Marathon guest performer: Liam McEneaney

When I was in college, a rabbi told me that I was one of the funniest people he'd ever met. "Have you considered being a stand-up comedian?" he asked me. I had in fact, one of many things I thought might be my ticket to a life of attention-hogging. And hey, if the rabbi says so…

So for about three years, I lived the life in the trenches of NYC comedy clubs and downtown alt rooms. And then, realizing one day that I was probably never going to ride the stand-up train to stardom, let alone financial solvency, I quit. Oh, I had my moments—I had a great joke about Boar's Head turkey, and more than once, I got a crowd on their feet (though way more than once, I had a room full of uncomfortable people staring at me as if I were being led to the guillotine)—but quitting was the right choice for me. I mean, hey, quizmastering, way more secure and sexy.

One of the many results of my comedy adventure was that I have a huge appreciation for people who not only survive in the stand-up maelstrom, but thrive in it. And such a man is Liam McEneaney.

I met Liam back in the good old days, as we both trolled through the open-mike scene. I must have seen him perform hundreds of times, and while he was merely average at first (and brutally young; dude was like 17 when I first saw him), I watched him develop into one of the most reliably funny performers on the scene. Then I quit, didn't see him for years, and suddenly caught his act again and saw that the guy had taken a quantum leap forward, just killing it on every level. Household-nameness is merely beyond the horizon.

He is, however, right now a huge name on the local scene. He's been on Comedy Central and VH1, has performed all over the world, and is the host and producer of Tell Your Friends!, a beloved weekly stand-up show on the LES that regularly attracts seriously big names (I believe he's dating Janeane Garofalo currently, but don't pay attention to what I believe). We ran into each other last fall at New York Comic Con, as I was doing a comic-booky BQT and he was doing a comic-booky comedians' panel, and I decided he'd be a good fit for a future BQT event.

And here we are: He'll be doing ten minutes at our  Tenth Anniversary Quiz Show Marathon Spectacular on June 3 (time TBA). Check out the man below; learn more about Tell Your Friends! here; and buy your Marathon ticket, why don't you? 

Quiz Marathon guest performers: The Great Dubini, Jessica Delfino, more soon…