Mas Vale Tarde con Alex Cambert
The Tonight Show-Man on the Street (They call him the Ambassador to Latin Culture)
Great Dinner Party Guest
 

1. Best gig and why?
I have to say that I’ve been pretty lucky throughout my career.  Working with Diane Sawyer on GMA was great.  I really learned a lot from her.  Doing man on the streets bits for the Tonight Show and sharing the stage with Jay Leno has been incredible.  

My favorite gig, though, was doing my own late-night talk show on Telemundo called, Mas Vale Tarde con Alex Cambert.  (For those of you who don’t speak Spanish it means, “Better Late with a guy that looks a lot like Seinfeld”).  Even though the late night talk show format has been around for a long time in English, it’s relatively new in the US Hispanic market.  It was the toughest job I ever had but also the most rewarding.  On one of the first shows, we were able to snag Carlos Santana as a guest.  I asked him why he decided to do our show since he rarely does talk shows and he said, “Because this show is important for the Latino community.”  It felt great to have fun AND work with purpose.

Funny sidebar:  During a commercial break, Santana pulled me aside and said, “You are one funny muthaf*****!”  I told my mom what he said and she said, “He called you a WHAT?!”  (She didn’t get it).


2. Your guilty pleasure?
American Idol, tapioca and Facebook – separately or all at once.


3. What has been your biggest on air gaffe?
This is totally embarrassing, but here goes.  I was asked to host a major music awards show in Spanish.  I had never really read a TelePrompter in español, but I figured it couldn’t be all that hard.  As I am presenting Artist of the Year, I made a major flub.  In Spanish it would be “Artista del Año”, but TelePrompters don’t have that squiggly over the n called a tilde and “año” and “ano” are VASTLY different.  Instead of presenting the Artist of the Year (Año), I presented the Artist of the Anus (Ano).  Oops!

It’s funny now, but at the time, not so much.


4. Best interview?  And worst or dullest interview?
I would have to say that my favorite interview was a completely off the wall interview with Robin Williams.  It’s beyond gratifying when you meet one of your idols and they turn out to be even better than you imagined.  I remember when it aired, my grandfather said (in a thick Cuban accent), “It was fantastical.  Comedy man meets comedy boy.”


5. If you could you nab someone’s wallet or blackberry?
I think that asking a Latino man about stealing is just wrong…that being said, Paris Hilton’s wallet and President Obama’s blackberry.


6. At 13 you were thinking?
Why do I look like a bobble-head?  I’ve had the same size head since I can remember, so I just looked odd -- a ginormous head on a tiny body.  It looked like my mom gave birth to a giant Pez dispenser.  (Yes, people actually poked my forehead to see if candy would come out of my throat).


7. Itching to work with?
Smart ass answer:  God …and Oprah.

Recession answer:  Anyone that will hire me.

Real answer:  Smart creative people that are passionate about what they do and are ready to show the world their porcelain veneers as they smile through their Botox and Restylane injected faces.  (I do live in LA.)