Stand-Up Comedian Brings Show to Sitka

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Created on Wednesday, 18 September 2024 15:04

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Michael Palascak, a comedian who appeared on “The Tonight Show” and was a top five finalist in the NBC contest “Last Comic Standing,” will perform in Sitka Thursday.
    The stand-up act at Harrigan Centennial Hall starts at 6:30 p.m. and is suitable for all ages, although Palascak said those 12 and older will get more of the humor.

Michael Palascak. (Photo Provided)

    Proceeds from the show will go to the relief effort for victims of the August 25 landslide in Ketchikan. The show is presented by Phantom Booth Productions.
    Palascak’s credits over his 22-year career include appearances on “The Late Late Show,” “Conan,” and David Letterman. His sets in the “Last Comic Standing” contest in 2015 draw a lot of material from his childhood, family, his early adult life, relationships and career, among other subjects.
    He remembers wanting to be a comedian as young as second grade, and growing up enjoyed watching the “cleaner” comedians like Jerry Seinfeld. Most of his focus in his youth was on sports and other activities, until he got to college, at Xavier University in Ohio,
    “I didn’t play baseball after high school and that’s when I started doing standup,” he told the Sentinel Tuesday. At Xavier, he had the chance to see big-name comedians such as Gary Owen, Dave Chappelle and Jimmy Fallon, and some lesser-known ones. From the start, he avoided swearing, but it really didn’t take much effort.
    “I listened to Seinfeld when I was a kid because he was clean, and that’s kind of what inspired my voice,” he said. “I was raised in a pretty conservative, strict Catholic household so it wasn’t a stretch not to swear, and I wasn’t really allowed to, my whole life. Those types of comedians were definitely inspirations.”
    Palascak was born in Ohio, grew up in Indiana and began his standup career in Chicago. His parents moved to the Chicago suburbs when he was a freshman in college, and starting the summer of his sophomore year, he had the chance to try out standup comedy at open mic nights and nearby clubs.
    “I feel like I’m one of the comedians that everyone was really surprised at,” Palascak said. “I’m more of a shy person in my group but I really liked being around funny people and really liked making people laugh. And I felt like, I could do it and it could be fun.”
    He added that it helped that when he started out he wasn’t worried about the things others worried about, such as getting married, having kids, and finding a job to pay for everything.
Although he was influenced in his early years by other comics, he has evolved to a different place.
    “Now I just try to be myself on stage,” he said. “Some people will be like, ‘Oh, are you inspired by this person,’ but at this point at least in my career it’s not a conscious thing at all, I am just myself.”
    He’s been to Alaska a few times before, and doesn’t know whether he will include some of the things that have fascinated him, such as living without running water, leaving car doors unlocked and various scary facts about polar bears.
    He currently lives in Los Angeles, but tours all over the U.S., and his current tour included appearances in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska last weekend. After his Alaskan tour to Juneau, Sitka and Homer, his next show is Traverse City, Michigan, with stops in between shows back at home in Los Angeles.
     Tickets are $40 for the evening of comedy, and are available at the door and on the Eventbrite website. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the Nugget will provide a cash bar.

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