Section: People

COMMITTING COMEDY

Mark McKinney answers a simple question about his age with the reply, "I'm 58 years old." He later clarifies: "Actually, I am as old as Madonna, but twice as funny." The 42-year-old comedian, of Kids in the Hall fame, is having a hard time staying focused -- breaking into a French accent, then switching to the voice of a monotone stand-up comic telling a lame joke. But it's understandable, he has just wrapped up an evening's performance of Fully Committed, a stage play in which he takes on 39 roles -- each more manic than the last.

In the one-man show, McKinney plays Sam, a reservation taker at a swanky New York City restaurant. But he also plays the cook, maitre d' and voices all the "important" people calling for a table. McKinney saw the play performed in New York and asked his agent to set it up for him in Toronto. It runs until the end of November.

The Ottawa-born father of two has been doing theatre in New York ever since leaving Saturday Night Live in 1997. But he intersperses it with TV and movies. Next up is a miniseries called Dice -- starting on The Movie Network and Movie Central Nov. 12 -- in which he plays an uncharacteristically serious character who discovers his wife is cheating on him.

But he has not turned his back on his roots. As the brains behind Kids in the Hall characters Chicken Lady and Headcrusher, McKinney joined the other members of the Canadian sketch comedy troupe for a reunion tour last year. "We were treated like big old rock stars, with groupies," says McKinney. "Only these groupies didn't want to sleep with you -- because we're Canadian, they just want to chortle with you." And there's nothing more natural for McKinney than just chortling.

Copyright of Maclean's is the property of Rogers Media, Publishing Ltd. Source: Maclean's, 11/5/2001, Vol. 114 Issue 45, p58, 1/3p.