Patrick Combs (born July 5, 1966) is an American author and speaker. He is the author of ''Major in Success'' and ''Man 1 Bank 0'' which was adapted into a one-man live stage show that has toured the United States and Europe. Combs has performed the show to sold out audiences in Ireland and on Broadway.
Combs is a public speaker.
As an occasional reporter and commentator, Combs has appeared on television programs, talk shows and network specials, as well as the cover of the Harlequin Romance novel ''The Valentine Gift''. Combs also made headlines when at age 21 he delivered a stranger’s baby on a sidewalk in San Francisco without any previous medical training
Early life and education
Combs was raised in
Bend, Oregon
Bend is a city in central Oregon and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is located to the east of the Cascade Range, on the Deschutes River.
The site became known by pioneers as a ford (cros ...
by a single mother with his older brother Mike Combs. His mother was a nurse until she lost her job after a back injury. The family lived in poverty in a trailer on a single income with support in part by a local church. Combs would take odd jobs to help, including picking strawberries and running a daily paper route. He attended
Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1867 and is situated on the historic M. Lloyd Frank Estate in South Portland's Collins View neighborhood. It is composed of three distinct but adjac ...
starting in 1984, and graduated
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts.
At 26, he left his corporate job to help students succeed and tested videogames for Electronic Arts to support himself. By 28, he was a published author, a well-known college speaker, and had a
Fortune 100
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...
sponsorship to visit the top 100 schools in America.
Author
In 1992 Combs began writing his first book ''Major in Success''. The book was published by Ten Speed Press and is distributed by Random House.
As a companion to his live one-man stage show, Man 1 Bank 0, in 2010 Combs wrote a novelization of it.
Speaker
Combs has made speeches in the United States and abroad regarding a variety of motivational topics.
Performer
Combs' one-man show, ''Man 1 Bank 0'' has played sold-out runs at HBO's 2004
U.S. Comedy Arts Festival held in
Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
* ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'')
* ''Populus da ...
, at the
Spoleto Festival
The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conc ...
in
Charleston (where it garnered "Critic's Choice"), in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
, and at the Comedy Central Stage in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. The show won "Best of Fest" at the
San Francisco Fringe where it was awarded "Best Solo Comedy," and was an official selection of the
New Zealand International Comedy Festival
The New Zealand International Comedy Festival (NZICF; sometimes the NZ Intl Comedy Fest) is a comedy festival in both Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand. The festival is run by the New Zealand Comedy Trust, and is held across three weeks duri ...
and an official selection of the
Just For Laughs Festival in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
. The show sold out in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
during its
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
run at the
Lambs Theatre in summer 2015. In 2012 he debuted his one-man show entitled Foolhardy at the
Orlando Fringe
Media personality
Combs has appeared on ''Hard Copy'' and ''Real TV''. He has also appeared on such talk shows as ''The View'', ''Donahue'', ABC's ''World News Tonight'', ''NBC Nightly News'', “Coast to Coast AM” with Art Bell, ''Good Morning America'', ''Montel Williams'' and ''The Late Show''.
Published work
* ''Major in Success'', Ten Speed Press, 1994
* ''Gearing Up (Inside & Out) for a Great Life: A Smart Guide for High School'', Light Matrix Books, 2003
* ''Man 1 Bank 0'', Art Helix, October 18, 2011
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Patrick
1966 births
Living people
Writers from Bend, Oregon
American writers of Mexican descent
San Francisco State University alumni