Mike MacRae: Forming a Lasting Impression

All of us on the Com­e­dy Wham staff are big fans of not only com­e­dy, but also the local morn­ing show Dud­ley and Bob with Matt. (In fact, it’s how I met CW’s Valerie and Lara.) It’s also the first place I got to hear some of the many voic­es of Austin’s own Mike MacRae, when he dropped by the show with his own built-in cast of char­ac­ters. Lara Smith caught up with MacRae on loca­tion to see what makes him tick.

A mas­ter at impres­sions as well as stand-up, St. Louis born MacRae is some­one you’ve prob­a­bly heard in one medi­um or anoth­er. From his call-in roles as Mitt Rom­ney on The Howard Stern Show, to his own Com­e­dy Cen­tral Pre­mi­um Blend spe­cial, to an ever diverse and grow­ing body of voiceover work, chances are you’ve had him in your liv­ing room or on your morn­ing com­mute and did­n’t even know it.

Young MacRae found a love of com­e­dy ear­ly, spend­ing time with late night TV leg­ends like Car­son and Let­ter­man (whose stage he would lat­er grace him­self). He also kept eyes on the stylings of com­e­dy names like Bri­an Regan and Jake Johannsen. He quick­ly found the pow­er of a good impres­sion, lam­poon­ing teach­ers and stu­dents, per­form­ing to their delight.

It was­n’t until lat­er in life, after a move from St. Louis to Hous­ton to grab the most quin­tes­sen­tial of com­e­dy career majors – Civ­il Engi­neer­ing – that MacRae decid­ed to take the stage him­self. With a sud­den abun­dance of free time on his hands after school, he decid­ed to take on the stage at an open mic. This was fol­lowed short­ly by his move to Austin in 2007, and he essen­tial­ly has­n’t looked back.

With his grav­el­ly drawl and – at first expo­sure – bit­ing­ly cyn­i­cal social com­men­tary, you might be tempt­ed to think that MacRae is anoth­er exam­ple of the dis­grun­tled come­di­an arche­type. But when you catch him on stage, on screen, or in voice-over work, it’s imme­di­ate­ly and grat­i­fy­ing­ly appar­ent that he’s a mas­ter of mal­leable per­son­al­i­ty: shap­ing him­self and his mate­r­i­al to the medi­um, task, and top­ic at hand.

Lis­ten to this week’s episode for more of MacRae’s past, future, and unique­ly hon­est and prag­mat­ic world­view. After that, fol­low MacRae on Twit­ter, catch up with him at his upcom­ing appearance(s) at the 2018 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val, and in past and upcom­ing episodes of the pod­cast he co-hosts, Wel­come to Jol­lyville.