1990-1999
In late 1990 Mason auditioned for and was cast on Star Search, hosted by Ed McMahon; he was the grand-prize winner, earning $100,000 and some notoriety in the comedy world as a result. He did The Comedy Club Network show for Showtime on cable-TV, and that led to an appearance on Comedy on Campus, a comedy special for Showtime that aired around 1993.
Mason moved to southern California in 1992, where he lived until 1995. He headlined in many of the major clubs and played hundreds of college dates over the next few years. He had added a couple of puppets to his act, began using a portable electronic keyboard and maintained the clean edge to his performances. He had discarded the hard, wooden-headed puppets for smaller, soft puppets (something like Muppets) and these allowed him to pack more into a bag. His act packed small, but played big.
Sometime in the late 1990s Mason added a life-sized sumo wrestler puppet to his act, and began to let audience members come up on stage and manipulate the puppets as he tried to synchronize the puppet mouth with words. This became a signature of his and he rode the routine to great success.
He and his wife had two children and had moved to southern New Jersey in 1995. Off the beaten path of show business, Mason picked up work in a variety of locations: Branson, Missouri; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; resorts in The Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania; Las Vegas; Atlantic City; and the ever-present colleges and comedy clubs.
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