Chris Martin of Richmond, VA got the comedy bug back circa 2000 when he email Anderson Cooper of World News Now several jokes and Cooper read one of them on each night of his broadcast from London with JuJu Chang. Chris though, maybe this joke-writing stuff has potential and started looking for open mics. The only ones he found featured guitar players along the lines of Bluto’s nemesis in “Animal House” so he promptly went back to sleep.

He first did a cold read at Yellow House’s performance workshop at the Firehouse Theater on West Broad Street in Richmond. He then started doing stand-up comedy in March, 2009, performing in open mics at Strange Matter, Sticky Rice, Cafe Diem, Fallout, City Dogs, Cameldy @ the Camel and the 9:55 Comedy Club in Richmond, as well as Cozzy’s Comedy Club in Newport News and the Charlottesville Comedy Roundtable in Charlottesville, VA. His specialty is topical humor.

He was in new talent showcases at RITA’s Comedy Club in Richmond and Cozzy’s comedy clubs in Newport News, Virginia. He’s also been the MC for Blake Midgette’s Super Friends Camp comedy show at the New York Deli and Joe Hafkey’s Cafe Diem Comedy Night in Richmond. He received a standing ovation at the Official Blake Midgette Roast at Cafe Diem. He’s also been the MC for open mics at the 9:55 Comedy Club, Cameldy @ the Camel, Cafe Diem and Cozzy’s Comedy Club.

He’s done guest spots at the Richmond Funny Bone. He was the stand-up comedian at the Paradox Comedy improv group’s Halloween show, “Motel Hell.” He was in the first Midnight Suggestion at Steady Sounds Records in Richmond. He’s also been in comedy shows at artspace in Plant Zero, the Charlottesville Comedy Roundtable at the 12th Street Taphouse appeared in every single Chuckle Fuckers at Strange Matters and Jason Klingman’s shows at Benny’s in Colonial Heights and Wabi-Sabi in Petersburg, VA. He was a contestant in the Jim Beam “Last Stag Standing” comedy competition presented by Kenny Wingle at Cafe Europa in Richmond last year and the “Buckin’ Comedy Throwdown” at Gibson’s Grill. He appeared in the Richmond night of the F-bomb Comedy Festival.

He frequently contributes jokes to DailyComedy.com and his jokes are regularly featured as staff picks. He often competes in the MakeaStar.com stand-up comedy competition. “Smokin’ Hot: Conversations with Comedians” is ongoing series of video and audio interviews he’s done with comics. He hosted “Comedy Conference Call” on BlogTalkRadio.com three times a month with interviews with comics and discussions of stand-up topics. The successor to that show, “Too Soon,” is available on iTunes at TooSoonShow.com. He started Salty Tongue Records on Last.fm to showcase comedians. He founded the Krakajokea, East of Java joke-writing, networking, brainstorming and event-planning session in 2010 which met every Sunday to advance the RVA comedy scene.

He established two websites, RVAstand-up.com, which covers stand-up comedy in Richmond, VA, and LaffHut.com, a site about national and international stand-up. He founded the Curmudgeons of Comedy, a Central Virginia group of comedians. He’s also done videography and appeared in Omari Brown and John Reaves’ sketch comedy group, “The Undergrads” on FunnyorDie.com.

He has a website at ChrisMartinComedy.com and he’s on Twitter at ChrisComedy. Audio and video of his sets are available on iTunes. 

He’s less well-known than British comedian Chris Martin but English comic Carl Donnelly told the London googleganger, “I reckon this one is going to be funnier than you.”