A Funny thing happens to audiences when they see Pablo Francisco live for the first time. In a matter of minutes, crowds go from the quiet response that often greets a relative unknown, to jolts of boisterous laughter and applause.

What accounts for the transformation? Namely the 20-something Tucson native's ability to create vividly funny living pictures using strikingly authentic off-the-wall sound effects and loads of his own ample imagination.

Pablo Francisco's send-up of grimly narrated action-movie previews, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a tortilla vendor targeted by the mob, is one good example. Another is his hilarious spoofing of those intensely melodramatic Spanish language soap operas on the Telemundo Cable Network.

A lifelong comedy junkie, as kid Pablo competed with a friend to see who could video tape more comics from television. He got his first professional break at age 17, when he and his aforementioned buddy formed a duo called the "Blowout Boys," snuck into a local steakhouse and took honors in a comedy competition against older, but clearly inferior opponents. "A lot of them read their stuff from notes. At least we had memorized our material!" recalls Pablo.

From humble beginnings, big things have started to happen. Pablo Francisco, now an L.A. resident, is busy distinguishing himself in top clubs around the country, among veteran comics who threw away the script years ago.