One third of the hyrda-headed comedy monster Culture Clash, Ric Salinas plays the character Norte-Sur in the ensemble’s most recent theater piece, Water & Power at the Taper. Last week, Chicken Corner peppered Culture Clash's Richard Montoya with queries about Echo Park and the new play. This week, the conversation continues as Salinas bats around similar queries.

Chicken Corner: When I ran into you recently (in Silver Lake) you said that after the previews of “Water & Power,” Culture Clash decided to drop some of the jokes because there were too many laughs, at the expense of the larger story. As someone who has performed in so many pieces that are basically built out of laughter how does it feel to have cut back on it? Does it make the experience of performing Norte-Sur’s role fundamentally different?

Ric Salinas: Yes, we've toned down the first 10 minutes of the play because of the giddy laughter from our fans that expect to see a classic C.C. show. It just makes sense to keep the humor tight and to more importantly tell this modern noir story. There are still many humorous moments, Soprano-style humor. I'm enjoying not having to rely on jokes as a way to keep an audience involved. A new refreshing approach for Culture Clash; we've got to keep re-inventing ourselves. Except for our other world premiere play, "Zorro in Hell" is a throw back to our old days; it's a little like Spamalot! We mount that play the week we close "W&P" at the taper. We head for La Jolla Playhouse to don the mask for San Diego County and Tijuana.

You are a resident of Silver Lake. How would you characterize the difference between Silver Lake and Echo Park?

Silverlake has Trader Joes and Echo Park used to have Pioneer Market. When Pioneer Market was still around, that's how I would characterize as the difference between both hoods. I would sometimes call Pioneer Market, emigrant market. But now there is a Walgreens, so is Echo Park turning into a Silver Lake?

Chicken Corner: I have heard that you visit Echo Park on occasion – that you are sometimes seen in the French restaurant Taix shouting very loudly at the television. Can you explain?

Ric Salinas: Taix is Culture Clash's "Cheers Bar." Everyone knows our name. Taix for me can be many things, a great place for dinner, draft beer, meeting place, martini lounge, alt music scene, and a sports bar, all in one. And yes, I've been known to yell at the TV during a sports event!

Chicken Corner: If you were going to draw a map of Echo Park look like? Where would it start and end? What are your personal landmarks?

RIc Salinas: If I were to draw a map of Echo Park it would look like Arkansas: starting from the Hollywood Freeway, up Benton to the 5 Freeway, across Elysian Park and crossing down Figueroa. My favorite landmark would be Echo Park Lake with the paddle boats, the bridge, the lotus, the fountain in the middle of the lake, fishing, jogging and the view of Downtown L.A. (except for that one incident: the paddle boat drive-by. Of course they were caught!).

Chicken Corner: Do you miss Carmelos, on Sunset and Lemoyne?

Ric Salinas: Yes I miss the cafe con leche from Carmelos! But I think the new place Masa is great.

Chicken Corner: Which do you prefer, the Downbeat Café or Chango?

Ric Salinas: I prefer the Downbeat Cafe.

Chicken Corner: Did you ever spend time at the short stop before it changed hands? Have you been there since it turned into a hipster bar?

Ric Salinas: Yes I went to the Shortstop when it was a COP BAR. Ouch. The best thing about the new hipster Shortstop is that I can shake my groove thang on the dance floor! After several draft beers of course.

Chicken Corner: Chavez Ravine, which also was performed at the Taper, was basically a comedy-cum-performance piece-cum-history lesson with a serious message. It made use of Culture Clash’s traditional versatility with ensemble members playing multiple characters. Water & Power is more of a traditional theater piece. Can you talk about why you chose the different approach for this piece?

Ric Salinas: "Water and Power" is the first time Culture Clash members are playing one role each throughout the whole play. These are characters that have an arc and extensive dialogue scenes. We have wanted to do this type of play for many years. "Chavez Ravine" was the pinnacle of all the tricks up our sleeve, meaning that, it had all the elements that we've employed in previous shows but under one tent. In "Chavez" we did write comedic scenes, historical scenes, and material that we got through interviews of the actual players of that incident, plus tons of research material from USC library and L.A. Times transcripts and articles.

"W&P" was written by Richard Montoya with dramaturgy by Salinas and Siguenza and the piece has elements of the brotherhood that Culture Clash has with each other. One of the downfalls of being a "Comedy Troupe" is that many times we are not taken serious by our peers or fans or academics or the "industry" because we are thought of as an improv group. We write every sigh, gesture, vowel, word, punchline, monolgue and we play each note as a jazz musician would, with a little wiggle room for improv. And on that note, we are not taken serious on our acting. Once we started doing the "site-specific" work and we portrayed real people, then the perception changed a bit. Now with this play, we are now being told that we are doing "real" theater. Sorry to say, but we've been doing "real" theater for 22 years now.

Chicken Corner: What do you think of Ry Cooder’s Chavez Ravine CD? Do you think he should have acknowledged Culture Clash’s “Chavez Ravine,” which preceded Cooder’s work?

Ric Salinas: Mr. Ry Cooder could have mentioned us in his extensive line notes, since he saw our play and sat in the front row, he should have known better; throw us a bone, man!

Chicken Corner: Are you familiar with Don Normark’s Chavez Ravine photos?

Ric Salinas: Don Normark's photos were a huge inspiration for us. We got to write the movie!

Chicken Corner: How did you approach the development of the character Norte-Sur? Was there a particular person you know that informed your choices?

Ric Salinas: Norte/Sur is composite of many people we know throughout our travels. He is Rafas, the biker veterano of San Diego's Logan who's bike club is called Los Cabrones. He is also Travieso, a wheelchair vato that we met at Father Greg Boyle's Hommie Industries. He's barrio philosophers that we've met in the Southwest and New York's Lower East Side. He's the brainchild of Richard Montoya. He's Richard's dad Jose Montoya. And he's a little of me, Slick Ric from San Francisco's Mission District.