Every month, The Comedy Studio puts one comic on every show for the whole month as part of its Comic in Residence program. The idea is to help a comic grow with regular stage time in front of a variety of audiences.Every month, we here at Boston Comedy ask the CIR the same questions (but they aren’t made up by some pretentious dead dramatist – I came up with the question);
Up this month is Jason Marcus, whose one-sentence bio on his Web site reads, “I was born into a middle class family with a Hawaiian father and white mother...and then there were jokes.” He has been gigging outside of Boston the past couple of years, winning comedy contests in the Detroit International Comedy Festival and at Catch A Rising Star.
Here’s a quick look at Marcus, including a video from the first week of his residency. Catch him later on to see what’s changed.
When did you start doing comedy?
I started doing comedy almost four years ago.
How often have you played the Studio?
A few times a month, Rick Jenkins is always really cool about giving me dates when I'm not on the road.
What other clubs do you play?
I'm at Mottley’s, Nicks and Catch a Rising Star a lot.
What local comedians have influenced you?
There have been so many local comics that have influenced me for different reasons Kevin Knox, Shane Mauss, Ken Reid, Paul D'Angelo, Tom Dustin, Rob "Roadsteamer" Potylo. There's a lot of really great comics/performers that I looked up to in Boston, way too many to name them all.
Kevin Knox would go out every night and SMASH a room of 14drunk people on a Monday night with the same high level of energy as he would a packed house at a great club on a Saturday and he went above and beyond to teach me the things about comedy that you don’t learn on stage. Shane Mauss was huge for me too because he is proof that if you're a good guy and you work hard you can make it, he’s also an amazing comic.
What's the average number of gigs you've played in a month before this?
I usually try to get on stage almost every night, especially if I'm trying to get in shape for a festival or a road gig that I've never done before so I don’t look too bad.
How will you approach your time -- work on new stuff, refine older stuff, or a mix of both?
I asked around to see what my favorite comics did when they had their residency, just to compare and see what worked. From that, I've been working out new material on Wednesday and Sunday doing a mix of old and new on Tuesday and Thursday and trying to beat up the perfect tight seven on Friday & Saturday.
What do you expect to have gotten out of the experience when the month is over?
Hopefully, a solid tape that I can submit to festivals, more minutes of new material and cirrhosis of the liver from hanging out with Rick and the all the comics on the second floor of the Hong Kong.
