"Comedy On The Sea's" - With Marc Yaffee - Show #271

Marc Yaffee, a seasoned comedian known for his clean and engaging humor, has transitioned from open mic nights to headlining stand-up comedy shows on cruise ships, such as his current seven-week contract with Holland America. He views performing on cruise ships as a unique opportunity to interact with audiences over an extended period, allowing him to build a dedicated fan base among passengers. Unlike traditional comedy clubs, cruise ship audiences tend to be older and less prone to heckling, enabling Yaffee to focus on delivering his rapid-paced humor without interruptions. While he occasionally adjusts his material to suit the international and diverse demographic aboard, Yaffee's commitment to consistent, family-friendly comedy remains steadfast, as demonstrated by his involvement in the Clean Comedy Kings tour with fellow comedian Jimmy Delavalle.

(00:04:26) Cruise Ship Comedy Tailored for PG-13

(00:06:36) Building a Fan Base at Sea

(00:08:03) "Tailoring Comedy for Cruise Ship Audiences"

(00:11:30) Cruise Ship Comedy: Connecting with Audiences

(00:20:15) Family-Friendly Clean Comedy Tour Launching Soon

(00:21:46) "COVID Comedy: State Responses & Flight Fiascos"

Transcript

R. Scott Edwards: 0:04

This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy.

Marc Yaffee: 0:06

Your host and emcee celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business.

R. Scott Edwards: 0:12

Stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and emcee, Scott Edwards. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the podcast. We have another great interview for you. You've heard this guy many times on the show. I've shared his comedy, we've done a couple interviews, but he's back again. Why? Because he's such a talented, successful and funny standup comic. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. Mark Yaffe.

Marc Yaffee: 0:48

God, thank you, man. It's good to be back. I, I wouldn't say I'm back for those reasons listed above. As much as I got way too much time on my hands and there were some more famous comedians who were unavailable today.

R. Scott Edwards: 1:01

Well, that is not true. There, there are more famous people, but not as dedicated to stand up comedy, prolific in doing entertainment and really you are performing all the time now, right now you're out doing another cruise show, correct?

Marc Yaffee: 1:18

Yeah, I'm on a seven week contract with Holland America. Usually like most comedians were fly on, fly off entertainers. Usually our contracts are anywhere from three days to two weeks. And this one, how did, how do.

R. Scott Edwards: 1:30

You do seven weeks? Explain that.

Marc Yaffee: 1:34

Well, you get off the ship. First of all, I'm not, yeah, I'm not, I'm not a prisoner. I'm not a prisoner yet. I have, I have not been picked up by security yet. Although they do follow me around once in a while. I'm in the shop, I go between Seattle and then the port stops are Juno, Ketchik, Sitka and Ketchikan. So you get off the ship, you can go roam around or you can just stay on the ship if you want.

R. Scott Edwards: 1:57

And, but they're changing, they're changing the.

Marc Yaffee: 2:00

Passengers, new passengers every week. They would be sick of my stuff after a couple weeks.

R. Scott Edwards: 2:04

Right. So you're on for seven weeks, but every week is a new set of passengers and then are you doing what, two shows for each group?

Marc Yaffee: 2:13

Yes. So when I got on the ship, it was repositioning from the South Pacific, so I did a Hawaii to Seattle crossing and that was like six days to see. And I did a do, do my two, two nights, two shows a night. So I did that for them. And then I'm in this Alaska run back and forth, new passengers every Sunday to Sunday and four shows a week. Two nights. Pretty, pretty easy peasy. Especially I'm, you know, I see the poor band, you know, and the on board like the billboard on. But they have dueling pianos and they're working six nights a week. So I'm glad I didn't learn to play an instrument.

R. Scott Edwards: 2:50

Well, it's a, it's a long gig for a cruise gig. But as I was alluding to earlier, I mean you've done television, you do comedy clubs all over the country, you've done some festivals, you've done some international work and some festivals. But cruises, especially at this time of, you know, what's happening in comedy is really a solid gig. And, and even though this is a long seven week contract, you've done several in the last few years.

Marc Yaffee: 3:21

Yeah, I mean I think the longest one I've done before this was three weeks. But it. Seven weeks I guess broke up too. I get to have. Holland allows me to have a guest on board. So I had a buddy who does some, produces some comedy shows up in Sonoma county last week, the week before that my fiance came on. So that's nice too. You know, you have some, have some friends and family that can, can join you. So that breaks it up.

R. Scott Edwards: 3:45

And that's a long time at sea, Mark. I mean, but now here's something that I'm sure the audience is curious about. Do you do special material for the cruise audience because it's a cruise audience or is a lot of your regular act? And we should remind everybody you're one of the few Native American comics in the country. You come out of Reno, Nevada. But the fact that you're a Native American or Indian comic does add a hook, a twist that gets you into a lot of shows. But when you're on a cruise, are you doing your regular sets or you kind of have a cruise friendly set?

Marc Yaffee: 4:26

Well, I have cruise friendly in the fact that Holland America in particular versus Carnival or some other cruise lines, they like PG 13. They, they like, they like funny family shows. So I cleaned that up. Family, family shows a little. Has some adult themes, but I do throw in some stuff I wouldn't do on land with some inside stuff like you know, the, the, the, the, the, the toilets are vacuum flush so you make sure you close the lead because I didn't the first time on the ship and I had to replace two towels and a shower curtain. I wouldn't do that on land. I talk about the, you know, some little things about like my sister, my sister. I joke about this again. I wouldn't do it on land, but I have a sister who won't cruise because she's worried about rough seas. Now she lives on the northern coast of California in a tsunami zone on top of the San Andreas fault.

R. Scott Edwards: 5:15

But she's worried about a cruise.

Marc Yaffee: 5:17

Yeah. With mega quakes and tidal waves, but she won't risk possible seasickness.

R. Scott Edwards: 5:23

Well, it is something that I, I think most people, especially our age, but anybody over 40 or 50 may have experienced a cruise. But when you're an entertainer on a cruise ship, it's totally different. You're not really part of the crew and you're not a passenger. You're almost this, you know, solo beast, cruising.

Marc Yaffee: 5:44

I'm a hybrid. Yeah.

R. Scott Edwards: 5:45

Yeah.

Marc Yaffee: 5:46

And it is particularly noticeable, like when you go to check in at the terminal, they have third parties, people that work with the cruise line. And, and these people are part. And they have no idea. Oh yeah, I'm a guest. And. Oh yes. You know, because there's maybe one guest entertainer a week out, you know, 1500 or 3000 or 5000 passengers that are cycling through that terminal. So they, they don't know what you're doing. They're like, what is this guy doing? You know, and you get to the front counter and they have to ask 20 questions. And it gets done eventually. But it is a nice status, though, because I'm fortunate that I don't have to do like the crew drills. I get to participate and, you know, like, if I want to do guest activities, I can, you know, go do a play in a ping pong tournament or, you know, eat in the dining room. Whereas, you know, the crew, they're a little restricted on where they can or can't and on their off hours. So.

R. Scott Edwards: 6:36

So you do get the benefit of the passenger experience. You can go to the buffets, eat in the restaurants and see the shows to help fill your time. Even though you are one of the entertainers.

Marc Yaffee: 6:47

Right. Like, I definitely, like, go watch some of the other shows. There's a, there's been a couple of Australian musical acts that have been on here. One was a family, this McCoy fan. They were amazing. They had two, two daughters. The mom and dad, it's fan. And they're just playing all this great music with violins and, and a guitar, but it was mostly rock. And then there's another vocalist on board next week. It was discovered on Instagram, did an Aretha Franklin tour for like two years. Found on his. Now she, you know, so I go and see these things. They got a rolling stone at sea. So I, I like those perks, you know, you get to. If not, I don't. I have enough to do. I feel like I'M not bored, but it is nice to, to go see some other entertainment and you get a.

R. Scott Edwards: 7:32

Chance to get off ship, which is so important. I've done a fair amount of cruising when I own my travel agency and we, you know, the cruising was experience but it can get old fast. But getting on and off the boat and seeing the different locations certainly helps fill the time. Have you found that the audiences are as receptive as, let's say in a comedy club? Or you. Is it like working corporate and you. It's important to keep everybody focused.

Marc Yaffee: 8:03

Well, I think it's a split thing. Like the audiences may not be as demonstrative or boisterous or laughing as hard as they might in a comedy club, but then you see these people for the rest of the week and they're all coming up to you and saying how much they like the show, which you know, you wouldn't have. Once you people walk out of a comedy club, you're not going to run into them probably at the store, you know, at an airport, know, maybe a very random thing. But here you keep cycling among the passengers and then they start to, you know, oh yeah, we really love your show. And two, three days later, can't wait for your next show. So you do build a little bit of a fan base which, you know, one on one fan base which you wouldn't get on the land gig because you keep.

R. Scott Edwards: 8:41

Right. Of course at a comedy club there's always that risk of a heckler. But I imagine in a cruise situation the audience is a little more muted. You're not getting drunks. Right.

Marc Yaffee: 8:52

Ship there's a little older crowd so I don't deal with hecklers. I might have an occasional napper. I work carnival too and the carnival can have some hecklers once in a while. But I think my style, because I work at a pretty rapid pace, I think it's. People aren't sure where to kind of jump in and try to misdirect the show or speak up. So I've been fortunate just to land and cruise ship gigs to not have too many problems with hecklers. But you know, I got some. I have some stuff ready for them if it's necessary, you know. But fortunately I haven't had to.

R. Scott Edwards: 9:26

Well, one of the best tools against hecklers is being really funny, somebody that people can relate to. And with that in mind. Are you still. Now I've no. I know your act, or at least I knew your act from back in the 90s. But is there still a pretty good influx of American Indian phased material. You used to kind of start off that way to introduce yourself. It does set the hook as far as who you are and what you're coming from, but I imagine you're probably doing less of that material. I'm just guessing, I'm asking, do you use less of that material these days or on the cruise ships?

Marc Yaffee: 10:04

Probably about the same. You know, I, I write some. Some new stuff on that and I use some, you know, you'll say greatest hits because, you know, people haven't seen you before. So, like some, some jokes, I'll just keep them in the, in the set. So the, the short answer is it's. I do do some, but I don't. I don't spend too much time on it.

R. Scott Edwards: 10:25

I know, Mark, that you do a lot of the Native American festivals and get together, and in that case, then you can lean heavily on that material. That's what's it like to be a Native American in, In America today. That. That's what I was thinking the comparison. And really, for you, it's interesting because you're such a pro and you've been in this for over 30 years now. Must have kind of a show for cruises, a show for comedy clubs, and a show for the Native American festivals. Is that true or is it all just Mark Yaffe?

Marc Yaffee: 10:57

No, it's mostly Mark Yaffe. There's some, there's some carryover. I'll do a little more lean if I'm at a tribal event and tribal Christmas party or something. I'll lean more into the. Some. Some Native stuff and, you know, what's, what's relatable. You know, you're on in a comedy club, you might be talking more about people partying and drinking and, you know, more relationship stuff. I'm a cruise ship. I might talk more about the locations where we're going and the cultural differences. So it's, it's basically the same shell of the set that I like with some, some variations and move some things around and.

R. Scott Edwards: 11:30

But you have to be somewhat versatile and, and again, because of your experience and you have a good knack for writing comedy. I won't say it's easy. I'm sure you have to put some work at it. But you, you do have a variety of material you can grab onto when you need to.

Marc Yaffee: 11:46

Yeah, I'm fortunate with that. And, you know, I do have a lot of time. I can write during the day on the, you know, I'm not commuting to gigs. I'm not having to, you know, fly to A new city and rent a car and drive two hours to get to a casino or an hour to get to a comedy club. So it does, it does give you some, some time to go through your set, work on new stuff and change in.

R. Scott Edwards: 12:07

Yeah. Imagine being on a cruise and you do have some downtime that you, you have the ability to focus on writing from time to time to kind of keep yourself sharp.

Marc Yaffee: 12:16

Yeah. And that the downside is you do get less reps. You're not getting on stage as much. Unless I work, you know, carnival, I'm doing five or ten shows a week here. I'm doing the same. I'm doing two, two sets repeated. So you try to move new stuff in. But there's stuff I'd like to work out. You know, I'm working on some stuff about my mom having dementia and it's a, it's a touchy subject. I know you've had, you know, your wife and your family have been, you've been through this. And I want to make it where it's accessible and people can see there's some humor in it because we got humor out of pain. But to introduce it, especially in an older audience, it's very, and I've kind of dipped into it and they've laughed at one joke. You try to go deeper and they're like, oh, we're not ready for this, you know, so.

R. Scott Edwards: 12:55

Yeah, well, that's, it's, that's, that's a great segue to where I wanted to ask you about now being on ship for seven weeks, you, home base is Reno, you have family and you are dealing with aging parents. As you and I have both discussed and been through together, how is, are you balancing your personal life with your professional life when you're getting these kind of long term gigs, it's got to add a little pressure to your life.

Marc Yaffee: 13:24

Well, yeah, it does. I'm fortunate. My mom, she's in a group home. She's 95 and she lives right by my, my sister who is 10 minutes away from her and she is a nurse, so she's good at managing her care.

R. Scott Edwards: 13:34

Oh, that's a great, that's a great setup right there.

Marc Yaffee: 13:37

And if they, you know, are trying to over medicate her or, or they're making too many visits and needless visits, she's, she's right on it. She has a good relationship with caregiver staff. And then the local clinic there where they're at, it's a real rural area in Mendocino coast. So that's Fine. I mean, my, my fiance, that the beauty of FaceTime and, you know, zoom, things like this is you can, you can still communicate with people and the Internet would be a lot harder than. I met this couple last night. They worked on the cruise ships in the 90s and then they ended up moving to America. They're Filipino and now they have this, you know, have this good life in America. They're like, oh, yeah, it was, we had to use payphone or you had to, you know, you call home maybe once a week if you're lucky. And they were, they were basically people. When you were at sea, you were pretty restricted. Now, thanks to, you know, Internet and satellites, we can stay in contact. But, yeah, it's a little tough. My fiance is dealing with some, some health issues. She has a shoulder injury and, you know, I'd like to be home helping work around the yard and helping her stay and give her a break. But, you know, it's kind of hard to mow your lawn when you're on the ship in Alaska.

R. Scott Edwards: 14:48

Yeah. We should mention that you're been doing the Alaska run, which there's some beautiful country and great cruises going up that way. We'll tell you what, you've been doing cruises in these tribal functions. What's coming up next? I'm sure you're, you're going to be done with cruising for a little bit or are you kind of leaning that way to keep your, the money coming in?

Marc Yaffee: 15:09

Well, fortunately, I'll be done. You know, I won't have a super long contract like that. They'll all be three to five days in June. I'm doing a, a tribal event over in near you and Wheatland.

R. Scott Edwards: 15:21

And then it's, no offense, I'm going to interrupt. Going from beautiful Anchorage in Alaska to Wheatland, that, that's like a culture shock right there.

Marc Yaffee: 15:31

Right. It's like a Ferrari to a Toyota. Right.

R. Scott Edwards: 15:36

I think you're being generous, but Wheatland people are lovely.

Marc Yaffee: 15:40

Yeah, no, it's, you know, the tribe, there's, I guess someone is retiring and they wanted to have me do the shows.

R. Scott Edwards: 15:46

Oh, oh, you're working one of the tribal functions. Okay.

Marc Yaffee: 15:48

And I'm doing a, I'm actually going to go, I've never done a cruise to out of England, so I'm going to cruise out of Dover, England, and then going to Belfast. So I'll be interested to see if it's mostly British people or if there's a bunch of Americans there. And because, you know, my, my humor is definitely American centric with Some of the references and you know, talk about homeschooling or talk about Home Depot or things like that. Be like, what's this bloke talking about? You know, so.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:17

Well, you. I thought you had done some international gigs before. Have you had limited experience overseas besides.

Marc Yaffee: 16:26

Well, most, yeah, mostly armed forces entertainment. So you say.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:28

Well, yeah, I thought USO shows, right?

Marc Yaffee: 16:31

I'm in Germany, I'm in Okinawa, I'm in Singapore. Yeah, but that means there may be some. Like I did some. A lot of the bases would have, especially when we went to Iraq, they'd have British troops or Australia. But it's not like I was like an all. All British or all Dutch or something. So yeah, there might. It be interesting to see what the mix is for that and I might, I might try to find out ahead of time and, and mess with the set a little bit to make it more user friendly, if you will.

R. Scott Edwards: 17:02

Well, I gotta tell you, it's such an honor to have you on the podcast. And ladies and gentlemen, like I said, you can go back and look for his sets on some of my shows, previous interviews. Always great to have you on the podcast. What's incredible is we're both older, but you're a lot younger than me. But we're both in that later stage. We're not in our 20s bouncing around strip clubs doing comedy. We're in a phase where doing cruises is really the payoff from all the years of hard work. Because on the cruises you are, you got a, you know, a bed to sleep on. You're getting the food, you're getting the entertainment and you're getting paid to be there to do your shows, which you'd be doing anyway. But in your case, you're doing the casinos, you're doing the comedy clubs, you're doing the cruises, you've been worldwide doing USO shows. A real wealth of opportunity and experience. Mark, congratulations on your career.

Marc Yaffee: 18:00

I've been blessed and, and fortunately I had people like you early on give me a chance and allows unlimited when I wasn't quite ready. But I think you saw something there and, and you were kind enough to share some of your wisdom and insights and give me stage time so that you know, I have, I can't have anything but love for you. And I wouldn't be there if it hadn't been the, the, the, you know, the open mic nights and the showcases and the one nighters and Winnemucca Nevadas, you know, it's all, it's all a buildup and you know, so so many people have been. Well, well, I see so many people have been supportive, but few have been as influential as you have been. And I can't ever thank you enough for that.

R. Scott Edwards: 18:38

Oh, well, you're very welcome. And, and, and I should let the audience know that I was able to work you a lot back in the 90s, but only because you work cheap.

Marc Yaffee: 18:50

That's exactly. I would drive two hours from a small town called Kelseyville, California to Old Sac to do a weekend for not a lot of money, but some decent food. Okay, the food wasn't that good, but it was, it was.

R. Scott Edwards: 19:04

And I'm joking. You got paid like everybody else, but it was, you know, fair.

Marc Yaffee: 19:09

I never, I never felt cheated. I was, I felt, you know, you make a, you get your first hundred dollars in comedy, you think you've hit the lottery. It's like, ye, like they're paying me to do this. I get to drive to Lebanon, Oregon to do 30 minutes in front of a drunk bar full of hillbillies. Yeah, that's fun. Nothing against Lebanon, Oregon. I love Oregon, but, yeah, it's all a great experience.

R. Scott Edwards: 19:31

Well, what's interesting, it's all about, that's the foundation of this career choice, right? If you're going to be in this industry and you're going to be an entertainer, whether it's a musician or a dancer or a singer, you got to go through what's called the road of hard knocks and kind of earn your place. And I was very proud to be one of those places that you got a chance to learn your trade and hone your skills as a writer and as a comic. And the fact that you've gone on to, you know, USO shows and cruise ships and big tribal events just proves that we were both right. You're a talented, funny guy, and the fact that you've blessed us with sharing some of this information on the podcast. Thank you so much, Mark.

Marc Yaffee: 20:15

Well, thank you, man. And folks are welcome to look. Look at my social media laugh with mark.com. marc. My parents couldn't spell. And I'm also launching another tour with a friend, Jimmy Delavalle. We are doing a Clean Comedy Kings tour. So because people, you know, comedy, clean comedy's coming back. And there's, you know, the people I've talked to. I have a friend, some bookings. He said, where do you have clean comedy? We need more clean comedy. So we're like, we'll do, we'll do a clean comedy show. Not that I, I, I, I won't, you know, do adult if necessary. But there seems to be a niche for it and thanks to venues like Dry Bar and some other outlets that's gotten people more interested in doing that and venues. So hopefully in the next year we'll be, we'll be doing a bunch of those and hope I'll be at the top floor of the Hilton doing this interview maybe instead of the bottom of the ship.

R. Scott Edwards: 21:12

Well, Mark, we appreciate it everybody. It's laugh with mark.com laugh with mark. M A R C.com get more information and learn about these future shows. And I agree and as you know from Laughs Unlimited, I always prefer clean comedy. It's a little bit harder, a little bit more work, but generally with the audiences it works better. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. I have a little bit of Mark stand up comedy to share with you, but I'm going to let Mark get back to his ship duties. Mark, thanks for being on the show this week.

Marc Yaffee: 21:46

Thanks again, Scott. Continued success of the podcast.

R. Scott Edwards: 21:48

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, here's a little comedy by Mark Yaffe.

Marc Yaffee: 21:55

Now there's a whole cottage industry has popped up over dog poop. I don't know if you have that here in your area. They have these franchises. Poop911, Scoop Soldier, no Dookie Left Behind. These guys come to the house and clean up your dog shit for you. And they identify themselves as pet waste removal specialists. Like there's some sort of training involved in this shit. Shit. I was a pet waste removal specialist at age 5. My mom handed me a shovel, said, pick up the caca and don't get your your shoes dirty. But they're making money. Evidently. I courted one of these poop one, nine one one guys coming out of my neighbor's yard. He said I was busy. He goes, we're making a shit ton of money. We had two COVIDs in America. People forget that we had Red State Covid and Blue State Covid. Two completely different pandemics, right? Shit. Blue State Covid was the worst thing to hit the planets in the the black plague of the 1300s. And red state Covid was the biggest hoax since Milli Vanilli. Blue State Covid, remember Blue State Covid? The lockdowns went on for weeks and months. Red State COVID lockdowns lasted three, four happy hours. Shit. Remember the Blue State at the peak of COVID If you wanted to go to a restaurant and eat, they put you at a parking garage a mile from the restaurant. They fed you through an IV drip so you wouldn't Open your mouth and chew shit. If you were in a red state, Florida, Texas, you had to eat inside. They made you lick the menu and share utensils. Prove you weren't a Covid Co conspirator. Fucking blue state people wearing masks at Zoom meetings. Red state people show up at Sam's Club, no mask or pants. Freedom. I think the craziest place to be during the pandemic. 30,000ft. Anyone fly during COVID That shit was nuts. You had drunk people right on the plane, fighting over masks and politics and seat assignments. That was just the pilots. You flew to Maui. Drunk people on the plane. It got so bad, Frontier came out with the friends fight, free promotion. Every day there was some new brawl. Some drunk guy beating up the other passengers, the flight attendants. The airlines were diverting flights and making emergency landings. Finally said, screw it. No more. We're not stopping. They unleashed a secret weapon against drunk people nobody saw coming. That secret weapon on the plane was duct tape. You remember that shit they started duct tape. Did you know they had duct tape inside the plane? I knew Spirit Airlines had duct tape on the outside of the plane. That's cruel, unusual and brilliant. I brought a couple extra rolls just in case. I said, shit, I got a big gig in Pensacola, Florida at the Haha Tata's Comedy Strip Club. And I'm not missing out because Air Raid Alex didn't get enough pretzels. Now, there is a proposal being floated before we fly that we will have to weigh in to get on the plane. Really? Good luck with that. Can you get people to be sober or put on their seatbelt? I don't even think this weigh in shit is for safety. I think they're trying to categorize us by fighting weight classifications. Yeah, wait till you get to your next flight and hear this announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has removed the fastened seat belts on let's get ready to rumble.

R. Scott Edwards: 25:26

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy.

Marc Yaffee: 25:29

Your host and mc. For information on the show, merchandise and.

R. Scott Edwards: 25:33

Our sponsors or to send comments to Scott, visit our website at www.standupyourhost and mc.com.

Marc Yaffee: 25:41

Look for more episodes soon.

R. Scott Edwards: 25:43

And enjoy the world of stand Up Comedy.

Marc Yaffee: 25:45

Visit a comedy showroom near.