Review and photo by Fred Kuhlman
Promoter: Danny Zelisko Presents
Venue: Talking Stick Resort – Ballroom
Date: Sunday February 18th, 2018
During my life there have been a few single names that when you hear them you know who it is: Cher, Elvis, Madonna, The Boss, Bono, ICE-T, and Mr. T just to name a few. Well now we need to add another great to that list, Fluffy. On Sunday night, Gabriel Iglesias (a.k.a. Fluffy) brought his latest comedy show to the Talking Stick Resort Ballroom for 2 sold-out shows. Gabriel is a California comedian and has been coming to the valley for over 20 years. Like most comedians, he started out in small comedy clubs (Tempe Comedy Club here), but today he is luckily enough to sells out larger venues.
I have seen all of Fluffy’s specials on both Netflix and Comedy Central. But tonight’s show was completely different. He presented all new material. Gabriel is a story teller. He tells his audience about funny or strange things that occur in his life. This is where he gets his comedy. Even though it was a 21 or older show, Fluffy uses very few swear words and none of his stories are political or sexual.
In past shows, he talked about his son, Frankie. Tonight he told us that Frankie is now 20 and travels a lot with him. He told us about the time he was interviewed by Snoop Dog and Frankie went along. Not to give away the story, just look up Fluffy and Snoop Dog on YouTube. He also told us about the time he took his mother to see Vicente Fernandez, the Mexican Elvis. His mother was the most mellow and even keeled person until she met him and lost it. The only real political story was about their bus and their redneck (my word) bus driver. It had to do with “the wall” and who was going to pay for it.
The one thing you always see is that Gabriel is always happy when on stage. He is always smiling and laughing during his show which translates to the crowd. There was only 1 incident during the show. While he was telling us the story about why he took a 3 month break from performing, a heckler interrupted Fluffy and it seemed to really upset him. After about a minute exchange with the idiot, Fluffy recovered and apologized to the audience. Personally I thought it was rude and uncalled for and the Bozo should have been thrown out. I can understand heckling if the comedian is doing a something political or off color, but never when they are doing a personal story. Just because you paid your money to see the show, you don’t get to be and idiot, just SHUT UP or leave.
Just prior to Fluffy coming out, one of his people come out to “hawk” their items. Also they had a contest where they invite “extra-large” people to come up front. They then have the audience vote (scream) for the one they like. The 3 finalists were 2 men and 1 woman. Both men removed their shirts, the woman did not (this was a family show). The man that won actually flexed his chest muscles to make his breasts bounce. He won a 5x Fluffy tee-short. Fluffy even commented that this was the first time that this chest flex had been done.
If you every get the chance to see Fluffy live, it is a fantastic show. If not, then you really need to look him up on YouTube, Netflix or Comedy Central. There are a number of specials and all of them are great.
Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2018
