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Adrian Villegas - El Sketch Maestro
June 30, 2024
Adrian Villegas
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The Latino Comedy Project (LCP) launched in 1998 and recently celebrated its 25th year. The celebration included a reunion show, and on March 7th, 2024 the City of Austin declared that day the Latino Comedy Project Day. I’m not sure why it took this long to finally connect with one of the driving forces behind the project. It was destined to happen.
I heard about LCP early in the history of the Comedy Wham Presents podcast in my first interview with Vanessa Gonzalez. But I didn’t know anyone on the troupe currently. Thanks to Omar Gallaga (yes, that, Omar), I was introduced to Adrian Villegas, one of the founding members and current Artistic Director of LCP.
It’s no secret that sketch troupes come and go faster than, oh what’s the phrase? Faster than Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands.
While I don’t think that’s the phrase (at least not one that millennials understand), even Villegas admits there is a well-populated “sketch troupe cemetery” somewhere out there. Focused on political satire and pop culture parody, LCP earned itself an Emmy nomination along the way and has won its fair share of awards, giving it the fuel to outlive the vast majority of sketch troupes in Austin.
How did Villegas get involved? It began with his invitation to put on a show by friends who worked on the Mexican American Culture Committee at The University of Texas in 1997. He had no formal performance experience at the time but was (and still is) a prolific writer. The show was so well promoted by the committee (and had no cover charge), that Villegas was terrified to realize that he’d be performing in front of 300 people; a venue full of those eager to watch someone entertain them in a way that caters to their Latino background.
There’s a hunger for the culture they know but don’t get to see in traditional entertainment forms. In Villegas’s words, “the main theme was just dealing with our representation in pop culture history.” The idea to share his experience kept following him around until 1998, Maria Rocha approached him about launching the LCP. And so the troupe’s rich history began.
Over its 25-year history, sharing the experience of Latinos has evolved in Austin. In its early days, the LCP performances were ways to bring other Austin Latinos together to laugh. As the city grew – and grew rapidly – in the 2010s, LCP’s function seemed to evolve. As the city became increasingly gentrified, the Latino voice seemed to diminish, but the LCP never lost its role of exploring cultural events with plenty of humor. Their 2023 show Gentrifucked explored a rebuke of all that comes with gentrification, prejudice, and earned LCP a Best Of recognition from The Austin Chronicle.
Villegas feels that part of what keeps the LCP thriving is the psychological service they provide to give their audience a communal experience and remind them that they’re not crazy. He notes, “in the context of how much Austin has changed and how much Austin has strangled out our (Latino) communities… I feel like it’s just, you know, it’s an island, you know, that we’re having to preserve.” It’s not all doom and gloom though.
Fine, it’s still doom and gloom, but packaged in a hilarious satirical look at our society. The LCP’s satirical take has been captured in video form, with millions of views (the LCP’s “300” has over 8.1M views). But the bread and butter is still the live show. Over the past several years, the LCP has been performing ¡Estar Guars!, and is set to retire the show next weekend (July 5 – 7 at the Scottish Rite Theater). As the LCP depicts it, it’s as if Star Wars had been invented by Jorge Lucas instead of George Lucas. The show is full of multimedia elements and more than enough wordplay to satisfy logophiles. We love a solid promise, and Villegas has his own, “I promise, you will have a good time, and you will walk out happy.”
Once the final show wraps up, there will be no mas ¡Estar Guars!, but Villegas teases that, like Star Wars, he’s got his eyes set on establishing the ¡Estar Guars! franchise with a sequel. Insert standard joke here about the reception of Star Wars sequels.
Don’t expect a sequel soon, though. Villegas admits that he wants to do a one-man show after not having done one for 20 years. After repeatedly admitting during our conversation that he has binders upon binders of written material, it’s just a matter of time before el maestro orchestrates his next show. Whether it turns out to be his one man show or another LCP sketch show, we’re guaranteed a masterpiece.
Follow Adrian
- Linktree — linktr.ee/adrian.d.villegas
- Instagram — @adrian.d.villegas
- Facebook — facebook.com/AdrianVillegas
- X — @AdrianDVillegas
Follow Latino Comedy Project
- Website — latinocomedyproject.com
- Linktree — linktr.ee/latinocomedyproject
- Instagram — @latinocomedyproject
- Facebook — facebook.com/latinocomedyproject
- TikTok — @latinocomedyproject
- Youtube — youtube.com/@LatinoComedyProject
- Do512 — do512.com/artists/the-latino-comedy-project
- X — @thelcp
Adrian can be seen and heard:
- ¡Estar Guars! — July 5th — 7th, Scottish Rite Theater
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Valerie Lopez
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Valerie Lopez
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