On Half Breed, Al Madrigal’s latest comedy album, the master storyteller gives you the dog’s name, address, favorite color and Social Security number. The veteran comic’s jokes unfold less like set-up-beat-punch line and more like exquisitely conjured scenes from a novel.

He also deals skillfully with his peculiar nationality, calling himself a “modern-day Paul Reverez” with the warning of “the Mexicans are coming!” And he devotes plenty of material to his two kids, whom he describes with the adjectives guinea-pig and let’s-not-make-the-same-mistakes-again.

It’s the most authentic form of the art -- comedy that’s not just written, but lived.

— Tom Keller, Punchline Magazine

On his new Stand Up! Records release, ''Half Breed,'' Madrigal's charming stage manner lends itself well to his often involved and seemingly tangential stories. In the course of a joke, he may take a detour for an Armenian genocide reference wrapped in a playground tale or a discussion of housing prices and gentrification or even an instructional aside on the favored transportation of lesbians, all the while skillfully aiming for a hilarious synthesis.

Once he's wrung at least ten good laughs out of a web of jokes, it's a truly fantastic surprise when he weaves another ten call-backs into a brilliant, suave, and totally uproarious conclusion.

[L]isteners will come away from ''Half Breed'' armed with an array of Madrigal's hard-earned life lessons to guide them in this crazy world: good Mexican food has to be scary, being yourself is always a terrible idea, and, of course, you can't tame the wild Chiclet boy.

— Amazon Editorial Board