He failed out of Marquette. He dropped out of community college. He quit real estate training. But now, Brendan McGowan has turned his life around and is excelling as a stand-up comedian on Chicago's up-and-coming stages.

McGowan returned to Milwaukee in triumph as part of a Midwest tour to perform a guest set at the Comedy Cafe, 615 E.,”

He failed out of Marquette. He dropped out of community college. He quit real estate training. But now, Brendan McGowan has turned his life around and is excelling as a stand-up comedian on Chicago's up-and-coming stages.

McGowan returned to Milwaukee in triumph as part of a Midwest tour to perform a guest set at the Comedy Cafe, 615 E. Brady St., the weekend of Feb. 16.

With so much acclaim, aspiration and promise, it's easy to forget all the failure and troubles McGowan faced while living in the Brew City.

"I was just in this huge existential and depressed funk for the last three semesters I was here before I failed out," McGowan said.

McGowan left for his home in Chicago in what he called a suicidal state trying to figure out what to do with his life.

"I'm pretty ashamed of the person I was when I was at Marquette," McGowan said. "I was just a lethargic waste of space and time. Sleeping in 'til 3 in the afternoon, over-drafting my account so that I could buy a bag of chips and a two-liter pop at the store in the basement of McCormick, which would be my meal for the day."

But looking back, McGowan said failing out of Marquette was probably the best thing that happened in his life.

Shortly after his return home, a friend told McGowan, who was interested in comedy, about an open-mic stand-up show. Now, just a year and a half later, he is performing in three or four open-mics a night and is booked in upwards of four showcases a week.

"Doing comedy has really filled a void I didn't know I had," McGowan said. "I'm doing what I love to do now. I'm confident enough that I can do this professionally and there are people who tell me I can."

T.J. Miller is one of those people.

At the Comedy Cafe, McGowan opened for feature act and friend Miller, a comic who tours with Chicago's The Second City comedy troupe.

"He's one of the strongest comics coming up on the scene," Miller said.

The owners of the Comedy Café also saw talent, asking McGowan to perform back for the weekend of April 19.

"I'm at the point now where there's nowhere to progress to as far as Chicago stand-up goes," McGowan said. "The next step for me is to write 30 minutes of material that I feel solid with, perform it in showcases around Chicago and then hopefully shoot a DVD of that 30 minutes."

Miller seems to think the skies are the limit for McGowan, saying that not only is he a prolific writer and a hard worker but also artistic and professional, both of which are essential in the business.

"He's also really smart," Miller said. "I don't know anyone who's successful at comedy and who's not smart. Well, I know a few. They smash watermelons and wear wife beaters on stage for their Comedy Central special."

Mike Holmes, a comedian who is an original cast member of the stand-up group Chicago Underground Comedy, lobbied for McGowan to join the group.

"I think Brendan's great," Holmes said. "He's one of my favorite young comics on the scene. Not to say that I'm an old comic, I'm only five years older, but he's got a lot of talent for someone so young."

McGowan joined Chicago Underground in fall 2006.

"You can tell when someone has it and when they don't when they first take the stage. He's got it," Holmes said.

Currently, McGowan plans to search for a booking agent and continue doing shows in Chicago clubs and throughout the Midwest to perfect his craft.

"The Milwaukee set was the first time I was nervous before a show in about a year because I've become so comfortable performing in front of Chicago audiences but I haven't done anything at a club where I know two or three people out of the 170 that are there," McGowan said.

Forget the friends and the practice and the attributes. If nothing else, McGowan is excited to come back to Milwaukee for the paradox of actually succeeding here.

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