A steady fixture in the Southern California comedy scene, Bruce Jingles’ comedic brand blends abstract and observational comedy with impersonations and essential timing. Jingles brings his unique brand of comedy to Prescott at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6) Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Elks Performing Arts Center, 117 E. Gurley St.

This performance is listed as “sold out,” Across the Street discovered just before press time.

“I see the world differently than most people,” Jingles said. “I see it for what it is. I try to be abstract while being surreal.”

Growing up in a Hispanic community in El Monte, California, Jingles developed his sense of humor as a defense mechanism to ease racial differences.

“I’ve been described as Spanish Chappelle-ish,” he said. “My comedy comes from my upbringing, the only black family in a Latino community during the ’80s. So, I had to learn to be funny.”

A man of many hobbies, Jingles captures a crowd with his love of comic books, impersonating drunks, juxtaposing stereotypes or recounting his various run-ins with the law.

Jingles sees diverse audiences as universal, priding himself on being able to perform for a wide range of demographics.

“I try to bring people together to understand each other,” Jingles said. “I think a lot of comedy is separated and I try to count my audiences as universal as possible because a lot of black comics pigeon hole themselves and only do black rooms.”

One topic Jingles prefers to avoid is politics.

“I try not to do anything political because that’s a hot bed I don’t want to deal with because now everybody has an opinion,” he said. “I try to remember that the audience goes there to escape. They want to escape current events. They want to escape the political, so I try to give them a show instead of being preachy.”

As someone who always made his friends laugh, it was Jingles’ friends who pushed him to try out his jokes on a stage for the first time.

“I was dared to enter an amateur contest and at an improv that opened right by where I live,” Jingles said. “I was the last person to enter the contest and the first person to go up the night of the contest. That was my first time on stage and I won it, and I went to the semi-finals, then won that and then I went to the finals — and I lost that. That was my third time on stage.”

Jingles’ first live comedy album, “Bruce Jingles: Comic,” by RBC Records is available on iTunes, Pandora and Spotify.

For more information about the Prescott performance, call the Elks Performing Arts Center at 928-756-2844.

For more information about Bruce Jingles’ comedy, visit www.brucejingles.com.

Jesse Bertel is a reporter/videographer for the Prescott News Network. Follow him on Twitter @ JesseBertel, email him at jbertel@prescottaz.com, or call 928-445-3333, ext. 2043.