Mike MacRae
An impressionist who maps famous voices onto hyper-specific grievances.
1 special · 2001
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Mike MacRae treats an impression as a structural tool. He has a native, gravelly drawl that serves as his baseline, building a dry, cynical setup. Then, mid-sentence, his posture shifts and his voice snaps into an exact replica of an actor or politician. He rarely announces the shift. He just slides into it, letting the sudden accuracy of the imitation do the heavy lifting. He will adopt a manic Vince Vaughn cadence just to string together a meandering, nonsensical argument.
Specials
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Premium Blend: David Alan Grier (S5E10) with David Alan Grier, Jodie Wasserman & 2 more
David Alan Grier hosts short sets from four rising club comics.
Comedy Central · 25 min
On stage
He operates out of the Austin comedy scene as a working technician whose vocal control sustains a career across multiple mediums. Beyond the clubs, he is a utility player for voiceover, stepping in to voice Buzz Lightyear for Disney video games and providing satirical character calls for syndicated radio shows. When live venues closed in 2020, he built an online audience by editing videos of himself in split-screen, letting his characters argue with each other.
His standup sidesteps the standard trap of impressionists. He avoids the familiar framing of putting a celebrity in a grocery store. Instead, he maps recognizable voices onto deeply weird, disgruntled scenarios. His strongest material zeroes in on exasperated figures, most notably an older, exhausted Harrison Ford bickering with a 1990s version of himself. He does not rely on the pure accuracy of the imitation to get the laugh. The joke is the highly specific argument he forces the voice to have.
Originally from St. Louis, he studied civil engineering at Rice University in Houston before trying local open mics and eventually building his act in Texas.
At a glance
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