Paul Rodriguez has been blazing comedy trails for 25-odd years now. But aye carumba!, look what being in the No. 1 kids' movie of the season can do for you: "I'm being asked to do kindergarten show-and-tells now!" enthuses the first Mexican-American comedian to ever star in his own network sitcom and host an all-American quiz show ("The Newlywed Game," for crying out loud!).

In other words, Uncle Paul has some real (Sesame?) street cred with his nieces and nephews long after conquering most other entertainment worlds available to a professional comedian.

"Since I got my paycheck for the movie, they know what I do for a living," says Rodriguez, making his first Central Illinois appearance ever at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts stage.

"They're lining up to get me to those show-and-tells. It really makes you popular with that crowd."

The stimulus for all this pre-pubescent fan fervor?

Rodriguez's colorful role as Chico the iguana in Disney's smash animated hit, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," in which he co-stars with what looks to be most of Hollywood's bankable Hispanic contingent (George Lopez, Andy Garcia, Cheech Marin, Luis Guzman, Edward James Olmos, Salma Hayek, etc.).

"The movie was so much fun to do that I almost feel like handing the money back. It wasn't work at all," he says, before adding an addendum on behalf of Disney payroll handlers ("just kidding").

He didn't spend his time on the film slaving long hours under hot lights as the director tried to figure out what to do next.

Instead, Rodriguez, the son of Mexican migrant farm workers, "was given the opportunity to sit around with some of my closest friends. It's not like we all get a lot of chances to hang out together - we hardly ever do that."

"So here's me and Andy Garcia and Cheech (Marin) sitting around and they're bringing us food and whatever you want and then someone comes in and says (insert velvety tones here), 'we'd like to tell you that you're part of the Disney family now.'" Sold!

Speaking of No. 1 rankings and such matters: How does it feel to come in at No. 74 on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time (repeat, all time) compiled by cable-comedy overlords Comedy Central?

Rodriguez's idols like Richard Pryor and George Carlin are higher up the chart (Pryor at No. 1, Carlin at No. 2), but, never mind, he says: "I'm thrilled to be a part of it. I mean, Richard Pryor is pretty much the patron saint of standup. In fact, modern comedy pretty much boils down to Richard and George."

For the record, only the late Freddie Prinze - less known to today's generation than his son Freddie Prinze Jr. - gets a higher ranking among Hispanic comics, and Prinze was, to split hairs, only 50-50 (half Puerto Rican/half Hungarian).

The road to that ranking began 30 years ago, following a stint in the Air Force at the tail end of the Viet Nam draft era.

Rodriguez began pursuing his entertainment options as he branched out from his East L.A. moorings, eventually catching the notice of legendary TV producer Norman ("All in the Family") Lear, who fashioned what become network TV's first sitcom about a Mexican-American family, "A.K.A. Pablo."

It was a mixed blessing, alas, lasting less than a season, circa 1984.

"They made the fundamental mistake of putting a Puerto Rican, a Cuban and Mexican together for a white market where we were all the same and sounded funny in the same way."

Alas, Latinos knew the difference, and they perceived this generic Hispanic mash-up a cultural travesty of sorts. "They thought it was phony, and couldn't believe it. Even though we were getting pretty good ratings, we were canceled because the show was being called this horrible embarrassment to the race. I couldn't believe it."

The experience was so devastating to Rodriguez, who had spent all the money he received on cars and houses for family members, that "six weeks later as I was making hot dogs at Pinks (a famed Hollywood wiener shack). I had a baby coming and I'd bought a house and I was broke."

A friend intervened, says Rodriguez: "He basically came over to Pinks and got me fired by cussing out the owner."

The rest is history: A role in the Kevin Bacon movie "Quicksilver" got the ball rolling again, and soon he was on the path that would see him crowned and touring as one of "The Original Latin Kings of Comedy."

Along the way, he worked his way through two more TV series (each a flop, alas), a one-season stint as Bob Eubanks' replacement on "The Newlywed Game," dozens of HBO and Comedy Central specials and appearances and a string of movie roles ("D.C. Cab," "Rat Race," "A Cinderella Story," "Ali," etc.).

In 1993, he became the first Mexican-American to write, direct and star in his own movie, "A Million to Juan."

He's also in the comedy club business as a co-owner of Hollywood's famed Laugh Factory, the venue that witnessed "Seinfeld" actor Michael Richards' ugly meltdown trading racial insults with audience members several years back.

The unfortunate episode has haunted Rodriguez in the years since, but ironically, he notes, the ensuing notoriety turned the Laugh Factory "into a name known around the world, and our stock went way up."

Rodriguez says he's starting to tire of the itinerant grind that is a part of the stand-up life.

"My parents were migrant farmer workers, going from town to town like modern-day gypsies, so I was born to do this," he says. "But it gets old after awhile. I've been on the road for a long time, and, at 53, it's getting more and more difficult."

He laments the fact that he's been, for all intents and purposes, "a-father-by-phone" to his kids and wants to stop making sacrifices as a parent.

Not that he's exactly failed in that area.

For example, 23-year-old his son Paul Rodriguez Jr. is arguably as famous as the old man to a younger demographic: under the handle of P-Rod, he's a pro skateboarder who has appeared in everything from video games to documentaries.

One of those times off the phone, dad sat son down and had a serious heart-to-heart in which he extolled the virtues of higher education.

"What you need to do is to go to college and apply yourself," Rodriguez recalls saying. "It's important to get a degree."

Paul Jr.: "Dad, first I'd like to see yours."

So it's been a like-father-like-son trajectory, with Paul Jr. recently awarded a $7 million contract to lend his promotional heft to a Nike line of shows.

"For just two years!" marvels dad. "When I was 23 I was still in the Air Force and negotiating payment with hookers! So who am I to tell my kids if they don't apply themselves and don't go to school, you can't have $7 million?"

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At a glance

What: Paul Rodriguez

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 110 E. Mulberry St., Bloomington

Tickets: $34.50 to $40.50

Box office number: (866) 686-9541

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No. 74's dossier

• Real name: Paul Rodriguez

• Birth date/place: June 19, 1955, in Mazatlan, Mexico

• The father of: pro skateboard champ Paul Rodriguez Jr. (P-Rod)

• A veteran of: the U.S. Air Force (his draft number came up at the tail end of the 'Nam era)

• Comedy Central Top 100 Comedians of All Time ranking: 74

• Sandwiched betwixt: Elaine Boosler, 73, and Eddie Izzard, 75

• Current ranking at box office: No. 1 (several weeks ago), via Disney's "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (PR as Chico the iguana)

• Mr. T connection: Co-starred with same in first movie, "D.C. Cab" (1983)

• Six degrees of Kevin Bacon separation ranking: First degree (co-starred with KB in 1984's "Quicksilver")

• Been there, done that first: First Mexican-born standup comedian to guest on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson"; star of first sitcom about a Mexican-American family, Norman Lear's "A.K.A. Pablo" (1984); first Mexican-American game show host, via "The Newlywed Game" (1988); first Mexican-American comedian to co-own a comedy club, L.A.'s The Laugh Factory; first Mexican-American comedian to write/direct/star in his own movie, 1993's "A Million to Juan"

• Post-"Pablo" prime-time: After "A.K.A. Pablo" flopped, so did PR's two subsequent network TV series, "Trial and Error" (1988), and "Grand Slam" (1990), both for CBS.

• Worst night of his comedy life: The night "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards had his now-legendary "n"-word meltdown at PR's club, The Laugh Factory, with PR forced to intervene between star and audience.

• PR's food for thought: "What's wrong about eating cows? What do you think God made them for? They're big, they're stupid, they're delicious. You want more reasons? I never met an animal more prepared to die than a cow. Next time you go to the farm, look at a cow in the eyes. It is begging you for a bullet."

- Dan Craft