Pardon My Spanglish

Last night I attended a reading by comedian Bill Santiago at Booksmith on Haight Street. His new book Pardon My Spanglish: One Man's Guide to Speaking the Habla (softcover, $14.95), is an irreverent take on a linguistic mashup.

Santiago's book chronicles his Spanglish obsession, from Spanglish on the phone to Spanglish online, he repeats recorded conversations from a variety of sources. He uses his family throughout the book to express the attachment of Spanish speakers to their mother language and how cross-cultural existence has given birth to a hybrid bi-lingual language. The stories are hilarious, but full enjoyment requires a decent understanding of Spanish, as several members of last night's audience can attest.

Santiago's delivery is spontaneous and his stream-of-consciousness, comedic commentary accompanies his literary selections. Listening to him read, feels sort of like Being John Malcovich: traveling into Santiago's mind as he researches and writes the book. Weird but entertaining and enlightening.

Bill Santiago is a nationally known comedian who has appeared on Conan O’Brien and Comedy Central. His latest show, The Funny of (Latin) Dance, will be premiering at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco on September 20th.