Comedian George Lopez

Comedian George Lopez has been cracking up audiences for more than three decades, and he's making his first appearance on The Oprah Show!

George says he started making people laugh when he was a kid. "There was just so little that we had," he says. "You had to be funny."

Watch George describe what it was like to be raised by his grandmother. 

George and his wife, Ann, have a 13-year-old daughter, and George says her life is much different than his was growing up. "Now they don't want kids to be afraid. They don't want kids to fail. Even when kids play sports, you have to sign a paper that says you'll only yell encouraging things," he says. "My grandparents would go to the game with my uncles, and I would miss the ball. ... They would run on the field."

George says some kids today don't know how good they have things. "They'll say there's nothing to eat in the house—which means that there's no Fruit Roll-Ups," he says. "We didn't have Fruit Roll-Ups. I had the original roll-up—a flour tortilla with butter and salt."

In fall 2009, George's late-night talk show will premiere on TBS. "Mine is different because my couch will be covered in plastic," he jokes. "You won't be able to sit."

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A famous friend is even helping him promote it—President Barack Obama, who filmed a bit for the show. How did he get the president to sign on? "Fortunately for me, you can't get elected in this country without the Latino vote. He needed all seven of them," he jokes. "I was out there campaigning with him and I asked him, and, you know, he's a very nice man."

George and his wife, Ann, have been married for 15 years. In 2005, George needed a kidney transplant after a genetic condition caused his to deteriorate—and Ann was his donor. "They always say, like, 'Oh, you must have to be so nice to your wife now that she gave you a kidney.' I'm like, 'Not as nice as I had to be before,'" he jokes.