Long dubbed ‘The Canadian King of Comedy’, Mike MacDonald will bring his wise cracking act to The Hideout Pub Sept. 19 and 20 for an evening performance stand-up lovers won’t want to miss.
Advance tickets are $20. Seating begins at 7 p.m. and the show (opened up by comic Matt Billon) begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling 403-932-6311.
It’s been a wild ride for MacDonald — popularity on both sides of the border and accolades as well as late show appearances that run a long list.
Following a life filled with prime time slots on every show and network a comic could dream of — from Comedy Central to Late Night with David Letterman to Just For Laughs and the CBC — MacDonald is back at it again, following a two-year hiatus from the craft he has become known for.
The hiatus is understandable. A liver transplant some 18 months ago could rightfully cause one to slow down.
“I tried to commit suicide about three months before the transplant…I just couldn’t stand it, the pain was unbearable,” admitted MacDonald, who tried to end his pain with pills; he was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2011.
“The only thing that saved me was being an addict (recovery for some 28 years).”
MacDonald believes his body’s memory of heavy drug abuse (a once-upon-a-time heroin and cocaine addict) ‘blessed’ him with a drug tolerance that saved his life. Almost immediately following his near-death MacDonald received the call that he had a mere few hours to drive to the hospital to receive his new liver. He said he didn’t even have a bag packed and credits his wife of 26 years, Bonnie, for getting him there and supporting him through the long journey.
“If not the only reason, the best reason I have to be here is my wife.”
MacDonald, whose bulk of material is centered on mental illness (he has admitted to suffering from bipolar disorder), addiction and transplant humour, said he has always ventured away from where other comics gravitate.
“I have a tendency to run the other way when everyone starts going crazy on something…For example, I don’t have any Rob Ford jokes — it’s like the carcass on the Serengeti.”
The 60-year-old veteran comic said of the two years he was off-stage, the latter year spent recovering from the life-changing surgery, he was overwhelmed by the grassroots support from family, friends and fellow comics — who crowd fundraised over $50,000 to help keep the MacDonald family afloat during their time of need.
He has been back on stage for six months now and has performed as many as 11 shows in 12 days post-transplant.
He said he was also overwhelmed by how much he missed supporting various charitable organizations that lie close to his heart by spreading laughter — ‘anything for the military, mental health or transplant’ (a military brat whose father was a Canadian Air Force officer).
With respect to the notion of depression and mental illness running amuck among comics MacDonald said it’s simple:
“There’s only two kinds of comics: undiagnosed and diagnosed…after a while it becomes pretty easy to spot the difference between the two types,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe in karma, rather in irony — laughing at the irony that he, a recovering addict, will remain on (anti-rejection) drugs to stay alive for the rest of his life.
