Keep Them Laughing

Taylor Mason gets paid to make people laugh.

And those people are about as diverse as they come: a prestigious law firm, a Baptist Little League banquet in Georgia, hospital executives in West Virginia, passengers on The Disney Dream cruise ship, a church in Sonoma, CA; a college in Illinois and on Friday and Saturday night, patrons at Casa Carollo.

Mason will perform at 9:30 p.m. June 3 and 9 p.m. June at the restaurant, located at 200 N. Route 73 in Marlton.

“There is no rhyme or reason to my schedule or bookings,” the 55-year-old Mason said. “I’m not racist, homophobic, angry, profane, Democrat, Republican, self-centered or a victim. I blame this on my parents. They raised someone who does not use drugs, doesn’t cheat on his wife, loves his kids, doesn’t drink, pays his taxes, works really hard, and takes responsibility for his actions. I curse my parents every day for raising me so lovingly, so thoughtfully and graciously.

“If only they had embittered me somehow. I just know I’d have my own TV show.”

His fan base is as diverse as the locations he plays. They do not fit into any one demographic. They are, he said, of every race, religion, creed and interstellar being. To Mason, the makeup of the audience doesn’t matter.

“I try, very hard, to make people laugh,” he said. “I write a lot of jokes so I usually can find some common ground.”

Mason earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s in advertising at Northwestern University.

“It cost me $50,000 and this is what I learned: I don’t want to do this,” said Mason, who describes what he does as comedy, music, ventriloquism and aromatherapy.

“I have all these skills with no application to real life,” he said.

Mason, who flies about 200,000 miles per year performing, wrote The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ventriloquism. He also won Star Search in 1991.

“I got lots of bookings from the show, and did lots of TV; we moved to Los Angeles,” said Mason. The Mason family moved back to South Jersey because Taylor’s wife, Marsia, hated LA.

“I paved my way into heaven and moved back to South Jersey, within five minutes of my mother-in-law,” said Mason. “That works for every religion, by the way, moving your spouse back close to her mom.”

And although he says he would do Star Search again, it did not change his life.

“Things that change my life have nothing to do with my job,” he said. “I am not my job. I’ve never really had a job. I just get paid to make people laugh.”