Melissa Harris-Perry: You're listening to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. For five years, comedian Al Madrigal spent time riffing on his Mexican identity as The Daily Show with John Stewart's Latino correspondent.

Al Madrigal: You see the problem for Republicans is that while over 90% of Hispanics support immigration reform, a full 65% of Latinos hold grudges.

[laughter]

Al Madrigal: Say 83%, if it's something you did to their sister.

[laughter]

John Stewart: Al how long would a grudge like that typically last? What would it take for Hispanics to get over the grudge?

Al Madrigal: Well, John, a Latino grudge on average lasts just over four generations.

[laughter]

Melissa Harris-Perry: In his own standup, Madrigal has highlighted the absurdity of being lumped into the Latino comedian category, an experience he first contended with when he left the comedy scene of his native San Francisco to perform in Los Angeles with his friend, Becky.

Al Madrigal: Then I go to check in and they give me a tin of Red Hots, like Hot Tamales candies in a mini Altoids case that says HBO Latino.

[laughter]

Al Madrigal: I get that and then I go and check in for my show and I'm on the Friday night-late show called Refried Fridays.

[laughter]

Al Madrigal: It's with Carlos Mencia, Gabriel Iglesias, hosted by Pablo Francisco, Jeff Garcia, Freddy Soto, God rest his soul. I look at the Red Hots, I look at the list one more time and I look at Becky and I call her. I go, "Becky, I'm a Mexican comedian. What do I do?"

[laughter]

Melissa Harris-Perry: As Madrigal has learned firsthand representation in the entertainment industry is often handled bluntly. That's putting it mildly. This month Madrigal is using his clout to address a glaring absence. As a comic books fan, Latino superheroes were pretty much nonexistent when he was growing up. Thankfully, that's starting to change. Marvel's new Spider Man, Miles Morales is one recent mainstream example. Madrigal is adding to the mix with Primos, a new comic he wrote that tells the story of Ricky Pascal, a teenager who discovers that he and his cousins have been handed down some pretty potent superpowers. When I spoke with Madrigal, he still seemed almost disbelief about the event that led to his name being published on the front of Primos.

Al Madrigal: Oh my God. Yes. I created a comic book. It's nuts. It's so fun. I was out in New York starting The Daily Show and met the editor who-- I had no idea this guy was the-- I didn't know what he did. I just started talking to this guy. We had a ton in common. He was from San Francisco. I was born and raised in San Francisco. We went to the same high school. We discovered this all over initially this podcast that we were both on, a comic book podcast and then discovered that we're both married. It gets weird. We're both married to Koreans. Now I have a Korean wife, he has a Korean wife, coincidentally and then we have kids who--

Melissa Harris-Perry: But they don't know each other.

Al Madrigal: They don't know each other, no different. My wife is in Los Angeles and I was commuting back and forth to The Daily Show. We have kids the same age, favorite restaurant, favorite sports teams, just everything in common. That guy turned out to be the Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics at the time. This guy, Axel Alonso who's also half-Mexican like myself and we started complaining about the lack of Latino superheroes, city in Latina, Latinx superheroes and we decided to do something about it. That was the big lesson I learned on The Daily Show, you’re going to complain about something or what's the plan out of here? We all these years later have a book in comic book stores on February 2nd.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I love that. Now, first of all, your men are bringing forth Primos during Black History Month. I also love that. I love this connection between how we see ourselves in the moment or in the experience of comic books. I have to say, coming from a family of girls who were not really comic book readers, I didn't discover comic books until I married a man who's from a family of boys, which is not to say that they're fully gendered, but I'm from the '70s so you know it is what it is. Just really coming to appreciate how much the comic book world has been a part of how folks come to understand what is really possible, who is in fact responsible for saving the world?

Al Madrigal: It's amazing. I'm a child of the '70s as well and going into comic book stores, it's an intimidating process. I have to tell you, it doesn't matter what your gender is. It's going into a comic book store when you're a 13-year-old kid for the very first time and having--.it depends on which one, but maybe there's a sassy gatekeeper there and, “You're going to read that?” [chuckles] Again, it’s you want to be seen in these comic books. I think they were all for the most part, all of the really cool characters that we all love were created in the late '50s, early '60s and there are a lot of white guys.

You just don't see yourself as a young African American teenager or Latino, Latina, in a comic book store. You're not on the shelf. Then you have the gatekeepers and it's a funky place to be. I'm excited about everything that's happening. That's why it's so great to have a partner like Axel, who at Marvel was responsible for a lot of their diversity.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Tell us a little bit about The Primos.

Al Madrigal: The Primos are, the whole book starts with this 17-year-old Boyle Heights kid at a party. He does some drugs. Never take a pill from Gilberto Suarez.

Melissa Harris-Perry: [laughs]

Al Madrigal: He takes some drugs and he goes home and he finds a long lost ancient Mayan Emperor, Janaab Pakal standing in his living room. He thinks he's still on the drugs and finds out that he's the most powerful sorcerer in the universe. He has to rally and find a couple other cousins of his, the Primos to save the world from his evil uncle Kan.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I have to say that the fact that it is the cousins, the Primos is part of what I love the most because I really do believe in the super power capacity of cousins. Maybe it's because I'm Southern from a big family or at least moderate size, but cousins are always around and you don't quite fight with them the same way you do with sibling. I could imagine like yes, superheroing up with them.

Al Madrigal: They're not on top of you like brothers and sisters are or any other family members are and you're only seeing them during great times. Usually like the holidays, if they live a couple hours away and you're all in the same general area and you can get together, but it's all holidays, summertime is associated with cousins. Just imagine if all the first-borns were able to team up and there was something magical that happened when they all got together and that’s pretty much.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Yes. Of course though, in my family would be all the youngest children teaming up. [laughs]

Al Madrigal: Oh, the babies have all the power?

Melissa Harris-Perry: [laughs] For sure. Not only have you been writing about superheroes, not only are you bringing us The Primos in comic books, but you've got a role in an upcoming film about a tortured vampire superhero.

Al Madrigal: Honestly, as a comic book fan, superhero fan, it's surreal. It's just dream come true. I'm in this movie Morbius that is in the Marvel Sony universe. It's unbelievable got to spend time in London pre-pandemic working with Adria Arjona, Daniel Espinosa’s the Director, Tyrese Gibson placed my partner, Jared Leto plays Morbius. Matt Smith from Dr. Who is in this as well, as well as Michael Keaton. It's amazing. It's incredible.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Just a few people.

Al Madrigal: Just a few actors you may or may not have heard of, yes.

Melissa Harris-Perry: What's it like with that crew? I'm wondering, when you do start ticking off names like that, I guess, , there's a part of me that would just-- I suffer from just enough anxiety that I'd be like, "You know what? I don't have the shoes for this event. I can't even go to this."

Al Madrigal: Yes, it's, it's weird. As a comedian, starting out as in comedy, doors open and you have to be ready to walk through them. I was given a tremendous amount of opportunity to play ethnic friend. I always call it ethnic friend and TV shows and then Night School with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish came along and I had to play this big fun, really big character, tons of improvisation there. Then The Way Back comes along with Ben Affleck, that gives me an opportunity to play this dramatic role. Now, I get to check off this other cool box, which is FBI agent in this action movie. It's incredible. It really is.

Then I think what's special about Morbius- -is it's combining, horror and Marvel together, which we really haven't seen. Again, I think it's a special movie and this director, Daniel Espinoza, and what Sony did with this, he's just such a talented guy, so I'm excited for people to see it. It was pushed so much because of COVID too. It's finally going to be here on April 1st.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I want to dig in on the ethnic friend insight for a second, because it’s just it's so perfect. Of course, you were once famously the senior Latino correspondent on The Daily Show with John Stewart, which of course is a tongue in cheek mocking of exactly how journalists also get used as ethnic friend in the news.

Al Madrigal: Well, sure. Yes, exactly. Just on The Daily Show, we were whatever correspondent we needed to be for the given piece.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Right. That's true.

Al Madrigal: Yes, for the most part, exactly. I was the senior Libyan correspondent. I wore a lot of hats there depending on where we needed to be. Yes.

Melissa Harris-Perry: That's exactly what it does. It takes your identity and turns it into your expertise and of course always put you in the sidekick role.

Al Madrigal: Well, I do this as a joke in my act, but it really is true. When I showed up in LA, I didn't even know I was a Mexican comedian. They really do-- Los Angeles comedy has all of these diversity type shows. All the African American comics do these show, it was called Chocolate Sundays, and there's Chopstick Wednesdays and there's Refried Fridays. It’s really you get in all the parts. I've been auditioning for TV shows where it was me, Michael Strahan, and an Asian guy.

Melissa Harris-Perry: [laughs] Stop it.

Al Madrigal: No, I swear to you. They didn't care where the diversity came from. They just know that they couldn't have an entirely white family on a TV show, and so they needed that ethnic friend. It was always like-- predominantly, if you look at it, it's like a lot of African American males playing those parts. We're never the leads and luckily, that's starting to change, but that's just the way it's been. Again, bringing it back to the comic book, 20% of the population, 5% of the characters on TV, it's insane. Then when you are, you're never the lead. You're always relegated to ethnic friend. That should be the name of my new podcast, Ethnic Friend.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Your new podcast, probably also a band. It's a pretty great name. Last thing, as you're reflect-- I'm also just keep thinking about this casting call with you, Michael Strahan and Asian guy also just that framework is so good.

Al Madrigal: Well, just you want to hear the funny story. I took it upon myself. I'm like, "This is the one time I have an opportunity to talk smack to Michael Strahan." I walked up to him in the audition- This is a true story. I walk up and I go, "So let me get this straight, you're in subway commercials. You're an NFL analyst. You went to the Super Bowl, you played in the NFL for 10 years, and now you're coming into my house and you think you can take what I have?" I go, “I’m ethnic friend. Deal with it.”

His jaw was on the floor. Couldn't believe that this little scrawny, Latino guy with glasses was talking smack to him in an audition and just thought it was the funniest thing and then came over and he goes, I was reading my lines, just sitting in a chair and he goes, “Don't have it memorized, huh? What's the matter? Nervous?”

[laughter]

Al Madrigal: I was like, yes, this is the best. No, it really was the coolest moment so there you go. There's my Michael Strahan audition story.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay. That is a great story. I do have to agree with you, he could leave at least one or two jobs for the rest of us.

Al Madrigal: He's taken all the jobs.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All the jobs.

[laughter]

Al Madrigal: He totally does it. This guy’s like, “All right, fellas, you work plenty. Let's ease up.” Those private planes aren’t going to pay for themselves, so I get.

Melissa Harris-Perry: That's right. There's no great resignation. It's just Michael Strahan taking all the jobs.

Al Madrigal: All the work.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All the work. Last summer you signed up a multiyear deal with CBS studios. I assume that it's going to be a little more diverse than just an all-white family with some ethnic friends. What can we expect to see from you?

Al Madrigal: It's the opposite. Yes. The ethnic friends take over the entire family. I've been partnered up with CBS for quite a bit now. So it's a CBS studio, we can sell things to any network, any streamer. I remember going to Alec Botnick and Kate Adler who run that and saying, "I really would like to partner up with a Latino show runner, do you have anybody?" They said, "Actually we're hoping that becomes you." I put stand up to the side and decided to take this on because there really isn't anybody out there that is writing these shows. There's plenty of people writing the shows, but just getting them on the air is a whole another thing.

With all of my experience want to just package TV shows so we can create diverse workplace comedies and dramas. I'm probably pitching a drama next week. Just majority Latino cast, majority Latino fans. Again, 20% of the population and 5% of the characters on TV, it’s insane. I'm trying to change that so the one little thing I'm trying to do.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Al Madrigal is comedian, actor, writer, producer, troll to Michael Strahan at a audition. [chuckles] His new comic series Primos comes out on February 2nd. Al, thanks for joining us.

Al Madrigal: Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait for people to see this and hopefully it inspires some people to just, whatever that little thing is nagging you, just start because whether it's a comic book, TV show, anything creative, go for it. Please, we need your help.

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