Just quit.
It’s an odd strategy to employ when life gets tough, but actor and comedian Michael McDonald stands by it.
The first time he gave up was soon after he obtained his business degree. Working as a loan officer at a bank, his friend he attended business school with said she was going to become an actress. She took him to see an improv comedy show at Groundling Theater.
“I went sort of thinking, what a terrible idea – what a moron. You’re throwing away your good education you just got,” recalled 45-year-old McDonald, the longest running cast member from the sketch comedy show “MADtv.”
During the improv show, he was dazzled by the likes of Kathy Griffin, Lisa Kudrow and Julia Sweeney. It was the first time he saw improv theater, where actors use improvisational techniques to perform spontaneously in front of a live audience.
“I was totally bitten and I quit my job that Friday,” said McDonald, who will perform his stand-up act at Laughs Comedy Spot in Kirkland on May 14-15.”I broke my parents’ hearts, I’m sure.”
The danger of making up something “off the fly just blew my mind,” he added.
He began studying improv at the Groundling Theater, while serving tables at a restaurant and bumping into several former bank customers that he turned down for loans.
“Hey, can I take your order?” He asked them, who in return said, “Hey, weren’t you the guy that turned us down for that car loan? Yeah, what kind of wine would you like?”
After many “lean” years of studying improv and hoping comedy shows like Saturday Night Live would scout him out, McDonald decided to quit acting. As soon as he began writing and directing low budget movies, MADtv offered him a job.
“So the lesson is quit – give up,” he laughs. “That’s my strategy.”
McDonald joined the cast of MADtv in 1998, performing several recurring characters, including Stuart Larkin. A little boy with a dazed look on his face, Stuart’s mantras include, “Look what I can do!” and “Let me do it!”
on his face, Stuart’s mantras include, “Look what I can do!” and “Let me do it!”
“Stuart came about from little dark corners of the past,” he said, adding, “and he is augmented by the fact that I taught kindergarten for a year during my years of struggle.”
During his 10-year stint with MADtv, McDonald also performed impressions of such celebrities as Dr. Phil, Ozzy Osbourne, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jeff Probst, Tim Gunn and even Saddam Hussein.
When he was first told he had to do impressions, he panicked because he’d never performed impressions before.
“So to have to do people that were real and well known was terrifying to me, let alone that eventually I started running into some of them,” he said, noting he ran into Bill O’Reilly once, which turned out to be a pleasant occasion. “I still worry about running into Dr. Phil.”
But McDonald says it’s even stranger when fans approach him and impersonate one of his TV characters. Once on an airplane a man – and big fan – introduced himself as an air marshal.
“It was like – what! Aren’t you supposed to be looking out for terrorists?” He said.
Other hit shows McDonald has appeared in include “Desperate Housewives,” “Pushing Daisies,” and “Seventh Heaven.” His movie credits also include brief appearances in all three “Austin Powers” movies.
McDonald is currently on tour performing his stand-up act that features everyday scenarios, as well as bits from his past – his Catholic education, his upbringing in Orange County, Calif. and his mother. Each city he tours also presents its own unique adventures, which also adds to his stand-up material.
This fall, his new standup special will premier, called “Michael McDonald, Model. Citizen.”
“It’s a compilation of a lot of things that I’m building now during this tour that the Kirkland show will be part of,” he added.
In August, he’ll go back to work directing the ABC comedy-drama television series “Cougar Town,” starring actress Courteney Cox. McDonald says he hasn’t mastered an impersonation of Cox yet, “although if I did, I would need a Blackberry. All the ladies have got the Blackberries these days.”
Working as a director, he says, makes him appreciate his work as an actor. And it makes for great job insurance, in case he decides to quit acting.
“Anyone who’s ever read or seen an E! True Hollywood Story knows they’re always saying you’re too old, you’re too fat, you’re too short, you’re to this, you’re too whatever, and it’s nice to say, alright, if I don’t feel like acting right now, I’ll go do this and it’s a great little bit of insurance,” he said.
Kirkland performance
Comedian Michael McDonald will perform at Laughs Comedy Spot at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. May 14-15. Tickets are $20. Call 425-823-6306 or visit www.laughscomedy.com. Laughs Comedy Spot is located at 12099 124th Ave. N.E. in Kirkland.
