Marty's comedy act and years of experience as an entertainer lends itself easily to the role of awards dinner compere. From the unique way he commands undivided attention at the start of the proceedings to the sectacular way he can close the show, the audience is always wondering "What is he going to do next?" The answer is always something even bigger and funnier.

Marty first started regularly doing compere work on Open Mike Night at Sydney's Comedy Store in the mid 80's. "The challenge was to break his act up so that he could always use his failsafe stunts and routines to reel the crowd back in after an amateur act "died"."

Possibly the greatest training ground for Marty was where he started out as an entertainer, as a busker in Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Here, he would not only have to command a crowd's attention, but organize them into a coherent audience.

If the role of Master of Ceremonies demands:

- Commanding the audience's attention
- Keeping them interested
- Making them laugh
- Having a keen sense of coherence and pace of the proceedings

Then Marty Coffey is your man. (Even his initials spell "M.C."!)

In theatre conference settings Marty sometimes works as a "hoax" speaker/master of ceremonies, assuming the character of Chuck Dillon, HR expert from the great state of Texas. The gradual transformation from corporate big shot, to illustrating a few points with three juggling balls, to getting helped up on a tall unicycle in a suit and tie takes the classic hoax formula a step further.

Here are some testimonials specifically from compare roles Marty has performed:

"Thank you for procurring Marty Coffey. Our feedback from our delegates has been enormously positive. He was larger than life in his hoax character and things only got bigger from there. It really made what everyone thought would be a boring dry afternoon into a virtual amusement park ride."

(Colin McCarlie of Design Troop re: IBM conference, 2005)

"The Success of the 2000 UDIA Awards fro Excellence is no small part due to the fantastic talent of Marty Coffey supplied by BBC Entertainment. He was hilarious and scary at the same time, and he really kept everyone involved for the entire evening. "

(Judy Carr, Executive Director of Urban Development Institute of Australia)

"On behalf of the Central Coast Soccer Association we would like to thank you for the fantastic performance at our annual presentation night. We were trying to re-do the format of our presentations to make the evening more fun, and your work as combination compere/entertainer certainly did the trick. Alan (the man you tried to kill with your unicycle) even thanked you in his Player of the Year acceptance speech. "

(Amber Edwards of Central Coast Soccer Association, 2006)

"Marty, thank you sincerely for making this year's awards presentation the most memorable to date. Your ideas for keeping things moving and on track were brilliant. I'm only sorry we didn't have time for you to do more of you fantastic act. "

(Andrew McKinnon, Optometrists Association of Australia, 2001)

"He's very good, but I just wish he would go back to university. "

(Marty's mother, 1987)