Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Q

Remembering Mike MacDonald, a Canadian comedy icon

Mike MacDonald, a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor, died March 17, 2018. He was 62. Canadian comedian Brent Butt joins us to talk about him.
CBC Radio ·
Mike MacDonald performs at the 2015 Halifax Comedy Festival. The veteran Canadian comedian and Ottawa native died March 17, 2018. (CBC)

This weekend, Canada's stand-up community lost one of its most respected pioneers. Comedian Mike MacDonald died Saturday, March 17, in Ottawa at the age of 62, due to heart complications.

Over the course of a 40 year career, MacDonald was a mainstay on the North American stand-up circuit. He made appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Arsenio Hall Show and graced the Just For Laughs stage more than any other comic in the festival's history.

Since news broke, fans and comedians north and south of the border have taken to Twitter to pay tribute to MacDonald's comedic legacy, from Tom Green and Mike Bullard to Marc Maron and Kathy Griffin.

Corner Gas star and creator Brent Butt has known MacDonald since the '80s, when they were both rookie comics getting their feet wet. In a tribute to MacDonald on Twitter, Butt said the comedian "cleared the bush, paved the roads, drew the map, and never charged any of us a toll." Butt joins Tom Power live from Vancouver, B.C., to talk about MacDonald's legacy.

— Produced by Tyrone Callender

More from this episode