00:00The Double Dare job all happened by mistake.
00:03Welcome to Double Dare!
00:04A friend of mine, Dave Garrison, who was a ventriloquist from Indianapolis,
00:07had moved to Los Angeles, and we were both trying to grow our careers.
00:11And I get a phone call one day, and Dave says,
00:12you know what, I can't do this anymore.
00:14I'm going to move behind the scenes and become a producer.
00:17I got a call from a network I'd never heard of called Nickelodeon.
00:20They're doing a kid's game show.
00:21Do you want to go instead of me?
00:22I said, of course, I want to host a game show.
00:24So when I got there, they say, Dave Garrison?
00:26I said, Dave's not here. My name is Mark. Can I go instead of him?
00:28They said, sure.
00:29I did the audition, and it went extremely well.
00:32I remember running to the pay phone and said to my agent,
00:35I've nailed this. I'm going to get this job.
00:36And he said, no, I've got about 10 other clients going. Good luck.
00:39The thing I always did when I got an audition was get the name and phone number
00:42of the casting director, the exec producer, and any executives from the network.
00:46And a guy by the name of Mike Klinghofer, still a friend today,
00:49was the director, one of the creators, and a producer on Double Dare.
00:53I called him right before Labor Day, and I said, did you select a host yet?
00:57And he said, no, we've got it narrowed down to you and another guy.
00:59I went first, and they threw me out of the studio, brought the other guy in.
01:02And two days later, they called me, and they said, congratulations,
01:04you're the host of Double Dare.
01:06And I said, you auditioned 1,000 people in New York and 1,000 in L.A.
01:09Why did I get the job?
01:10And he said, quite honestly, you were about the same.
01:12But at the end of his audition, he said, hey, you guys want me to do something else,
01:15or are we done?
01:16And I looked at the camera, and I said, we'll be back with more Double Dare after this.
01:20And because I threw the commercial, they thought that was more professional,
01:23and it changed my life.
