The Ever-Evolving Story of Mike E Winfield

It’s a Wednes­day night and I’m stand­ing in the Andy Ritchie’s Balt­haz­ar Lounge of Cap City Com­e­dy Club, bask­ing in the warm glow of what was just an amaz­ing per­for­mance. I’m watch­ing as a line of ador­ing fans are patient­ly wait­ing to meet the man that just daz­zled us all. The woman next in line squeals with delight and wraps her arms around Mike E. Win­field as if he’s an old high school bud­dy greet­ing her at the air­port. This is the kind of fan you will see at one of Mike E Win­field­’s shows, and it says so much about his ded­i­ca­tion to the art of stand up and con­nect­ing to his audience. 

Born in Bal­ti­more, Win­field says his moth­er was con­stant­ly keep­ing he and his broth­er on the straight path. Deter­mined they would­n’t get caught up in the drugs and street life of the city, his moth­er was the parental equiv­a­lent of the DARE pro­gram. Sacra­men­to would even­tu­al­ly become home, offer­ing such a dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ment, by con­trast. Always an ani­mat­ed per­son, Win­field says his gulli­bil­i­ty was his comedic gift as a child, and a source of con­stant amuse­ment at home. He still feels that child­like gullible essence con­tin­ues to lend to his performance. 

Ear­ly on in his com­e­dy career, Win­field would write to try to be fun­ny, but it was always the bits and sto­ries root­ed in truth that got the most response. Win­field real­ized he need­ed to com­bine his nat­ur­al tal­ent for being fun­ny with authen­tic­i­ty to find that win­ning com­bi­na­tion. Blend­ing sto­ries from his real life with his ani­mat­ed knack for phys­i­cal com­e­dy has become his sig­na­ture, and fans love him for it. 

Win­field is such a pro­lif­ic writer and you would be hard-pressed to see him doing the same mate­r­i­al twice. Rather, his mate­r­i­al evolves and pro­gress­es with his life and moves like the arc of a great sto­ry. Each set feels like a dra­mat­ic sit­com sea­son you want to binge-watch on Netflix.

As with any come­di­an with a gift for phys­i­cal com­e­dy, it was no sur­prise that Win­field even­tu­al­ly began to pur­sue act­ing. He quick­ly learned that as demand­ing as the career path of com­e­dy is, the required ded­i­ca­tion of the TV and film indus­try is equal­ly strong. Find­ing the bal­ance of pur­su­ing an act­ing career, with­out it tak­ing a toll on his first love of com­e­dy, has been a chal­lenge. Make no mis­take though, Mike E. Win­field­’s star is ris­ing quick­ly as an actor. With an appear­ance on The Office, Win­field now has a movie, Pimp, star­ring DMX and Keke Palmer, pre­mier­ing at Tribeca. He has also just been nom­i­nat­ed for a Day­time Emmy for his guest role on Con­ver­sa­tions in LA.

With sev­er­al oth­er act­ing projects in the works, Win­field is still dili­gent about writ­ing and stand up. For him com­e­dy is like an addic­tion and he needs to feel like he’s real­ly con­nect­ing with his audi­ence, giv­ing each per­for­mance his all. He’s very hands-on with his social media, reach­ing out and keep­ing fans in the loop, per­son­al­ly. Per­haps this is why his fans respond to him with such excite­ment and ded­i­ca­tion; we just can’t wait to binge-watch the next sea­son of Mike E. Win­field­’s story.