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Does Carlos Mencia steal material from other comedians? According to Joe Rogan, stand-up comedian and host of NBC's "Fear Factor," that's a bit like asking if the Pope is Catholic. Rogan and Mencia had it out in February at L.A.'s comedy mecca, The Comedy Store, and you can watch the heated argument on Rogan's Web site: www.joerogan.net. In the aftermath of the controversy, Rogan was banned from The Comedy Store and dropped by the Gersh Agency, which also represents Mencia.
Rogan, who refers to Mencia as "Carlos Menstealia," claims it's common knowledge among his fellow funny men that Mencia takes bits from other comics and performs them as his own.
Here's an excerpt from a statement posted on Rogan's site: "Now, when you work hard on a bit and polish and craft it, and then someone just disrespects the whole process, steps in, steals it and performs it as his own, that's a pretty intense creative violation...What's even worse, is if you're a struggling comic, and the guy stealing your shit has his own show on Comedy Central."
On the Howard Stern show in 2006, comedian George Lopez recounted punching Mencia over the issue of theft. "The guy was pretty liberal with the material," Lopez said. Lopez then told Stern that one of Mencia's HBO comedy specials contained approximately 13 minutes of material that he had written.
Mencia is not the only comic to be accused of appropriating gags. Joke stealing is rampant in the comedy world, and Robin Williams is reportedly one of the worst offenders. Kevin Knox, a comic from Boston, told Radar magazine, "I've been in clubs in L.A. where Robin'll walk in the room and whoever's on stage will just get off."
The controversy rages on, with additional video postings on You Tube. Some of the videos support Mencia, while others accuse him of stealing bits from Bill Cosby and Sam Kinison. In all fairness, it can be difficult sometimes to distinguish between "parallel thought," where two comics come up with similar material independently of each other, and outright theft. Comedian John Heffron, who was interviewed for our April 18 issue ("John Heffron appears at Comedy Works"), can understand both sides of the issue. "You always hear stuff - somebody's doing your bit, blah, blah, blah, or you always hear that people say that you stole that bit about [something]," he says.
"It's such a fine line," Heffron explains. "There are guys that blatantly steal bits and they do it just so habitually that they get that rap. Other times, let's say a comic five years ago, his wife had a baby. And then a comic five years later, his wife has a baby. They're both probably gonna have "my wife gave birth" jokes, because comics kind of see stuff, the world, in kind of a similar way. So that joke might be similar but the comic five years later didn't necessarily steal it."
As for Rogan, who found new representation and a host of other clubs that welcome his act, he bears no ill will toward The Comedy Store. As he states on his site, "I still have some good friends that perform there all the time. They're very funny, and if you go there and see them you'll laugh your ass off…So please, by all means go there and have a good time."
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