BOCA RATON – Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, comic Monique Marvez concluded that Earth had entered World War III.
After all, every country on the planet had to fight the virus. Everyone had to make sacrifices.
Which started Marvez wondering, what should her role be?
“I felt like, How can be of service?” Marvez said. “How can I become Rosie the Riveter with my skill set?”
Unlike Rosie, the star of a government campaign to encourage women to take factory jobs as part of the World War II effort, Marvez simply tried to lift people’s spirits during a depressing time.
Her idea was simple. Despite never much of a social media user, Marvez elected to go live on Facebook every day at 3:30 p.m. to deliver a quick, upbeat message to anyone who wanted to listen.
“The 3:30 allowed me to be of service and to contribute to the cause of getting through this,” Marvez said.
She picked the 3:30 p.m. time to be as unobtrusive as possible.
“It just seemed to me I’m not interrupting anybody’s workflow,” Marvez said, “Nobody’s preparing dinner and most of the home school kids in California would be done.”
A Miami native currently residing in California, Marvez has about 50 people regularly join her for the live broadcast – which this week happens at 3:30 p.m. Eastern because she’s back in Florida. Another 500 or so view the broadcast later in the day,
The live broadcast usually only lasts a few minutes. In recent days she’s taken fans on brief tours of Miami. Wednesday’s drive even encountered a peacock.
“I’m always very, very careful to tell them, hey I’m driving so I’m not going to look at your names and I’m probably not going to talk for very long, but at least you know you’re with me,” Marvez said.
In the Miami area for a series of shows, Marvez will make the drive up I-95 on Thursday to headline at the Biergarten in Boca Raton.
Marvez’s show promises much of the same positive energy she tries to impart to her “3:30 Gang.” Think motivational speaker with a heavy dose of humor.
“I never started out to be that but I think after a year of going live everyday trying to keep people’s spirits up, that would be a fair assessment,” Marvez said.
But make no mistake, after three decades of performing, Marvez is a comic at heart.
And on Thursday things could get, well, messy.
“I’ve got tons of new material,” Marvez said. “I’m hoping one or two people will pee a little bit. Not full-on wet-your-pants, but I’m expecting a couple people – because it happened on Sunday in the Keys – I expect some damp drawers. Maybe someone will have beer come out their nose. I like when people really lose themselves to the humor.”
Thursday’s Biergarten show is free and begins at 8 p.m. Dougie Almeida and Nadeem Awad are the feature comics, with David Sadman serving as host.
