Mark Cunningham

Mark Daniel Cunningham met his future wife in an online, multiplayer video game based on a goth-punk role-playing card game called Vampire: The Masquerade. He moved from New York to Salinas to be with her in 1999, and once here attended a professional wrestling school as “Mad Mark Mak.” But wrestling wasn’t to be.

So he kept his day job as an office assistant for Monterey County, and indulged in B-movies, weird comics, role-playing games, sci-fi and pulp novels.

He collaborated on a comic book, Now I Have a Gun, published by Idiothead Comics. He appeared on public access show Remo D’s Manor of Mayhem, and the Perpetual Coffee podcast. Since 2009 he’s had a blog of movie, book and theater “rants” at RedCapJack.blogspot.com.

But his biggest local role has been as a playwright with Paper Wing Theatre. His latest, Big Dang Hero, about a team of superheroes, is currently playing there.

Weekly: What was pro-wrestling school like?

Cunningham: Not much to tell. I got hurt. A lot. A local promoter ran [the] school out of his backyard. [I learned] how to fall down, maneuver – what they call “bumping” – supplex, clothesline.

When did you realize it wasn’t for you?

I had to jump from the top rope and flip over and land on my back. I landed on the top of my head, my body accordioned, and I heard my sternum pop. A few months later I had a perforated intestine.

Tell me about Remo D’s Manor of Mayhem.

While I was recovering from stomach surgery, I came across the TV show one night. As a lover of horror and cheesy B-movies, I contacted [host Shane Dallman]. He enjoyed my presence. And introduced me to Paper Wing.

What did you first see at Paper Wing?

A very dark production of Alice in Wonderland. It shook me up. I like that. I saw Repo! The Genetic Opera. [The theater owner] liked my writing and asked me to audition for O Brother Where Art Thou? I had one line: “Stay out of the Woolworth’s.” It was a great experience, the camaraderie, the people. I was hooked.

Describe a memorable role?

In Bob’s Holiday Office Party I got to strip down to a G-string.

What have you written for the stage?

I helped adapt Night of the Living Dead. Original material – Dad’s Porn Stache, Knocked up by Satan.

What’s Knocked Up by Satan about?

A young stripper in a trailer park, knocked up by the devil, about to give birth to the anti-Christ, exorcised by an Elvis impersonator.

How do you come up with your ideas?

With Porn Stache, I had accidentally misread something on TV. [It’s] about two sisters [who discover their departed] dad was a porn star, but it’s really about finding out that people are not just one thing.

How did you feel watching people watch your show?

Unbelievable. An incredible high.

Do you hide any of your work from your 12-year-old son?

Not at all. [They’re] not just to shock and confuse people. They mean something. At least to me.

Tell me about Big Dang Hero.

It’s about taking the powers of government and different factions and placing them into superhero archetypes. The danger of those powers gone unchecked. I was inspired byWatchmen, but also the NSA spying stories.

What’s your writing process?

A lot of word vomit, followed by months of editing.

What do your co-workers think of your theater work?

Some of them really like it. Some of them not so much. My most appreciated work is Snow White. It’s the most family-friendly. It’s probably the script I’m most proud of. I’m actually a family-friendly person [but] a lot of what I do is not family-friendly. It’s a strange dichotomy. I understand that.

BIG DANG HERO runs 8pm Fri-Sat through Sept. 23, at Paper Wing Theatre, 320 Hoffman Ave., Monterey. $20-$23. 905-5684, paperwing.com.