Alex Mackenzie always wanted to be at centre ice, he just envisioned it with a hockey stick in his hand, not a microphone.
He couldn’t pull off the one thing Canadians are most famous for, but he is well on his way with the profession Canada is perhaps second best at: comedy.
Mackenzie is set to headline the Hungry For Laughs Comedy Tour stop at CN Centre in Prince George, his hometown, but he well remembers that it was Quesnel where his first dream ended - the lemon from which he squeezed lemonade.
“Me getting cut from the Kangaroos was what started me,” Mackenzie said. “Harley Gilks cut me, but it was my fault. I was getting fat and lazy. I was getting pretty sloppy out there. I loved that senior hockey, it was so fun, but what I always told myself was ‘play that hockey as long as you can’ because you can only play that level of hockey so long before the young kids can do it better than you. But comedy you can start when you’re 60. So me getting cut from the Quesnel Kangaroos was what kick-started this whole comedy thing.”
Mackenzie’s ascent in the comedy world has become something of Canadian entertainment folklore. He did the open mic scene and earned some opening spots for headliners, at the start, but once he felt he had enough material to hold down the spotlight, he quit his lucrative job at a Prince George pulp mill, sold his sedentary belongings, bought an RV and set off on the funniest road trip in Canadian history. He drove wherever there might be a stage and a hot mic.
Then he expanded his realm and went international. All the while he maintained the Alex Tells Jokes website where he journalled his comedic adventures, adding the video blog An Experiment Called Life, which later became his first comedy special.
He then seized on the chance to use his comedy skills for even greater good. The Hungry For Laughs Comedy Tour has been going on for a few years, now. The 2023 edition has stops in Kamloops, Vernon, Duncan, Vancouver, Red Deer, Grande Prairie and Kelowna, as well as Prince George. On stage with him, this year, is a slate of well-established entertainers like comedians Simon King and Ivan Decker, magician Wes Barker, and the curveball is acro-archer Orissa Kelly.
In each town, the proceeds of the show pile up for a local charity. It started as a food bank benefit, but has evolved into a number of worthy causes.
Mackenzie has evolved, himself. Watching his on-ice aspirations fade taught him the lessons he needed to change his life’s tactics.
“I wanted to be a pro hockey player, but I wasn’t doing anything the pros do; I wasn’t training, I wasn’t practicing, I wasn’t studying it, but I do do that with comedy,” he said. “I watch every comedy special, I am constantly reading about joke construction and comedic theory, I try to write every day, get on stage as much as you can, because that’s doing your reps. I thought I knew how to shoot a puck already, so why would I shoot 100 pucks a day?, but it is in those repetitions that you do get better. And I can’t believe I’m doing the CN Centre, now, man.”
The puck drops for Hungry For Laughs on Saturday (Nov. 18) night at 7:30. Get tickets at the CN Centre website.
And yes, he is aware that West Fraser Centre is now doing live entertainment events “and I’ve already been kicking the tires.”
He will be appearing in Quesnel this coming summer on his Happy Camper Tour as a fact-finding mission. He won’t be calling on the Kangaroos for another audition, but he hopes some of his teammates make it out to some of these shows.
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