After making his way from the Bay Area comedy club circuit to Hollywood in the past six years, the Al Madrigal says "I don't do Latino stand-up, where I talk about Mexicans vs. white people.'' "That's been done. I'd say I'm a dark-complected comic who just happens to have a Hispanic last name.''

Madrigal performs stand-up and sketch comedy, and while he shies away from what he calls "typical one-liner'' ethnic humor, he jokes about race to some extent because it's part of his personal story. "I'm half-Sicilian, half-Mexican, I went to French school as a kid, and I don't speak Spanish,'' Madrigal says. "Latinos don't really claim me, and neither do the Sicilians. It's the plight of the half-breed. That's where part of my humor comes from.''

Madrigal got noticed by TV studio executives after winning the jury award for best stand-up performer at the Aspen Comedy Festival in March 2004. Shortly thereafter, he was cast in the David Schwimmer - directed NBC pilot "Home and Hardware,'' which was later dropped from the network's lineup.