First off, interviewing Bob Marley takes a lot of discipline, because if you laugh too much, you can't hear the playback on the tape recorder. Too late. He killed inside three seconds of the first interview question and I missed about 30 percent of the interview answers because of my own hyena cackling.

Maine native Bob Marley, known as the New England King of Comedy, is an everyday kind of guy — as at home at a tailgate party as he is on stage with David Letterman. He's been a stand-up comic going on more than 15 years, has done the Laugh Factory on both coasts, Comedy Showcase, MADtv, and the Steve Harvey, Letterman, Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson talk show circuit. Variety named him one of 10 comics to watch.

Based in Portland, Marley is on the road touring at least four days a week. In Las Vegas, it's more like 14 shows a week. "It's crazy, but it's a good problem — what we call first world problems," he said via phone today.

Marley is performing at Oceanside High School in Rockland for their Project Graduation on Wednesday, March 13, at 7 p.m. In anticipation of this event, we bring you "Five Things You Need To Know about Bob Marley."

Q. As a Maine comedian, you have been all over the country.  What impressions do people have of our state and its people, from the good, to the bad, to the off the wall?

A: Well the good stuff is that people are always saying, 'Oh Maine is so beautiful, it's a wonderful place and the people are nice.' The bad stuff is: 'How do you live there, it's so cold! What are you people doing up there? How do you eat food, how do you find it?' And then they always want to talk about lobster, which isn't a bad thing, it just becomes annoying after awhile. They ask, 'Do you eat a lot of lobster?' I'm like, 'Not really.' It's like if you live in Texas, you don't just go tackle cows.

Q: When you do shows at home, your material has many inside joke topics that Mainers respond to, like Allen’s coffee brandy, mud season, going upta camp and so on. Do you stick with this same material when you do shows in other states or do you have to come up with new material that applies to their culture?

A: You know with my accent, I sound like a Mainer and that's what shines through, that's what they like. They're like 'Who's this guy? We don't have one of those.' When I talk about Amato's or Mardens or Renys, it's more provincial. But 90 percent of my act I can do on the road. Like a lot of Maine people will ask, 'How do you do your act anywhere else? It's all about Maine.' But I joke about putting beers in the crisper, where you put your vegetables in the fridge. I go, 'If you're putting them in the crisper, you're an alcoholic.' And everybody goes, 'Oh yeah, that's Maine people' and I say, 'No, that's everybody.' It's kind of a magic trick. A lot of places I go to they like the Maine point of view, the voice, the attitude. When I go to Arizona in May and I'm the whitest guy in the room, they're looking at me like what's wrong with him and I'm like, 'Listen, we still have snow.' Last year, I went there — it was 118 degrees and I thought, I'm probably going to die right here. I went to the hotel pool, which is, by the way, what everybody in Arizona wants to see, a white Irish guy from Maine making his first poolside appearance of the year. The cocktail waitress is like, 'You're going to need to go in now, sir.' I'm like, 'What did something fall out of my shorts?' She's like, 'No, your skin is bubbling, you're gonna want to head in."

Q: Who did you grow up with that influenced and inspired your type of comedy (both personal friends) and stand-up comics you admired?

A: I was most influenced by my two Irish uncles, my uncle Brendan and my Uncle Richard (pronounced Rich-id). They were these two hilarious Irish guys who'd sit there down at camp on an 80-degree day with a suit jacket and pants on with suspenders with tumblers full of some kind of liquid. I thought, if I can make these guys laugh, that would be great. I remember when I got to the point at sixth grade I could consistently make them laugh. I'd practice all year, come back to camp and slay those guys. But professionally, I like the older guys, I like Rodney Dangerfield, who I actually opened for and did a small part in one of his movies. And Don Rickles and Bob Newhart, all great comedians.

Q; You are in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest continuous standup routine (40 hours) with the first 18 hours without any repetition of material.  Did you have those first 18 hours memorized or were you going full force extemporaneous?

A: Well, you were allowed to have a playbook, so I went down through all of my 25 albums and listened to all of them. I'd just write down one word like a trigger phrase and it's like a song in your head. It would open a door in my mind and there was like 20 minutes [of material] there. I remember 20 hours into it, my tour manager had said the Guinness rules stated you only had to do four hours of original material before you could repeat yourself. I'm like, 'Well that would have been good to know two and a half months ago. I was like down in the basement like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting writing stuff on the window.' But it was a great event and we raised $25,000 for the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital.

Q: Speaking of Guinness, are you taking a break for St. Paddy’s Day? If so, what are your plans?

A: That's a great day. I'm Irish Catholic and my mother used to boil steak. Everybody wants to be Irish. I'm like 95 percent Irish. A lot of people like to talk in percentages, like 'Yeah, I'm 4.5 percent Irish.' You go out to the bars and there's people with T-shirts that say 'Kiss Me I'm Irish' and I'm like, 'Nah, I'm good.' For St. Paddy's Day, I used to go out with my buddies and go drinking all day. But I've got three kids so we go over to Shawnee Peak and we go skiing. In the morning, I start cooking. I have a couple of shots of Jameson but I'm spending time with my kids and we call it a day. 

Check out Bob Marley at Oceanside. Tickets are $15 at Oceanside East and West, Planet Toys in Rockland and Thomaston Grocery. Or visit www.bmarley.com.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.