Taylor Mason
| Taylor Mason | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Franklin Taylor Mason |
| Born | February 22, 1956 Hinsdale, Illinois |
| Genres | Ventriloquist, Comedian, and Musician |
| Spouse | Marsia Mason |
| Notable works and roles | Bananas, Thou Shalt Laugh |
| Website | http://taylormason.com |
Franklin Taylor Mason (born February 22, 1956) is a comedian, ventriloquist and musician.
The son of a radio farm broadcaster and a homemaker mother, Mason was born in Hinsdale, Illinois, and grew up in suburban Chicago. His father, Bill Mason, worked at WGN Radio and Television, a local Chicago station that featured farm news in the early mornings and every day at noon. This served as an introduction to show business for young Mason, who often accompanied his father to broadcasts. His father was also hired by farm groups to speak at their conferences and meetings, and Mason was a regular sidekick to his father’s speeches.
His childhood was stereotypical for the time: piano lessons, Little League, summer vacations and church dinners. His father was a deacon in the Congregational Church, where the Mason family attended every Sunday morning.
They moved to Ottawa, Illinois, while Mason was in high school, and he graduated from Ottawa High in 1974. Mason then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he majored in agriculture and communications, graduating in 1979. While there, he played varsity football for The Fighting Illini, and suffered a knee injury during his junior season. This led to an entire autumn in an ankle-to-hip cast, during which time Mason began performing at his fraternity as a disc jockey and comedian for dances. By the time his football career (he received the Illini Champion award and varsity letters) and undergraduate education ended two years later, Mason had become a campus favorite by spinning records and telling jokes at parties, college functions and university events.
During these two years of performance, Mason re-discovered a ventriloquist puppet given to him for a 10th-birthday gift by his parents. Reviving his skill as a ventriloquist, he combined the puppet, stand-up comedy and music into a sort of one-man variety show.
Mason moved in with an aunt and uncle in Oak Brook, Illinois, during the winter of 1980. He was working part-time as a waiter when he was discovered by Arnie Morton, a restaurateur, who found Mason playing piano and entertaining guests at a wedding. Morton offered Mason the job of playing the see-through glass piano at Morton's in Chicago, where Mason worked during the balance of 1980. He often used his ventriloquist puppet to heckle the clientele who came to the bar, and this act led to jobs at Chicago piano bars.
Mason was hired as a musical director for The Second City Touring Company in the spring of 1981, and he worked as a musician for almost a year at the theater, learning improvisational comedy and theater, while helping to open the “Second City - Etc.” room. He met his future wife, Marsia Mason, who worked as an assistant to the creative managers of The Second City, Bernard Sahlins and Joyce Sloane.
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