Note: Carlos Mencia was one of the best interviews I've ever had. Although I don't think his show is the greatest, he is a very intelligent guy with a lot more on his mind than race jokes. - S.L.



On Carlos Mencia’s television show, Comedy Central’s “Mind of Mencia,” he frequently heads to the streets looking for answers to serious questions about race relations and society. One piece has Mencia asking the public about “racist” road signs. Another has him asking people in coffee shops why they don’t have jobs.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mencia uses his comedy to be purposefully outrageous. One episode includes Mencia dressed up as a dinosaur singing a cute song that encourages young girls to drop out of school so they can be strippers.

Regardless of whether you love or hate his routines, you can’t deny that Mencia’s topicality and somewhat extreme approach to comedy captures audiences’ attention. Mencia knows the varied reactions people have to his comedy, but all he wants is people not to take his bits seriously.

“If you don’t know that what I’m saying is a joke, and you take it seriously, you’re the fucking idiot, not me,” Mencia says. “My intent is to make you laugh. I am a glorified court jester.”

The success of his TV show has propelled Mencia from the realm of normal stand-up comics to something closer to a bona fide celebrity, much like what happened to Dave Chappelle two years ago with “Chappelle’s Show.” Despite the new status Mencia has obtained, he is a much more complex individual than one might expect.

Originally named Ned Holness, Mencia was born in Honduras in 1967. As an infant, he traveled with his family to East Los Angeles and was raised by his aunt and uncle.

“I happen to be edgy to other people, but that’s because I grew up in an extreme environment,” Mencia says. “The more extreme your upbringing, the less edgy you think things are.”

During his youth, Mencia dealt drugs. He says the decision to stop dealing was the most important event in his life.

“There have been hundreds of small moments, but without that, I wouldn’t be here,” Mencia says.

Mencia pursued an electrical engineering degree at California State University, Los Angeles and dropped out one credit short of graduating so he could pursue a career in comedy.

“My mom was like, ‘What the fuck?’” Mencia says while laughing. “My dad was like, ‘Hey, if you want to be a clown, just juggle.’ When I won Star Search, then my mom was like ‘Oh, I knew you were going to be a star.’”

Mencia says his racial comedy is different from that of other comedians.

“Normally, comedians say things like, ‘Are there any black people here? No? Good. Let’s talk shit about ’em.’ With my comedy, it’s the opposite,” Mencia says. “The more black people there are, the more comfortable we feel laughing at each other. There’s no sense of us talking behind their back. This inhibition is lifted once we’re all put in the same place, and there’s enough of a representation of those different ethnicities.”

Because race and ethnicity are essential to America’s mentality, Mencia says the topics always will be perfect for poking fun.

“Ethnicity will never go out of style,” Mencia says. “Especially at the university level, we’re being fed two different things at the same time. We’re being told to ignore someone’s ethnicity and treat them just like a person while at the same time knowing every single thing about their ethnicity. You’re supposed to treat a Muslim like he’s a regular person, but you’re supposed to also know that you better not give him pork.”

As of late, Mencia has been part of a media blitz, including an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” a comedy tour, the first season of “Mind of Mencia” being released on DVD on March 21 and the second season of “Mind of Mencia” having its premiere March 22.

Although Mencia’s steadily growing popularity has heightened his profile, it has not kept him from staying grounded in reality. Every few years, Mencia travels to Honduras to visit family and grasp a better sense of the world.

“It brings me down to earth because I realize that all the petty bullshit that I think about is so irrelevant,” Mencia says. “I go to Honduras, and I see these utterly happy people content with their life. I’m almost shamed, and I come back with a new perspective and a humility I need as a human being.”

Note: Harrison Ford's interview was great. Ford said lots of stange things, but he really wanted this movie to do well. Too bad, it flopped. - S.L.

In 2003, Harrison Ford acted in a critical and commercial bomb called "Hollywood Homicide." When filming ended, he took a break - a really long break. For the past three years, Ford has not appeared in any mainstream film; the break was the longest he has ever been away from the screen since he began his acting career in 1966.

Ford spoke with Move Magazine in a conference call about his newest project, titled "Firewall," which will be released Feb. 10. Ford spent two years on the film.

"'Firewall' took a lot of time to take to the screen," Ford said. "Once I got involved, I couldn't break off. This is an unusual turn of events for me. In the past, I've usually done one film a year, and I intend to continue doing it that way."

In "Firewall," Ford plays Jack Stanfield, a bank software expert whose family is taken hostage for a large sum of money that only Jack can obtain. In traditional thriller fashion, Jack takes the situation into his own hands and goes after the kidnappers.

Formidable characters like Jack are the type of roles Ford likes to play. He says that though the characters he portrays in action movies like "Firewall," are nothing like him, this doesn't stop people from failing to differentiate between his on-screen and off-screen personas.

"Perception is in the eye of the beholder, and people perceive me in a way that is not an exact match for who I am," Ford said. "My cultural utility to them has been established by their experience with the films that I'm in. I am not the person that they experience in the films."

Ford has good reason to argue that people have taken his character on screen to be his true self. He says someone who hated Ford's character in 1986's "Mosquito Coast" took out his anger on Ford.

"I was once in New York and was walking to my car, which had been parked for too long next to a meter," Ford said. "As I approached, I saw someone begin to write a ticket and like everybody else, I tried to talk him out of it. And he turned around, looked at me and he said two words, 'Mosquito. Coast.' And he slapped (the ticket) onto the windshield."

The majority of the second half of Ford's career is packed with thrillers like "Firewall," "Air Force One" and "The Fugitive." Ford says because of his earlier work, which included the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" trilogies, he sometimes is classified as an action-movie hero, something Ford says he dislikes.

"I'm not an action hero," Ford says. "I've never actually done action films. I do thrillers with action in them. I do films like 'Indiana Jones,' which I think of as a fantasy-comedy. 'Indiana Jones' is the closest I've done to an action film."

When Ford chooses his roles, such as Jack in "Firewall," he says he tries to think about the bigger picture. He considers how much say he will have in the project and how it will affect his career.

"This is what I do for a living," Ford says. "You make choices in your job to protect your prerogatives."

Ford also assists in the behind-the-scenes work of the films he acts in. He has worked with screenwriters, including "Firewall" scribe Joe Forte, to change elements and dialogue so the script will differ from Ford's previous films.

Ford's creative control is so great he even brought director Richard Loncraine ("Wimbledon") to the fold for "Firewall."

"Sometimes I impose my point of view on people because I think I'm right about it," Ford said. "If I'm not right about it, I'm still going to wear it. Nobody's going to pick out Richard Loncraine on the street and say 'You son of a bitch, you made a terrible movie.'"

Although Ford's choice to be the star of most of his films and insistence to control many areas of the project might make him seem egotistical, he defends his method of movie selection by comparing his job to another profession.

"I'm a bit like a fireman," Ford said. "I don't want to roll out on a little trash fire in a dumpster. If I'm going to pull on my boots, I want to fight the big one."