On January 26, the upper school took their seats in the Diane and David B. Heller auditorium to experience Parker’s first stand-up comedy act done by a professional comedian in as long the current 14 year seniors have been at Parker. His name is Mike Maxwell and he is a regular guest on WGN 720-am as well as a featured columnist on the Tribune’s Redeye newspaper. The comedian, who was brought to Parker by junior Sammy Kagan, is a bearded man in his thirties who wore a blue button shirt and green chinos.

Maxwell is a Chicago based comedian who is regularly featured on WGN-720 AM as well as a columnist for the Chicago Tribune’s Redeye newspaper. Maxwell is known for his performances at schools, colleges, and universities but also performs at corporate shows, comedy clubs, festivals, and benefit shows around the world. Beginning this summer, Maxwell will be leading the first ever comedic revier tour of the Chicago River.

“That was a killer intro, wasn’t it!” Maxwell said after being introduced by Kagan. Maxwell then spent the next 30 or so minutes performing a routine that got some laughing, and some not.

“He seemed nervous,” freshman Elliot Landolt said. “Because he was trying to figure out what he could and could not say.”

Despite what Maxwell was feeling, his jokes were not received well for some students. Freshman Daniel Mansueto said, “All of his best jokes were offensive jokes.”

According to Kagan, Maxwell had a phone call with Upper School Dean of Students Christian Bielizna and emailed assistant principal Ruth Jurgensen about certain things that were put off limits. The fact that Maxwell had been given a list of topics he could and couldn’t bring up was relevant in his material, according to English teacher Cory Zeller.  “He clearly had been told some facts about Parker that were safe to make fun of, like the fact we don’t have a football team,” Zeller said. “I think he was told also what not to touch. He made a joke about that, about being given a list of things he couldn’t talk about.”

One of Maxwell’s Parker related jokes was about the football team. Out of the majority of Maxwell’s jokes, the crowd seemed to laugh the most at this one. “You also, I’ve heard, have no football team. I would fit in here perfectly,” Maxwell said. “I played high school football and when I played I was on the forty-forty club, meaning whether we were up by forty, down by forty or with forty seconds left I got in the game. That’s how good I was.”

The idea to bring in Maxwell started with senior Jai Choudhary’s email to the upper school about Participatory Budgeting ideas for student government. The proposal for this round of Participatory Budgeting were due on November 27. “One night I spent an hour and a half just brainstorming ideas for participatory budgeting,” Kagan said. “And I finally came out with the idea of a comedian.”

Once all proposals for participatory budgeting had been submitted, the students voted, and Kagan’s idea was approved. “I voted for him because I felt like it would be a really nice relief after finals,” freshman Leila Sheridan said. “Especially because I’m a freshman, so I don’t really know how finals work.”

Going into it, Kagan was sure that Maxwell would have a clean yet still funny act. “Mrs. Barr was very careful to ensure that everything he is going to be doing is going to be safe,” Kagan said of Student Government Advisor and History teacher Jeanne Barr. “Mike understands that this is a high school. He’s got a reputation for doing clean stuff.”

Clean material was what Maxwell focused on, in part thanks to Bielizna. “When it was brought to our attention that we were going to have a stand-up comedian, we just wanted to make sure he knew what Parker was about and that he understood the audience as well as the culture of the school,” Head of Upper School Justin Brandon said. “Mr. Bielizna had a follow up conversation with him earlier this week just to kind of get him ready for Parker.”

Maxwell was curious about the culture of Parker, according to Brandon–and specifically about how far he could go before crossing the line. “He had a lot of questions, like ‘What are the do’s and don’ts of Parker?’ and ‘What should I stay away from?,’” Brandon said. “As a responsible comic, he wanted to know the audience and how he could speak to them.”

Maxwell knew people weren’t going to laugh at certain jokes, but that’s part of the job. “I knew that with doing comedy in schools, sometimes the board and what-not want to make sure I don’t hit on any touchy subjects,” Maxwell said.  “I don’t think I hit on any touchy subjects.  But there were some jokes that people loved, and there were some jokes where reactions were like, ‘Whoa,’ just because they haven’t heard humor in that perspective about that topic, so I’m not in freak-out mode that they didn’t laugh.”

When the audience didn’t laugh, Maxwell went to bail out lines.  “Well, they aren’t all for you,” he said during the show.  “That one’s for me.” The audience livened up once he made it more personable.

According to a number of students, and Zeller as well, Maxwell’s funniest moments were audience interactions. When he talked to the seniors about college, a good number of students and faculty had a laugh. “He had some funny moments with audience interaction,” Zeller said. “But making fun of teachers was a missed opportunity.”

The audience had mixed emotions about Maxwell. One of his most edgy jokes was about a relatively touchy subject leaving some audience members laughing but others unhappy. To start the joke, Maxwell went on talking about he could never dunk a basketball despite being 6’5’’ tall. “Yeah that’s pathetic,” Maxwell said. “Like if god were to ask me one thing it would be like ‘Hey how much easier do you really need it?’ You guys it’s not sad, it’s about as pathetic as a midget who can’t get a job at a mall in December.”

Some students were expecting a lot more from Maxwell, and others were satisfied with what they got. Brandon noticed that not all students were enjoying it, but for the most part, they were laughing. “There were a couple of ouch moments that I saw in the crowd,” Brandon said. “But for the challenge he was faced with, I think he did a good job.”