Altared States : Benefit Combines an Evening of Comedy With Mexican Day of the Dead Festivities

The Scene: Monday night at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, where the LATC held its second annual fund-raiser to benefit its Latino Theatre Lab. The evening, dubbed “Otra Noche de Risa y Susto--Die Laughing,” combined the traditional Mexican Day of the Dead celebration with an evening of Latino stand-up comedy. Before the performance, guests looked at altars created by local artists and watched a performance by the Latino Theatre Lab’s Workshop. (It wasn’t a particularly scary event, unless you count trying to navigate through downtown streets at rush hour.)

Who Was There: LATC artistic director Bill Bushnell, Latino Theatre Lab artistic director Jose Luis Valenzuela, show producer Dan Guerrero, actor Jimmy Smits, director Taylor Hackford, and comedians Jeorge Lopez, Raul Martinez, Carlos Mencia, Diane Rodriguez, Mark Guerrero and Cris Franco (who identified himself as a “yupsican”--half yuppie, half Mexican). Also there was the San Francisco comedy troupe Culture Clash, which will have its own show on the Fox Network this spring.

Dress Code: Some guests wore white face and skeleton suits, while others went for black on black on black. One guest accented a skeleton costume with a sign demanding that the United States get out of the Persian Gulf.

Chow: A variety of restaurants and caterers provided quesadillas, tamales, paella, rice and tortillas made on the spot. The line was enormous, and several people were seen coming away with full plates and marching back to the end of the line, secure in the knowledge that their plates would be empty when they got back to the food.

Quoted: L. A. artist Gronk created his elaborate altar out of votive candles, veils, flowers and plastic skulls in memory of the late actor Trinidad Silva. What was going to happen to it afterward? “It’ll be dismantled and brought back to my loft, I guess,” he said. “I guess I’ll just have to live with death for a while.”

Triumphs: Organizers delivered on their promise of a show “with two hours of entertainment and 10 minutes of speeches.” Too often on the charity circuit, the entertainment-speech ratio is reversed.

Glitches: Did you hear the one about the local stockbroker who kept barging her way up to the celebrities, introducing herself, and then shoving her business card in their pockets?