September 24, 2025 • 8 mins
Comedian Mark Klein has traveled near and far to sling jokes for nearly 50 years. His parents were proud of him for 12 minutes.
Mark is headlining a special benefit show on Thursday, September 24 at The Caravan in Mid-City Mall. All proceeds go to help brother comedian Mike Armstrong, a longtime performer on the comedy circuit, who is now battling cancer.
Come laugh with Mark to help Mike!
Mark is headlining a special benefit show on Thursday, September 24 at The Caravan in Mid-City Mall. All proceeds go to help brother comedian Mike Armstrong, a longtime performer on the comedy circuit, who is now battling cancer.
Come laugh with Mark to help Mike!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's a road warrior. His name is Mark Klein. You've
perhaps seen him on network television before, profiled for all
of his journeys as a comedian over so many decades.
He's a Louisville guy. He grew up here and you
still love it here.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I've mostly grew up here. I failed to grow up
in many ways, and all that was done here.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So that's so true. Thanks for hanging in here. You
were profiled on one of those like forty eight hour
shows or something.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
They wanted a comedian who was on the road a
lot during the big comedy club boom of the late
nineteen eighties. So CBS did a profile of me, and
I was famous for twelve minutes. I was famous for
twelve minutes and after that zippers.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
So that's fine, No worries.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That had to feel weird though, to have them following
you around with these cameras. You thought, what's happening? Am
I getting indicted? What's happening?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I've got a sister who was a college professor at
Bellerman just retired. My brother was an oral surgeon for
forty years, double major chemistry biology. My sister was summa
cum Laudie graduate at Toughs for twelve minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
My parents were proud of me.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's my boy, that's our boy up there. Oh that's great,
that's fantastic. So people, you know, they've seen you in
clubs over all these decades. And you said earlier in
the show that you're on cruise ships, and so obviously
you see people of a certain demographic mostly on cruise ships.
I mean, I know there's a variance in there, but
it's a lot of folks who can afford that kind
(01:23):
of one, that's true.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
And they do skew a little bit older because they
have the time and the resources to get out there
on the ocean. And if you're on a Panama Canal cruise,
you're average cruiser. And I'm not making jokes about your
average cruisers well into their sixties and you get after
Labor Day and that number goes into the seventies. Yeah,
because that's a ten day cruise. And who's got ten
days and all that.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Time exactly what people?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You go out of Miami for four days of Mohammas
and back and there's twenty six year olds, you know,
just peel and close off as fast as they can.
When they're international water. So it just depends on what
ship you're on.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Do you ask an advance? Can I have one of
those twenty four.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Year old No?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
No, I don't have many.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
You know that people some of us said what kind
of cabin do they give you? And the berries from
ship to ship? And I was on one. Some ships
I get a passenger cabin. Some ships them and crew
area depends on how full of the ship is and
a lot of factors.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I'm on one in.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The crew area and next to me is an Italian
dance instruction couple newlyweds, and the quality of construction below
decks is not what it is above decks. And I
will say, Terry, they were fond of each other. They
also fought in Italian and I couldn't tell the difference.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
All I know is every night she won, That's all
I know. No matter what they were doing, she won.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Good for her. So you see it all that's pretty fantastic.
So when you're in the crew quarters, then does everybody
eat at some it's some like buffet or something. They
don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
There's a huge crew galley, there's there's an officer eating area,
and there's regular crew eating area, and people separate themselves
according to their friends and who they want to be
with as remember high school cafeteria.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Same thing, exact, same thing.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
The Eastern Europeans are run the casino. They're in one corner,
the Malaysian guys who run the engine there in the
other corner, the housekeeping staff, and the Philippines in another section.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah that's that's hilarious. But you're the comedian on board.
You don't have to salute like the captain or any
You don't have to do all that military like stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Here's what the status that has. If the ship is
sinking emergency. See the ship is sinking, elderly and disabled
get off first, people with families get off second, Okay,
where then non essential crew gets off?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, then a lifeboat operation. People are in place.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
After that happens, general General officer staff gets off. Then
the captain gets off. Now the captain is a pet canary.
They fly a helicopter route to take the captain's pet
canary to a veterinary clinic in Oslo, Norway. When they
radio the captain that the canary is safe, then the
comedians can get off the ship. That's the status we.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Have on the show. I bet the galley's tough. You
guys too, last piece of chicken. Give it to the comedian.
What you've served on stage for so long here and
you handle audiences of all ages and all that? Are
they changing it? All that? People are louder, and aren't
they chirped more than they used to?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Here's what's happened.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
One.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
If you're if I'm doing a land show, there's people
with their phones and they will be on their phones
during your show, and there's nothing you can do about it.
If you're not funny enough, they're going to be scrolling
their Facebook feed. That's just part of the deal. Okay,
I get it, So be extra funny for them. Used
to be that way on the ocean, except all these
ships are been wired now for Internet. So if someone
can be seen in your audience middle the Atlantic Ocean,
and if they don't think you're very funny, they're going
(04:39):
to check their Instagram. That's the world we live in. However,
my natural comedy constituency as an audience has changed. Therefore
my venues have changed. For example, I do a lot
of country club shows. That's where my people are. I
do a lot of shows at resorts.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I do a lot of.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Shows at fifty five plus communities, which are interesting shows.
They used to give me address, now they show me
a model home. But they're great audiences because people our
age and this demographic for your audience. You're talking people
between age fifty five and seventy as Johnally, who's in
that audience in a fifty five plus community. They're not
(05:15):
in wheelchairs. And it's not a nursing homes. It's a
resort that has been built around people fifty five and older.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I wonder why they picked fifty five. That's so interesting,
and someone who's fifty three you can't come into the
outside the fence looking in.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think the architect was an arc grand I don't
know what's right. AARP. You might have sent in their
architecture consultant.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And to be to live there, someone on that deed
has to be fifty five, So you could well have
a sixty year old man and a thirty five year
old wife or vice versa. You have a seven year
old woman and her pool boys there with her, but
she's her name's on the deed.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So missus Belichick dinner, sir, absolutely right on that.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So you're doing a show there and These people grew
up in an air where you when you went to
a show, you watched the show. You did not expect
to be entertained from five different sources at once. So
when I'm doing a show at Dell Web property in Phoenix,
the three hundred people in that audience, they're watching the show,
and that feels great.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, that's a rewarding thing, for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It's a great group.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You are doing a show tomorrow night to help a
friend of a friend of all of us on the radio,
because he's been on radio shows forever too. Mike Armstrong
is his name, fellow comedian, Tell me what's up.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Mike's in a battle with cancer and he's undergoing some
treatments for it. As anyone who has a friend or
relative or themselves have been through this, you know that
the bills are horrific, the experience is not pleasant. You
know all the help and support you can get. The
comedy community here in Louisville is a pretty tightly knit bunch,
and we support Mike in the struggle. Tomorrow night at
the Caravan at seven thirty, we're having a benefit show
(06:45):
for him.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm headlining the show.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I've got a bunch of friends on that show with me,
and this is in mid City, of all at the
Caravan Comedy Club at seven thirty. All proceeds go to
benefit mister Armstrong in his struggle, and we're glad to
do it because we're a community like Radio TV. Yeah,
that's right, your freshman groups of communities support each other.
And I've known this guy a long time, nice guy,
funny guy and one of the good guys.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And I'm we're all glad to do.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
It well on a hard for him. Mike Armstrong to
be celebrated, certainly tomorrow night with Mark Klein headlining the
show at the Caravan Mid City mall. The phone numbers
four or five nine zero zero two too, and the
website that hasn't changed, the Caravan twenty seventeen dot com.
I love that. That's kind of funny anyway.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's like it's like a chemical formula of some kind.
Where did this come from?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, the Caravan twenty seventeen dot com.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Mister Klein, it's a pleasure to see you again.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It's a mutual pleasure.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Indeed, next time will be will be raial birds.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Thank you for having me and thank you for still
being here.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I appreciate. It's a genuine PLEASU appreciate our friendship all
these years. And I will see at the racetrack and
you are going to win. Do you have a horse
right now? Are you in pieces?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes, I've got a horse. I pretend to own him,
he pretends to run. I've learned Spanish like in Heckel
is jockey in his native language. And that's always a
fun day out there at the track.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I know your love for the horses, so good for you,
all right tomorrow night at the caravan. That's mid City
Mall seven point thirty to start on it with Mark Klein.
Four five nine zero zero two two is the phone
number back in a minute on news radio eight forty
whas
He's a road warrior. His name is Mark Klein. You've
perhaps seen him on network television before, profiled for all
of his journeys as a comedian over so many decades.
He's a Louisville guy. He grew up here and you
still love it here.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I've mostly grew up here. I failed to grow up
in many ways, and all that was done here.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So that's so true. Thanks for hanging in here. You
were profiled on one of those like forty eight hour
shows or something.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
They wanted a comedian who was on the road a
lot during the big comedy club boom of the late
nineteen eighties. So CBS did a profile of me, and
I was famous for twelve minutes. I was famous for
twelve minutes and after that zippers.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
So that's fine, No worries.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That had to feel weird though, to have them following
you around with these cameras. You thought, what's happening? Am
I getting indicted? What's happening?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I've got a sister who was a college professor at
Bellerman just retired. My brother was an oral surgeon for
forty years, double major chemistry biology. My sister was summa
cum Laudie graduate at Toughs for twelve minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
My parents were proud of me.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's my boy, that's our boy up there. Oh that's great,
that's fantastic. So people, you know, they've seen you in
clubs over all these decades. And you said earlier in
the show that you're on cruise ships, and so obviously
you see people of a certain demographic mostly on cruise ships.
I mean, I know there's a variance in there, but
it's a lot of folks who can afford that kind
(01:23):
of one, that's true.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
And they do skew a little bit older because they
have the time and the resources to get out there
on the ocean. And if you're on a Panama Canal cruise,
you're average cruiser. And I'm not making jokes about your
average cruisers well into their sixties and you get after
Labor Day and that number goes into the seventies. Yeah,
because that's a ten day cruise. And who's got ten
days and all that.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Time exactly what people?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You go out of Miami for four days of Mohammas
and back and there's twenty six year olds, you know,
just peel and close off as fast as they can.
When they're international water. So it just depends on what
ship you're on.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Do you ask an advance? Can I have one of
those twenty four.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Year old No?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
No, I don't have many.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
You know that people some of us said what kind
of cabin do they give you? And the berries from
ship to ship? And I was on one. Some ships
I get a passenger cabin. Some ships them and crew
area depends on how full of the ship is and
a lot of factors.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I'm on one in.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The crew area and next to me is an Italian
dance instruction couple newlyweds, and the quality of construction below
decks is not what it is above decks. And I
will say, Terry, they were fond of each other. They
also fought in Italian and I couldn't tell the difference.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
All I know is every night she won, That's all
I know. No matter what they were doing, she won.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Good for her. So you see it all that's pretty fantastic.
So when you're in the crew quarters, then does everybody
eat at some it's some like buffet or something. They
don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
There's a huge crew galley, there's there's an officer eating area,
and there's regular crew eating area, and people separate themselves
according to their friends and who they want to be
with as remember high school cafeteria.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Same thing, exact, same thing.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
The Eastern Europeans are run the casino. They're in one corner,
the Malaysian guys who run the engine there in the
other corner, the housekeeping staff, and the Philippines in another section.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah that's that's hilarious. But you're the comedian on board.
You don't have to salute like the captain or any
You don't have to do all that military like stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Here's what the status that has. If the ship is
sinking emergency. See the ship is sinking, elderly and disabled
get off first, people with families get off second, Okay,
where then non essential crew gets off?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, then a lifeboat operation. People are in place.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
After that happens, general General officer staff gets off. Then
the captain gets off. Now the captain is a pet canary.
They fly a helicopter route to take the captain's pet
canary to a veterinary clinic in Oslo, Norway. When they
radio the captain that the canary is safe, then the
comedians can get off the ship. That's the status we.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Have on the show. I bet the galley's tough. You
guys too, last piece of chicken. Give it to the comedian.
What you've served on stage for so long here and
you handle audiences of all ages and all that? Are
they changing it? All that? People are louder, and aren't
they chirped more than they used to?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Here's what's happened.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
One.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
If you're if I'm doing a land show, there's people
with their phones and they will be on their phones
during your show, and there's nothing you can do about it.
If you're not funny enough, they're going to be scrolling
their Facebook feed. That's just part of the deal. Okay,
I get it, So be extra funny for them. Used
to be that way on the ocean, except all these
ships are been wired now for Internet. So if someone
can be seen in your audience middle the Atlantic Ocean,
and if they don't think you're very funny, they're going
(04:39):
to check their Instagram. That's the world we live in. However,
my natural comedy constituency as an audience has changed. Therefore
my venues have changed. For example, I do a lot
of country club shows. That's where my people are. I
do a lot of shows at resorts.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I do a lot of.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Shows at fifty five plus communities, which are interesting shows.
They used to give me address, now they show me
a model home. But they're great audiences because people our
age and this demographic for your audience. You're talking people
between age fifty five and seventy as Johnally, who's in
that audience in a fifty five plus community. They're not
(05:15):
in wheelchairs. And it's not a nursing homes. It's a
resort that has been built around people fifty five and older.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I wonder why they picked fifty five. That's so interesting,
and someone who's fifty three you can't come into the
outside the fence looking in.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think the architect was an arc grand I don't
know what's right. AARP. You might have sent in their
architecture consultant.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And to be to live there, someone on that deed
has to be fifty five, So you could well have
a sixty year old man and a thirty five year
old wife or vice versa. You have a seven year
old woman and her pool boys there with her, but
she's her name's on the deed.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So missus Belichick dinner, sir, absolutely right on that.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So you're doing a show there and These people grew
up in an air where you when you went to
a show, you watched the show. You did not expect
to be entertained from five different sources at once. So
when I'm doing a show at Dell Web property in Phoenix,
the three hundred people in that audience, they're watching the show,
and that feels great.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, that's a rewarding thing, for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It's a great group.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You are doing a show tomorrow night to help a
friend of a friend of all of us on the radio,
because he's been on radio shows forever too. Mike Armstrong
is his name, fellow comedian, Tell me what's up.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Mike's in a battle with cancer and he's undergoing some
treatments for it. As anyone who has a friend or
relative or themselves have been through this, you know that
the bills are horrific, the experience is not pleasant. You
know all the help and support you can get. The
comedy community here in Louisville is a pretty tightly knit bunch,
and we support Mike in the struggle. Tomorrow night at
the Caravan at seven thirty, we're having a benefit show
(06:45):
for him.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm headlining the show.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
I've got a bunch of friends on that show with me,
and this is in mid City, of all at the
Caravan Comedy Club at seven thirty. All proceeds go to
benefit mister Armstrong in his struggle, and we're glad to
do it because we're a community like Radio TV. Yeah,
that's right, your freshman groups of communities support each other.
And I've known this guy a long time, nice guy,
funny guy and one of the good guys.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And I'm we're all glad to do.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
It well on a hard for him. Mike Armstrong to
be celebrated, certainly tomorrow night with Mark Klein headlining the
show at the Caravan Mid City mall. The phone numbers
four or five nine zero zero two too, and the
website that hasn't changed, the Caravan twenty seventeen dot com.
I love that. That's kind of funny anyway.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's like it's like a chemical formula of some kind.
Where did this come from?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, the Caravan twenty seventeen dot com.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Mister Klein, it's a pleasure to see you again.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It's a mutual pleasure.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Indeed, next time will be will be raial birds.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Thank you for having me and thank you for still
being here.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I appreciate. It's a genuine PLEASU appreciate our friendship all
these years. And I will see at the racetrack and
you are going to win. Do you have a horse
right now? Are you in pieces?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes, I've got a horse. I pretend to own him,
he pretends to run. I've learned Spanish like in Heckel
is jockey in his native language. And that's always a
fun day out there at the track.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I know your love for the horses, so good for you,
all right tomorrow night at the caravan. That's mid City
Mall seven point thirty to start on it with Mark Klein.
Four five nine zero zero two two is the phone
number back in a minute on news radio eight forty
whas
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