[00:00:00] The white lie that got her called out by her own kid

Speaker 2: Don’t lie to your kids, because really it’ll come back to get you. Because when my daughter was really little, when she was like four, she was obsessed with the idea of eventually having boobies.

So I told her, I said, if you eat your broccoli, broccoli will give you boobies. But that smart aleck took one look at me and said, oh, mommy. Did you only eat half of your broccoli?

Andrea Marie: We are Moms Unhinged, a nationally touring standup comedy show. Join us in our podcast as we explore everything from motherhood, midlife, crisis, marriage, divorce, online dating, menopause, and other things that irritate us.

Hello everyone. Welcome to Moms Unhinged. Yeah, woo hoo! My name’s Andrea, your host, and I am joined by the fabulous, amazing Amanda Marks today. Welcome, Amanda.

Amanda Marks: Hey, Andrea!

Andrea Marie: Hey!

Amanda Marks: Coming to you live from some weird weather in Atlanta.

Andrea Marie: I know right?

Amanda Marks: It’s been, a heat wave up until like two days ago.

Andrea Marie: Oh God. Oh wow, yeah, and Amanda is one of our Atlanta based mom comedians in Moms Unhinged. She is incredible. She’s been touring around with us. She has a podcast called Sis and Tell, so go check that out. We’ll have those links in the show notes for you too.

But yeah, super excited to just be talking about unhinged things and how you got started into comedy and all this stuff. We’ve got lots to chat about.

[00:01:48] When a friend dragged her to a stand-up class (and it stuck)

Amanda Marks: I’m ready. I’m ready to talk as always, which is why I do comedy.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, comedy and a podcast. You’re a talker. Let’s start with, let’s start with how you got into comedy a little bit. Like what prompted you have you always wanted to be a comedian? What prompted that voyage into comedy.

Amanda Marks: I would say, I have always been super into microphones all of my life. I don’t know. And stages, like I’ve just, there’s something about being on a stage, having a microphone in my hand that brings me such joy. And I was talking to my sister about it and I was saying it’s not about getting attention. It’s about entertaining people.

And since I was very young, I have just loved to entertain people, to make them happy, to make them laugh. I have like old footage of me at my brother’s bar mitzvah party when I’m eight and I’ve got a microphone in my hand and I just, and my dad willingly, I don’t know what they were thinking. My dad willingly hands me a microphone and I took over the dance floor.

For a solid 10 minutes just doing singing songs, trying to have a talent contest and various other things that I was doing on that impromptu stage. I got into standup about 11 ish, 11 and a half, years ago. I would say I’ve always been kind of searching for what is my stage right?

Is it improv? Is it being in plays? Is it being in front of the camera and I took an improv class. I’ve taken so many improv classes and I was in one in particular where one of my friends was like, I’m signing up to do this standup class afterwards. Come do it with me. And I’m like, absolutely not.

Like the idea of, and it wasn’t being on stage. I’m not afraid to be on stage. I don’t really get stage fright. It was the idea of writing my own material that really freaked me out. So he took the class and he said, he really prepares you that at the end, you perform. So I just, so the next class, I just signed up for it and it was like paying to be a part of a writer’s group where he was giving us different assignments and you know, some assignments, some writing assignments worked, some didn’t.

But you’re kind of like using those to figure out if I’m writing on my own. What’s gonna work, right? So we performed for graduation in front of 300 people at the Atlanta Improv, which does not exist anymore. And of course the audience was very kind and it was all friends and family of everyone who right there were very, and it’s a false sense of being good when you’re in that situation.

Andrea Marie: I killed.

Amanda Marks: Right. I was so great and I just, but I love being on stage. I love the independence of standup, of being in control of that situation, not having to share the stage. And I don’t mean that from like a, you know, taking all the attention, being in the only one in the limelight. It’s because when you share a scene with someone, whatever it is on a stage, there’s pressure to do good for them. Right?

And to be supportive for your partner. And I really feel like when you’re on stage as a standup, you’re being good for the audience. Those are the only people you have to worry about is the audience, are they happy? And if you mess up, it’s okay because it’s not a script like you just, you go with the flow.

So that’s how I got started.

[00:05:30] Life with three kids and a lot of noise

Andrea Marie: Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s amazing, I love it. And what do your kids think of you doing standup? Are they excited for you? Are they worried that you’re talking about them?

Amanda Marks: So I mean, when I started, my kids were very young. They were like, I think we have three kids. We have boy, girl twins. Our first born was Singleton, so I think they were like four and seven when I started and so they’ve always, I describe my family as you, hear us before you see us because we are all, we all have very big, very individualistic personalities.

So they, they loved it. But, the twin son still has not seen me perform standup. My daughter has only come to this show I host called meno(pour), which I wouldn’t even call it a comedy show. It’s like a live talk show where I’m with a doctor, I share a stage with a doctor and we talk to women about perimenopause and menopause.

And I’m the comedic relief so people feel comfortable saying dry vagina 20 times. And my oldest son, he came to my Moms Unhinged. Right. And it was like, it was probably like the best setup for his first show for him to go to because like our, like Moms Unhinged is the marquee.

We were at one of the beautiful old theaters that you had found. And like, there’s like giant Moms Unhinged posters everywhere with my face everywhere. It was packed. I think it was a sold out show. So, and you know, as a standup sometimes. If you’re lucky you in a lifetime to be a part of something like Moms Unhinged.

But most shows are like in a brewery, and if there’s 35 people there and there’s not like a pinball machine in the background, you’re lucky, right? There’s usually lots of distractions and audiences vary, right? Yeah.

You get paid in chicken fingers, you know? So it was like the perfect show and I was like, this is not normal.

Yeah. This is not normal. But they’re very, they love it. I think, you know, they think it’s fun to tell their friends. I do a lot of social media posts also where I make, not of necessarily my Standup content, just like, talking to the camera sort of thing. And their friends follow me and I don’t know this until they’re like, “Hey, Miss Amanda.”

That’s a very southern thing. “Hi Miss Amanda. I follow you on TikTok,” and I forget people, everyone knows my business ’cause I put all my business out there.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. I know, right? It is kind of weird to have someone come up and say something personal. Oh, I’m so sorry about that. I was like, oh, oh, right. You all know.

Amanda Marks: Oh yeah, this is a Facebook post.

[00:08:11] Twins, teenagers, and the Fun Drink Fridge

Andrea Marie: I know. Oh, man. And then so you’ve got twins. What is that like? Twins. I mean, that must, I mean, is that a lot of, provide a lot of content?

Amanda Marks: So it’s interesting because, and my kids, one of, I can’t remember who it was, maybe Murray my oldest, he got like offended when I was like, “I don’t really talk about y’all on stage.” Like in generic terms I do, but I don’t usually call them out specifically because I’m very, and my husband. I don’t really call him out either.

It’s really about. My perspective of these things that happen generically versus like, Oscar did this, Ruby did this. Although I have to say, I did write a whole new five minute bit about, my son Oscar and how he is like an old Jewish woman stuck in a little boy’s body and little boy, he’s now 16. But the things he says, but like, I try to, I try not to embarrass them on stage or say anything too personal.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Amanda Marks: But with the twins, you know, when I was younger, I had about seven Cabbage Patch kids. And I feel like that really prepared me for multiples and taking care of multiple children at the same time. So when I found out I was having twins, I was like, great. This my cabbage, Xavier Roberts prepared me for this day.

Also we wanted three kids and I was like you know, I’m so good at project management that this is efficient. Really, I felt like it was so efficient.

Andrea Marie: Just get her done. Yeah you don’t draw, not drawn out.

Amanda Marks: Yeah, now that they’re teenagers, it’s really, it’s fun. It’s always a party in our house. All it takes is just adding a couple of friends from each of them. And, I have good snacks and I started the Fun Drink Fridge. We have a Fun Drink Fridge, non-alcoholic drinks, but it’s all fun drinks. And so if you, if you stock it, they will come.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, it is. I did enjoy having, my kids are now, I’m an empty nester now, but I’ve always enjoyed having everyone at our house ’cause then I get to eavesdrop, I get to try, you know, really kinda see what’s going on. Watch the dynamics. I always like doing the carpool. That’s where you get the best dirt.

Amanda Marks: Oh yeah. Oh, I love the tea. It’s so good. In the car, there’s something about, it’s like the, the psychologist version of the couch is the car, right? And they’ll tell you everything.

Andrea Marie: And you have a little ways to be an empty nester. You’ve got how many more years?

Amanda Marks: They’re juniors, so it’s not, I got two years.

Andrea Marie: Oh yeah, it’s coming up actually.

Amanda Marks: I keep on joking.

Andrea Marie: It’s coming up faster than I realize.

Amanda Marks: For years, I’ve been saying when all the kids are at a house, we’re gonna totally do a Groupon vacation, but now, like Groupon doesn’t even exist. We used to get those like email newsletters about like last minute vacation packages.

I’m like, one day I am gonna go in a last minute trip to Cancun, Groupon. and now I’m like, oh, my life has outlived Groupon, so I have to find another vacation deal.

Andrea Marie: Dang it. Yeah, I’m sure they’re out there. I feel like they’re out there.

Amanda Marks: Somewhere.

[00:11:23] Growing up Jewish in Alabama

Andrea Marie: So you grew up, yeah. You grew up in Alabama.

Amanda Marks: I did.

Andrea Marie: You’re Jewish, I mean, what was that like? You talk about it in your standup, but like, growing up, I mean.

Amanda Marks: Like we were, I was in like this microcosm of this small Jewish community in Birmingham. Birmingham, I think still has a population of around a million people, and the Jewish community there is about 5,000, which I think it’s pretty much held steady. So much to people’s surprise, like we have three synagogues.

We have a Jewish day school. There’s a JCC, and our community was small, but loud and voice. So we are very active community in the broader community. But my world was very Jewish and very southern at the same time. I’m actually a fifth generation Alabama Jew. I have a joke about that. It’s a very old joke, and when I first started doing it, I said, I was a fourth generation Alabama Jew, and my dad was at the show. And he goes, that’s not true. You’re a fifth generation because your great, great grandfather lived in Alabama, so he wasn’t born there. But we’ve gone back. I mean, we came over, so my dad grew up in Birmingham. My mom grew up in Montgomery.

Andrea Marie: Mm-hmm.

Amanda Marks: They both have adorable southern accents, but people get confused. They get very confused about me being from Alabama. They think I must have moved from somewhere. They think we’re from New York. I don’t like. And look, I was, I feel like wherever I am, I am a fish outta water.

Right, like I’m like, I did not fit in. I did not fit in in Alabama, but I also didn’t fit in. I went to school up north and they didn’t know what to do with me either.

So thank God for standup.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, that’s wild. So that’s interesting though. That is a larger population and I just haven’t been really to Birmingham at all. So, you know, I’m having a hard time picturing even how big it is. So when you say a million people, I’m like, oh, wow, that’s bigger than I realized.

And so, yeah. But you did, so did you start stand up in Birmingham then, or was that later?

[00:13:44] From TV obsession to Cartoon Network

Amanda Marks: Later, much later. After high school, I went to Boston University for college and then I went to NYU for graduate school. So I lived in Boston, like a year after college and then moved to New York for a couple years and then got married and my husband grew up in Albuquerque. So we moved to Albuquerque for about seven or seven or eight months.

And my degree was in like TV production. So I was very involved in like the film and TV production community in Albuquerque. So much so, but that I would’ve been in the newspaper like three times by the time we left. ‘Cause we quickly got out of there. We’re like, this is not because. This is not a good fit.

And we moved to Atlanta because my husband did not grow up with a large family, and I did, and I have a ton of family in the Southeast. So, and we didn’t wanna be in Birmingham, but we wanted to be in the south at least driving distance. So we, I like the, the first week we were in a Atlanta we moved here in ’03.

So we’ve been here a very long time. But he looked at me and goes, okay, so what do we do? Where do we go? What’s there to do? And I go, I don’t know. And he said, well, didn’t you come here all the time from Birmingham, like as a kid? Didn’t y’all come here all the time? It’s only two hours away. And I was like, no, that’s like a young person’s thing.

Like we just moved, we moved to Atlanta. We didn’t know anything. We didn’t have jobs. We lived with my mom’s best friend for a month while we looked for jobs. And all I wanted to do was work at Cartoon Network because I also had a master’s degree in kids television. Which is not a thing, I made it up.

Like, I literally had to design my own master’s program. So, and I worked at Cartoon Network for a long time.

Andrea Marie: Oh, that’s awesome. So that’s not a fake thing that you just said. It’s not fake. Like I have a master’s degree. It’s like I watch cartoons every Saturday. You know.

Amanda Marks: Literally.

Andrea Marie: That’s how you get the master’s in.

Amanda Marks: Right, I did that too. I probably like, like growing up my family consumed so much television. I’m sure it was unhealthy, but I didn’t have any kids on my street. It was all like, you know, from a generation perspective, we had all the grandparents on my street and then there were us and I had no friends except for my dog.

And my siblings were much older than me, so I was friends with my dog and like Rudy Huxtable was my best friend and I watched so much tv. We had a television probably in almost every room. I was the only one who, like my siblings with their bar and Bat mitzvah money, they bought televisions for themselves and put televisions in their room.

And I’m like, why? Why are you gonna do that? Because there’s literally a television in every room. Like my parents had a television in their bathroom, like one of those like portable black and white TVs that if you. If it fell in the bathtub, you’d get electrocuted. But I bought an armoire with my Bat mitzvah money and I still have it.

But anyways, but like we were so obsessed with TV as a family, so obsessed. So much so that one time we were at a wedding out of town and we didn’t have cable, but of course the hotel room did. So we were sitting on like the edge of the bed watching HBO and then my mom’s like, oh my God, we’re gonna be late to the wedding.

And so we had to like run and before we walked in with the bride, but we all like, we. All have basically degrees in media and me and my siblings, like we love, we love tv. So I have an undergraduate degree in television. I have a master’s degree in television. I love, I love tv. Nothing makes me happier than sitting on my couch watching TV with a quilt on me. So that’s all I need in life.

Andrea Marie: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So then you worked at Cartoon Network, that was your dream and you did it. That’s so cool.

Amanda Marks: And then I’m like, okay, I am good. You know, it’s like you have to be careful when it’s like, if there’s things that you’re passionate about in high school or in college, and that you’re naturally good at. I mean, you’ve be careful about what you choose as a profession, right? Because you can quickly end up painting it.

And like, I love

Andrea Marie: Yeah,

[00:17:53] Balancing motherhood and creative burnout

Amanda Marks: I love writing and think, I mean, that’s part of standup. But, thank God I did not do that professionally because I, I may not be doing standup now. Like, my kids are all, I think, natural artists, but I’m like, keep that as your hobby. Go do something else. Because if you’re an artist and you become a graphic designer and you have to live and die by a client, you’re gonna start hating. You’re gonna start hating that life. Keep the love, keep the love as a hobby.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, yeah. It definitely is. It definitely puts a strain on whatever you decide to do. Especially, yeah creative, making a living in creative arts is challenging, but it can be, I mean, yeah, it can be great for some people. But definitely, yeah, it’s hard when you add a commercial aspect into it.

Amanda Marks: Yes, yeah.

Andrea Marie: Your kids then, like, were you working when you had, you weren’t working with twins. I mean, with three kids, young kids at home, were you?

Amanda Marks: I was, yeah. , Yeah, I was working full time. I worked, so after I left.

Andrea Marie: That must’ve been so hard.

Amanda Marks: But it’s like a blur, right? Like childbirth is a blur and you do it again. Yeah, I was working after Cartoon Network, then I started consulting and wherever I consulted, they’re always eventually like, we wanna hire you fulltime.

I think because that was expensive. They’re like, can we just hire fulltime? ‘Cause that’ll be more efficient. So, I did a lot like client services and stuff like that for like agencies and worked for a startup and that got bought by Oracle. I’ve done so many different jobs, you know, a lot of contract.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. Wow, that’s amazing.

Amanda Marks: I one company I worked for, so I have, I don’t know if this is an issue of mine now, you’re my therapist, Andrea, Dr. Andrea. But I’m really good at interviewing. Whether or not, like informational interviewing, interviewing. And I’ve been in at least three situations where people have offered me jobs when I’m just in there for an informational interview. And they don’t even have a job for me.

Like they don’t, they’re just like, we want you to work here. Right, and it took me like literally three times to be like, that is a bad situation. Like if you go into a situation professionally where they hire you because of you, but they don’t have a specific position. Then it just kind of sets you up for failure.

And now I know if I was in that situation, I’d be like, well, let’s talk about what that position is and what I’d be doing every day. Versus like this generic stuff that I did for this other company. I need to know what you want me to do because it’s not, it causes chaos.

Andrea Marie: Right.

Amanda Marks: It causes chaos and confusion.

Yeah, yeah. But so now I do still gig on the side. I do random stuff on the side. My husband owns a law firm and I help him with market, social media and client services stuff. But I do, you know, produce shows and do standup. I do a lot of shows for private, like for nonprofits and corporations and stuff like that.

My niche though, my niche audience is old, old Southern Jewish people. That is, that’s my bread and butter. Those are the people who love me.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Amanda Marks: If you’re 70 and you attend Rosh Hashanah services, I am the comedian for you and you have a little southern twang, then you’re gonna be like, I love that Amanda Marks.

[00:21:37] The toddler potty-training story you’ll never forget

Andrea Marie: That’s great. That’s awesome, I love that. So one of the things I love to ask everyone too is like, have you had? And I’m sure with, I know everyone has, what has been kind of one of your more unhinged moments that you have had? Either as a parent or in your childhood? Share with us where things have kind of unraveled a little bit.

Amanda Marks: I don’t know. I feel like I have to apologize to my mom now. I was pretty unpredictable. I was pretty unpredictable as a child. And my mom said like she never knew what I was gonna say, but I was always kind right? And as long as I was kind, she would didn’t care. She didn’t care what I said.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Amanda Marks: And they were always handing me microphones.

And my life has been as has been unhinged as a child. But I have this. One memory of my oldest kid who is now 19, but when he was like, he must have been like two-ish, like he was at that stage where he was potty training and it was the first time he had ever left his house. The house in Big Boy underwear.

And we went to this like noodle house where you order at the counter, which by the way, life hack as a parent always order at one of those places where you order and pay first and they have to go boxes everywhere so you can make a quick exit.

And this is from this situation. So we order and I’ve got like the number and we’re, we walk outside to go find a table while my husband is like gathering forks or something, and Murray goes up to this table with a younger baby at it because they have like a little Thomas the train at the end of it and he starts engaging with them and playing with train, right? And they’re loving it. We’re talking and then all of a sudden.

He stops what he’s doing. He looks down in between his legs and he just pees everywhere. All thank God it was outside an outside patio. He pees all over the patio and then, I don’t know.

Andrea Marie: Another life hack.

Amanda Marks: He’s like, and it just like, like unloads like an elephant at a zoo, right? Like this is so much water.

Luckily he was a hydrated kid, obviously from this situation, but what I was not accounting for was, as most kids do, when it rains outside in their puddles, they love to jump in puddles. So the first thing he did was say. “Oh, a puddle,” and then he started jumping in his own pee of puddle. Puddle of pee.

He started and he was like, and it was, I’m telling, it was like slow motion and I could not stop him quick enough. So he’s jumping in the pee. It’s a pee is splattering everywhere. It’s going on me, it’s going on him. It’s splashing the couple and their baby. I am so horrified and as someone who never gets embarrassed, I was mortified. I was mortified.

And I was like, oh my God. Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. And they didn’t care. They had a baby, right. They were so like, if it was gonna happen in front of anyone, it was gonna be them. I quickly found like a water. Right. They’re like, whatever, you know, we can’t smell it.

And so I quickly found like a pitcher of water and I like diluted the pee and it just kind of washed everywhere. Again, thank God this was outside. And then my husband found me after all this had happened. I just looked at him and I’m telling you, I was like holding back these tears and I was like, we have to go.

We have to go immediately get the food and we’re going. And he is like, what happened? And I was just like, we have to go. We’re leaving. So that was my unhinged, that was my unhinged moment.

Andrea Marie: Oh, that is terrible. That is so awful.

[00:25:34] Why potty training girls was easier

Amanda Marks: Fast forward to when we had the twins and we were out at like a kids’ festival. It’s like, you know, the festivals that are on the street and there’re all those like arts and craft tents and things to do and music playing. And we were, my daughter, I don’t know if Oscar was wearing Big boy underwear, but Ruby was definitely in Big Girl panties and she looked at me and goes, I gotta go potty. And I said, okay. And I took her to the porta-potty, right?

And she looked at that porta-potty and she looked at me and then she looked at the porta-potty and she looked at me and she goes, “I no Pee Pee in there.” And I go, girl, I got you. I don’t wanna pee pee in there either.

I brought a pull up with me because I was prepared now, right? Like, don’t leave the house without, whether they’re in training without the pullup. So I said, look, we can just, we’ll slip on your pullup. You pee pee in there and it’s okay, and you’re doing great and I’m proud of you. And we’ll find a big girl bathroom later, we’ll just put on a pullup.

And she goes, no. I’m like, no, you have to put on the pull-up. I can’t do this to myself again. And she said, no, I’m gonna hold it. And she did. She held it for four hours and she pot. And then she was done. She was potty trained. So I was like, thank God. I think it’s girls. Girls are easier to potty train.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. But you know, that’s funny. That’s a good lesson in teaching them to hold it. If it’s the choice is the porta-potty or holding it, of course, then you might get the choice of peeing and jumping in the puddle.

Amanda Marks: Right. Yeah either way, we’re screwed.

Andrea Marie: Oh my gosh. Yeah, that is so crazy. Well, Amanda, this has just been so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I totally appreciate it. Why don’t you let the audience know where they can find you and follow you and all that stuff. And we’ll put those links in the show notes.

So where can people connect with you?

Amanda Marks: I am everywhere: Mall of Amanda, so mallofamanda.com. @mallofamanda on Instagram and TikTok on Facebook. You can find me on eBay. On Mall of Amanda selling old crap from Cartoon Network. me pay for college. Help me pay for college, right? Oh yeah. Mall of Amanda on Venmo. It’s everywhere. That’s what I’m sticking with. That’s my brand Mall of Amanda. Because you, because you never what’s in store.

Andrea Marie: I like that. That is awesome. Well, thank you so much Amanda and thanks everyone for listening.

Amanda Marks: Woo.

Andrea Marie: Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe, share, and follow us on the socials to get more comedy clips.