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Comedian maintains his ‘Ties’ to the past
By John Benson
You can’t blame actor Marc Price if he’s somewhat stuck in the ’80s.
The comedian-actor, who spent the decade playing Skippy on hit sitcom “Family Ties,” recently answered his phone with a reference that dates back to the Reagan administration.
“Elvis Presley hot line, has there been a sighting?” said Price, during a call to his Los Angeles home. When pressed about the reaction of unsuspecting callers, the funnyman laughed, “People report all kinds of things at that point, but I don’t think any are legit. We have our fact checkers.
“The other thing, sometimes I say, ‘Hello, this is Marc’ and people think I’m a machine, which is unusual. I don’t think too many people have that issue.”
These days, Price is a joke-telling machine touring the comedy club circuit – including two shows at the Magic Tree in Boardman on Saturday. This should not come as a surprise, considering his father, Al Bernie, was an old-school radio comedian.
Because he often traveled with his dad on the road seeing comics of all generations and styles, Price said his style is varied.
“Most comedians are one clear fit, and I’m all over the board,” Price said. “I like political material, physical comedy and wordplay. I can do a Polish joke. I just accept that as who I am.”
When it’s pointed out the area he’ll be performing in has a considerable Polish population, Price said, “Well, then if there are any Polish people in the audience, we won’t tell those jokes. I’ll do Ecuadorian jokes.”
In terms of political material, Price said after the recent presidential election a sea change has taken place in comedy clubs across America.
“Right after the election is when I started to notice,” Price said. “It was so clear. Anything from boos to actual political conversations like Facebook arguments could break out in the audience if you say the wrong thing.
“I just kind of learned. I’m not interested in all of that. I want to make people laugh, so we tweaked the show a little bit based on that.”
Thinking back to “Family Ties,” odds are Michael J. Fox’s character, Alex P. Keaton, who at the time loved Richard Nixon, would probably be a President Trump supporter. Price doesn’t think so. He said Keaton would stand by John McCain. However, Price does feel Keaton was a precursor to a modern phenomenon.
“You could argue that Alex helped start a movement with Ronald Reagan in those days,” Price said. “I like to compare his character to Archie Bunker, where you loved to hate him. But in the case of Alex P. Keaton, the writers of ‘Family Ties’ were very liberal and they thought everything they were writing was so mocking, it would be like an Archie Bunker.
“But people didn’t hate Alex. They loved the character. I remember people coming up to me with a briefcase and tie saying, ‘I’m just like Alex P. Keaton.’ And what did they mean? ‘I’m for money first and corporate greed.’ The country has certainly gone that way since and he did have a place in that, no doubt. I bet the writers are kicking themselves.”