Banjack: At The Table With Matt Durkin

While growing up in the Jeffersonville section of West Norriton, Matt Durkin aspired to play professional baseball. The Durkin family lived across the street from the West Norriton Field on Burnside Avenue.

Matt attended Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia. Making the commute a little easier was that his dad was a teacher at Roman and drove them to school. Bob Durkin has taught English there for 57-years and is still teaching. Mom, Rita, worked at Einstein Hospital in admissions. Matt is the middle child between Kevin and Emma.

It was while he was in high school when he decided that baseball not going to be a future career. After graduating from Roman, he worked for a short time at Wawa. It was at this time he found his profession as a car salesman. He has been working for Wynn Group selling VW vehicles for the last four years.

That is how I met him. After someone totaled my Beetle, I needed to find another car. In between car talk, Matt and I started to chat. I learned that Matt (moonlighting) managed The Centre Theater. As I was a charter board member to the facility, I was most interested as the theater included the first overall arts program in Norristown.

Matt always like and interacted well with people. As a kid he always got in trouble for being the funny guy. So, he found his way to comedy — actually “stand-up” comedy.

Matt and his business Steven Ziegler formed Starving Artist Prevention offering comedy — especially stand-up and open mike to the area — actually anyone who would hire them. Over the years, he has tried many avenues of the arts. Matt is very personable, charming and easy on the eye.

His interest in the stage peaked when Roman Catholic School for boys partnered with Hallahan Catholic School for Girls for theatrical productions. Great way to meet girls!

On the home front, he shares his townhouse with his beloved Duke, a golden retriever who just celebrated his first birthday.

His girlfriend, Kelli, works at Franco & Giovanni as a hair stylist. It is due to her influence that Matt is becoming a “foodie.” He has become quite a “steak master.” He shares with us the way to handle a perfect steak.

Melt a single stick of butter — add garlic salt, rosemary oregano to taste to — add to the melted butter and two dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Then stick mixture in freezer the night prior. You can do it same day of but make sure it is congealed. On high heat for 7 minutes put the steak filet. Add butter to each side starting at 3 minutes.

ENJOY! Contract columnist Bette at banjack303.verizon. net. Search YouTube – with BetteBanjack as well as phoenixvillenews.com (search bar Banjack). She can be found on Facebook. Her book “2 Cups of Yesterday” can be found at the Gateway Pharmacy or by contacting her directly.

Matt Durkin