A Native American Comic Explains How Stand-Up Really Works, OR...Escaping the DMV!

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This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC, celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business.
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Stories, interviews, and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous.
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Here's your host and MC, Scott Edwards.
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All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have a special guest coming to join us on the podcast today.
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Here he is, all the way from Sparks, Nevada.
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It's comic Mark Yafy.
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Oh my goodness.
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And the crowd goes crazy.
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Mark is back in the house.
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Hey, how are you doing, buddy?
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Wow, I am uh good here in lovely Sparks, Nevada.
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I've been living out here, uh uh bought a new house.
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I'm living the suburban life.
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It's uh it's quite quite the experience.
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I'm a comedian uh slash yeah, comedian slash gardener now.
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Well, I'm laughing because but actually for a stand-up comic that uh uh you know the successful ones like you, a lot of your life is on the road, and a lot of the guys I worked with uh over the years were not homeowners because it didn't make any sense.
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If you're working, you know, maybe 36, 40 weeks a year, maybe more in some cases, you you don't want to be paying for a mortgage.
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A lot of them were uh you know, sharing space with somebody else so they could keep their home rent as low as possible because you know, if you're on the road, you're staying in some comedy condo or some hotel or or you know on the beach, whatever they do.
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Congratulations for being a homeowner.
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For uh those of you that don't know, Mark Yafe is a very talented uh Native American stand-up comic.
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There's not a lot of those out there.
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We'll talk about that.
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I think we're up to seven.
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Seven.
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Well, uh considering the population, that sounds very appropriate.
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Um Mark has been working for me for uh since the late 90s.
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Uh most recently, he is one of the uh best funny, clean, entertaining guys that I use for a lot of my fundraisers over the last couple decades.
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But back in the club days, Mark, why don't you share a little bit with the audience how you came to uh meet me and work at Laps?
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Well, it seems like it seems like yesterday it's 21 years to be exact, uh April 1999.
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So I knew you before the turn of the century, and uh my journey to Last Unlimited actually started with traffic school.
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Um unlike most comedians who were hired to teach uh traffic schools at Side G, which was big back in the uh 80s and 90s when people went in person in California to get a ticket card off their record to take an eight-hour class.
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Um I was working for uh the state of California at the DMV, and uh I just said, Hey, I'm gonna strike out on my own.
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Um everybody said, You gotta open a driving school, all the schools are dropping behind-the-wheel training.
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So I said, Okay, I'll do that, and then I'll teach traffic school classes.
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And and uh for some reason people enjoyed my stick.
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I wrote my own lesson plan.
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I'd always liked comedy.
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Uh yeah, you have a captive audience that's able to, you know, bounce a lot of good and that's what good material off.
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And then I said, I'm gonna start looking for actual comedians to work for me.
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So I don't know if you remember uh the uh the book of Robin Esperant.
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I I think she was living in Fairfield at the time.
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You probably crossed paths somewhere in the small world of comedy.
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But let hold that thought.
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You used to work at DMV?
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I was a DMV driving examiner for seven and a half years.
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No, and you survived.
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Can you think of can you think of what of the farthest thing?
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And I didn't know that about you.
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It's so funny about uh when you work with somebody.
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I've known you for, you know, like you said, 21 years, and I don't think we've ever talked about our respective past.
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I would not have guessed that you were a DMV drive instructor, and that is a scary yet I bet you could get some material from it.
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It must have been uh, I mean, quite frankly, you seem to be a lot smarter than most of the DMV people I run into.
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But uh that that's an interesting path to stand-up comedy.
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Oh my goodness.
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Yeah, it was just all backwards.
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You know, so I grew up in LA, Sacramento Valley, right in the the hub of comedy and the entertainment, uh, wrote a few screenplays and I wasn't getting anywhere, so I took a part-time job to a DMV, and then they offered me a full-time position in Lake County.
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So two hours from Sacramento.
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And then uh then I got tired of working at DMV.
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I said I can't do this the rest of my life, so I'll I'll open a driving school and start doing the traffic school classes, and then uh Robin S.
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Bron said you should uh uh go recruit some comedians.
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Uh at uh Last Unlimited.
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Uh Dale Van Dyke is over there, one of our uh Sacramento Star Wars, and he and Karen Anderson of uh L and Show Fame and uh many writing gigs over the years were teaching a class.
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So I said, Hey, well, you know, I'm gonna go recruit some comedians.
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I might as well just go take this class.
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Maybe I'll be funnier uh when I get to uh uh teach some more classes.
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You know, yeah.
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So so we need to tell the audience Del Van Dyke is one of the few local comics that was funny enough and had enough material to actually headline.
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But he actually uh him and Jack Gallagher and Paul Robbins might have been the only guys that live locally that could headline a show or had the notoriety to headline here in Sacramento.
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Uh, I'm sure I'm missing somebody.
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But Karen Anderson uh started off as an MC and then opening act and then feature, and then uh she went on to Fame and Fortune as one of the main writers for the Ellen show and uh very old friend.
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And these both Ellen, I'm sorry, not Ellen, uh Karen and Del Van Dyke approached me about uh, you know, I was doing open mics and stuff, and they said, well, we'd like to do a school.
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And so I let them use the club because there's no better experience than being on stage instead of like in some hall or you know, some motel room, why not teach it in a club?
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And I had very little to do with it other than I let them use the club, and Dell and Karen were doing these classes, and you came as a comic wannabe, basically.
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Yeah, and it was you know, and basically I wasn't even thinking I would do stand-up.
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I just wanted to try to be funny in my my job and recruit some people.
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And I got we were doing, I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday nights, uh same night as open mic.
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And uh in fact, your book was one of our was one of our first uh uh reading assignments.
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Oh, really?
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That was part of the curriculum.
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Well, see, that that's where I made my money.
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I sold my book.
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By the way, a little plug, be a stand-up comic or just look like one.
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One of the few uh books on stand-up comedy actually out there and available on my website.
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But go ahead.
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That's awesome.
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Yeah, so so I I show up at the class, there's like seven or eight of us, and it's Del and Karen, and and uh they're like, okay, well, yeah, here's your introduction.
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There's comedy, we should be talking comedy, and then they said, Well, and then afterwards it's the open mic.
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Now, I don't know if you were there that first night.
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I think you probably were, but um, I'm like, you know what, I'm here now, I drove two hours because every every time I uh got the car to go anywhere to uh stand up well, I hadn't gone anywhere else yet.
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It was a two-hour track so I might as well get my money's worth out of this thing, you know?
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And I got on stage, I think we had maybe 15 people in the audience that night, not counting the class.
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And I I thought about it, well, I'm gonna go do this comedy class.
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I've got to write a couple jokes just in case.
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And I think I did about three minutes, and I think I got about three laughs.
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It was just enough to uh just enough to get you excited, yeah.
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Well, there's nothing like the feeling of getting on stage in front of a room full of strangers and then making to being able to relate to them and share something that makes them laugh.
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It we've talked about it in several of the episodes, the adrenaline, the uh the fun, the energy that you pick up from the audience that is shared between the entertainer and the audience.
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And what's interesting about the open mics, and it was normally Tuesday nights, was that we would filter through sometimes twenty, thirty people and give them an opportunity from three to five minutes, I think it was, on stage.
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And quite frankly, uh many of them were were absolutely horrible.
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But the ones that seemed really either serious or actually had some natural talent, both the comedy school and me watching the open micers open up an opportunity for me to find opening act MCs.
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That's kind of the basis of it, or first base, if you want, to the the building something that might happen or turn into a career, which it sounds like it did for you.
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Well, I actually you know, I think you hired me about I was four or five months in, and there might have been a fallout or something, and uh you actually uh gave me my first paid club gig, and that was uh terrifying slash exhilarating.
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You know, the smart move I made was I didn't invite any family out.
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And uh my ex-wife at the time wasn't gonna drive two hours to hear me hear me struggle for five minutes, but uh when when it was you know, there was there's a whole different level of you know people know if you've been doing an open mic versus a book show on a weekend, and that was just like, you know, I thought I thought I'd uh you know I'd won the uh Kentucky Derby, you know, I felt like a triple combo.
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I'm like, I'm getting paid to do this thing, and you know, it was terrifying, but at the same time it was just uh you you never forget your first time in in front of the you know a club club audience.
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And uh I wasn't very good, but uh I had just I had just enough nuggets.
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I always noticed if I open my usually there's gonna be a lot of awful uh material that will come to guys that's eating and women that just aren't quite gonna be there.
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But almost everyone has one or two good nuggets, and I think some about the you know the rest of their five or six minutes might just just be horrific.
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But yeah, I I had those nuggets and I just built on them and I always loved writing, and uh you were very uh encouraging and uh Dell was encouraging, it was it was a nurturing environment, and uh yeah, I couldn't be uh more thankful, but I I stumbled in there, you know.
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It's it was such an ass backwards uh uh opportunity.
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And yeah, I'm so glad that uh Laughs Unlimited and I could be there for you.
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And if you have a few nuggets of comedy, a few lines, and by the way, I want to stress that these have to be original lines.
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One of the things that was important about the open mic nights is we would often catch people doing uh bits, you know, borrowed or stolen from other entertainers.
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Repurposed.
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Repurposed, there you go.
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That's the polite way to put it.
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And we would stop them cold and say, look, you know, if you if you're serious about doing this and you ever want to get back up on this stage, write your own stuff.
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Funny or not funny, you have to develop your own material.
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And we were very uh particular about that.
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And I this is the first time I've mentioned this in the podcast, but a lot of the clubs, uh, the owners weren't active in the open mic nights.
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It was kind of an off-night, you know, you're getting a couple bucks at the door per person, and you hope to sell a few drinks, and like you said, the crowds weren't very big, 15, 20 people.
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So the owners would not normally be there.
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I was such a fan of stand-up comedy.
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I was so involved in my club that I did make most of the open mics, if uh I think all of them, but I will say most of them.
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And it was important to me that we were pure about what we were offering and then also what we were expecting.
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And a lot of times I would sit down the open micers and say, Look, you know, you you don't have to be funny for the full five minutes when you're just getting started.
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Find something about you, talk about your life, something original, and and what you were saying is a nugget.
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Now, in your case, being um Native American background, certainly opp those opportunities for nuggets were hopefully a little easier for you.
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I think I really had a uh advantage with that, you know, because one uh Dale and Karen and yourself because all stressed to be original, to be clean, because you know, a lot of people they don't have mentors, they don't have club owners that would give them the time of day.
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And uh, you know, you you couldn't have been more generous and with time and and some commentary, you know, you actually listen to my set.
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And I remember I came back to the sound though, so it was almost like, okay, I think going into the confessional and and and but you know, it's just those little tweaks.
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You don't understand a word here, a sentence here.
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Hey, you know, you mark you you you I don't know what you were doing with that mic court, you're you you're you're you're you didn't uh you're not really making eye contact.
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I remember I wore my glasses.
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I think you might have been one of the first people to say you might want to take your glasses off.
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I I had glasses and a goatee.
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I look at one of my early uh headshots.
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Like I look like I was I look like I was auditioning for a uh a role in an accounting firm or something.
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I don't know.
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Right, right, right.
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And the look sometimes has a lot to do with the eddy uh the audience uh accepting you or not accepting you.
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But it it is true that uh, and I'm glad you mentioned this, that unlike other clubs, again, I I keep uh I don't I hope it's not coming across as bragging or boasting, but we had a serious interest in stand-up comedy and the purity of the entertainment value, and we did really push clean comedy, and that's because back in the 80s and 90s, especially in the 80s, a lot of the guys we worked with went on to the Tonight Show or uh stars of sitcoms, you know, your Bob Sagitt's Dave Couillet, Gary Shanling, Dana Carvey.
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Uh I can go on and on.
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Uh well yeah.
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Well you walk into you walk into the front of your club and you see that wall with those, you know, just a pantheon of of sitcom stars and comedy legends.
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It's like this is this is uh serious.
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That was pretty intimidating.
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And and those people got where they got because they could do a clean set.
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Now they're not always clean all the time, as we know Bob Sagitt's one of the filthiest stand-up comics.
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And then he's America's dad on Full House.
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But uh it was important to me uh in interacting with the uh especially the open micers, but anybody that worked for me, uh, that you keep it clean.
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And I'll give you one quick side story, uh, mostly for the audience's benefit, is and you've seen this being a stand-up comic, it is so frustrating when you're trying to present professional entertainment that people have paid for, and you have some joker goes up and it's just F bomb, F-bomb, F and this, F and that.
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You know, I went to the F and store to get some F and bread, and it's like that's not comedy.
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That's not funny.
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Yeah, the audience may react.
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They're you're gonna get some sort of reaction from the audience, but that's not what we're going for.
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That's not what's gonna take you to being on a sitcom or on a tonight show visit.
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You have to have some benefit to the story, some uh um something that is relatable to the audience.
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And just dropping F-bombs right and left is not a way to uh entertain in my mind.
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Now, again, I'm I might be alone.
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There's a lot of angry, dirty comics out there that would argue with me and say that comedy is free speech and expression, and if I want to swear, that's that's what I get to do.
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And I go, Well, these people paid 20 bucks to see you.
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I think they have something to say about it.
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And there's the art, there's the art of comedy and there's the business of comedy.
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There you go.
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They're not always running on parallel tracks.
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So exactly.
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Well, and then I took it a little bit farther and said, Well, it's not only the audience is paying for you, I'm paying you.
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So you do you work in my guidelines or you don't work.
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And there was a few people that didn't, you know.
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But uh we've gotten off track.
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I am so glad that we had uh such an important part of your life.
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Now, was there anybody you ended up working with uh with at laughs that uh really stood out to you?
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Well, you know what?
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I it's I think back now, it's like all the the the bigger stars that kind of moved on.
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There were some uh uh you know, there's the Jack Gallagher's, of course, Del Van Dyke, you know, those but back then I didn't know better.
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You would we were you know looking up to guys that were like two and three years in, which was kind of just absurd in a way.
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Because you and it was almost like, well, how do I the next level to me, I wasn't thinking Seinfeld, Sam Kennison.
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I was just thinking, oh, I want to be, you know, I be I need to be as good as uh uh Better Man or you know, the the local headliners and and tree and these guys that were these one night legends because there's so many talented people that you know never never made it to national fame.
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But uh I think uh John Fox.
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I I think I I think I want to say I worked with John Fox at your club.
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John Fox, perennial road comic.
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Uh I'm talking this so here's a few quick names to rattle off that you may have worked with that weren't famous, but boy, they're damn funny.
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We can talk on Milt Abel, Steve Brunner, Jeff Jenna, you know, there there's uh Bruce Baum, even uh a lot of these people uh skirted success.
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Uh well, no, they're successful, they skirted being famous.
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Famous.
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Uh you know, Diane Nichols as a comedian was right on the fringe and just never got that notoriety, and yet one of the funniest women in comedy.
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So Sue Murphy, Dan St.
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Paul, oh good, yeah.
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All those people.
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There's a lot of them.
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So no, I think I get to work with a number of a number of them.
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I don't think, you know, I don't think I got uh fucked with any super heavy hitters, but you know, I I was grateful for any work I got.
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It was just like, wow, they're gonna pay me to tell jokes.
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And uh you were I I believe you made sure, and I know and Bell reinforced is to make sure you take your set.
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And I think that's something I learned in his class, and then it was just it was really a learning experience.
00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:21.440
I had two hours to kill on my way home, and so that could be super painful too to listen to yourself uh uh not doing so well over and over, but what a great learning experience.
00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:30.559
It's it's it's uh really interesting to hear you talk because you're reminding me of some of the things that we always gave advice to uh wannabe entertainers.
00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:37.680
I mean, you succeeded, you're a very funny uh headliner now, and has worked casinos and shows and clubs all over the country.
00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:47.680
But uh back in the day, some of the things we said was, yeah, read my book because it teaches you a lot about what's expected in the etiquette of uh being a stand-up comic.
00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:52.960
But uh, we always recommended that you record your sets, that you keep a notepad around.
00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:57.680
So if you have a funny idea of thought, you can uh write it down, jot it down.
00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:21.440
In fact, especially in the open mics, I had no problem with uh entertainers or potential entertainers taking notes up on stage because um I had seen uh somebody even like Gary Shanling taking up some material he'd just written, and of course, he's not gonna try it out at the comedy store or on the Tonight Show, he's gonna try it out in Hoboken in Sacramento.
00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:32.000
He would, you know, read some of the material he wrote recently and needed an opportunity to just get it out there and see if it was gonna go anywhere.
00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:45.839
And you know, if I'm seeing somebody like Gary Shanling reading from notes on stage, it's certainly okay for you know Billy Joe Bob to get up there and use his notes to try to to find his material, as you said, find his nuggets.
00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:46.799
Right.
00:19:46.799 --> 00:20:03.119
And another thing is uh you made the club available, or there was a couple comedy competitions, and those were were those were definitely uh game changers too because you had to learn to write your best material in a short amount of time, catch catch catch try to catch fire with the audience right away.
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:08.640
I I remember one time this is uh I kind of cringe you have some cringe worthy stuff you do early on.
00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:13.119
I remember I actually had the uh the Mexican Scotch Irish German Navajo blues.
00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:16.079
I tried to do a blues song of the closer.
00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:32.960
I had the harmonica, I played like four notes, I end up dropping my pants and I had a kilt underneath, because you know, it's part of you know Scotch Irish and Navajo and and a kilt and a sombrero, I'd look completely gay or some crazy whatever line I said, and I'd unzip the pants and say, you know what, that's not gonna work.
00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:41.680
I tried that like twice, but I had the freedom to do that, and you know, some clubs that have said, uh we we really don't want to see you here again unless you're uh buying drinks and sitting in the audience.
00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:49.680
But uh we we were given the thank God I was given the freedom to make you know to make some very uh crucial mistakes.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.519
Yeah, that's how you grow as a as a comedian, is you have to try stuff.
00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:12.000
Um and and here's a little tidbit for any wannabe comics out there that if you get a chance to do an open mic or you actually have a paid gig but you got new material you want to try, you close with your triple A material, you open with your A material, and then anything you want to test out or try, you put right in the middle of your set.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:21.599
Because the idea is you got to capture the audience up front, show that you're a professional, show that you're funny, and then the end of the show, that's what the audience is gonna remember.
00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:26.799
So you got to kill them at the end with your what's called a closer, closing bit.
00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:32.960
And then in the middle, that's the place to try stuff and work on material and and expand on material.
00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:51.519
A lot of times uh you'll write a nugget, you'll write a joke, and then you'll play with it with different variations or adding different things, and it builds, you know, what might be an idea and ten words might end up being five minutes of your half hour set if you keep working on it.
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:54.000
That is amazing how you have that one topic.
00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.759
In fact, you know, there's stuff I I was pretty good at writing things down, and sometimes it would be six.
00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:03.279
months later so that joke you know that's that's gonna go with it.
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:59.359
Like what wow what would you like you know you you just kinda keep keep you keep some keep some jokes in storage it were just kind of orphaned they didn't really go with anything and then like oh that's that's perfect I'm talking about doing these uh road gigs and then this joke fits right in there so it was uh it's really the point is like Scott says you gotta you gotta write save all your ideas uh try to try to organize and that's always been my struggle you know I mean I can write it I got notebooks everywhere and we don't cards and voice notes and it's really corralling it back back that's what I missed about the early days when it was go to the last unlimited I had I had three or five or ten minutes and my whole goal was just to make sure I memorized that and and didn't uh flub that up and look natural and I didn't it was always so hard from an empathetic point of view when you see somebody go up and he's halfway through a bid he wrote and he forgets it.
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:01.519
He forgets his punchline or something.
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.000
I mean there's just nothing more painful.
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:25.200
But going back to what you said a minute ago that I think hasn't uh been mentioned that's important for people to know about stand up comedy as much as it involves drinking and laughing and frivolity it's a job you're getting paid if you're a professional you have so much time to fill and you have to do it in a professional manner.
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:40.160
It's a job and so part of practicing rehearsing writing down stuff writing in general trying out new things interacting with the audience is all part of the job itself to make it a success.
00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:50.799
And I think that a lot of people that watch comedy don't really understand the idiosyncrasies of the the different nuances you have to bring together to make something work.
00:23:50.799 --> 00:24:08.319
You know you'll see somebody like Robin Williams throw something out that's like hilarious and you go, man, he just said that off the top of his head and I go bullshit he's probably said that a hundred times on a hundred different stages and each time he says it a little different because he's trying to find just the right way to say it.
00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:15.440
And and he and and or and he makes it sound like he just came off the top of his head too that's another marker pro.
00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:38.160
Yeah that's that's how I always thought entertainers became comics became good actors because when you're on stage you're presenting material that you've probably said a hundred two thousand times but you want to make it sound like you just thought of it that's the acting part that's whether practicing acting and then that ends up leading into who knows maybe being an actor or doing something.
00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:43.119
Hey Mark we got off track a little bit I just love talking about comedy as an art form.
00:24:43.119 --> 00:27:30.799
But let's go back to you and your career have you had any interesting uh road experiences I'm sure you've played all over yeah but I'm I've been fortunate enough to do uh 43 states eleven countries uh I'd like to think I'm not sure this is official but I I may be the only comedian with land air and sea credits I did I I worked uh cruise lines uh worked for Hall in America explain the air of course land gig and the air was uh we were on the way myself and uh another native conference Gilbert Brown were going to perform at the World Eskimo Indian Olympics in uh air banks no I did get that we were doing a show in Juno with another native conference that was a separate gig we were going to to Juno Alaska to do a uh a couple shows for one of sort of the Citadel uh tribe and then some other uh shows tied in with it and we're like hey we we should promote the show on over on Alaska Air and they're really super show and friendly there and I said we'll go up and ask it to let us like say something about the show and he came back and says well uh yeah she said why you if you want to go up there and and tell some jokes and uh since you're the headliners I went up there I actually uh got got on the uh the little uh flight attendant PA no they let you use the microphone material um Alaska Airlines yes yes I love Alaska we fly Alaska all the time over to Hawaii it's always not only always a good fair rate but the people are really generous and and kind but to let you use the stewardess mic and do a bit I've never heard that so you are my first official comic in 40 plus years in the business that did land sea and air yay oh I should do yeah that that's my uh that's my quaint of friend yeah oh man you're the only one you're the only one you gotta hang on to that you gotta hang on to any credit you can in this day and age um let's see another interesting one I was over in Iraq of 2007 and we were performing a Marine Ford operating base in uh Anbar province and they'd had some casualties the week before so we said well we should you know let's try to come up with some you know some just to boost my or something that's why I was just thinking about it I said you know what my hair was down past my shoulders I'm gonna shake my head and so we found two two clippers you know because marines are always giving each other haircut so no shortage of uh clippers in the in the Ford operating base and I was on a flatbed truck it was like Bob Hope 19 you know they have the flatbed and uh and other trucks parked behind uh all the marines with their lights pointing at the back of this truck and speakers on the truck bed and then they brought up the chair and I was telling the jokes right and then I shaved my head while I had my head shaved while I kept telling jokes and the sergeant over and just told up a fistful of hair.
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:34.400
I should send you some pictures of that and then the crowd must have gone nuts.
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:35.599
Yeah they loved it.
00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:54.559
And then about a month later Stephen Colbert goes over there and he uh shaves his head and of course it's national news you know because he's a national uh celebrity like hey I did that you started it I did and that's real commitment to comedy I gotta tell you I I love comedy but I would never shave my head for it.
00:27:54.720 --> 00:28:30.079
That's incredible it was a little it yeah it was a little uh painful after work because you know I was it was Iraq we were there I think in uh Mayor so it was already oh yeah my you know I didn't I didn't bring any hats I didn't plan that out so my head was popping up like jiffy pop my scalp yeah well that's a great story and something I hadn't heard and uh I've never heard of so you've actually entered entertained in a plane and shaved your head for in front of and for an audience that is performed on and performed on a rock in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for a tribal gathering.
00:28:30.079 --> 00:29:29.440
Wow that's no mind just a rock and a bunch of people yeah that the one of the tribal elders came up gave a blessing and then the now for comedy well being a Native American comic and we're gonna play one of your sets here in just a minute and people will hear a little bit more about your heritage but I think that that and I'm sure I told you this when you were just getting started in 1999 that's really a hook you can't pass on because as you said there's six or seven maybe in the world Native American uh entertainers and and when you narrow it down to comedy I'm sure it's even less and uh to have that wealth of material I remember uh seeing some of your early sets and it wasn't I mean this is no offense Mark but it wasn't brilliant stuff but it didn't need to be because it was so funny it was it was easy Indian heritage comedy.
00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:52.559
What I respect about you is that you've matured beyond that and of course you talk about your heritage and and some of the uh you've developed into a more um sophisticated uh way of looking at being an American Indian in today's world and and doing comedy and I respect that about you and that's why I still use you so much for gigs.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:09.519
But the uh truth of the matter is it is something that uh there's a wealth of material on I love uh you didn't do it in the early days that I remember but I know lately because you work a lot of casinos it's pretty damn easy to to make some jokes about the Indian casinos.
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:54.240
Oh yeah I uh I have a wealth of those and then you know the other one is the DMV I started finally talking about DMV I think I had post-traumatic stress because I never you know like all those years you knew me didn't even know I worked for DMV no I didn't know you never talked about it on stage about that yeah now you never talked about it on stage and that would have been another a great uh um position to come from uh to to talk and write about well if you can believe it or not it was actually very uh I want to say boring well BMB's boring but it was super you think driving examiner when you're taking out new drivers and are getting their license and they're terrified I was in uh Lakeport California and there was no stoplights so it was a town with just stop signs.
00:30:54.240 --> 00:31:01.680
So people would actually drive a couple three hours from the Bay Area and Santa Rosa just to go take their test there because they they thought they had a better chance of passing.
00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:05.279
So it wasn't my life wasn't in danger too much.
00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:07.839
Yeah I could I could just see you as an examiner.
00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:13.039
All right we're gonna pretend there's a light over there flashing yellow what do you do?
00:31:13.359 --> 00:31:20.000
That's so funny because I was trying to come up with jokes about that you know fake fake pedestrians and oh stop lights.
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:20.240
Yeah.
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:50.319
Well Mark thanks so much for uh sharing some of your stories and some of your uh life in comedy I I want to reiterate to the uh audience that I still book uh several fundraisers uh a year and if you're ever trying to raise money for a special cause and you need a professional give me a call you can contact me through the website but I'm only this is my first plug ever on that but the reason I'm doing it is Mark is one of those guys that I can always count on to be available.
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:54.960
He works at a reasonable rate for the fundraiser so that they can make the most money possible.
00:31:54.960 --> 00:32:02.480
And then when he's on stage whether you need 15 minutes or 45 minutes it's good clean comedy entertainment.
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:04.400
I want to thank you for that Mark.
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:11.200
Well thank you and you know again you you taught me and Dale taught me just being in that club the value of the flexibility.
00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:30.480
Hey it's not about oh my headline and my feature and am I hosting it's like just go good do the job you treated fairly which you've always treated me fairly you get paid you know something reasonable you're you and you get this beauty of comedy is we get to do shows that we love doing and entertaining people and a lot of times we're working with great folks like you and raising money for great causes.
00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:34.480
Yeah and let's be honest I'm win-win pretty cheap you probably didn't get paid enough.
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:41.680
But anyway I tr I I I forgot that part that was 21 years ago though even more than fair over the years.
00:32:42.240 --> 00:37:48.079
Well thank you and I'm so glad that we uh were such a big part of uh what has turned into a very successful career and uh thank you again for doing the podcast so ladies and gentlemen I want to share a few minutes of uh amazing stand-up comedy by Mark uh Mark thanks for coming on the podcast um everybody out there be sure to listen and enjoy this set coming up from Mark Yafey very talented Native American stand-up comic you heard him here first and let's enjoy this set and we'll be right back Mark thanks so much for being on the show thank you Scott I am not from the reservation I come from a small fishing village on the Pacific coast called Los Angeles born in LA at birth at birth I weighed eleven pounds five ounces worst part was eleven pound head five ounce body I was a globe on a Q2 all my baby pictures like but my mom actually had an easy delivery because I'm adopted my friends my friends like will you deliver by C section a no court order Navajo adopted by a Mexican mother and a Jewish father I'm a bargain hunter gatherer illegal too I mean legal too prova because you no longer adopt an Indian child from their tribe that is called the Indian Child Welfare Act and they they passed a law to protect our people from Angelina Jolie I was all excited right I got on one of these uh um ancestry websites I started researching my my family roots I found out my Navajo grandfather had been a medicine man I was all excited like oh this is amazing grandpa was a medicine man turns out he was a pharmacist at CVS people find out you're native they got all sorts of questions and come I got this here oh Mark you're Native American I bet your children have beautiful traditional tribal names I'm like uh yeah a little big mouth and ground until Christmas oh you're Native American can you share some of your ancient tribal wisdom I'm not even from the reservation I just make stuff up like sure ancient tribal wisdom ancient tribal wisdom I've been through the desert on a horse with no name so good to get out of the rain don't stop believing hold on to that feeling the do do do the da-da-da's all I have to say to you I was working in uh Las Vegas guy came up to me after showing you actually it was dead serious is it true you natives in your travels you're guided by outer voices like uh yes sir it's called a Google navigation system you know you can change the voices on your GPS I do it I get bored on the road I do that all the time put on the British guy the other day you know he's all formal right it's now entering the Motuway put on the French guy who was a little sippy he goes you want to go to Waco Texas why do you want to go to Waco Texas they added a Nigerian man to the GPS voices this Nigerian guy tripped me out he goes you will go 3.1 miles you will make a right turn into your bank parking lot you will withdraw $7500 a minute to my uncle well hey I hope you enjoyed that show from our friend Mark Gaffey it was certainly great to uh talk to him and catch up as I mentioned I get a chance to see him just about every year but I still didn't know about his DMV heritage so very very funny anyway we hope you enjoyed the interview and the comedy set thanks for joining us for this week's show and don't forget if you get a chance continue to listen share and review this podcast thanks a lot bye we hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy Your Host and MC for information on the show merchandise and our sponsors or to send comments to Scott visit our website at www.standupyourhost and mc dot com look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of stand up comedy visit a comedy showroom near you