Mary Mack was born in Minnesota and grew up in northwestern Wisconsin, which she still calls home. She taps that background — in particular, the area’s quirkiness — for her comedy routine, sending audiences in stitches via “The Tonight Show,” the “Grand Ole Opry” and other national venues.
Mack will be hosting the North Star Comedy Hour at Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield on August 24. She spoke on “Morning Edition” with WPR’s Robin Washington about the roots of her humor and the joys of producing and hosting her own variety revue.
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Robin Washington: Is Mary Mack your given name? And if it was, were you annoyed by the children’s song going up?
Mary Mack: No, it is not. My given name was never pronounced right as a child, and I was shy, and I wouldn’t correct people. Now I’m a big loudmouth, and I’m not shy at all.
I actually took the name Mary Mack as a stage name because I used to be a music and band teacher. So we did that rhythm song with the kids in class, and I said, “You know, this is an easy name. I’ll just try it out for a month as a stage name.” And 21 years later, I still have that name.
RW: A lot of your humor is geographically based. Did it also stem from your childhood — were you the class clown or the family wisecracker?
MM: I was the quietest one in my family, so I did a lot of listening and critiquing of my family’s stories. But when I got into high school, I did get voted class clown.
RW: There was an election for that?
MM: It was written up in the yearbook. But I didn’t know comedy could be a job. I never saw any live comedy. I had a VHS tape of Louie Anderson. Much later he became a mentor and a friend.
RW: And practically a neighbor, because he’s from these parts.
MM: Yeah, he was a Minnesotan. It was just so funny that he was the only comedian I had seen on a recording and would later on become such a good friend.
RW: Back to geographic humor. You shared a clip of you on “The Tonight Show” (including jokes about school being off for deer season, and advice on how to survive falling through the ice — from “some guy who fell through the ice.”) Aren’t we all experts on things like that in our neck of the woods?
MM: Yeah. And if you do fall under the ice, swim towards the dark spot, not the bright spot.
RW: Is that comedy or real advice?
MM: It’s real advice.
RW: Tell us about the show at Big Top. You’re accompanied by something like a full orchestra.
MM: I’ve been doing this show for about 18 years. It was smaller but after COVID I decided to go big. I bring in three bands, I bring in poets, I write sketches. We do a game show. I know this sounds boastful, but I’m so proud of it. People come up to me and say it’s the most fun they’ve ever had at a live show. And it’s my baby.
I just love exposing the audience to these acts. One time we had a show up in northern Wisconsin and five of the acts had been on national television multiple times. Sometimes I have to trick the acts into coming by taking them trout fishing, but I’m willing to do that.
If you have an idea about something in northern Wisconsin you think we should talk about on “Morning Edition,” send it to us at northern@wpr.org.
