Mike Binder
EDITORS NOTE; This is partially a re-print from a chapter of my book STANDUPWORLD which you get for free by signing up for my newsletter, with a little paint and spackle I’ve added in to modernize the damn thing to catch up on Mark’s career which you obviously know has taken off.
STANDUPWORLD; CHAPTER 9
MARK NORMAND IS ANOTHER GUY I WOULD PUT MONEY ON IF I COULD.
The only problem is he almost seems like the type of guy that if he heard about it, if it was enough money, he’d take a powder on his whole career just to have the anecdote and the laugh.
MARK; ‘Yeah, some idiot out in L.A. lost his ass betting that I was gonna have a big comedy career so I just quit. Up and walked away. You folks want fries with these?’
I don’t know, Mark. I met him once when he opened for Bert Kreisher at Red Rocks in Denver. I assume he did good that night, but I missed the show because of traffic getting to the place. I put him in the category of comics like Sam Morrill and Jimmy Dore that have made their own corner of the world and can do anything they want and it feels like it has just so stoked their love of the game. Mark and Sam especially were inspiring to watch stretch and lay out some of their antics during the pandemic.
Some of Normand’s Youtube shorts were little gems. One of my favorites is, ‘Mark Doorman’.
If you watch his channel, you really get a sense not only of his comic timing but his playful charm, his wonder at playing with people with a puckish joy for digging laughs out of everyday moments.
There isn’t a scintilla of mean DNA to his comedy which allows him to say almost anything. Jabs and references to race, weight or sex that from anyone else would be a show stopper is either a giggle, a shrug, or a major laugh from Mark. His innocence and his lack of malice buys him so much, but it’s his constant force of energy that really is his permit. He rarely stops talking. He doesn’t give you a chance to be offended or to take him too seriously. He’s just having fun, and he’s so quickly with a zip onto his next joke and tease that you don’t have time for umbrage. He’s Eddie Haskell only a lot smarter. Doogie Howzer only not so intelligent.
I mean how smart do you have to be to get away with this line?
“I think having a gay son must be like eating an order of fries and reaching in and finding an onion ring. You go, ‘hmmm, I ordered fries, turns out I like these things. too’”
He has a special up on YouTube called ‘Out to Lunch’ that he and his team made themselves, and at this point on YouTube alone it has been viewed 11 million times. That doesn’t include all of the other places it’s been watched, Amazon, Roku, Google Play, You Porn (?). I gotta think the guys at like 15 million already. Which when you think of all the noise Chappelle just got for ‘The Closer’ on Netflix and they said he had 10 million it’s pretty amazing Mark’s hit that number with a do it yourself job. I think he’s even on The My Pillow Guy’s platform frankspeech.com. (Which by the way is the perfect place for a show called ‘Out to Lunch’) The special really is a lot of laughs though. You got to go and find it. He’s another one of these comics that’s just having a lot of fun up there and it’s infectious.
I find myself impressed with this kind of comedian who seems to me to epitomize the spirit of the new world, the freedom of the new comic’s industry. The anti corporate, bushwhack over the mountain spirit that I love seeing in stand-up today.
Comics like Mark, Tony Hincliffe, Bert Kreisher, Beth Stelling, Ari Shaffir, Andrew Schultz, Sam Morrill, Redband, Steven Crowder, Whitney Cummings, they’re building these shows, channels and studios, and doing it in such an organic way. It’s truly inspiring. They’ve created an alternate universe.
It’s incredible the things they’re doing. Podcast, sketch shows, cooking shows, shorts, everything, for dozens and dozens of comics.
Normand seems to have something like eleven hundred of his own podcasts, is a guest on every podcast ever made, puts out a new short film once a week, does a comedy class on Patreon and is firing off one-liners on Twitter and Instagram like he’s Henny Youngman’s nerd grandson amped up on a pile of Dexedrine. In fact, he’s a comic from another era with all the technology of today. Definitely the cadence from at least a couple decades back. He’s also selling out theatres now all over the country which is nice to see.
Yeah, this group of comics works hard. It’s intense. It’s not for the layabout. They make it look easy, but it isn’t. It’s a constant grind too. It never stops, and you need to be clever. Constantly working to find a new hook, a new way to make your stuff stand out. It’s not anywhere close to easy, but the comics, like Normand, that rise to the challenge, that dig deep, are the one’s that are coincidentally, the most enjoyable to watch.
Make sure you check Mark Normand out, and do what I did. Sign up for his Patreon.
When someone goes in this deep you gotta support him. Why not. As he say’s, it’s Comedy!!
https://www.patreon.com/MarkNormand