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Mo Alexander

Mo Alexander

A Memphis veteran spinning bizarre, completely true stories with a booming authority.

Portrait credit:

Photo: Chandra Massey / CC-BY-SA-4.0

1 special · 2022

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Mo Alexander takes the stage like a man who owns the building. He is a large, booming presence from Memphis, and his cadence has the slow, rhythmic stomp of a blues singer holding court. He does not beg the crowd for attention. He simply talks over the noise until the room tunes itself to his frequency. When he delivers a punchline, it often lands with a gravelly finality.

Specials

  • Mo’ Possum Blues

    A cynical Memphis veteran brings southern chaos to Sun Studio.

    Stand Up! Records

On stage

He is a veteran of the road, the kind of comic who has headlined Vegas casinos and survived regional clubs where the manager just wants the acts to sell more chicken wings. He operates outside the coastal industry bubbles as a Mid-South legend. When he tours, he is the comic the local openers stick around to watch, studying how a professional steers a room without pandering.

His material sounds like a string of fabricated tall tales, but the premises are stubbornly factual. He talks about domesticating injured possums, getting kicked out of the Holocaust museum for hunting Pokémon, and flatlining in a hospital from blood clots. He approaches these bizarre events without asking for pity. Instead, he treats almost dying as a ridiculous inconvenience. He toggles between dense, logical arguments and proudly juvenile debauchery, making a calculus joke in the same set as a story about waking up from resuscitation and peeing on a nurse.

He grew up near Stax Records, studying physics before pivoting to theater. That split background is visible in the way he builds a bit: the internal mechanics of the joke are entirely rigid, but the delivery is pure, unhurried volume.

Turning points

  1. Touring Opener for Keenen Ivory Wayans

    After impressing Keenen Ivory Wayans by roasting him in a green room, Alexander was invited to tour nationally as his opening act.

  2. Headlining Las Vegas Residency at Casino Royale

    Alexander was given his own Las Vegas showcase, 'The Mo Funny Show' at Casino Royale, which ran for six months.

  3. 2015–2016

    Near-Death Experience and Album Got Clots

    After suffering from heart blood clots and being pronounced clinically dead twice on Easter Sunday 2015, Alexander spent over 70 days hospitalized, channeling the experience into his 2016 comedy album Got Clots.

  4. First Comedian to Record at Sun Studio

    In September 2019, Mo Alexander became the first comedian ever to record an album at Memphis's historic Sun Studio, which resulted in his 2022 Stand Up! Records release Mo' Possum Blues.

At a glance

Born
, Memphis, Tennessee
On stage
since 1996
Style
dark comedy, storytelling, observational, satire
Breakout
Mo' Possum Blues
Influences
Bill Hicks, Paul Mooney, Richard Pryor, Sinbad, George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Laurie Kilmartin
Topics
Elsewhere
Website, Wikipedia

Also on screen

Get Serious A shriner and the shriner's wife (in the 'Shriner's Convention' video segment)
A Letter from Death Row Prison librarian
Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher Guest panelist
Kevin Hart Presents: Hart of the City Featured stand-up comedian (Memphis episode)
Punching Below the Bible Belt Self

A clip to start with

Mo Alexander clean set Seattle comedy competition

6 min · 12K views · on MoAlexandercomedy