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I had the most excellent opportunity to sit down with comedian and actor (and terrific musician) Mary Mack recently as she prepares for her first show at The Lucius Woods Performing Arts Center (LWPAC) in Solon Springs on Saturday, July 18, where and when she brings the North Star Comedy Hour to audiences.

The conversation was an embarrassment of riches that covered the waterfront from the craft of comedy, to standing ground as an artist in the age of AI and uber media mergers, and to the improvisational joys of the comedy variety show.

Here are a few takeaways that speak to some of the many reasons to adore comedian, actor and creative Mary Mack.

Her origin story as a comic and storyteller is as organically cool and delightfully quirky and surprising as she is.

Mack remembers discovering herself, and what she really loved, during the days and nights she double timed it as a school band teacher and conductor by day and polka band musician at night.

“I loved performing, and I loved arranging music, and I loved the entertaining of people.”
She not only came to realize what she loved about what she was doing but she also gained an understanding of her limits.

“I would be performing until two in the morning and then go to school at 6 am, so I couldn’t do that any longer. Our band was very similar to that band in Spinal Tap where we would just keep losing members along the way or crazy things would happen.”

Then a pivotal moment came when Mack discovered she could find a different way to continue ‘entertaining people.’

“My roommate signed me up for an open mic night. She didn’t tell me what it was. She just said, ‘Prepare a story.’”

So Mack went to the open mic and told a story.

“It was so much easier than carrying drums and all the instruments. I didn’t play drums, but you have to help carry all the instruments, and that sucks. And the tuba player was always so drunk I ended up carrying the tuba,” she laughs. 

That prescient open mic evening in Nashville held its own surprises.

“I wrote a funny story, turns out it was African-American Poetry Night, but the people were so nice and listened to me. Nobody laughed, but they really listened.”

And that presented a seismic shift in the evolution of Mack’s artistic trajectory. 

She really cares about the craft (and puzzle) of comedy, and allows her deep understanding of music and writing to infuse her work.

At her first open mic, Mack says she “fell in love with the silence” of her listening audience.

“I fell in love with the silence for two reasons,” she shares and continues, “I had been listening to band instruments played poorly all day for eight hours and kids fighting,” and “I also enjoyed the silence because it was a puzzle of how not to have silence, and that’s the whole puzzle of comedy. However, when people laugh too much, I think, ‘Oh no.’ It’s got to be a challenge. It’s also the wordsmithing of it – finding the right word. You’re trying to be efficient with your words, finding the right word that does all the work for you.”

Mack not only identifies wordsmithing and the balance between laughter and silence as part of the craft of comedy but she also stresses the importance of finding the rhythm in a performance.

“You can sometimes conduct to the rhythm of a standup set and where you want your punch to hit. You can sometimes take out a syllable, and it will hit better, and that’s the way to do it. And sometimes, in rare circumstances, you have to add a syllable just to get it to hit for the punch,” she notes.

She is bringing the variety show back (and elevating and recognizing a lot of talented performers in the process).

While nodding in deference to the importance of the rhythm of a good stand up comedy show, Mack shares how the variety show flips the script and gifts her with a different challenge: “However, when I do this variety show, North Star Comedy Hour, I’m more concerned about being the party starter and a good host. Off the bat, I’m more concerned about welcoming people and thanking them because we are genuinely so happy to see them. We couldn’t do this job without them, so I am genuinely happy to see them,” she shares and adds, “For all the anger I can carry in a day, when I see a good crowd out there, I am bursting with love. I am so appreciative.”

That warm reception from the audience, Mack recognizes as a “reprieve from all [her] pent up rage regarding current events.”

With the North Star Comedy Hour, Mack sees her role as not only ‘party starter’ and ‘welcomer’ but also the “mom of the show,” she notes, “because my number one goal is to make sure all the artists and audience are happy coming in, and things are right for them.”

Recognizing the importance of “spectacle” for this (and any) show (and acknowledging the challenges of pulling off spectacle in an outdoor venue), Mack has a few tricks up her sleeve.

“I want to tell people as a little enticement to come to the [Lucius Woods] performance, I am procuring four battery-operated leaf blowers for the show. And also if someone has a leaf blower they want to lend me, I’d appreciate it,” she smiles. Given our longer Northwoods summer days, Mack has a plan to generate spectacle (and excitement) on July 18th.

“What I’m relying on for spectacle are my sequins, my four leaf blowers, and some sort of daytime-visible fog fountain. A lot of the budget is going to special effects,” she notes and adds, “And I’m also looking for four children to light sparklers in front of the stage. If the fire hazard is high, we’ll forgo the sparklers. But I do need four children who aren’t so tall that they block the stage.”

Mack calls the North Star Comedy Hour “Prairie Home Companion meets The Red Green Show – with an edge. We don’t swear, but we address the honesty of things. It’s honest, but it’s PG13. It’s a clean show,” she says.

Mack also notes that the show has its own flow: “It’s not like a variety show where it’s act and then act and then act. All the acts interact. I’m on the stage the whole time, so it’s more like a late night show. I could compare it to Johnny Carson because we do music and sketches, and I’m talking and participating in it, and sometimes there will be an interview. We try to have a seamless show and keep it moving.”

While Mack keeps the show flowing and ‘seamless,’ she admits that the unpredictable and unrepeatable nature of a live variety show makes it deliciously different for audiences.

“It’s not boring. You never know what’s going to happen. And what people might not know is that it’s a different show every time. I’ve never repeated a joke, and we’ve done 20-some episodes now. And only two musicians have come on more than once and they are required to change up their repertoire. There’s so much spontaneity because what I like to do is write a script and hope there is something fun that happens to enable me to go off script,” she laughs.

Overall, Mack says that what people can look forward to on July 18 at the gorgeous LWPAC venue is “good music, good comedy and fun sketches.”

She knows ‘how lucky’ she is and performs from that foundation of gratitude and joy. But she also brings a raw honesty to every show.

Mack shares that she learned how to really enjoy the experience of performing from watching singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman.

“My role model to just feel joy on stage and to remember where you are and what you’re doing and how lucky you are is the folk singer Jonathan Richman. When we see him, he always has a giant smile on his face and just exudes joy and happiness. After I first saw him, my life changed, and I just wanted to exude that happiness when I’m on stage,” she remembers. “That being said, if it’s a rough day, I’m going to be really honest, and I’m going to tell [the audience] about my rough day. Or if there are rough times, and I’m angry about something, I will talk about that, too. But that doesn’t mean I’m not excited to see [the audience] and be there,” Mack shares that and notes that her audiences know she is bringing a realness to every performance: “They’re used to me being honest.”

With a nod to the fun and humanity of old time radio shows, Mack is also championing the comedy podcast and bringing her audiences into the show.

“So what I do with this show is I record the whole show professionally. We mix about 40 microphones together, 40 tracks together, and each half of the show becomes a podcast episode. So it’s really like a radio show. People can download and stream it like a podcast, but it’s like something you would hear like in the old days on radio,” she shares and adds that the audience is “a major part” of the show and recording.

“Something I enjoy is bringing up a couple contestants from the audience to participate in the closing game show. We invent a new ridiculous gameshow every episode, and this year it’s going to be a Yelling Bee. If you can’t spell very well, you can still get points if you yell your answer loud enough.”

Mack uses her platform to help elevate other comedians and up-and-coming performers to bring greater focus to the issues she cares about (like democracy,  voting rights, supporting the arts, etc.). She has paid a price for the latter, and she is finding it increasingly harder to survive in the current economic climate.

“During North Star Comedy Hour, I don’t talk about politics. It’s everybody’s hour and a half to have a great time and forget about life and that goes for me too. But on my platforms, I will talk about [issues] because it’s getting impossible to keep my job with the way things are financially with the country, with gas the way it is,” she shares and continues, “You know I’m on the road. I’m eating on the road. I try to bring a cooler, but that only lasts so long. Like I drove to St. Louis for a gig, and I came back with barely anything [financially].”

As a touring performer, Mack is not only affected by the price of travel, food and lodging, but she sees the effect the economic hardships of living in this America now is having on her audiences: “No one can afford to buy a ticket to shows a lot of the times because everybody in the country is penny pinching, including myself, so it’s three times as hard to sell tickets right now,” she says.

But while she reflects on, and lives out, the harsh reality of America in 2026, she also understands and cares about how that same reality is affecting other artists and Americans as a whole:“If I don’t speak out about the war in Iran or things like Spotify, I’m not doing my part to be able to keep doing my job or help other artists to keep doing their job. So I need to talk about it because a lot of folks don’t realize a lot that’s happening right now is unnecessary.”

Mack not only feels the effects of the economic pressures of the current administration’s choices and agenda as a performing and touring artist, but she also is feeling the effects as an actor and writer.
“Because of the economy, all of my side jobs are at risk too because this administration is approving what should be an anti-trust situation. The Congress and the President are approving Ellison purchasing an unprecedented number of Hollywood studios. Now I’ve worked for some of those studios as a voiceover artist and an on-camera person, and for now I still do part-time, but the fact that they’re allowing all of these studios to be sold to a man who runs an AI company is so disheartening to me that I’m trying to figure out what else I can do for work. But what’s happening is that AI is taking those other jobs [too], so they’re screwing us over every which way they can, and people aren’t placing blame. It’s all directly related to who we voted for – who’s in the majority for our state, our federal senators and representatives, our city and town boards, school board members, judges, etc.,” she affirms and adds, “If we had voted a different way in the last election, most of this could have been avoided. So not only is it more expensive to do my job and unfeasible, but they are also taking work away from me with AI.”

AI has had another damaging effect on Mack’s career – and her right to free speech – in the form of the phenomenon of “shadowbanning” on social media platforms.
“On Facebook and Instagram, if you say something they don’t like, they block you. Every message you send on Facebook and Instagram is checked by AI and reported,” she says and points out “and if you say something they don’t like or key words [not in support of the President], it’s also helping to decide who gets audited.”

Mack is not only a defender of democracy and freedom of speech, but she also understands the importance publications like The Reader play in keeping an open discourse going and keeping communities healthy and connected, including the entertainment community.

“I admire Duluth and The Reader so much because in so many cities the free papers listing all the shows and events in the area have disappeared, and many of them have not been replaced with a digital version. Like the Twin Cities lost The City Pages, and smaller entertainment venues suffered. Without those entertainment calendars and pages in the free-pick-them-up-at-the-grocery-store papers, people don’t know what’s happening at your venue because they can’t look up every venue,” she says and continues, “and no one has the time to look up every single venue in a large city. So what happens is people search three venues or get on the mailing list for three [bigger] venues. It’s just so hard for these smaller venues without these papers, and I hope there’s a way to keep The Duluth Reader going forever.”
She really is a home-grown Northwoods (and national) wonder. And she cares profoundly about both.
“The Upper Midwest has the best sense of humor. I like that we can be real honest and dry. I like dry, Upper Midwest cold-climate humor,” she laughs.

As a child, Mack and her Minnesota-Wisconsin-based family camped at Lucius Woods. Now she says she’s not only looking forward to performing at the arts center for the first time, but she’s also looking forward to offering Northwoods audiences a memorable entertainment option for the whole family at a reasonable price.

“It’s such an affordable ticket. It’s a third of what our show normally costs,” she says. Tickets for the July 18 show at Lucius Woods are $15, and audience members can bring in picnic baskets or purchase brats, burgers, sodas and popcorn from the concession stand run by the Lions Club.

Mack says her July 18 audience can look forward to “good comedy, an introduction to new comedians and music acts they are going to love from now until forever, fun sketches and a beautiful setting to see it all in all at a very affordable price. In this day and age, with the cost of gas and food and how costs are, that’s really a godsend, and it makes me feel good to be able to do that there.”

Not only has Mack appeared nationally as a comedian on such shows as The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and NBC’s Last Comic Standing, but she has also worked as a voiceover artist and voice actor giving life to such characters as the alien “Jesse” on a popular animated Hulu series.”

And this year, she breaks new ground (and gets to do something she’s super “stoked” about), when “Jesse” makes a special appearance.

“I’m going to be playing one of my old characters on The Simpsons during the intro credits. I’ll be playing my alien character from the Hulu show Solar Opposites. We’re doing a mashup introduction on the couch of The Simpsons, so it’s going to be fun,” she says. Mack does not yet know when the show will air, but she’s already psyched and excited. “I am a HUGE fan of The Simpsons, and I’m so excited that they are using my show’s characters to be on it. From being a kid and watching The Simpsons, it’s such an honor to do this,” she says.

And now she’s getting ready (and excited) to begin editing her podcasts, which are currently only available on Apple Podcasts and her website. But Mack hopes to expand the reach of her podcast presence in a way that supports the platforms that support artists.

“I refuse to put them [the podcasts] on Spotify because they are one of the main crooks out in the world right now. They are stealing so much from so many artists. I’d like to put them on Tidal, maybe Pandora, and Bandcamp would be fun,” she says and asks (and answers), “You know who pays great? SiriusXM. So if you have a choice, always go with SiriusXM versus Spotify. For me to make $5 on Spotify, someone would have to spin one of my tracks around 200,000 times. If folks would have listened without streaming and bought a CD at $10 per CD, I would have made $200,000 instead of $5.”

Mack points out that not only does Spotify not pay artists their worth, but they’ve now leaned into a new profit-making tactic [AI-created music channels] that is threatening the livelihood of artists: “Now what they’re doing is running AI channels where AI steals riffs from actual musicians, turns it into music that resembles those artists, so now they don’t have to pay anybody anything.”

With all the headwinds she’s had to navigate, Mack continues to find and make her way and receive well-deserved recognition and opportunities. Not only will her voiceover work be featured on an episode of The Simpsons, but one of her comedy segments – a loving (and of course hilarious) segment on her mother – was recently included in a special episode of The Moth.

Folks can check out Mack’s comedy and recordings on a number of SiriusXM comedy channels, on Apple Music and CD Baby, and on her Facebook and Instagram pages. And they can check out information on her podcasts, tour dates, adventures, and more at marymackcomedy.com.

Mack said she would love for people to check out her website and get on her mailing list so she “can get off social media eventually.”

Tickets for Mack’s July 18 North Star Comedy Hour variety and more information about the venue and its current season, can be found at lwmusic.org.