Comic Sean McBride to headline show at Villa this Saturday

Those that show up at the Villa Theatre on Saturday, November 29 at 7 p.m., should be prepared to get their ribs tickled.

Sean McBride is headlining a group of funny, talented comedians at the Villa.

Along with McBride comes Good time Charlie Mulluk and Cody Sutton.

Musical entertainment will be provided by Malta’s own David Williamson and Jody Lee.

McBride was an opening act for legendary comedian Vic Dunlop (The Richard Pryor Show). He has appeared on Hulu’s Comedy Time and has even appeared numerous times on the NFL Network as a news producer for the company.

As far as his style of comedy, McBride has a very personal style that is a mirror image of himself.

Other than being a fan of sports and comedy, McBride is also a fan of Montana.

“I’ve been all over Montana and I love it,” McBride told the PCN. “It is one of my favorite states.”

McBride was born in Kansas City, but as a kid his family moved all over the Midwest and eventually settled in New England.

“My dad was just in marketing and advertising and kept getting different jobs,” he said.

After graduating in Massachusetts, he attended Syracuse, where he earned a degree in History, Political Science and African American Studies in 2005.

“I went to Syracuse because I wanted to be on SportsCenter. It was my dream,” McBride said. “(Most) sportcasters go there because it’s a really good communications school.”

He also noted that he wanted to be the funny sportscaster on SportsCenter.

Unfortunately, he was unable to get his grades high enough to join the communications program, though he eventually joined the campus’ TV station.

“My attitude was I need to be better at networking than anybody else, because that’s the only way I’m going to get a job,” McBride said.

McBride became the football reporter for the school and he bonded with many of the athletes that were in his African American studies class.

“They loved me,” he said.

After graduation, McBride packed his bags and headed west to Los Angeles, where he joined the crew at the NFL Network as a sportscaster.

McBride’s love of writing and news media started in high school, where he wrote for the school’s paper.

“That was my first time writing out jokes,” he said. “Growing up everybody around me was funny. I was just trying to hold my own amongst everybody else.”

He admitted that he was never the class clown and was actually a bit shy and introverted.

He noted that he had funny thoughts as a kid, but didn’t have the guts to say those thoughts aloud.

Until he joined the school paper.

He revived a column section of the paper called “My Two Cents.”

“It became a forum, where in a clean, clever way I could just roast people,” McBride said.

The athletic teams, the administration, the students, anyone he could think of he would roast with reckless abandon.

“It was the first time that I had ever shown people that I had a sense of humor,” he said. “I can remember walking into school and people just looking at me differently.”

He also noted that the female population noticed his column, though he was in no way a player or womanizer.

Years later as he worked for the NFL Network, again comedic writing found McBride and while he worked, he cranked out new material and was doing comedy part time.

“Three years later in 2009, I knew I wasn’t going to get better sitting behind a desk,” he said. “I needed to be out and go on the road.”

So after putting in his two weeks notice, he quit the network, turning down a lot of money.

“I wasn’t satisfied. I knew comedy was what I wanted,” McBride said.

McBride became an open mic comedian, who had no stable work after quitting his gig with the NFL Network.

Then he got a call to open for Vic Dunlop -- a legendary stand-up known for his work in 1970’s shows Make Me Laugh and the Richard Pyror Show.

He toured with Dunlop from 2009 until his eventual death in August of 2011.

“I’m grateful (to Dunlop) because by the time he passed away I was kind of ready to go out on my own,” he said.

He went on to say if it wasn’t for the opportunity with Dunlop, he wouldn’t get the opportunity to play at venues like the Villa Theatre.

“I’d still be doing open mics without that guy,” he said.

Though he loves Montana, McBride has never been to Malta.

“I felt like I have been all over Montana. I’m like ‘I must’ve passed this place at some point,” McBride said. “Lukas Seely was like ‘no, no, no, you haven’t.’”

Seely, who was the first comedian to grace Malta in years on October 25, recruited McBride saying to Sean, that he had a great time here.

“He was like, ‘You’ll love it our there, the people are awesome,’” McBride recalled.

The show starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday and tickets can be purchased at Malta Banks, Crossroads Coffee and from show promoter Travis Rhoads.

McBride can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.