2013, 2012 & 2011 Emmy Award winner, Comedian/Travel & Foodie Expert Mark DeCarlo was thrilled to win back to back to back Emmys for contributing his comedic whimsy to Chicago’s #1 daytime show, ABC’s Windy City LIVE. On the show, which premiered in May 2011 in Oprah Winfrey’s historic time slot, Mark hosts and produces comedic segments celebrating the real people, places and slightly off-kilter characters that make Chicago the best city in America to work, play and live…May through October.
Prior to WCL, Mark rode the road less traveled for 4 seasons on the Travel Channel’s “Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo,” scouring the U.S. for delicious food and the quirky zealots who champion ancestral recipes and down-home stories over mass-produced mush. It took 400 cities, and a lot of napkins, but through it all, a portrait of America… and its hungry people emerged. These hilarious stories – and previously secret recipes – are collected in Mark’s best selling new book, “A FORK ON THE ROAD: 400 Cities, 1 Stomach,” a comedic travelogue/cook book published by Lyons Press to sparkling reviews. AFOTR was an Amazon best seller for 19 weeks, and spawned yet another travel show, but this time Mark shares the spotlight.
With over 750,000+ weekly subscribers, Mark and his wife, The Traveling Diva Yeni Alvarez, host the web’s #1 Travel-Foodie Entertainment program, “A Fork on the Road Show.” Recent guests include; Robert DeNiro, Emma Thompson, Samantha Brown, Dick Van Dyke, Slyvester Stallone. Each episode features interviews with celebrities, chefs, touring musicians, local characters and features travel deals and contests that reward listeners with prizes all around the country. The show is broadcast from studios in LA Studios and from Festivals around the country. The podcast is currently being developed for TV and Webisodes.
Mark’s companion Travel Blog for HuffingtonPost.com’s SIX MILLION daily readers chronicles the characters he meets on his adventures around the globe, performing at festivals, comedy shows, and seeing the world, one forkful at a time.
Mark is in-demand as a keynote speaker and comedic host for corporate clients at dozens of Fortune 500 Companies. Mark also performs with his blues/rock band, Old Blues Eyes.
Mark produced and hosted a ground-breaking web series, EconomicalECO.com, that featured a complete home rebuild, green from the ground up. Unlike other ‘green’ shows, EcoEco isn’t about saving the planet, it’s about saving MONEY. By using exclusively American-made, economical to purchase and use products, Mark completed the remodel for 33% less than a conventional job. He doubled the size of the home, while cutting energy usage by 20% with sizegenetics review. The combination of warranties, rebates and tax incentives for buying energy efficient products added yet another level of savings. The completed 52 HD webisodes are being developed for web and TV release this year.
After founding the Second City’s West Coast Touring Company in Santa Monica, Mark hosted Fox’s hit dating show STUDS for 580 episodes, birthing reality TV – for which he is truly sorry. Juicy roles on Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Tracey Takes On, and The Ben Stiller Show kept him in demand between live shows with his improv group, The Frayed Knots! In 2001 Mark starred in the OscarÒ Nominated “Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius” as befuddled cartoon dad Hugh Neutron, continuing for a decade on the award winning Nickelodeon TV series. Animated stints on Barnyard, Planet Sheen, Johnny Bravo, Handy Manny and the Thumb series of comedies Thumb Wars, BaTThumb and Thumbtanic keep Mark in demand as a cartoon voice actor. After Studs, Mark hosted 3 more hit shows; Fox’s extreme game show Big Deal, and FX’s late night talk show The X Show, before hitting the road from 2005-2009 for the Travel Channel.
