Early Work
During these two years of performance, Mason re-discovered a ventriloquist puppet given to him for a 10th-birthday gift by his parents. Reviving his skill as a ventriloquist, he combined the puppet, stand-up comedy and music into a sort of one-man variety show.
Mason moved in with an aunt and uncle in Oak Brook, Illinois, during the winter of 1980. He was working part-time as a waiter when he was discovered by Arnie Morton, a restaurateur, who found Mason playing piano and entertaining guests at a wedding. Morton offered Mason the job of playing the see-through glass piano at Morton's in Chicago, where Mason worked during the balance of 1980. He often used his ventriloquist puppet to heckle the clientele who came to the bar, and this act led to jobs at Chicago piano bars.
Mason was hired as a musical director for The Second City Touring Company in the spring of 1981, and he worked as a musician for almost a year at the theater, learning improvisational comedy and theater, while helping to open the “Second City - Etc.” room. He met his future wife, Marsia Mason, who worked as an assistant to the creative managers of The Second City, Bernard Sahlins and Joyce Sloane.
Mason was admitted to The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in the fall of 1982, where he spent the year in graduate school, earning a Master’s Degree in Advertising in June 1983. During those 12 months at Northwestern, Mason began working as a ventriloquist at Zanies Comedy Club, just one block south of The Second City Theater. By the end of 1983 Mason was working full-time in show business, either with Zanies or The Second City, getting a full education in comedy writing and performing. Sometime in 1984 Mason became the house emcee at Zanies, working 4-5 nights a week, where he paid his dues; he also created material for his act and set the groundwork for a career. He helped open Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1984; in 1985 he and Marsia moved to New York City. His act at the time revolved around a wooden-headed classic dummy and the piano. His material was clean (he did not use profanity) and his act was gaining some notoriety locally in Chicago.
Mason worked his way into the emcee position at Catch a Rising Star in New York, and he worked there for three years, 1986-1989.
Mason began a career at this time playing college campuses, mostly through NACA (National Association of Campus Activities). Over the next 11 years, until 2000, Mason did more than 1500 college shows, and won two “Family Entertainer of The Year” awards. By 1990 Mason began making television appearances on all the popular shows of the day: Evening at the Improv, Comic Strip Live, Caroline's Comedy Hour and MTV Half-Hour Comedy Hour.
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