Photo courtesy of Mike Pucher

David Marley was always blown away by how hilarious his fellow Jungle Cruise Skippers at Disneyland were.

So, as a stand-up comic, he decided “on a lark” to launch a stand-up show specifically for former and current Jungle Cruise Skippers as performers, called Skipper Stand Up.

“Because of the ride, they are kind of constrained about what people can joke about. But the people are hysterically funny,” said Marley, 40, of Costa Mesa. “I thought, if they could get in another room, they could kill.”

As it turned out, he was right. Every event - held about every three months since 2006 - has sold out, Marley said.

“It’s always an amazing show,” Marley said.

Marley, who was a skipper in summer 1996 and from 2002 to 2004, said skippers have the advantage of practicing in front of an audience on 16 rides a day for eight to 10 minutes each. A stand-up routine only lasts about eight minutes.

While skippers are constrained to a script, most add their own jokes. As long as the jokes are clean, the skippers don’t get in trouble. However, Disneyland has been known to crack down on people who go too far off track, Marley said.

Now, Marley has about eight or so comics that are part of a rotation for Skipper Stand Up. About 25 skippers have performed so far, and there’s always someone new.

Check out the next show at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Maverick Theater, 110 E. Walnut Ave. in Fullerton. For more information, go to www.skipperstandup.com.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Adventureland, Disneyland, Odd news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.