIQUE Programs held its annual “Stars Under the Stars” comedy show.

With the wind and the cold evenings that Mother Nature has been sending Sacramento’s way, lately, “Stars Under the Stars” soon became what unexpected opening comedian Mike Meehan dubbed, “Stars Under the Spotlights” and was moved inside.

Meehan, who has appeared on the “Dennis Miller Show,” classifies himself as a psychic with amnesia, “so I know ahead of time what I’m going to forget.”

Along with Meehan, two other Bay Area comedians kept the crowd in stitches during the anticipation for the headlining act.

Mike Lee told of his perils of trying to obtain a driver’s license, as his two-year-old guide dog, Fabulous Filbert, sat beside him with “an NCAA look on his face.” Translated: “No clue at all.”

Brian Copeland, who is usually a headliner at comedy clubs and has opened for Ray Charles, discussed many of the issues that have been covered in the news in recent months.

Copeland’s choice not to be “PC,” or “politically correct,” riled up the audience for headlining comedian and CSUS alumnus Carlos Alazraqui.

Alazraqui’s name and face may not be familiar, but for anyone who partakes in America’s favorite pastime, his voice has definitely been heard. He can be heard on television as Roco on Nickelodeon’s “Roco’s Modern World” or as Mr. Weed on Fox’s “Family Guy.”

Alazraqui’s big rocket into super-stardom, while also making him the subject of controversy, is one little phrase: “Yo Quiero Taco Bell!”

Thursday night, amongst students picketing, he described Los Angeles, where he now lives, as “Satan’s lower intestine.” He advised students not to put beer in a humidifier in attempts to get drunk while sleeping, carried on conversations with babies in the audience, and had everyone in hysterics just by saying, “Here lizard, lizard, lizard.”

Before saying goodbye to the crowd, Alazraqui asked that everyone be civil to those picketing as they left. And in response to the question asked by those who feel that the Taco Bell commercials are racial, “How can you feel good about being the Taco Bell Chihuahua.” He said, “When I go to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles or to the Special Olympics and pose for pictures with children and their parents, or see the smiles on the faces of Latino, black, white and Asian children when they hear me say, ‘Yo Quiero Taco Bell,’ that’s how I can feel good about being the Taco Bell Chihuahua.”

Other than taking on a serious subject at the end, the night was filled with laughs.

“They were all really funny,” stated student Jeremy Sidley. “But he [Carlos Alazraqui] should make all CSUS students proud.”