Years ago a tiny girl walked into the Tuesday open mic at the Bar Car in Cummins Station carrying a large case and asked in a thick Minnesota accent, “um, is it okay if I play my trombone as part of my act?” Everything about her was hilarious, right off the bat. “Do whatever you want,” was the answer Mary Mack heard.
In the hey day of the Bar Car show, there were two or three working, traveling comics going up every week and about 8-10 local comics who would bring really experimental, hilarious new stuff almost every week in an attempt to out-do each other. Her first time up, Mary’s set was the highlight of the night. Over the next three to four months, she returned every week and had a new five minutes that floored everyone. She recorded those sets and self-released her first album, titled “funny.” Mary packed up a PA system and a tent and embarked upon a cross-country tour doing guest sets at every comedy club she could talk her way into, staying at KOA campgrounds to save money. She booked a lot of weeks of work on the spot and by the end of the run had become a full time, working comedian.
Mary has since recorded two more albums – “Either You Wake Up Or You Don’t” and “Pinch Finger Girl: a tragedomedy”, appeared on the Bob and Tom Radio Show, XM / Sirius, the Vancouver Comedy Fest (2007), HBO’s Andy Kaufman Awards (2007), Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival (2009), and in 2011 was selected for the San Francisco Sketch Fest’s “Dozen,” 12 up and coming headliners performing at the Punch Line throughout the fest.
While performing at Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival in 2009, she was seen by Nick Weidenfeld who thought, “This woman’s voice is amazing, and it’s not a put-on. Her voice cut through everything else — so I wrote her name down six years ago and thought, ‘If there’s ever the right cartoon for her, she needs to be the voice of a cartoon.'” Mr. Weidenfeld is currently the head of FOX’s new Animation Domination High-Def (ADHD) programming block and Executive Producer of the new animated series “Golan the Insatiable,” which starts Jan. 11th, 2014. Mary Mack has been cast as the voice of Dylan, a young girl whose best friend is a fearsome monster named Golan in the show.
“Dylan’s in an angry phase,” says Mary, who now splits her time between Minneapolis and Los Angeles. “She’s probably always going to be angry. She doesn’t fit in in the town she’s from, which is a suburb of [Minneapolis] called Oak Grove. “Golan the Insatiable” is about a “mighty godlord from an alternate universe” who shows up in a small town and befriends Dylan, a young girl going through an angry phase.
“Her voice is so seemingly cute, but she was able to sell kind of a sinister sound without compromising the cuteness of the voice,” says “Golan the Insatiable” creator Josh Miller. “We knew we didn’t want her to be full on Wednesday Adams. We wanted her to have real energy and she was able to bring that.”
Mary has been trying to get more acting work and spend less time on the road. She’s been busying herself with acting and improv classes, writing and trying to get published. “I’m always trying to stay tuned to an opportunity that presents itself. Being ready for the opportunities is the time-consuming thing. Some people are all about you have to create your own opportunities and all these motivational sayings, but I don’t think I’m any good at creating my own opportunities. I’ve just been having good accidents happen.”
Here’s the GOLAN THE INSATIABLE trailer:
In a special preview episode of GOLAN THE INSATIABLE, “Ragin’ Fun,” Golan becomes distracted by his new friends while supposedly babysitting Dylan (Mary Mack). Check out the preview Saturday, Nov. 23 (11:00 PM-Midnight ET/PT) on FOX.
Read more about what Mary is up to at TwinCities.com‘s story “Minneapolis comedian nabs big gig in animated Fox series,” where several of these quotes originated.
Visit Mary Mack online at MaryMackComedy.com, Facebook.com/marymackcomedy1, Twitter.com/marymackcomedy & Youtube.com/marymackcomedy. Buy her stand-up comedy albums now at CDbaby.com
Follow FOX ADHD & Golan The Insatiable online:
Twitter.com/FOXADHD
Twitter.com/GolanInsatiable
Facebook.com/pages/Golan-the-Insatiable/111190185642482
