Mike Myers, right, appears next to host Shane Gillis and musical guest Tate McRae on the March 1 episode of Saturday Night Live.NBC/Getty Images
After putting his elbows up for Canada live from New York, Mike Myers will be coming home to Second City Toronto later this month for what’s been billed as his first performance there in over 30 years.
It’s Always Something: Open Mike, a fundraiser for cancer support community Gilda’s Toronto, named after original Saturday Night Live cast member Gilda Radner, will see Myers interacting with a group of veteran Toronto-based improvisers on May 12.
Originally from Scarborough, Ont., Myers – who shot a video endorsement for Liberal leader Mark Carney ahead of the recent federal election – started his comedy career with the Second City Canadian touring company straight out of high school; he later joined its mainstage cast in 1986, where his character Wayne Campbell of future Wayne’s World fame first appeared in a revue called Not Based on Anything By Stephen King.
It’s Always Something: Open Mike will follow the format of host David Shore’s long-running improvised talk show Monkey Toast, and so it is unlikely to involve Myers playing Wayne or any of his sketch characters.
Instead, Myers will be interviewed about his life by Shore – while Whose Line is It Anyway? legend Colin Mochrie, Lisa Merchant, Jan Caruana, Aurora Browne, Herbie Barnes and Paul Bates improvise scenes based on his answers.
Pink Elephant in the room hangs over Arcade Fire’s Massey Hall comeback performance
“As far as I know, that’s it – he won‘t be participating in improv,” said Shore in a phone interview with The Globe and Mail after Friday’s announcement of the show
Shore says it’s been tough to keep the fundraiser’s high-profile guest a secret since he learned about it earlier this year.
This winter, Myers has been guest starring on NBC’s Saturday Night Live playing President Donald Trump adviser Elon Musk.
But he made headlines in Canada after a March 1 appearance on the long-running American comedy show in which he wore a “Canada is Not for Sale” shirt during the closing credits sequence when the cast and guest assemble on stage.
In a reference to hockey legend Gordie Howe, Myers raised an elbow and pointed it while mouthing the words “elbows up,” helping popularize that defensive expression in Canada as a response to Trump’s tariffs and threats of annexation in Canada. He made the gesture again in subsequent appearances on SNL.
“What happened came from my ankles and from my brain and from my heart, and it was not about me – it was about my country,” Myers said in recent interview with the New York Times. “I wanted to send a message home to say that I’m with you, you know.”
Myers did not, however, accord an interview to Canadian media about his appearances – so Shore has landed what may be his first on this side of the border since becoming the Captain Canada of SNL‘s closing credits.
“We’re super excited to have Mike on,” Shore said. “It couldn’t be more timely with everything he’s been doing.”
