MARC RYAN: White Trash Talk with a Shot of Southern Flavor

Marc Ryan is magnetic.

Just try to take your eyes or ears off the white-trash-talking Louisiana native when he starts in on himself-lamenting over Facebook arguments he has with his girlfriend (under the same roof)-or his buddy "Steve" about his latest brush with the cops.

Whether playing himself or drawing on the dumb luck of his alter-ego, Marc Ryan spins smart, fresh comedy infused with a Southern flavor that leaves his fans thirsting for more.

And after a year spent touring the theater circuit with Rodney Carrington, the longtime Skyline Comedy Cafe favorite returns to Appleton for a week of wild, mischievous fun (February 17 - 20). We caught up with Marc one morning on Valentine's Weekend while the comic finished up a radio appearance and week-long run on his home front:

Hello there! So, 10 a.m. You're up early today.

Yeah, doing radio here in Louisiana. It's snowing here! Which is rare. This is, like, a once-every-10-years thing.

And it happens when you come back home...

(laughs) Yeah, I guess it's my fault...But, uh, I'll be up in Appleton next week! How is the weather? Probably snowing there too?

Actually, we're looking outside now and it's pretty sunny. No snow since it got us last week. But, that's right, you're no stranger to Appleton and the Skyline Comedy Cafe.

No, I started coming back in-God, wish I would remember how many years ago it was ... I just immediately hit it off there. I used to come with a guy, Collin Moulton, and we had this high-energy music-oriented show where we would finish with music. That's what really kind of got the ball rolling with fans and stuff there. Ever since then I've come back regularly. I recorded my last live CD there. In March 2008. Since then, shortly after that, I toured with Rodney Carrington for a year, which kind of kept me out of the clubs, which is why I haven't been back in a while.

You know, I've kind of gone through a lot of different evolutions in my career. I started off talking a lot about the South. How, "we're not stupid, even though we're portrayed that way on TV." As I've gotten older, it's evolved. I still talk about the South, but now I spend more time on my relationship, living out in L.A. now and being from the South, more current to what's going on in my life. It's good for Valentine's weekend here. I'd say at least half or three quarters of my act I'm talking about relationships and my relationship and what that's like.



It's got to be a lot different, challenging when you're on the road all the time.

It's very different. A lot of time on the phone. Facebook. We have a lot of facebook arguments. It's weird to have fights over the Internet, especially when you're in the same house. You're like, "you're mad at me?" You're yelling up the stairs. "I see you posted it and the world agrees!" (laughs) The most annoying thing is I have to find out about what's going on with her life that way. You'd think she'd come home and go, "Guess what's happened?" But I have to read her facebook and go, "oh you got into argument at work." So lately I've been more up to date with life, the social networking world and how that affects us. It still has a Southern outlook on it.

Actually, when I was 18 I kind of got convinced. It was not my idea to try stand-up. I wanted to, I was very excited about the idea, but I wasn't confident enough to say, "you know? I'm gonna go do this." Someone signed me up who thought I was funny, and thought it would be fun. It went really well, but after that I tried so hard ... I'm sure you've seen comedians that try really hard, and it's uncomfortable to watch somebody try to be funny. I went through that 3 or 4 years and thought, OK, I guess comedy's not for me. But soon as did that, it all started working. I loosened my grip a little bit and just had fun with it. Now I get it, but at first it was kind of tumultuous. It's a difficult thing to do, and do it all the time. You have guys that come through who are hit and miss-some nights they're funny, sometimes not. It takes a while to where you're consistently good...

And you've performed comedy obviously in clubs, on TV, and of course online ... Let's talk about your "Steve" Web videos, the series that I'm sure at one time every person out there thought was real or at least could be real. Were those based on the character you talk about in your stand-up or where did the concept for them come-

I love your accent by the way. Sorry (laughs). I'm so excited to come up there. I'm sure you may already know this but ...I wrote material about a girl (I was dating in Wisconsin)... The accent is adorable. Even if I'm in the middle of California or Texas or Iowa, I'll bring it out..."I'm in Wisconsin, and really I just wanna hook up with Wisconsin girl so I can hear her say, "Oh Christ..."

But I'm sorry, yeah. Actually it was character in my stand-up. It was material I was doing in the show that was working really well. The idea at the time was just taking material from show and make some videos. My brother-in-law is a police officer, and I had all this material about buddy "Steve" that got arrested. I made the first video as a fluke to see what'd happen. I put it up all over the Internet, and to this day-with all the Web sites added together-there's been like 24 million views, so it's pretty crazy it happened that way. I couldn't have perceived of that. I thought, let's just put it up there. I made a couple more, we're going to be making some more new "Steve" videos in April. There's a chance-my agents are negotiating at CMT, trying to sell it as a one-hour special, so it could just keep growing and growing. I get tons of emails: "Where's Steve?" "How's he doing, is he in jail right now?? It's funny the emails I get on a regular basis. People just fell in love with him, over his arrest. (laughs)