Nick Mortensen

Nicholas Jay Mortensen (born November 4, 1977 in Green Bay, Wisconsin) is an American comedian and motivational speaker.

Biography

Mortensen spent his formative years in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay in 2001 and spent time working with his father at the family-owned Jones Sign Nationwide, where he gained an appreciation of his ability to make others laugh.

While he has said his job at Jones Sign was "incredible," he regarded his position with unease, feeling it based on nepotism. Eager to see if his own talents could net him recognition, he began performing comedy in 2004 on a visit to Madison, Wisconsin. Within a year he had collaborated on a group for young stand up comedians called the WiSUC Project, short for "Wisconsin Stand-Up Comedy Project", and won their first ever comedy contest. In 2007 Mortensen moved to Madison.

Mortensen moved through the traditional ranks of stand-up comedy with curious velocity.^{[citation needed]} While many comedians linger in the house emcee or middle for years, Mortensen headlined the Majestic Theater in Madison 2008, just months after opening at the same venue for comedian Christian Finnegan.^{[citation needed]}

Recent events

Nick ran into some trouble in June 2007 with the Madison Comedy Club as the result of a front-page article in Madison's The Capital Times where he was quoted as saying "The club here (in Madison, WI) is super cool and a pleasure to work at, but generally speaking, comedy clubs are where comedians and comedy itself goes to die." [1]. The Madison Comedy Club subsequently canceled his future bookings with the club^{[citation needed]} and erased his profile from the comedians section on their website. Nick was said to be unsurprised and has stated on his blog on occasion that comedy clubs often resort to punitive measures to keep comedians in line.^{[citation needed]} He's further stated that it is not of tremendous importance for him to work in clubs because he prefers colleges and rock and roll clubs and sees comedy clubs as one of many different means of display while comedy clubs often see themselves as means of production.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2007, the experience with the Madison Comedy Club became a turning point for Nick. He decided he would no longer work in comedy clubs, instead choosing to focus on the college and corporate circuits and the Internet.^{[citation needed]} One of his big issues with comedy clubs, he stated, was that they made the comedian into a glorified alcohol salesman and he no longer wanted to be a part of the alcohol paradigm, citing the fact that he'd tended bar and had seen the damage that alcohol does to the lives of those who abuse it.^{[citation needed]}

Packers blog

In November 2006, Mortensen was hired to blog about his hometown Green Bay Packers at acclaimed Packers fan blog Nietzsche or Nitschke?

References

• Rozwadowski, Tom (December 18, 2005). "Taking Comedy Out of the Clubs". Green Bay Press-Gazette, Section D (Life)p. 1-2.
• Comp, Nathan J. (June 8, 2006). "[Home Grown Comedy Tickles Madison] [2]".
• The Capital Times

External links

• Nick Mortensen's official site

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Name	Mortensen, Nick
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Date of birth	November 4, 1977
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