Had he been pursuing his current profession in 1984, Don McMillan might have been able to vie for a lead role in that classic (?) comedy “Revenge of the Nerds.” The film became known as the geeks’ coming out of sorts, one that proved that even the nerdiest among us can compete with the cool kids.
“That brought us up for awhile, but then Steve Urkel brought us down,” McMillan jokes. “Nerds came out of the woodwork. Then Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who were huge nerds, got very rich, and proved that nerds were cool. The world got turned upside down with the tech revolution.”
Though it may be after the fact, McMillan continues to prove that nerds have come into their own. A former chip designer, he’s made his mark courtesy of his unique PowerPoint-driven comedy, which entertains audiences possessing all levels of intelligence capability and know-how, regardless of specific technical expertise.
Consequently, McMillan’s show, which comes to Clayton Center for the Arts on March 20, is packed with graphs and charts, all of which go towards showing the silly side of the world while examining the weird and whimsical things that often escape notice.
In fact, he’s well equipped to share any number of analytical elements. He graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree in electrical engineering and then went to work at AT&T Bell Labs, where he helped design the world’s first 32-bit microprocessor. After that, he moved to Silicon Valley where he took part in launching a start-up company, VLSI Technology. After 15 years in the tech world, he quit his job to become a stand-up comedian.
Happily, he was off to a good start. He won the San Francisco Comedy Competition and then booked a national comedy tour the same week. “I had money coming in, so I told myself, ‘If I’m ever going to try this, this is the time,’” he reflects.
He found ongoing success from that point on. The next year, “Star Search” proclaimed him the Comedy Grand Champion, netting him the $100,000 grand prize.
“That was big,” he recalls. “I love doing comedy today as much as ever. It’s been very fulfilling. If I had failed financially in the first couple of years, I might have gone back to my day job. But I did pretty well. It was only scary for a short time, but even then I was enjoying myself and doing well, which made it okay.”
As time went on, he began making regular appearances on “The Tonight Show,” HBO and Comedy Central.
In addition to his public performances, he devotes much of his time to writing and performing corporate comedy shows for high-profile companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Ford Motor Company, and Exxon/Mobil. In total, he’s performed more than 800 corporate shows over the last 35 years, and he was even given the distinction of being named the Number One Corporate Comedian by the CBS Business Network.
“Yeah, it’s a little diverse,” McMillan said of his backstory while sharing one of his typical hearty laughs. “When I first started doing stand-up, I talked about my life, my wife and my relationships before starting to do shows for tech companies. Suddenly, the world had gotten nerdy and I became mainstream. That’s my value-add! The number one comment I get from corporate audiences is, ‘You made my day. I was so bored until you hit the stage.’ Still, to be the funniest guy in a corporate convention is a pretty low bar.”
That said, McMillan has an advantage many comedians don’t. “I have visual accompaniment for my jokes,” he explains. “It’s just that simple. I was doing my regular stand-up at a corporate convention and this guy had been doing this really boring PowerPoint presentation, so I said to the CEO, ‘Can I borrow some of his slides?’ And the CEO said ‘Yeah, but why?’ And I said, I just want to point out all the mistakes he made.’ And that went over really well. I said to myself, I’m onto something here. That was in 1999, 27 years ago. And from then on, I incorporated PowerPoint into my corporate act and eventually brought it to the comedy clubs where I was performing.”
Now, some 35 years after initially wading into those comedy realms, McMillan remains a happy man. “I should be much better than I am,” he jokes with typical self-effacing humor.
McMillan typically performs between 100 and 120 shows a year. “At my age, it’s a lot,” he laughs. “But I’ve done more. Frankly, I hate traveling. That’s what they pay me for. I’m not paid for the comedy. I’m paid to get there.”
To that end, McMillan’s connection to his audience remains of most importance in terms of both passion and purpose. “I still need the love of strangers,” he insists. “That’s part of performing. We need that feedback from the crowd. There’s nothing more bonding than laughing together. So the minute you get a laugh, you’re closer to the people. Comedy is all about the relationship with a crowd. You have to make them believe that you are speaking for them personally. Jokes are all shared experiences. It’s a relationship art, it really is.”
It also has its benefits. “More than ever, people come up to me after a show and say, ‘Thank you. I really needed to laugh, I really needed to escape.’ We need a little levity in a world that’s so filled with trauma. We need to be able to laugh, and laugh at ourselves. The more we can get together and laugh, the better the world can be.”
Don McMillan, The PowerPoint Comedian, performs at the Clayton Center for the Arts on Friday, March 20 at 7:30 pm. Tickets cost $37.95 to $51.85. Purchase tickets at http://claytonartscenter.com/event/don-mcmillan-comedy/.
hello@letsbeblount.com
(865)240-0297
