A veteran of more than three decades of performing, Paul Rodriguez is already known as a great Latino comedian.

At times, Rodriguez said, he just wishes he was known as a great comedian.

"They still have me pegged in the Latino thing and I can't fight them too much," the 54-year-old said in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

"It's hard for me to (complain) because once you've made your bed, you should lie on it," he added. "I'm trying to nudge it slowly. I'm trying to do it without being a nuisance or a pain, just letting your work be your guide."

Rodriguez, named No. 74 on Comedy Central's list of the top 100 stand-ups of all time a few years ago, said he's been asked plenty of times to host TV series featuring young comedians - but it's always been for young Latino comedians.

That's why performing here this weekend - Friday night at the Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center - is a welcome break for him.

"I specifically like to go to areas like your neighborhood and be able to talk about more than just my race or my condition," he said. "When you get older, you've got a lot more things to talk about."

Rodriguez said he's been trying to take the advice of two of his comedy mentors, Richard Pryor and Rodney Dangerfield.

Pryor told him to expound on how he was feeling at the moment, Rodriguez said, which makes the humor universal. And "Rodney said the mark of a good joke is ‘Will they laugh 10 years from now?' " he added. "If you want to be remembered, you've got to have material that will be quoted years from now."

Rodriguez has had more than 30 movie credits through the years, but he doesn't see any others in his near future.

"Hollywood is in love with youth. You get to be a dinosaur if you're in your 50s," he said. However, "If you're genuinely funny, sooner or later they'll recognize you."

Rodriguez has become more recognized in the past few years as the father of Paul Jr., a skateboarding star who has tried his own luck as an actor in movies.

"I'm just a footnote pretty soon. That boy is so together," Rodriguez Sr. said. "I'm so proud of the job his mom did, really."

A new movie, "Vicious Circle," is scheduled for limited release nationally this week after winning the Latino Film Festival in New York. It stars Paul Jr. and has a role for Paul Sr.

"I always knew he could act," Paul Sr. said of his son. "He surprised everybody but me."