Wicked Funny

By Kayla Riley

On Saturday I witnessed Maine's own comedian, Bob Marley, live at the Collins Center for the Arts. I had seen his DVDs and heard a few tracks from past CDs of his, but I had never seen a live performance. I can sum up the experience in one word—hilarious. After each punchline was delivered, I barely had time to recover from gut-busting laughter before the next joke hit me. Considering Marley's fast rise to comedic stardom, I admit I am a little behind on discovering how truly funny he is.

Although his popularity is just now hitting its peak, Bob Marley has been a stand up comedian for 15 years. Born and raised in Maine, Marley graduated with a degree in community health from the University of Maine in Farmington. From there he quickly began his tour de force comedy career. He got his start at comedy nights in Portland, soon moving to Boston to widen his scope.

Since then, Marley has had his own special on Comedy Central and made the rounds to all the major late night shows, including Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, and Craig Ferguson. One of his most well known appearances is his more serious role in "The Boondock Saints", in which he played Detective Greenly. He can be seen in the movie "All Saint's Day" starting Friday in theaters nationwide in "All Saint's Day".

If you haven't seen Bob Marley live yet, I encourage you to do so. His live performance was even more energetic than I had expected, including jokes from his latest CD, Runamuck, along with some unexpected new material. His act was a hysterical mix of Maine-based, relationship, family, and observational humor that had me laughing until I cried.

Photo courtesy of bmarley.com