Mike Dolan: Commander in Comedy

Episode 9

Mike Dolan - Commander in Comedy

JV - Hi, I’m John Vergara

PV - And I’m Paula Vergara

JV - So Guess what?? You are listening to the NINTH episode of the Probably Speaking podcast! (insert clapping sound effect). We are SUPER excited about today’s show. We’ve invited tech guru, actor, and comedian Mike Dolan onto the show. He’ll be talking about his unique experience growing up in a military family, living all over the world, and the situations that convinced him to break with the military tradition, and follow his own career path.

JV- Here’s a sneak peek: (we will include 5-8 second audio clip from Mike’s interview here, during post-interview editing.)

JV - Before we get into the fascinating details about Mike’s childhood, we’d like to let our audience know a bit more about him.

JV - Mike Dolan is the eldest of three kids, and grew up as an "Army Brat" in a conservative, Irish-Catholic family, watching Sesame Street in places such as Panama, Saudi Arabia, Alaska & Japan. He attained his BA in Theatre from the University of Washington, in Seattle, and has been active in the entertainment industry for 20+ years.  

Mike has performed at many stand-up comedy clubs in Los Angeles, and has starred in numerous independent films (google him, people). He has also worked on cruise ships all over the Caribbean. He has MC’d for Disneyland crowds of over 20,000+.  

These days, Mike is more focused on his successful tech career, marriage, fatherhood, and reflecting on what it means to be a family…where all the comedy really is ;)  

JV - Welcome, Mikey!

PV - Yes! Welcome!

MD - Thank you! It’s great to be here.

JV - So Mikey - I’ve known you for at least 14 years now, right? 

MD - (Ad-lib)

JV - He’s also known as Sadie Alexandru’s husband, who is a well known actress that can be seen in a recurring role on MadMen as wekk as over 40 national commercials.  She in recent years has juggled being a mom while killing it as a voice over talent as part of the Call of Duty gaming franchise. not to mention one of the best moms Ive ever met

MD - (Ad-lib) 

JV- So as a military kid, what do you tell people when they ask you where you’re from? 

MD -  (Ad lib)

Mike’s story starts here:

MD - Just as a little bit of background on my family - one of my grandfathers was a navy pilot, and the other a Lt. Col. in the army. Both fought in WWII & Korea. My Dad spent his career in the army, received a purple heart after being wounded in the Vietnam war, retiring as a full bird Colonel. My middle sister is now a Brigade Commander w/ the 82nd Airborne Division - currently in Poland for the Ukraine/USSR BS, and my brother-in-law is a 1 star General who recently returned from a 9 month tour in Kuwait.

JV - Wow! That’s incredible! Deep service to our nation by your family! 

MD -  Of course, the family makes some sacrifices for the service…We moved around a lot! By the time I was 9, I had lived in 3 different countries & 4 States lol (OR/WA/KS/TX).

MD - [Panama story?] Was learning Spanish from dubbed Panamanian Sesame Street - lived off base - first taste of greater expansive world out there for us all.

I spent 5th-6th grade living in Saudi Arabia, exposed to world cultures and varying degrees of personal and religious freedoms.

I was there when the US attacked Libya - (1986 was like my 9/11). 

There were guards at the gates of our compound, and bus drivers were military, who were armed. 

We Traveled in caravans…never went anywhere alone.

My Mother wasn’t allowed to drive a car, per the laws in Saudi Arabia. 

JV - You  must have become more resilient and adaptable/develop good coping skills as a kid as a result of all of these moves.

MD - (Ad lib)

MD -  Interesting side story- Went to “secret” church on Fridays, b/c Friday was “Sunday” in Saudi Arabia. A priest would come to their compound to do Mass on Fridays, and got caught, and was arrested by the Islamic police.  

This was a learning moment - the lack of religious freedom was apparent. 

PV - So, those restrictions to freedoms that we take for granted in the USA must have made an impression on you. Can you elaborate on the impact of that when you got back to the states? 

MD-ad lib

JV - Small world side note for the audience: In 1985 while Mikey was a kid in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I was in my first job out of college, managing what?  Oil & Gas Refinery insurance underwriters based in a compound in Riyadh!  After 14 years knowing each other, it was weird to discover this overlap in our lives from so many years earlier!

MD- Such a small world.  Some of my favorite activities during that time were the Camel races - [Mike - elaborate a bit on this…] - went out in the desert somewhere for actual camel races, which just seems silly but is extremely entertaining & had a ‘capsa’, big feast where all the men sit under a tent on the ground, drink tea & eat lots of goat, which is delicious btw.

• Watched TV on VHS tapes. 

• Felt a bit behind on current TV viewing.
  
  

One of the earliest lessons I learned: Never keep my wallet in my back pocket - having been to markets in Hong Kong/Bangkok/Kual Lumpur…there are pickpockets everywhere. To this day, I keep my wallet in my front pocket.

As a teenager, my family and I moved to Washington state, where I went to three different high schools, having to start over again as the “new kid” in school. 

My senior year of high school was spent in Alaska, after another  military move.

PV - Too bad it wasn’t Hawaii…that could have been fun.

MD  (Ad lib)

MD - Alaska turned out to be a pivotal moment, despite feeling like a freshman all over again. 

MD - A random classmate asked me if I wanted to audition for a school play, and since he didn’t know anyone, I agreed to it. This proved to be the turning point that got me into acting. I continued to act in school plays for the remainder of my senior year. 

PV - did you go through any teenage power struggles with your parents during these years?

MD - (Ad Lib)

MD - Then came college. I went to school in Seattle…one of the most liberal areas of the country, during a time when the band Nirvana was popular. 

MD - My college years opened my eyes to a different, more liberal view of the world/politics. I was a theater major in college, as a direct result of his experience in high school. 

MD- I joined the ROTC in college, to see if the military was a good fit for me. I never felt any internal pressure by my family to join the military, but felt an internal pressure to at least give it a try.

MD - I would often go to theater practice/class wearing camouflage…sort of two worlds colliding/polar opposites. 

MD - My ROTC experience proved to be the biggest fork in the road for me. I had to decide if I wanted to go the Theater route, or follow the family path into the military. 

MD- On one fateful day of training exercise in the ROTC, the captain asked me to give orders to the group. All the 'troops' (or college kids) sitting there were waiting to get onto a helicopter - everyone had been up for 48 hours straight, and knew that when we got back to Seattle...we had to spend HOURS cleaning our weapons.

MD - Levity was in order, so I turned this into an opportunity to “disarm” my fellow troops by telling a few jokes. This didn’t sit well with the Captain. It was at this particular moment that I realized that the military wasn’t in my future. I had control, for once. It made sense. 

My decisions were on my terms.

PV - Reminds me of the Robin Williams movie, Good Morning Vietnam. 

MD - Actually , I'm more like Bill Murray in Stripes!

MD - I chose comedy, and so I did some stand-up comedy while performing in plays while going through college

MD - Oh, one side note - I found out later in my early 20s that one of my grandfathers was a writer who directed plays.

JV - So what did you learn from this experience?

MD - (ad lib)

JV - So, that’s IT! We’d like to thank everyone for listening. We hope these stories have inspired you to reminisce about your own family stories. If you have some time, please give us a review at ProbablySpeaking.com, to let us know what you think! 

PV - Be sure to subscribe and listen for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.