His laugh fills the show room at Inland Kenworth and there’s no mistaking whose in the building – Alex Debogorski, star of Ice Road Truckers.
Big hat, big voice, big man – Alex more than lives up to the image millions of fans around the world have come to know and love.
He was in Quesnel promoting his book King of the Road: Tales from a Legendary Ice Road Trucker, sell a few T-shirts, DVDs, and other miscellaneous merchandise but most of all to meet the people who have made him famous.
Ice Road Truckers finished Season 7 and Alex said he’s never sure if there’s to be another season.
“I wait till I get the phone call,” he said.
Filming of the now world-famous History Channel Ice Road Truckers series needs to coincide with the ice road season, Feb. 1 – March 30, give or take time depending on the weather.
Alex has been with the program from its inception and says when they started there weren’t a lot of reality TV shows and no one really knew how to film it.
However, over the years the TV crews has honed their skills and now Alex says there’s cameras mounted everywhere – in the truck, under the truck, hanging off the side of the truck and of course the chase car is never far away.
“Every year we wreck at least one chase car and the rest get pretty beaten up.”
But he said it is also sometimes a chore to keep these crews safe.
“They look at this through the lens of their camera, not like we see it from the truck. It’s like having kids on every trip.”
He added, you’re always worried: where are the kids?; are they under the truck?; can I drive away?
“We’ve had people badly hurt, both truckers and crew members.”
Alex also said that everyone has to remember these are real truckers doing a real job and sometimes the crews slow you down.
“Filming slows you down and we all have to run on a schedule.”
He explained one example being the 400 trucks that run on ice roads from Yellowknife (Alex’ hometown) to and from the mine sites.
“Usually there’s four trucks, spaced about 1/2 kilometre apart that start out and 20 minutes later another convoy of four trucks head out. It’s like a big chain moving slowly across the ice.”
He went on to say they run the trucks like this because the first four trucks crack the ice so the 20 minutes in-between the ice has a chance to heal before the next set head onto it.
Speed is also carefully controlled so everything is as safe as possible.
Alex told the story of one lake where he was travelling during the night in a convoy.
“It was about 3:30 a.m. and I get on the radio and start talking about flying saucers and how aliens were probing truck drivers. Well I get taken aside by the dispatcher and he tells me to stop talking about aliens and flying saucers, it was scaring the other drivers.”
With a hearty, belly-laugh Alex said he couldn’t wait to get back on the road to talk about flying saucers.
Despite the sometimes bad-mouthing that goes on in the show, Alex said he tries to not hate anyone. He said everyone lives in a fishbowl and he tries to see life from the other person’s fishbowl.
“Life’s too short. You just can’t take it too seriously.”
He said he tries to remember to share a good joke or story and it’s obvious he loves to laugh.
One of his famous philosophical phrases was: with billions of people in the world, everyone has a page and you can either have it tell a good story where you leave the world a better place or you don’t. And with this book we’re all connected.
“I’m blessed to have the opportunity to pray with prisoners in the local jail and they usually leave with a smile on their face.”
One of the ways Alex gives back.
With Ice Road Truckers now airing in 160 countries, Alex is very aware he is a representative in many ways, including representing Canada, Yellowknife, truckers, the TV show and many other aspects of his fame.
He takes that responsibility very seriously but also depends on his publicist to let him know when he crosses the line from public figure to trucker which, according to Alex, isn’t always a good role model.
He said whenever he’s approached about a young person wanting to be a trucker, or for any reason, he always tries to give good advice.
“I’ve had a lot of experience in a lot of things and I just share what I’ve learned.”
Whether there’s another season of Ice Road Truckers or not, Alex isn’t concerned as to what he’ll do.
“In winter I’m a trucker, in summer I make top soil, which also means I haul gravel, do a bit of landscaping. I’ve done carpentry and a whole lot of other things. I have 150 pieces of equipment in my yard, some equipment, some vehicles and I sometimes sell some. I have a Zamboni I’m trying to sell right now.”
Alex finished the interview with a funny story about the Zamboni.
“I was driving it home and of course had to go slowly and vehicles started to pile up behind me. I noticed the vehicle right behind me was my wife Louise and I thought ‘oh good, she’ll make sure no one runs into me.’ But to my surprise she whipped out around me and took off. I found out later she was complaining about the idiot who was driving a Zamboni down the street and as she drove past me our daughter scraped the ice off the window and waved to me, excitedly crying
‘It’s daddy.’”
Alex will find out shortly if there’s to be a Season 8 but regardless he’s a busy, happy man who will find the lighter side of life and share it with the world.