By Dan Lalande
“Turning 65 is a gift.”
This from a man—Pat McKenna—who has enjoyed many: a long stint on an iconic TV series, a marriage of over 40 years and two Gemini awards in two major categories in the same year. Not that he hasn’t his share of struggles: late-diagnosis ADHD, back troubles that threatened to keep him in a wheelchair and, now that he’s on the brink of senior citizenship, finding age-appropriate TV and film roles. Still, he’s at relative peace these days with his inner “nephew Harold,” the nervous rube he played on The Red Green Show for a decade and a half, a role that gave comic flesh to his Jungian shadow. The snowy-haired Pat is living the country life, enjoying time with family and he has just been nominated for no less than four Canadian Screen Awards (as the Geminis are now called), including two for his work on the blue-collar comedy The Trades.
The Trades is stocked with the kinds of characters who served as Pat’s original artistic inspiration: the everyday heroes of his native Hamilton, Ontario. Most view that city as Toronto’s hard hat-wearing cousin, but anyone hip to Canada’s comedy history knows that the manufacturing mecca produces gold as well as steel. “What makes Hamilton so funny,” Pat astutely observes, “is the cross-section of characters, ethnicities and cultures that thrive and work there. Not many stand-up comedians come from Hamilton versus character-driven performers like Martin Short, Eugene Levy or Dave Thomas. It’s their honest, idiosyncratic way of seeing things and expressing themselves that I bring to all of my work.”
The original idea, though, was to bring the work of other funny people to the fore. Pat and wife-to-be Janis both studied restaurant administration at Sheridan College, in hopes of operating their own comedy club. To help finance the venture, Pat applied to be a waiter at Toronto’s Second City. Explains Pat, “But I wore a blazer to the interview, so I was offered a management role.” The next thing he was offered was a spot in their touring company after he aced an afternoon audition.
There, Pat developed a roster of characters, including a buck-toothed whipping boy who moved like his boxers were made of asbestos. Steve Smith, an indie TV talent who’d been offered one last kick at the can instead of belatedly signing up for law school, instantly recognized a fitting sidekick for a new comedy series he was grooming for Hamilton’s CHCH. Thus, the longstanding Laurel-and-Hardy, Abbott-and-Costello, Martin-and-Lewis dynamic had finally been Canadianized. The eponymous Red Green and his ridiculous nephew Harold took Hamilton, took Canada, took North America.
“In season three”—of 15, making The Red Green Show one of the longest-running series in Canadian TV history—“we went before a live audience,” Pat recalls. “That’s when I knew we were onto something. Audiences came from all over southern Ontario and in buses from the States—dressed like our characters and laughing up a storm! In the U.S., it was the Detroit PBS station that first took notice. From there, The Red Green Show became the number one PBS Pledge program.”
Despite the show’s following south of the border, it wasn’t enough to entice the patriotic Pat from the land of his birth. “I was invited to audition in the States for a new series and I got the job. My wife and I were thrilled—for about an hour and 20 minutes. We realized that the money we would earn would afford us limited locations to live, the high school that our son would be attending had gun and metal detectors and, given that I’m a fair-skinned Irish lad, a never-ending summer was not going to be good for me. I turned down the show (which never made it to air anyway) and, with no regrets whatsoever, came home to Canada.”
Late in Red Green’s run, Pat the actor began to do double duty, showing off his dramatic chops in the TV drama Traders. “Whether playing comedy or drama, I always trust the same approach,” he offers aspiring thespians. “Every character has something they want to accomplish. It’s the obsession and the choices they’re willing to make to achieve their goals that determine the comedy or drama of the situation.” If you’re still weighing his advice, consider that in 1998, he became the only actor to win Canada’s top acting honour in both the comedy and drama categories.
That said, struggling performer, you might not be afforded the same opportunities as the fortunate (and grateful) Pat. The Canadian media landscape has grown dangerously barren since then, thanks to a combination of consolidation and competition. A slimmed-down CBC is still standing but certain political parties are determined to starve it into extinction, a situation that vexes Pat.
“I love the CBC,” he unabashedly declares. “It can certainly use some improvements, but it’s the only network that truly supports the Canadian entertainment sector. It’s the only network that reaches the far north and creates documentaries that shine a light on our good and bad history. CBC holds nightly debates at 10 o’clock about our future on The National and pokes fun at ourselves with shows like This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The CBC is like living next to a well-informed neighbour.”
For now, though, there’s still room on TV for the happy, hale Pat. He’s in the pink, thanks to meds he started taking some years ago for his ADHD. The spinal infection he developed after minor back surgery in 2005 appears to have run its course, too. Pat’s voicing cartoons, guesting on reality TV, and rockin’ The Trades. Still, he’s as restless as nephew Harold’s hips to tackle his next opportunity.
“I’m at the ‘grandpa,’ ‘judge,’ ‘CEO’ and ‘toothless hermit’ stage of my career,” he semi-jokes. “It happens fast. But a good supporting role has always been my sweet spot. I’m still excited every time I’m invited onto a set.”
As audiences are, come the resulting production, to see him.
