Life & Work with Mark LaBarge

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark LaBarge.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m from a small town in South Louisiana called New Iberia. It’s the heart of Cajun country. My dad was in the ARMY so I spent most of my childhood back and forth from Louisiana to all over the country and Europe. After high school, I joined the Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller. After my 6-year enlistment was up I spent 14 years in the department of defense as an Air Traffic Controller. In those 20 years, I deployed for one active duty combat tour in Kirkuk, Iraq and a couple of months in Bagram, Afghanistan as a civilian contractor. I also attained my private pilot license and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Northwestern State University of Louisiana with a BS in psychology. 8 years ago I stepped on a standup comedy stage for the first time and my life hasn’t been the same since. Everything took a back seat to comedy. In my years of doing standup, I’ve been the house MC for a Comedy Zone comedy club in Ft. Walton Beach, Fl. I’ve also helped build and run a couple of comedy scenes and multiple venues in Northwest Florida. The traveling is the best though. I’ve had the pleasure of doing comedy and meeting an interesting array of people around half the country. In Jan, 3rd 2020, I resigned from my 20-year career as an Air traffic controller to pursue standup full time. I took off in my conversion van and found myself here in early February. Shortly after that, the world shut down from Covid and I never left. I made the mistake of falling in love with the extreme sports Utah has to offer. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I’ve dabbled in mountain climbing, Mountain biking, snowboarding, skydiving, BASE jumping, paragliding, and speed riding. These days I spend my days running off of mountains and jumping out of airplanes. My nights are spent doing comedy and just enjoying my time on this planet. People today have a tendency to forget that time is the only commodity! You can catch me at Wiseguys Comedy Club downtown SLC most Tuesday and Wednesday nights and the occasional weekend and around the area at random venues. Some venues can be found on the Facebook page Salt Lake Comedy Bazaar. Come to the end of this November my girlfriend and I will be taking off in my conversion van to tour the country. We’re gonna spend up to a month in each state mainly skydiving, doing the whole van life social media thing, and of course doing as many shows as we can. She’s a musician you’re doing an interview with as well. The plan is to tour until we make it or the wheels fall off. You can keep up with me on Instagram: @marklabargecomedy or check out my website: MarkLaBarge.com.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I guess my largest struggle has been realizing that the cookie cutter typical American dream was not for me. I owned houses, nice cars and toys. Had a wife and a good job basically everything most Americans dream for. This was not the life for me. I have to be constantly on the move I’m basically a nomad because. The world just has too much to offer to just sit and spend your life in one place. So my life kind of diverged from a lot of my previous relationships and took me on this wild amazing journey that I haven’t gotten off of yet. So Comedy basically took everything from me and gave me something indescribable. It took me a long time to let go of all the material possessions and accomplishments I had achieved and work my way down to a minimalist life in order to leave that lifestyle. When you make a lot of money you have a tendency to spend a lot of money and accrue a lot of debt. So I had to figure out a way out of that. The way I found was trading in my Jeep for a van, building out that van, then renting out my house. I spent the next year living in my van, just saving up my money so I could resign from air traffic control. I did it and now I’m here.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My Stand up comedy mainly derives from my life experiences which is probably why it’s so dark. I do bits about what it’s like growing up in south Louisiana, what it was like being in the military and war, and what it’s like to be an air traffic controller. I also do a little observational comedy. I feel like my unique experiences give a unique perspective to the material I write. Most of my touring has been in the southeast US with the bulk of it in Florida. I’m most proud of the friendships and connections I’ve made along my journeys. I have friends in just about every state so that’s pretty cool. I basically just live doing comedy for the sake of doing comedy and hope to do it as long as humanly possible.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I basically get obsessed with subjects and go down the rabbit hole. When I started doing comedy, I must have watched at least 100 specials, read dozens of books, and listened to whatever podcasts I can find on comedy. I love listening to the high achievers as well as the ones like myself trying to figure it out. Because in comedy, there is no one route. Every single one of us is on our own journey and it can’t be replicated. It really is a special pursuit. It’s a giant puzzle that comes with no picture or puzzle pieces. You have to hunt for the pieces and figure out what the picture is, if that makes sense.

Contact Info:

• Website: MarkLaBarge.com
• Instagram: @MarkLaBargeComedy
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/mark.labarge
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/CajnatcMj