Let's face it. I won't call. I say I will but we all know I won't. First of all, I don't know who you people are so the chance of me having your phone number is just creepy.

The show has finished and the guys left me stuck cleaning out the "virtual office". It's been fun hanging out with everyone (haters included because let's face it, you guys expressing your opinions are what makes us who we are).

I have to admit that doing the warm-up for the show for the past number of seasons (but not the first season because Steve Trevino did it then) has been a great opportunity for me. It's a different beast from stand-up because you really have to hang out with people and get to know them.

Here in my little corner office of the internet, I tried to talk about current event stuff and throw in pictures and behind the scene footage from the show. I know that this blog isn't about me, it's about the show, Mind of Mencia and about stuff that happens every day. I am very happy that I had the chance to do this. So thank you to everyone that read the blogs, I just hope that you enjoyed some of them. This isn't a good-bye but rather a "see you later".

Thank you everyone for making this a phenomenal year on behalf of me and the hundreds of people that make this show possible. I'm including pictures of highlights so that you can enjoy! Mencia just posted a blog that sums up his feelings about this past year. I think it's only fitting that we end this with his blog because let's face it...without him, it would be Mind of _____.

"So I’m on a plane listening to some music and thinking about what’s going on in my head. I just finished the 4th season of Mind of Mencia. This year had to be the craziest season for me. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to make this season the best ever in every way possible. The show took so much out of me this year but for the first time I am 90% happy with the show. It could never be 100%. That is not in my nature. I ALWAYS feel like I could do better. That is what drives me to keep doing this after twenty something years of comedy, the cynics, the haters, the accusations of plagiarism etc. For the first time at the end of the season I’m not thinking about what I would do differently next season. That is a very good feeling, tough at this point I don’t know how much more I have to give as far as the show is concerned. I feel like I have said all I wanted to say and I don’t know how I would keep it fresh and that is very important to me. To me life is about growth and I feel a spurt coming on. I feel like I need to reach farther and higher. The stand up special I shot earlier this year that aired on Comedy Central was some of my best work and it has been nominated for a few awards already but still there’s always better. I am doing this tour, “At Close Range” this late summer and going through December which starts this weekend at Red Rocks in Denver. This is one of the most prestigious venues in the world and I get to start what I believe to be the most important tour of my life there. The reason I say that it is the most important is because I was told by many people in my camp that this is not a good year for a tour because of the economy and gas prices. I was told it would be better to do it another time when things got better. I’m sure they’re right about ticket sales being affected but I believe that at times like this, people need to laugh and escape their problems more than ever. What kind of human would I be to ignore what is my gift to the world, my responsibility to the world because of money. I can’t do that. It’s not in my nature. These words might sound bizarre to some of you because of my stage presence but know this, the reason I do what I do is because I truly believe that I am making the world a better place. I really love people. That’s why I am out in the front as soon as they open doors and I run back out there as soon as I get off stage every single show. I love meeting the fans, seeing their faces and how happy they are to meet me and get close enough to shake a hand or hug. It means a lot to me. I am in the process of picking my opening acts. I rarely have one person open shows for me. I want to give back to the comedy community by giving them opportunity to a few instead of just one. You know what I’m tired. We’ll continue this very soon.
Be well.

Carlos"

New stuff that happens between the segments at the taping. In this one Mencia talks about what it's like when relatives go and visit him, relatives like his father.

This is a video where Mencia talks about high gas prices. He talks about how he spent 100 dollars on gas and when he got into his car, they tank wasn't full.

Here's my thing though. Mencia drives a Mercedes. So spending a 100 bucks on filling his Mercedes is not too bad. I personally don't feel too bad for him. You know what really sucks? When you spend a hundred dollars on gas and you drive a Ford Festiva. Do you know how bad that sucks? To have to pay high gas prices when you drive a CRAPPY CAR!?!?! SEE MENCIA?! THAT is what really sucks. Can you tell I drive a crappy car?

So here's Mencia's thoughts about high gas prices...enjoy!

This is between segments at a taping where Mencia discusses the typical Latino barbecue. I come from Texas and we really don't call them BBQ's there....we call them "cookouts"...but anyway, this is the new "Between the Breaks" segment and I wanted to share it with you all.

Mencia has a say with everything on the show...that is why it's called "Mind of Him". Each season brings a music video. I have included three of them to refresh your memory on two and spotlight the most recent one.

It's the same writer helping Mencia pound out these songs and his name is Brian Rubenstein. Just when you were starting to think, "What kind of video could POSSIBLY be next to cover?", "Ruby" as he is nicknamed on the show, and Mencia come up with something new.

The most recent addition is "I Can't Go On..." about an emo kid that thinks his life sucks even though he has everything that he could possibly want to make him happy. It premiered last night along with the Act 3 about gay weddings that starred Cheech Marin.

The other ones I focused on are two popular songs that people ask about often. One is "Bow Down" which pretty much parodies a number of popular rappers (including the typical hot chicks in videos which are played by Joseph) and the other one is the infamous "Dee Dee Dee Song".

I remember during the Punisher Tour in 2006, they played the DDD song at the beginning of each show and the audience would go nuts. I figured this would be a fun time to feature it because again.

Just thought you might like to know that there is a man that helps the mind of Mencia crank out those songs. They call him "Ruby" and he is also credited with having co-written the story to "In The Mix", a movie that starred Usher.

This is one of those videos that shows what happens "between the breaks" at the tapings of Mind of Mencia. I wanted to show this one because it has to be one of my favorite.

Here's the set-up. At the taping, we were talking about Robert Schimmel, a comedian that I've blogged about before and Mencia tells a joke that Schimmel told him at a taping they did together about Hitler. It's a funny joke...but then again...I laugh at pretty much everything. So this is a video that shows Mencia telling a "Jewish" joke (though when you think of Jewish joke you think of the stock..."what do Jewish women make for dinner? Reservations) then after...the audience gets a really cool surprise when Cheech Marin, who is at the taping doing the act 3, comes out and says a Jewish joke himself.

To be able to see Cheech tell a joke in person is such a freakin' awesome thing for me. It kinda reminds me of the George Carlin blog I wrote about earlier in the week. It's funny because I feel that when you have no tie to the entertainment industry, you see these people (as I did when I was a little kid) and don't realize that they're "real". Know what I mean?

I remember seeing Cheech and Chong movies and not knowing why they were funny (I was about 10). I remember seeing "Born in East LA" over and over again on HBO (Hey, was happening?). It's weird though because when I was a kid, NEVER IN MY LIFE did I think that I would ever get a chance to REALLY see Cheech up close. It's so surreal.

So here's the behind the scenes video that shows Mencia and Cheech telling jokes...though Cheech says one and Mencia says about three I think. Oh and by the way, I made Mencia tell the second one that could be considered really offensive. Sorry if you're offended but really, get over it, there just jokes.

I figured I'd talk about this because as the warm-up comic for Mind of Mencia, there are certain things I go over every week. Rules and stuff that is. One of them is explain the format of the show, which starts with the cold open, which is the teaser that leads into the credits of the show. After the credits, Mencia will come out and do about a five minute monologue at the beginning of every show. He covers a variety of topics every week and I figured that I'd show you a picture of what really goes into coming up with a different monologue for every episode.

This is where the photo from the fabulous Randy Shropshire comes into play. In this pic, you'll see Mencia sitting on the stairs with two white guys. They are writers on the show and their names are Bob Oschack and Chris McGuire (the one wearing the cap is Oschack). Bob Oschack actually wrote on the second season of MOM where his job was predominantly to help Mencia organize his thoughts for the monologue each week. McGuire (the other writer) has done the same and has actually been a consultant on the last two of Mencia's stand-up specials (No Strings Attached and Performace Enhanced).

Usually what happens is that Mencia thinks up different topics and discusses what his opinions are on them with these writers. He goes over everything (and for those of you that have seen him live, you know that sometimes he can go on for a long time) as the writers take notes (Oschack likes to record him) so that they can help transcribe so that he can have points about what he's talked about (because sometimes if it's impromptu, he can forget something that might've been funny). Once he has an idea of what he might talk about, he'll go around LA performing at comedy clubs and trying out the material with one of these writers sitting in the audience so that they can take notes and see if he's forgotten to mention something that he really liked. Days go into this of tightening jokes and on Thursdays (the day that we shoot), we load in the audience, I (Cristela) go out and warm them up...credits roll and Mencia makes his entrance and does his monologue that has taken the full week to craft.

Even then, the monologue isn't done because a lot of times Mencia will notice someone in the audience and make references and come up with jokes on the spot that end up making it to the show. I guess you can say it's a crafted monologue with an element of surprise...and that is how I sum up the popular "Mencia monologue".

For those of you that are unaware, there are so many people involved in making a TV show that go unnoticed. The only people you MIGHT know about are of course the stars of the show, the writers....MAYBE the producers....MAYBE.

There are soooo many other people that work on a show to make it successful. People that you would never think about because their job really isn't noticed when you see the show. You focus on what someone like Mencia is saying, but you don't think about the people holding the camera, directing, dressing, etc etc.

I wanted to show you behind the Mind of Mencia and decided to go to my friend Randy. He's been a friend of Mencia's for many years and is a great photographer. He takes behind-the-scenes pictures of the show and because of this fact, I went to him to get two pictures where I could show what happens behind-the-scenes and the final product.

I picked the rice sketch that was featured on last night's episode. It's two pictures that show just a SMALL SLIVER of the kind of work that it takes to make a show possible. Then I figured I would add a couple of other pictures because I just figured you'd like to see them. Enjoy!

This video is actually from the second episode we taped this season.  It's during Mencia's Act Three about celebrity drug use and he's talking to the audience during the break.  He focuses on talking about wheelchairs because that night, we had three different people in the audience with wheelchairs.  The time in between breaks is very entertaining because it's completely unscripted and it's a chance for Mencia to hang out with the audience.  Enjoy!

This is Cristela. I wanted to write about this because I think it was a very cool thing that happened last week at the taping.

In the middle of the taping, during the Act 3 (that's the big scene in the show that's taped in front of a live audience-like Punji, etc) there was a soldier that told me he wanted to present Mencia with something special. He asked me if I could give him the chance to do it during the taping because he wanted everyone in the audience to see the gift.

The set was in place and the actors moved to their places, including Mencia. I brought the soldier out and he presented Mencia with a box that had a US flag that had flown in Iraq. The solider had just come home after being there for months. He had seen Mencia in Iraq the last time that he visited. Along with the flag was a certificate honoring Mencia for his work on his multiple visits to Iraq to entertain the troops. I think that this was one of, if not the only time, I've ever seen Mencia speechless.

It was a very special honor for him, really, it would be a special honor for anyone. At every live show that he does or at the show taping, there are numerous people from the military that come and talk to Mencia about how they're fans and how it means so much to them that he goes to entertain the troops. It's at this moment that you realize how insignificant you're job is-at least to me. I tell jokes and try to be funny. This people do so much more; they risk their lives. And I realize that it's not just Mencia. There are so many comedians that make the trip to entertain the troops.

Mencia was really floored by the flag because the soldier didn't have to do that. But he did. And that means something. It really is a special thing. And it happened at last week's taping. Just thought you might want to know.