Rodney Marks
Bio
Comedian, corporate impostor and comic hoax speaker
- Rodney has a growing repertoire of over 350 characters, with numerous accents and dialects, from hundreds of professions. One character appears at each event.
- His joke-name, double-talking characters have had over 30 international tours to the UK, the US, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and New Zealand.
- In Australia, he performs frequently:
- in Sydney (his home town), Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and Canberra
- on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast
- and in other regional locations, especially conference and business events destinations.
Who is this guy?
Experience
- Rodney is a corporate impostor – a comic hoax speaker in a business suit.
- His comedy is usually in the form of fake keynote speeches at conferences, conventions, seminars, awards nights, cocktail parties and other business events.
- Sometimes he is a comedy emcee / MC / master of ceremonies … almost always in character.
- He is infamous as the perpetrator of Hoaxes and Jokeses.
- He has been a full-time professional comedian since 1991. Prior to that time, he served the traditional, part-time apprenticeship for several years – until he created enough material and developed an audience, and a voice: a comic attitude.
- He’s in demand now more than ever. You’ll be in safe hands with Rodney. He won’t accidentally insult anybody. It’ll be on purpose.
- He’s an Australian, but his characters often aren’t … you get an international performer for no extra charge.
- If you’re looking for a comedian, but only have a budget line for a speaker … look no further! Rodney is a comedy speaker, a deadpan comedian pretending to be a speaker, a speaker whose credibility deteriorates and degenerates into hilarity as your people realise they’ve been had..
Education
- Rodney has degrees from Harvard University 1988, UNSW/AGSM 1982 and UNE 1980.
Appointments and recognition
- Rodney has been visiting professor-at-large at UNSW 2007, and artist-in-residence at the Macquarie Dictionary 2002-03, UNE 2001-02, the AGSM 2000-01 and Harvard University 1995.
- Rodney has been listed in Who’s Who in Australia for 25 years, and in the Concise Companion to Theatre in Australia.
Awards
- Professional Speakers Australia (formerly the National Speakers Association of Australia)
- Nevin Award recipient 2013, for service
- Keynote Speaker of the Year 2011
- National President 2007-08
- CSP: Certified Speaking Professional 2004
- Australian Order of Comedians: The Echidnas
- Fellowship Award recipient 2015.