By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Mark Philipp like any stand-up comedian has had to deal with hecklers and critics.
The latter included his late parents. His mother attended a few shows before she died. “She was like screaming at me,” he recalled. “She wasn’t happy with the person I was on stage” or off, for that matter.
“My dad never made it to any shows before he died, but I told stories about him at the time,” Philipp said. “When I was telling those stories I didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand what kind of picture I was painting about the man.”
He admits: “I embarrassed the hell out of my mom before she died. I embarrassed the hell out of my dad. Everybody who was around me was embarrassed to be around me for the longest time.”
That was early in his 10-year career on stage. Now he writes jokes about his parents “but with a gentler touch.”
He started in comedy when he was at Bowling Green State University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in poetry.
In addition to being on stage he also manages shows. For over five years he managed the Tuesday night comedy event at Grumpy Dave’s. He turned it over to someone else early last year during an “emotional meltdown.”
Now that he’s pulled himself together, he’s launching a new comedy showcase .
Starting on Friday, Jan. 13, from 8-10 p.m. six to comedians will do their shticks at Aistear Brewing in the A-frame at 1037 N. Main St. Performances will be every other Friday.
The place and time are in line with Philipp’s personal evolution.
The nano brewery attracts more of a graduate student crowd, that’s likely less loud and “shiesty” than those at the downtown venue, Philipp said. He learned about the venue through friends and fellow Dungeons & Dragons players. If he was still drinking, it’s the kind of place he’d hang out at.
Bartender Jacob Reese said Aistear is “stepping up” its offerings, adding a trivia night and art sales, and now the comedy show.
[RELATED: Aistear Brewing, inspired by fantasy, confronts realities of pandemic]
The show’s hours are more suited to working folks, like Philipp, who must get up in the morning and report to a job. “I’m getting my shit together at 30,” he admits.
Philipp grew up in Cleveland. “Mark Philipp” is his stage name to keep his comedy work separate from his work life.
He came to Bowling Green to study at BGSU. “My big problem when I started going to school was I started smoking weed and I smoked way too much, and I started drinking and drank way too much. I have vague memories of going to readings at Prout Chapel, and that’s about it. … That’s why it took me so long to get my shit together.”
He started doing comedy at Grumpy Dave’s. “ I liked the kind of attention it was getting me. I like the kind of validation I was getting from it.”
Then everything crashed. He continued as a comedian. “My therapist told me I needed an outlet. I found a way to kind of synthesize that and make It OK and not make it feel preachy and like I was using the stage as a therapist chair. Now every joke I write I have to run it by my shrink before I put it on stage,” Philipp said. “He signs off on most of them.”
Comedy, for him, is communal therapy with a laugh track.
“There’s importance of having local people telling shit to local people. I think when you have a tiny intimate stage the ripple effect that has is really profound,” he said. Then added “that’s also the kind of thing somebody who isn’t successful would say.”
Still, Philipp said, “there’s something about when I’m this close to somebody and doing skits and they’re making that direct eye contact with you, and you have a real moment of communication. That’s an important thing and it’s done better in settings like this than on big stages. I’ve been on big stages, and it sucks.”
Philipp said the show will showcase “a big variety of people with different kinds of sickness, which sounds like I’m making a goof but also that’s what it is when you get people up there because they want attention for some reason or another, and they all have different motivations.”
And, he said, even if “they’re up there telling jokes that are borderline sociopathic, they’re going to have potentially positive effect. You bring in a variety of these people and one of them might be able to speak to one person.”
None of them is “going to hurt people, at least not more than average,” Philipp said.
All this reminds bartender Reese of the conversations he regularly has with customers.
“Nobody is going to be in danger,” Philipp said, “but there will be a lot of healing in these rooms as we say in A.A.”
