Film, TV, and Squeaky-Clean Comedy with Mark Christopher Lawrence

Speaker: 00:00:00

Hey there, welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast with Geoffrey and Jaclyn Whitt.

Speaker: 00:00:05

We're happy to be with you today, and we have a special guest, Mark Christopher Lawrence.

Jaclyn: 00:00:10

Mark Christopher Lawrence has been nominated for two Emmy Awards for his work on the short film The Flourish, and on his co produced short Stacks.

Jaclyn: 00:00:19

Mark Christopher Lawrence is a recipient of the San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Actor of the Year.

Jaclyn: 00:00:26

He's a national headliner that has worked with the likes of Sinbad, Jerry Seinfeld, Rodney Dangerfield, and Jeff Foxworthy, as well as having headlined clubs and colleges and churches all over the USA and Canada.

Jaclyn: 00:00:39

You may have seen him in Bringing Back Christmas, Fragment Oblivion, or you may recognize him as Big Mike from the NBC TV series, Chuck.

Jaclyn: 00:00:47

Mark Christopher Lawrence has been in several other productions and is currently in pre production on several projects as a writer and or producer.

Jaclyn: 00:00:55

And don't miss his Dry Bar Comedy special, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Clean Out of Compton.

Jaclyn: 00:01:00

Welcome to the podcast.

Mark: 00:01:02

Thank you.

Geoff: 00:01:02

Hey Mark, it's great to meet you.

Geoff: 00:01:04

actually, our first experience and, introduction to you was as Big Mike in Chuck.

Geoff: 00:01:10

Uh, the interesting thing is we, we really enjoyed the show and I think we were down to the final bit.

Geoff: 00:01:15

Few episodes.

Geoff: 00:01:16

I don't remember how many, cause it was a few years ago when, um, you know, we were, we're getting towards the ending, maybe two, three episodes.

Geoff: 00:01:23

And, um, it got discontinued from

Jaclyn: 00:01:26

Pulled off of, yeah, yeah, when they removed it or whatever.

Jaclyn: 00:01:29

So we didn't get to see the ending.

Mark: 00:01:32

think it's still playing somewhere, like Amazon or

Jaclyn: 00:01:34

Yeah, we'll have to find it.

Geoff: 00:01:36

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:01:36

I'll have to watch that ending.

Jaclyn: 00:01:37

so Mark Christopher, how did you get into acting?

Jaclyn: 00:01:42

Was it something you started as a child?

Jaclyn: 00:01:44

Is it something that, you know, in your teens you were like, hmm, this is interesting?

Jaclyn: 00:01:47

Where did it start for you?

Mark: 00:01:49

I had an English teacher in high school who, um,

Mark: 00:01:54

Well,

Mark: 00:01:54

let me start like this.

Mark: 00:01:55

I didn't want to go to my high

Mark: 00:01:57

I wanted to go to another high school because they had a better football team.

Mark: 00:02:00

And my mother was like, well, your brother went there, your sister went there.

Mark: 00:02:03

It's good enough for you.

Jaclyn: 00:02:04

right, right.

Mark: 00:02:05

She didn't want to jump through the hoops find an address, somebody that she knew in that area for me to go there and So I get there and you know, you could take the English proficiency exam Before you get to high school.

Mark: 00:02:18

And so I'm in the top English class and there's a bunch of brainiacs in there I was an athlete and athletes would pass by looking at what are you doing in there?

Mark: 00:02:28

Apparently I can read

Mark: 00:02:30

so

Mark: 00:02:31

And so Mrs.

Mark: 00:02:32

Schilling was her name.

Mark: 00:02:33

And she put me in my first play.

Mark: 00:02:37

She got me involved in speech and debate.

Mark: 00:02:41

And, uh, so that was the beginning.

Mark: 00:02:44

And when I got to college, I went to San Diego state for one semester and was completely fish out of water.

Mark: 00:02:49

I was on the speech team.

Mark: 00:02:50

That was the only thing that I liked at San Diego state.

Mark: 00:02:55

I went from student body president, captain of the football team, captain of the wrestling team, president of the speech team to the only black guy in all my classes at San Diego state . . And so I went home after one semester and went to Cerritos college, got on the speech team and the football team there.

Mark: 00:03:10

And then, the tournaments started happening for speech and I, won the national tournament.

Mark: 00:03:17

I took four events to the tournament and won them all.

Mark: 00:03:20

And I had a judge from USC in every round of every speech.

Mark: 00:03:25

And the head of the program came to me after the award ceremony and said, Hey, I'm going to talk to you about going to USC.

Mark: 00:03:33

And competing with us.

Mark: 00:03:34

And I said, well, I can't afford to go to USC.

Mark: 00:03:36

He said, did I ask you for any money?

Jaclyn: 00:03:38

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:03:38

Okay.

Mark: 00:03:39

immediately, you know, I recognize that God's hand is in, you know, my journey because you know, otherwise, how else would I get to USC?

Mark: 00:03:48

And so while I was there, I took a voice class for speaking and centering and that class, the instructor says, well, you can't pass the class unless you do two songs and two monologues.

Mark: 00:03:57

So I did that.

Mark: 00:03:59

And then he talked me into auditioning for the bachelor of fine arts acting program at FC.

Mark: 00:04:02

coached me for the audition.

Mark: 00:04:04

It's a four year program.

Mark: 00:04:05

They had, three slots open.

Mark: 00:04:07

in the sophomore class.

Mark: 00:04:08

I was already a junior at this point.

Mark: 00:04:10

And so they put me in as a sophomore and I started working professionally the same year.

Mark: 00:04:16

beginning of it.

Jaclyn: 00:04:17

And so then did you start with acting or stand up?

Mark: 00:04:22

I started stand up in the 11th grade.

Mark: 00:04:24

Um, Mrs.

Mark: 00:04:24

Schilling,

Mark: 00:04:26

uh,

Mark: 00:04:26

brought in a guy to coach me on one of my speeches for the national tournament in high school.

Mark: 00:04:30

And cause he had done the same, speech, oral interpretation of literature . It was piece called Stackley.

Mark: 00:04:36

And, um, he,

Mark: 00:04:39

Was at USC at the time and was producing these shows called Evening of Soul and they were basically a variety show And he thought I was just naturally funny.

Mark: 00:04:48

he says hey I want you to do three minutes of comedy on one of my shows and My friend Lennon and I had already started talking about doing comedy together as a team so he brought me in to do three minutes and I was funny and then man Lennon went over to the comedy store and signed up for potluck and And I did my three minutes and that was funny.

Mark: 00:05:08

And Louie Anderson said, Hey, you got something there kid, keep writing.

Mark: 00:05:12

And that was the beginning of standup and that was, it looked great.

Jaclyn: 00:05:16

Wow.

Jaclyn: 00:05:17

Wow, that's awesome.

Jaclyn: 00:05:18

So was it when the audience gives you that feedback, was that something that, like some people feel like that's the thing that really motivates them, or was it more from the angle of, you know, I'm good at something?

Mark: 00:05:31

well, wasn't afraid of it because I was in speech.

Mark: 00:05:35

so I was very comfortable on stage and, um, I think that thing that I like about it most is that immediate feedback.

Mark: 00:05:44

So I often get the question, do I prefer television and film or do I prefer stage or stand up?

Mark: 00:05:50

What do I prefer?

Mark: 00:05:51

I like the live stuff because you do impact people in real time.

Mark: 00:05:56

You know, they either laugh right now or they cry right now or whatever.

Mark: 00:05:58

And then, so that's, that's the thing that I love.

Jaclyn: 00:06:01

Nice.

Jaclyn: 00:06:02

So then from there, let's like move forward into How you got into more of like some mainstream stuff, where would you say this was my big break that launched me, uh, to where I'm kind of at today?

Mark: 00:06:16

Well, there were a couple of milestones.

Mark: 00:06:18

The first was one of my speech coaches at USC had a friend who was an agent.

Mark: 00:06:24

And he brought her to see me in a play at USC.

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And she gave me a card.

Mark: 00:06:28

She says, give me a call this week.

Mark: 00:06:30

That's let's talk.

Mark: 00:06:31

So I gave her a call and she signed me and she says, you need pictures.

Mark: 00:06:35

And I said, I didn't have any money.

Mark: 00:06:36

And I actually just told her this story

Mark: 00:06:38

a

Mark: 00:06:39

couple of weeks ago.

Mark: 00:06:39

I said, you know, I said, when you signed me, I said, I was broke and you paid for my pictures.

Mark: 00:06:44

Do you remember that?

Mark: 00:06:45

She, she didn't

Mark: 00:06:45

remember, but she got this guy, Charles Fretz, and the shoot me.

Mark: 00:06:49

And then the following week, she sent me out for an audition for Hill Street Blues, first audition.

Mark: 00:06:54

And I get there, there's all these people reading for this part who I'd been watching on TV for years.

Mark: 00:07:00

And it immediately calmed me.

Mark: 00:07:03

You know, I didn't panic.

Mark: 00:07:04

I was like, Oh, well, if they want Huggy Bear, they don't want me.

Mark: 00:07:09

So I was so relaxed going in.

Mark: 00:07:11

Before I get home, it's on the machine.

Mark: 00:07:13

I got the job

Jaclyn: 00:07:14

Wow.

Geoff: 00:07:15

the job.

Mark: 00:07:16

first audition.

Mark: 00:07:17

And then I raced home after every audition for a didn't book anything.

Mark: 00:07:21

You know, I

Mark: 00:07:22

was doing plays at the Los Angeles theater center and I was still in college, so, you know, I wasn't too concerned.

Mark: 00:07:27

Um, but yeah, first television audition booked the job.

Jaclyn: 00:07:30

Interesting.

Jaclyn: 00:07:30

My next question was going to be, were there God moments along the way?

Jaclyn: 00:07:34

But I kind of feel like this, this is kind of one of them.

Jaclyn: 00:07:37

Even having someone that saw the talent in you and invested in you by, paying for your photos.

Jaclyn: 00:07:43

were there any other moments that you can say, okay, in this scenario, I, I knew, and I could feel the hand of God moving?

Mark: 00:07:49

So once I started, once I got through that first year,

Mark: 00:07:54

you know, as a professional actor, I, um, got to a point where things started to snowball a little bit and every month something was coming up.

Mark: 00:08:04

And then when I graduated college, I went and did a show with the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Mark: 00:08:10

And they do Commedia dell'arte, just really, uh, this beautiful Italian style of acting.

Mark: 00:08:15

you might be familiar with Marcel Marceau, you know, they did that.

Mark: 00:08:18

And, after that show was over, I went home and a couple of months went by and I didn't have a job.

Mark: 00:08:22

I was like, man, what am I going to do?

Mark: 00:08:23

So I went up to San Francisco and did the San Francisco comedy competition.

Mark: 00:08:27

And I got into semifinals and I was like, oh, okay, I can make this work as a day job.

Mark: 00:08:32

And by this point, you know, it's like my, my,

Mark: 00:08:37

Confidence.

Mark: 00:08:38

as an actor was waning, you know, because I had a few months with no acting job and, fast forward to about five years after college, all my friends who were debaters were, working for judges or they were in major law firms.

Mark: 00:08:54

And so I was a little bit discouraged.

Mark: 00:08:56

So I started looking through, the LA weekly and I saw an ad, learn to deal car.

Mark: 00:09:02

And, you know, we have placement in Vegas and Monaco and Reno.

Mark: 00:09:06

So I go in out of the class, you can audit the class.

Mark: 00:09:08

It's 499 if you want to take it.

Mark: 00:09:11

So I audit the class.

Mark: 00:09:12

And before the first break suits come in, And shut the class down.

Mark: 00:09:17

Apparently they were laundering money through this class.

Mark: 00:09:22

And so, then I was like, wow.

Mark: 00:09:24

And the last audition I had prior to doing that was for, um, for Terminator 2.

Mark: 00:09:30

And it, this was like two and a half, almost three months later.

Mark: 00:09:34

And I hadn't heard anything.

Mark: 00:09:35

So I knew that I didn't get it.

Mark: 00:09:37

And then couple of weeks later, I get a call from the wardrobe designer for Terminator 2 saying, Hey, I need your sizes.

Mark: 00:09:43

And I was like, what is this for?

Mark: 00:09:44

I haven't auditioned in a couple of months.

Mark: 00:09:46

She goes, Oh, it's Terminator 2.

Mark: 00:09:48

And I was like , Oh, and so I called my agent.

Mark: 00:09:50

I figured out the phone with her and said, Hey, uh, I just got a call from wardrobe at Terminator 2.

Mark: 00:09:54

They want to, um,

Mark: 00:09:55

give me a job, I guess.

Mark: 00:09:57

She says, yeah, we're on the phone with them right now.

Mark: 00:09:59

And so that was the moment for me that I clearly saw God's hand.

Mark: 00:10:05

Because, you know, in my head, I was going to go learn to deal cards and that was going to be my career.

Mark: 00:10:10

And God said, nope, slam that door and open this acting door.

Mark: 00:10:15

And there's been several times in my career where that has happened,

Jaclyn: 00:10:18

Wow.

Jaclyn: 00:10:19

That's why it's so good to pray.

Jaclyn: 00:10:20

Like, God, close the doors, you don't want me to walk through and open the ones that you do, and, you know, I'm ready to be obedient.

Jaclyn: 00:10:26

That's amazing.

Jaclyn: 00:10:27

I, can you imagine if you had gone to deal cards?

Jaclyn: 00:10:31

Like, your life would have been completely different.

Mark: 00:10:33

completely different.

Mark: 00:10:35

Yes.

Mark: 00:10:35

Yes.

Mark: 00:10:36

You know, and you think about that sort of stuff and go, you know, clearly when I look back, I see God's hand in And at the time, I wasn't really back in church.

Mark: 00:10:45

It's like when I, you know, I grew up my mom, if you live there, you were going to church no matter

Mark: 00:10:48

what.

Mark: 00:10:49

And I got to college and I was like, well, I'm grown.

Mark: 00:10:51

I don't have to go to church if I don't want

Mark: 00:10:52

to.

Mark: 00:10:53

And then I felt

Mark: 00:10:54

you know, later that something is missing in my life.

Mark: 00:10:56

And that's what it was.

Mark: 00:10:57

It's like, I had to get back into church and get back into, situations where they were like minded people.

Mark: 00:11:03

Yeah.

Mark: 00:11:04

and actually, I have heard you do some inspirational speaking.

Mark: 00:11:07

I've heard you do stand up, because you do both, uh, it like.

Mark: 00:11:11

You don't just do inspirational, you're bringing in the comedy and everything, so there's like the range of emotions, which is beautiful.

Mark: 00:11:17

Um, so I have seen you do that live, and, so where did the point of bringing in the inspiration come in, and being able to even.

Mark: 00:11:26

you know, saying, okay, God used me.

Mark: 00:11:28

It's not just, I want to use my talents because you gave them to me, but where did it come to you where you wanted to actually use, your talents to serve and honor God and to, empower and, inspire the, the body of believers?

Mark: 00:11:42

Well, I got back into church, it's like there came a time where it was like, okay, is my comedy, you know, what it should be?

Mark: 00:11:52

And I really started cleaning my comedy up, you know, and, to do that, I got myself booked on a cruise with, it was the, cruise for a cause.

Mark: 00:12:04

I think it was, um, outreach events that, booked me there.

Mark: 00:12:08

And I started going squeaky clean.

Mark: 00:12:09

I was like, okay, I need an hour church clean.

Mark: 00:12:13

So I had six months before this cruise to do that.

Mark: 00:12:15

And so I was in the clubs every night here in San Diego and really working on getting my act cleaned And by the time we got there, that was good to go.

Mark: 00:12:26

And so that's just been my way, although I was clean anyway, cause I started doing comedy in 11th grade.

Mark: 00:12:31

It's like, you know, I couldn't do dirty comedy.

Mark: 00:12:33

My mother would lose her mind.

Geoff: 00:12:34

I

Jaclyn: 00:12:35

Right.

Mark: 00:12:36

And so, uh, it was that event that really pushed me.

Mark: 00:12:40

in fact, um, after the, quarantine period during during COVID, my first show after, things started opening up a little bit was for a church.

Mark: 00:12:50

And I'm on stage.

Mark: 00:12:52

They have a big tent in their parking lot.

Mark: 00:12:54

There's 250 people or so, and I'm doing it.

Mark: 00:12:57

They got popcorn.

Mark: 00:12:58

They've got like, blankets cause it's kind of

Mark: 00:13:00

chilly

Mark: 00:13:01

out.

Mark: 00:13:02

And so I'm doing my act and I had this shiny watch on.

Mark: 00:13:05

I couldn't see what time it was because the light kept hitting it.

Mark: 00:13:07

I couldn't tell how long I'd been up there.

Mark: 00:13:09

I was like, I love I've been up here to keep going.

Mark: 00:13:12

So I just

Mark: 00:13:12

keep

Geoff: 00:13:12

here.

Mark: 00:13:13

until I ran out of jokes.

Geoff: 00:13:15

after

Mark: 00:13:16

And so after it was over, I asked a friend of mine who was there, I said, how much time was that?

Mark: 00:13:20

He goes, that was like a hour and 28 minutes.

Mark: 00:13:23

He says, you have an hour and 30 minutes, Church Cleet.

Geoff: 00:13:26

hour

Geoff: 00:13:26

and thirty minutes,

Jaclyn: 00:13:27

That's awesome.

Mark: 00:13:29

was fun.

Jaclyn: 00:13:29

Yeah, I actually, I saw you in a church.

Jaclyn: 00:13:31

That was where we saw you.

Jaclyn: 00:13:33

Um, we were in Canada at the time in, uh,

Jaclyn: 00:13:36

I think it might've been Abbotsford or, or Langley, somewhere around there.

Jaclyn: 00:13:39

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:40

Yeah.

Mark: 00:13:40

Abbotsford sounds familiar.

Jaclyn: 00:13:42

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:42

So that was, cool.

Jaclyn: 00:13:43

And, uh, we loved watching you in, um,

Geoff: 00:13:47

Sleeper Agent.

Jaclyn: 00:13:48

Agent.

Jaclyn: 00:13:48

Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:13:49

Oh, you're hilarious.

Jaclyn: 00:13:51

Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:13:51

We've seen it multiple times.

Mark: 00:13:54

talking about doing another one.

Jaclyn: 00:13:55

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:56

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:56

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:56

They are.

Mark: 00:13:57

that will be fun.

Jaclyn: 00:13:58

So as we're coming to the close of our first portion of the interview here, do you have any final thoughts for our listeners?

Mark: 00:14:06

Well, I think main thing is because of where we are in the world today I mean, it's like if you look at the things that are happening in and amongst the world You know, we are living in biblical prophecy

Jaclyn: 00:14:17

Mm hmm.

Mark: 00:14:18

And so I would encourage people to just love on each other and be kind to each other and, you know, know that, we're going to rejoice in heaven soon.

Jaclyn: 00:14:26

Amen.

Geoff: 00:14:29

and also, let's take a moment and tell us, do you have any links that you would like to send our listeners to, places they can consume some of your content?

Mark: 00:14:39

probably the best thing is to go to my website,

Mark: 00:14:41

MarkChristopherLawrence.

Mark: 00:14:42

com.

Mark: 00:14:43

All of my social media links are at the bottom.

Mark: 00:14:45

And, uh, I have comedy and an acting reel on my website as well.

Mark: 00:14:50

And they could actually send me a message through my website.

Mark: 00:14:53

And I generally respond.

Jaclyn: 00:14:55

Awesome

Geoff: 00:15:03

generally

Mark: 00:15:14

Cool.

Geoff: 00:15:15

Awesome.

Geoff: 00:15:15

Thank you.

Mark: 00:15:16

Thank you.