Michael Palascak got his start in standup comedy thanks to a book.
The standup comedian will appear at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 30 at the Gorton Center in Lake Forest. The Wabash, Indiana, native has performed on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in the same year.
He’s appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and “Conan.” He has a Comedy Central half-hour special under his belt and was a top five finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.”
His albums include “The Internet Live” through 800 Pound Gorilla Media; and a standup special titled “1984? on the Dry Bar Comedy website.
After high school graduation, his parents moved to Chicago’s south suburbs while he studied English at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
“I always wanted to do something with writing or acting,” he said. “I knew I liked reading books in college and I knew there were some books I wouldn’t read if I didn’t have to for school.”
He started doing standup when he was home for the summers. He also took up acting in college and acted in several productions. He bought a book on standup at a Borders Bookstore. In the back it listed a bunch of places to go to try out standup, including The Barrel of Laughs in Oak Lawn.
“It’s such a rush just to get up there,” he said. “I went up and the only time people would laugh was when I would say after a joke, ‘OK, that didn’t work.’ They would laugh at that and that was it. I didn’t get any laughs on any jokes that I did.”
Despite that, he didn’t give up.
“I played a lot of sports growing up and we were usually not good, being from a small school. So it more about, I knew I liked it,” he said. “The struggle was expected so I didn’t really worry about it.”
His second time up, he did a couple of new jokes and got a few laughs.
“It was the biggest rush to say a thing to people who expecting you to try and make them laugh and then to be successful,” he said.
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After college, he dove headfirst into standup comedy — as much as possible, he said. Being a guest on late-night shows certainly boosted his career and was an amazing experience, he said.
“That was so fun. There are usually just movie stars on there so as a comic it was fun to be in that world for just half a day,” he said.
“When I did Leno and James Corden, they specifically asked the audience to enjoy the comedian as they would if they were at a nightclub that night and I feel that makes a big difference when the host of the show … goes out if their way to say, ‘Hey, let’s watch this guy together.’ I really appreciated that.”
Now, standup comedy is his full-time job. He has since moved to Los Angeles, where he is dad to a five-year-old son.
“Topic-wise, I talk about my life. I talk about being a dad,” he said. “As a parent, you have to streamline everything you do. You become more efficient because there’s no time for the extra stuff.
“I talk about things I see on the road, I talk about relationships,” he said. “I used to be a little more personal about relationship stuff onstage but then you go through breakups or whatever, so I pulled back a little bit and (talk about) what I observe generally about relationships.”
His live act is different from the Instagram reels and the TikToks, he added.
He hopes people come see him in Lake Forest because for one thing, he won’t be back for at least a year, if not longer.
“Also, it’s a great weekend for shows,” he said. “And they’ll have a good time.”
Michael Palascak
When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 30
Where: John and Nancy Hughes Theater, Gorton Center, 400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest
Tickets: $25-$32, more at the door
Information: gortoncenter.org/event/michael-palascak
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.