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Anyone who looks for Gabriel Iglesias on YouTube will find hours of material from the comedian, a 350-pound workaholic who for years has honed his craft before an audience.

Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts he darts around the stage delivering rapid-fire stories, often relating to life as a Mexican-American. He talks about himself, and his family, including his son Frankie.

"He's technically my step-son," Iglesias relates in one performance. "And the only reason I'm saying that is he has been in my life for eight years, and he is 15. So I don't want you to look at me and the math is all wrong, and you are like 'He's ghetto!' I'm not ghetto. I just hooked up with a beautiful woman who had a pre-started family, which is why the math is off.

"Basically, I took over a lease, is what happened," he says to roars of laughter from the audience.

For Iglesias, the root of his comedy lies in his imperfections.

"I'm not a Hollywood character; I'm a flawed person," he said. "I grew up in a regular neighborhood, had a dysfunctional family, grew up with a single parent. I had braces when I was a kid because my teeth were all jacked up. I had pimples my whole life, you know what I mean? It's just like, I'm not the normal category, and I think people can relate to that more, and so I think that's why I've had the success I have had."

That and his remarkable talent for sound effects and imitating accents, all of which he can mix on the fly. In one show he tripped slightly which inspired him to launch into a free-form TV news report of him being rushed to the hospital. He performed all of the voices along with sounds of the ambulances and helicopters involved.

His quick-fire humor works well on the Internet, so much so that many of his video posts have been viewed millions of times. After years of working the comedy circuit, and being a contestant on the NBC television show "Last Comic Standing" Iglesias is taking his art to the big screen.

This weekend, theaters will debut "The Fluffy Movie" a film comprised of material from his Unity through Laughter tour, which at the time the movie was edited had taken him to more than 400 cities in 23 countries. Iglesias hopes to recapture the heyday of the stand-up concert movie, which was once a huge box-office draw.

"You know you go back to the times of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Kings of Comedy," he said.

That was 35 years ago of course. Times have changed, but Iglesias is still inspired by that era.

"This is going to be the first ever non-rated R comedy concert," he said. "So I'm very proud of that."

Iglesias's material can be edgy, but he avoids religion, politics or sports. He thinks parents will bring their children to the film, so he also tries not to swear.

"And if I do cuss, I'll apologize for it, and usually the parents go 'Oh, he hears worse at home, and the kids are like 'Damn right!' and I'm like 'Wow!'" he said with a laugh.

Iglesias also talk with pride about being the first Latino comedian to release a comedy movie. He uses his Mexican-American heritage as a source of his humor, but he does so carefully.

"I'm funny and my background is my background, and I will not deny it, but I will not make that the butt of every joke," he said. "You know I can be funny across the board. I don't have to bring my people down in order to do it."

Iglesias said "The Fluffy Movie" is much more personal than his TV comedy specials. The Fluffy moniker is a reference to Iglesias's size. He's a very big guy and has long joked that fluffy sounds better than fat. In the new movie he talks about how he's dropped 100 pounds after maxing out at 450.

"So the Fluffy is less fluffy," he said. "I'm talking about dealing with my diabetes and how I was faced basically with death, that's what it took for me to wake up."

Then there are the complications with his son Frankie.

"And all of a sudden his biological father shows back up into the picture, trying to get back into the mix, which did not go over well," he said. "My father showed up after 30 years at the exact same time that all this was going on."

That may not sound like a barrel of laughs, but Iglesias said it works as comedy because it's real.

"And that fact that I can make them humorous and make people laugh at this," he said, pausing for a moment and switching to an English academic accent, "It speaks volumes for his talent. Yes!"

Arts and Culture

Euan Kerr

Author

Anyone who looks for Gabriel Iglesias on YouTube will find hours of material from the comedian, a 350-pound workaholic who for years has honed his craft before an audience.


'Fluffy' Gabriel Iglesias talks about bringing his comedy to the big screen

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