MARK SMALLS

Like countless other aspiring comics, Mark Smalls has endured the grinding, humiliating process of the stand-up scene, gamely overcoming the empty sets, failed jokes and monotony of the local circuit in the hope of making a career out of comedy.

“Those first shows I would just completely bomb,” said Smalls, who was planning to take part in the 20th anniversary of SF Sketchfest, scheduled for Jan. 7–23, and then postponed due to rising omicron cases.

“I would get in the car afterward with my friends and I would just be bitching and yelling about everything being terrible, and they would all be losing it — just completely cracking up listening to me. They would all be like, ‘Dude, this is your show.’ I wasn’t trying to tell one-liners or do these supposedly funny stories. I was just being myself, yelling about things. It was in those car rides where I really found my voice.”

Smalls has managed to parlay that voice — an amalgam of stoned skater, outraged citizen and cerebral, therapy-dependent colleague — into a steady career on the local circuit, becoming a mainstay in clubs big and small throughout the Bay Area.