Marcus McGee -aka- DJ MF Maniac

He’s a man on the move, but The Hub recently caught up with Marcus McGee (aka DJ MF Maniac) at The Deep End, a barcade that he frequents, mostly because it’s filled with his personal arcade collection. His contagious grin and suave swagger fills whatever space he is in with positive energy and today was no exception. As I walked into The Deep End the sound of chatter and laughter immediately pointed me in the direction of Marcus. He was spending his few spare minutes between appointments hanging out at the Deep End bar catching up and cutting up with friends and business associates. DJ, artist, and entrepreneur, DJ MF Maniac is not planning on slowing down any time soon.

How did you get involved with The Deep End?
Michael Hitt of WDE (Waste Deep Entertainment) and his crew were making an open entertainment venue and I wasn’t really a part of it at first. With my DJ career it was hard for me to have the time to make the meetings but whenever he was opening I had this one lone arcade at my house and it was Marvel Super Heroes, and I was like “you have all of this space, do you want me to bring my arcade up here?”. I just wanted to move it out of my house. From there I just started buying arcades and was suprised that people were actually playing them. People were here listening to metal and playing Ms. PacMan. So we just kept adding games and was like “we got something”. Let’s do a bar/arcade. Let’s do a barcade.

How long have you been doing this?
We’ve been doing games for about six months now and it’s all word of mouth. On Saturday nights we usually have live music. All the way from rap shows from local artists to metal to rock, variety shows. We do comedy shows as well. We still do art nights, dabbling with that and people come out and paint.

Speaking of art, you are also an artist. Correct?
Art is really my first passion, right next to DJing. I really wanted to do comic books back in the day. I didn’t have the funding to go to school so I just dabbled on the side and just learned by myself and basically I do comic book form. Like, half comic and half anime style. Black and white, because it I color them it doesn’t come out as I see it so I stick to black and white. I’ve done a couple of businesses around down. I did Sakura’s logo and the piano bar logo and I also did The Deep End’s logo. So I still do a lot of free lance work with my art.

And what about your DJing?
I’ve been doing that for about 15 years. I started about 2002 doing it in my house. The S Lounge, it was Shogun’s Japenese restaraunt but at night it was The S Lounge and that’s where I kinda got my start. I started with records, tons of records, and for all the newer stuff it was just an Ipod. People couldn’t believe that knew how to sync it. It was the old Ipod, the old classic, you’d have to reel it and let it go and people were amazed that I could do that. Coming from there to where technology is it got a lot easier, but I still stick to vinyl. I love vinyl.

Are you resident DJ anywhere now?
Fuzzy’s Tacos now. My original home was Toby’s Bar. I was there for about 5-6 years. Now there is new ownership and we are talking about a new contract with them, but as of right now The Deep End, Fuzzy’s Bar, Stage West. I’ve done Lonestar a couple of times. I do private gigs, weddings and stuff. My first gig was a wedding. They asked “have you ever done a wedding?” I said “no, never tried, but let’s try it”. It was the first two hundred bucks I ever made.

photo:Kelly Knottinham-Smith

Marcus has been a part of the local music scene for nearly a decade, contributing to bands such as Dr. Feel Good and Bad Badgers. He also volunteers as a Texhoma Ghostbuster. The Texhoma Ghostbusters, among other things, volunteer their time encouraging kids with special needs and doing what they can to benefit various charities. Marcus and two other gentlemen dress up and arrive in full Ghostbuster attire, including vehicle, for charitable events to help draw awareness and entertain. You can keep up with some of their good deeds via Facebook.
facebook.com/texhoma.ghostbusters