Q. What are you reading?

A. I read an hour of e-mails every night before I go to sleep. My day starts at 4 in the morning and I try to get back at home at 7 p.m., then I check e-mail. My favorite book is "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. I read that back in high school and I just read it again because I liked it so much. Right now, I'm also looking at a health book about diabetes, with chapters on the heart. It's not interesting to the point Steinbeck's is, but it's informative. And the fact that I have diabetes and heart problems, I'm interested and want to know more about it.

Q. What brought you back to Steinbeck?

A. That was the first book that I actually read from cover to cover, in two days. It was very interesting, I guess the way Steinbeck writes. The story is about immigrants in the camps and the way they were treated. It was a very heartwarming but frustrating story.

Q. Does reading Steinbeck help you translate current immigration or political issues into your comedy or musical parodies?

A. Basically "The Grapes of Wrath" is happening again these days, just in a different form. As far as my comedy is concerned, it comes from true life, not from novels — just from what's happening. I get a lot of ideas from newspapers, from people e-mailing me things, from the Internet — stories about the election and things coming out about Obama or what not. ... So I have to read a lot to get more specifics to put into songs or skits, but I'm not tied to a novel in my comedy.