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.