George Lopez loves his label as a “chingon” — Mexican slang for a skilled, capable person — and he lives up to the name with his incredibly eclectic interests. Aside from being a superstar comedian, he’s also co-starring in the NBC sitcom “Lopez vs. Lopez” and enjoying the success of his “Chupa Carter” children’s book series.
He’s also had two prior sitcoms, a late-night talk show, numerous stand-up specials and a best-selling memoir called “Why You Crying?” and is the proud owner of the George Lopez Brewing Co. and the five-location Chingon Kitchen restaurant chain on the West Coast. He’ll be bringing his stand-up routine to the Chicago Theatre on June 10, and is proud to be returning to the city that’s inspired much of his success.
“On my first sitcom it took a lot to figure out the angles for the direction of the show,” he recalls of “George Lopez,” which ran from 2002-2007 on ABC. “We wanted to wrap it around my real life. I love the Chicago Bulls, and that was the time that their coach Phil Jackson had built their [five-player] strategy called the triangle.
“I said we’re gonna do the triangle in comedy. The show was broken down into me, my mom and my wife, then my work, my mom and my buddy, then the kids. I worked all that in because I said we’re going to write this in triangles. They worked for Phil Jackson with the Bulls and the Lakers, and they work for me.”
Lopez finds plenty to love about the city, enjoying deep dish pizza, shopping on Michigan Avenue and cruising down DuSable Lake Shore Drive. He always pays a visit to the city’s heavily Latino section of Pilsen.
“I love Chicago so much. I did ‘Evening at the Improv’ there in the ’90s. I was at the Chicago Theatre when David Letterman did a show in Chicago and Jay Leno brought a Mr. Beef out and Michael Jordan was the guest,” he says. “I love that theater. If it’s good enough for Al Capone to hide in, it’s good enough for me to hang.”
“Lopez vs. Lopez” debuted in November on NBC. Co-starring with his daughter Maya, who first saw her father perform stand-up as a 19-year-old at the United Center, makes the show extra special for Lopez.
It was moved mid-season to follow the hit “Night Court” revival, “and I hope we can ride that show to five years of success, just hydroplane behind the car.” Last week “Lopez vs. Lopez” was renewed for a second season.
“This one is with Maya, who was 5 years old when I started ‘George Lopez’ and I surrounded myself again here with some great actors,” he explains. “We were doing the final episode of this season and it’s very emotional. It’s very touching. I think we found that in the first show, and we luckily have been able to get to these moments in this season.”
Another huge step for Lopez comes Aug. 18, when he co-stars in the DC superhero movie “Blue Beetle,” about a Mexican teenager who finds an alien beetle that gives him superpowered armor. Lopez plays his eccentric uncle, a role he compares to the lovable mad scientist in the “Back to the Future” films.
“There’s an incredible following of the Blue Beetle, and with the two-minute, 15-second trailer, it’s ignited the whole comic book world and the Comic-Con scene,” he proudly notes. “I got to fly the Beetle’s bug ship. The line that got everybody going crazy was that someone says that Blue Beetle is kinda like Batman, and I say over my shoulder ‘Batman’s a fascist.’ That’s the thing that caught fire. I was trending.”
His “Chupa Carter” books, which are aimed at middle-school children, are rooted in his moving memories of his own childhood, when he was a loner who stared at the moon each night wondering how his life would turn out. In the books, a young and lonely Latino boy wonders about his own future until he encounters a Chupacabra — a legendary monster in Mexico thought to be a bloodthirsty livestock killer — and befriends him when he realizes that the creature is actually kind and friendly.
Adventures ensue when the Chupacabra is accused in a series of livestock deaths, and the boy is forced to decide whether to stand by the creature against a town full of angry people.
“It’s a three-book deal, and kids love it,” he says. “They’re talking about animating it, which would be great.”
