By MICHAEL SMITH
Staff Writer
Mark Hardy, or “Marcus” as he’s known to his fans visited Saint Rose this past Thursday night to entertain a crowd of laugh-hungry college students. Marcus was a contestant on the NBC reality show Last Comic Standing and finished as the runner-up to Iliza Shlesinger in the show’s sixth season in 2008.
He has 602 likes on Facebook and 1,279 followers on Twitter, it’s not the biggest fan following in relation to other comedians, but his followers are a loyal bunch.
He performed for almost an hour and a half in Saint Joseph’s Hall in a show sponsored by the Student Events Board.
Marcus started the show by telling the students that he was battling through a cold, and had taken a lot of cold medicine, so not even he knew what was going to come out of his mouth. He also thanked the crowd for showing up, joking about them not being able to drag enough friends to the show, since only 40 percent of the room was filled.
He touched on many topics, from starting out in relationships, to life as a married couple, and everything awkward in the beginning of a relationship—going as far as flatulence. He talked about the daughter he had at 16 years old, the daughter who is now almost 18, and how much older that makes him feel.
He poked fun at pop culture, saying that he’s just getting to that age where he can’t keep up with it, and he just doesn’t understand new music. From the likes of Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga, he is getting older and crankier and he just can’t handle it. He even decided to take his daughter to the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana double concert, calling it a horrible decision. Marcus told the crowd that he remembers 1992, thinking that Billy Ray Cyrus’ song “Achy Breaky Heart” would forever be his worst contribution to music, not realizing that his daughter was on her way towards Disney fame.
He moved on to television, starting with the Food Network. He joked about the difficulty of the dishes they make. He discussed the way that he often times sits there and wants to make those meals but it is an incredibly specific recipe that he could never repeat.
Marcus moved from Food Network shows to the nature shows, focusing on the accent of the narrator. His advice? Always go with the British narrator, because after listening to him talk about hungry lion cubs, he immediately feels inspired to run and feed the starving animals.
While the show was a little raunchy (and by a little, I mean every other word) it was one that kept the audience wanting more.
