The Daily Campus

Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Nick Hart Mary Mack, a comedian with a self-proclaimed '5-year-old' voice, took the stage at the SU and entertained audiences with her mandolin playing and dry humor.

Comedian Mary Mack's performance Thursday night at the Student union Theater was far from conventional. The turnout was relatively average but those who attended were in store for an unexpected great time and many laughs. Mack sauntered out on stage and giggled a faint hello into the microphone. Her voice, strikingly high, dreamy and childlike, instantly captured the audience's attention.

"This is my voice … I'm sorry," Mack giggled, "I've been told I sound like a 5-year-old, with a fourth grader's bod!"

Her sweetly awkward presence on stage was very endearing and gave her an irresistible likeability.

Mack has been on Comedy Central, and currently does live shows all around the country. She entertains people with her off-kilter, quirky performances and personal stories. Her humor was rather dry and she hit her punchlines so naturally that the audience would continue laughing even after the joke was over.

She used her own silly personal experiences and her family as fuel for her comedy. The material about her "taxidermy-like town of Minneapolis," its tiny roads and hunting holiday was refreshing but still funny.

"She went into many different tangents throughout the show sometimes losing her train of thought which actually played quite fluently into her routine and made it even funnier," said Elira Fifo, a 1st-semester psychology major. "I thought she was amusing and hilarious but in a different way than anyone else I've heard."

A particularly memorable part of the show had Mack playing an original song on the mandolin. Although this was rather peculiar, it was also extremely entertaining - perhaps because her singing voice was purposefully high pitched and off-key.

She later performed another jingle including a sing-along on a recorder. Her background as a music teacher (she has a bachelor's in clarinet, she said) created some very funny, quirky material as did her stories about her family. She was very comfortable using herself as a target saying at one point, "I told my mom if she didn't want me to do comedy she shouldn't have been boozed up in the fourth trimester."

Mack's material was also relatable to the audience. She discussed the election and even poked a few jokes at McCain (she was sporting an Obama '08 T-shirt). She interacted with the audience and gave a very easy going, approachable presence to the stage. It was clear she had won over her audience by the second song that she played.

"I thought her playfully kid-ish voice was hilarious; there's no one else like that" said Jordan Reed, a 1st-semester biological sciences major.

Mack said that she enjoys doing comedy but that "as a woman it's a little harder to get into that headlining position. A lot of clubs tend to underestimate their audiences and so it's a little harder."

Mack is also working on a collection of short stories and will continue to tour the country for the remainder of this year.

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