SHARK PARTY MEDIA

Michael Palascak (Pal-a-sack) grew up in the town of Wabash, Indiana—The First Electrically Lighted City in the World and childhood home of country music sensation Crystal Gayle.  Every night at the dinner table, Michael’s dad would ask if anyone had any good jokes and Michael, the attention-seeking middle child of three boys, would be so enthralled with telling jokes from his joke book, he would eventually have be limited to 1 or 2.  From his graveyard weedwacker days to high school football woes, Michael’s childhood and high school years provided him with a very grounded, relatable sense of himself and the world around him.  After graduating high school, Michael worked 50 hour weeks in a factory to help pay for college.  He operated a machine in cell 22a that manufactured the rear right hand window insulation on Ford Explorers.  If you own a Ford Explorer with messed up rear right hand insulation, Michael apologizes.  The long hot days of molding rubber made all the hardships of pursuing his stand-up comedy career seem like a huge privilege. 

While Michael was in college, his parents moved to suburbs of Chicago and Michael began his comedy career at The Barrel of Laughs Comedy Club in Oak Lawn, IL.  The blue collar Southwest Chicago crowds forced Michael to craft funny jokes and deliver them with an authentic confidence and stage presence.  To survive he lived at home with his parents—which he talked about onstage to great success.  Night after night Michael would travel from bars to billiards halls to coffee houses to comedy clubs in and around Chicago performing his jokes.  Eventually, a very talented musician, Stolie, saw a lot of potential and connected him with an agent that booked college shows. 

Around the same time, Michael won local contests—The Taste of Chicago Sierra Mist Zanies Comedy Challenge, the Chicago region of Comedy Central’s Open Mic Fight, and The Lucky 21—which led to frequently headlining the iconic Chicago club—-Zanies—and also led to his TV debut on Comedy Central.  Fueled by original, personal point of views about living at home with his parents, Michael made appearances on both The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno within six months of each other—a feat rarely achieved by a new comic.  Michael proceeded to move out of his parents’ house and onto the road touring the country performing in colleges and clubs in almost every state.  While his act changed with his new surroundings, it maintained it’s connection to humble beginnings. 

Some of his funniest jokes are about taking discount flights and using cheap cell phone services.  While Michael’s comedy seems very mainstream, his delivery and joke writing have an edge which has proven very beneficial for his career.  Michael’s joke about terrorists and Catholicism was the deciding factor in advancing him to the finals of last year’s Last Comic Standing.  Michael finished in the Top 5 and went on a 75 city tour with the other Top 5 contestants cementing his place in the show’s storied history of talented comics.  All of Michael’s tour dates are on his website.  His short films are here. 

Follow him on Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook.  Every night around 4 am central time Michael sings a goodnight song to his followers on Twitter. He would like to thank God, his family, friends, and girlfriend for all their love, support, and for reading all the way to the end of his bio even though they already know him.