Mark Whitney(II)
Mark Whitney is an award-winning, nationally touring, playwright, producer and performer. He is the only spoken-word artist besides Drew Carey and Russell Brand to be profiled on Storylogue by mega-story guru, Robert McKee. His critically-acclaimed, autobiographical, political-dramedy, Fool For A Client, is the winner of theater festivals from San Francisco to Boulder to Minneapolis and Washington D.C.
'Fool' is the true story about that one time when as a failed entrepreneur facing 225 years in Federal prison, Mark decided to represent himself. Janice Cane of D.C. Theatre Scene writes: "A vivid, never-boring combination of legal scholarship, humor, and moral insight. And it's all hilarious!" "The terrific Mark Whitney," writes Peter Marks, Senior Arts Critic of The Washington Post.
Mark's most recent play, The EDucation of Dianne, premiered in the summer of 2014 at The Lyceum in San Diego. "Dianne connects the dots between Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. It's a 60 minute dark comedy about legislative immunity. I'm the only guy who has that," Whitney says.
In 2005, Mark won the San Francisco Comedy Convention for stand-up comedy. In 2006, he founded the San Diego Comedy Co-op where he produced nearly 500 free shows for the community before turning pro. Co-op alum include Natasha Leggero (Comedy Central Roasts), Anthony Jeselnik (The Jeselnik Offensive), Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show) Taylor Williamson (America's Got Talent) and Kyle Kinane (Comedy Central).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: In 1999, Mark founded TheLaw.net Corporation and serves to this day as its CEO. Nearly half of all attorneys in the United States have paid access to this syndicated legal research database.
LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP: In 1991, Mark was indicted by the United States for lying to obtain business loans for a chain of Ben & Jerry's stores in New Hampshire and the judge gave him a three year time out. But, in 1992, while representing himself as an indigent prisoner, Mark convinced then Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Stephen Breyer (now Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), that his term of imprisonment was unconstitutional, and Breyer ordered Mark's immediate release with nearly two years left to serve.
ACTIVISM: A self-taught constitutional scholar and litigant - like Nuremberg prosecutor turned Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson (who like Mark, had only a high school diploma) and like The Brooking's Institution's Benjamin Wittes (who is not an attorney) and like bank robber turned Federal law clerk, Shon Hopwood - Mark's social commentary, satire and attitude is informed primarily by the learning that took place as a result of his experience with the Federal criminal justice system.
A lifelong autodidact, Mark is a student of U.S. War Powers and International Law. In 2011, he unwittingly became the only citizen to directly sue the United States with an eye toward ending the unlawful participation of U.S. Armed Forces in the Libyan Civil War. See, Whitney v. Obama, 845 F.Supp.2d 136 (DDC 2012). In a separate, similar lawsuit, George Washington law professor and noted civil libertarian, Jonathan Turley represented ten members of Congress. See, Kucinich v. Obama, 821 F.Supp.2d 110 (2011). Both cases were dismissed as moot shortly after Libyan strongman, Muammar Gaddafi, was publicly sodomized with a broom handle and left for dead.
In 1996, Mark ran for Vermont Senate. In the run-up to the election, the local editorial board agreed that while it "would not vote for Whitney," it "would travel to see him perform."
Mark studied satire, storytelling and stand-up at the San Francisco Comedy College and the American Comedy Institute in New York. Pre-Internet, he read law at the libraries of Dartmouth College, Vermont Law School and various Federal prisons. Today, he rents his personal electronic law library to the lawyers.
Mark was a lousy student, but smart enough to marry the valedictorian. He and his wife, Julie, have been married since 1981 and maintain a presence on both coasts.
'Fool' is the true story about that one time when as a failed entrepreneur facing 225 years in Federal prison, Mark decided to represent himself. Janice Cane of D.C. Theatre Scene writes: "A vivid, never-boring combination of legal scholarship, humor, and moral insight. And it's all hilarious!" "The terrific Mark Whitney," writes Peter Marks, Senior Arts Critic of The Washington Post.
Mark's most recent play, The EDucation of Dianne, premiered in the summer of 2014 at The Lyceum in San Diego. "Dianne connects the dots between Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. It's a 60 minute dark comedy about legislative immunity. I'm the only guy who has that," Whitney says.
In 2005, Mark won the San Francisco Comedy Convention for stand-up comedy. In 2006, he founded the San Diego Comedy Co-op where he produced nearly 500 free shows for the community before turning pro. Co-op alum include Natasha Leggero (Comedy Central Roasts), Anthony Jeselnik (The Jeselnik Offensive), Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show) Taylor Williamson (America's Got Talent) and Kyle Kinane (Comedy Central).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: In 1999, Mark founded TheLaw.net Corporation and serves to this day as its CEO. Nearly half of all attorneys in the United States have paid access to this syndicated legal research database.
LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP: In 1991, Mark was indicted by the United States for lying to obtain business loans for a chain of Ben & Jerry's stores in New Hampshire and the judge gave him a three year time out. But, in 1992, while representing himself as an indigent prisoner, Mark convinced then Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Stephen Breyer (now Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), that his term of imprisonment was unconstitutional, and Breyer ordered Mark's immediate release with nearly two years left to serve.
ACTIVISM: A self-taught constitutional scholar and litigant - like Nuremberg prosecutor turned Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson (who like Mark, had only a high school diploma) and like The Brooking's Institution's Benjamin Wittes (who is not an attorney) and like bank robber turned Federal law clerk, Shon Hopwood - Mark's social commentary, satire and attitude is informed primarily by the learning that took place as a result of his experience with the Federal criminal justice system.
A lifelong autodidact, Mark is a student of U.S. War Powers and International Law. In 2011, he unwittingly became the only citizen to directly sue the United States with an eye toward ending the unlawful participation of U.S. Armed Forces in the Libyan Civil War. See, Whitney v. Obama, 845 F.Supp.2d 136 (DDC 2012). In a separate, similar lawsuit, George Washington law professor and noted civil libertarian, Jonathan Turley represented ten members of Congress. See, Kucinich v. Obama, 821 F.Supp.2d 110 (2011). Both cases were dismissed as moot shortly after Libyan strongman, Muammar Gaddafi, was publicly sodomized with a broom handle and left for dead.
In 1996, Mark ran for Vermont Senate. In the run-up to the election, the local editorial board agreed that while it "would not vote for Whitney," it "would travel to see him perform."
Mark studied satire, storytelling and stand-up at the San Francisco Comedy College and the American Comedy Institute in New York. Pre-Internet, he read law at the libraries of Dartmouth College, Vermont Law School and various Federal prisons. Today, he rents his personal electronic law library to the lawyers.
Mark was a lousy student, but smart enough to marry the valedictorian. He and his wife, Julie, have been married since 1981 and maintain a presence on both coasts.