No Joke: Comedian Bob Marley Breaks Record for World's Longest Stand-Up Routine

One of the basic rules of comedy is that shorter is better than long. However, comedian Bob Marley is throwing that notion on its head.

On Thursday night at 11:02 p.m. EST, Marley set a new world record for the longest continuous stand-up routine.

The comedian, who has been performing all over the United States for the past two decades, started his laughable world record attempt at a comedy club in Portland, Maine, early Wednesday morning and didn't stop until late Thursday -- exactly 40 hours later.

Basically, Marley did a 40-hour work week in a day and a half, breaking the previous record of 38 hours and 16 minutes, set by Australian comedian Lindsay Webb in October.According to Oliver Keithly, who owns the Maine Comedy Connection where Marley performed and serves as the comic's tour manager, the idea for the attempt has been 18 months in the making.

"Bob was with some other comics having steaks and beers doing what comedians usually do when they get together: talk about comedy," Keithly told AOL News. "They started talking about the longest stand-up routine and, after Googling it, discovered it was 36 hours and 15 minutes, set by Irish comic Tommy Tiernan.

"Since then, Lindsay Webb set a new record, and Bob decided he wanted to do 40 hours."

Finding the date to do this was a difficult task.

"Basically, it took so long to set up because this was the only weekend Bob had free," Keithly said. "A friend of his is getting married on Saturday, so he'd knew he'd be in town."

Besides finding the time, the other big challenge was finding the material.

"Bob has 19 CDs of material out -- and only one is a greatest hits package," he said. "He had to go back and listen to material he did 15 to 18 years ago. It took him two weeks, and when he showed up at the club, the set list was like an NFL playbook."

He did his homework well. Marley was able to go 17 hours and 14 minutes before he repeated himself.

In order for the record to count, there has to be at least 10 paying customers watching him at all times. Keithly says that wasn't a problem.

"We're doing this event for the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center, so there were a lot of people supporting the charity," Keithly said. "Plus, Bob donates a lot of his time to charities, so there were a lot of people there just to support him. The club holds about 140 people and at 4 a.m., we still had 100 people in the club -- this from an area with around 80,000 people." ...

via No Joke: Comedian Bob Marley Breaks Record for World's Longest Stand-Up Routine.