PORT ANGELES — He’s been called a lot of things: the “human cartoon,” funniest “young, young” comedian in the Rocky Mountain West.
Vargus Mason, a working comedian since third grade, is coming to the PUB at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., to provide some midwinter comic relief Thursday at 7 p.m.
Just don’t expect him to “stand at the microphone,” as he puts it, “and tell jokes.”
In competitions
No, Mason plans on pulling out his repertoire of highly animated characters, each with a distinct voice. These can range from an elderly man to his 3-year-old daughter to his cat, who was in a snit when Mason and his wife first brought home their baby girl.
“I will do anything to get a laugh,” Mason promised in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles.
Among Mason’s many awards are second place in the San Francisco Comedy Competition, in which he bested 340 other competitors from around the world; semifinalist in the Boston International Comedy Festival; and, when he was just 15, Rocky Mountain region champion in HBO’s Young Young Comedian Spotlight contest.
Thrown in deep end
When he entered that one, the Denver-bred Mason had never done stand-up on a stage before.
“It was like getting thrown way into the deep end,” he said.
He wasn’t going to do it, but then his best friend said he was entering. “I thought, how can he be brave and me not be brave?” Mason recalled.
After winning the thing, the teenage Mason was flown to New York City, where he performed at the famed Carolines on Broadway comedy club.
“It was intense,” he said of the gig, which was about 18 years ago.
Before New York, however, Mason had had plenty of experience entertaining.
He changed schools between second and third grade and told his new teacher that at his former school, he was allowed to tell jokes to his class.
The teacher, Miss Gray, was game; she agreed to give him five minutes at the front of the room at the end of each day.
In touch with youth
Mason did impressions of television commercials, like the perfume ad with the woman singing, “I can bring home the bacon/and fry it up in a pan/and never let you forget you’re a man/’cause I’m a woman. . . .”
The kids loved it, Mason said.
These days, the comedian still has a youthful sensibility.
“I’m not a depressed comic. I’m not brooding, not mad at the world,” he said.
His routines are full of bits that say, “Here’s the joy in the world.”
MPG-13 rating
On the clean-to-dirty continuum, “I would say I’m pretty clean. If you were to give me a movie rating, I would say PG-13; I’m not vulgarly talking about body parts, but it’s not ‘Mister Rogers’ [Neighborhood],’” Mason added.
“I try to find the humor in painful situations and find the light in what’s dark out there.”
Admission to Mason’s performance Thursday is $10 for the general public or free for Peninsula College students with identification.
For more details, visit www.PenCol.edu.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
