It would be hard for Mat Alano-Martin not to be funny after having lived a life as diverse and strange as the one that has followed him around. Mat was born to an average, hardworking blue collar mid-western family I Indiana. Not raised with much extra on the table, but the family rarely went without anything they needed. It was a happy childhood that didn’t go without struggle, a Steinbeck story set in the 1990’s – where all around you the country was economically prosperous, there was a tech boom happening, and culture in general was flourishing – but not in small town Indiana.
This led Mat to find punk rock. The visceral art form spoke to him and his mid-western anxiety brilliantly and he quickly formed a band and began writing his own punk songs, voicing his own frustrations. Over the years he worked with a few different punk bands, reaching a fair amount of success on the underground scene – when he decided he wanted to work off-stage. And that’s when he began working as a tour manager for several bands (all of which were significantly more successful than any of his bands ever got), soon he found that he had been on the road for a decade straight. It was then that Mat decided to leave music behind altogether.
He moved back to Indiana, taking up in the college town of Bloomington which is currently going through a cultural renaissance that nourishes a flourishing comedy scene that Mat immediately became immersed in. His material is colored with hue of such vast and varied experiences, his sense of humor comes off as intelligent, cultured, and still a little irreverent.
Mat Alano-Martin will be performing at Gallery K on September 19th at 8 PM. It will be $5 at the door. And Bloomington’s own David Britton will also be on the show.
