• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Pro wrestler Mankind getting his kicks on the comedy stage in Calgary

Posted: May 29th 2013 By: CMBurnham

For wrestling fans anxious about watching him perform comedy ? better he should get his ear shredded in a cage match! ? Mick Foley, a.k.a. Mankind, says don?t worry.

He has witnesses every night who don?t know him as Mankind, Cactus Jack or any of the other characters he played during a 25-year career as a marquee attraction on the WWE wrestling circuit.

That would be all the girlfriends and spouses who get dragged out by Mankind-crazed husbands and boyfriends to see the Long Island-based grappling legend perform his one-man show.

?They will seek me out after the show,? Foley says, over the phone, ?and say, ?I had no idea what to expect, and I really enjoyed myself.? ?

More than a few Calgary girlfriends and spouses will get the chance to make that call themselves Thursday night when they find themselves at Foley?s one-man show, which he?s presenting at the Laugh Shop for two shows, at 7 p.m. (sold out) and 9:45 p.m. (some tickets still available).

While Foley isn?t your garden-variety touring standup comic, there is a long, time-honoured tradition of pugilists of all stripes taking their story out on the road and sharing it with fans once their fight days are done.

Dempsey did it. Who could ever forget Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, playing welterweight Jake LaMotta as a bloated, boozy nightclub comic? And just last year, Mike Tyson took his act to off-Broadway, with a little help from Spike Lee, and got some pretty stellar reviews.

What distinguishes Foley?s show is that, much like his wrestling career, he rolls with the punches, depending on venue and location.

?I talk about things that go on throughout my career,? he says, ?but I?m always changing things (in the show).

?I like the idea that any given night, when you try something different, it has the potential to fail. That?s kind of what makes performing onstage so exciting for me.?

A couple things to expect in Foley?s Calgary appearance:

? ?Because the (Wrestling) Hall of Fame is rather new, I?ll probably share some of my experiences at the Hall of Fame (induction ceremony back on April 13). It was great, but not without some behind-the-scenes tension (with Vince McMahon), which will make for a great story.?

? Calgary?s first family of wrestling, the Harts. ?I will make sure to throw in a couple Bret Hart references,? he says. ?I try to make every show unique, so if I travel to Calgary, I?ll try to have (a few) Calgary references. I?ll probably tell a little Dynamite Kid story, and maybe tell people about one of Owen Hart?s classic pranks.?

Foley is doing as much grinding on the comedy circuit as he did on the wrestling one too, learning the ups and downs of life on a different kind of stage.

?I?m not coming to Calgary to suck,? he says. ?I went through that when I went to local (Long Island) clubs, and tried out my 10 minutes doing guest sets for free ? and there certainly was some sucking involved ? but these will be good shows.

?I don?t use ugly humour. I don?t make anyone feel bad about coming to the show, I don?t work out my own insecurities on others.?

All of which raises the question of why.

Life is easy. Comedy is hard. The comedy world is full of angry people taking out a two-drink minimum on the guy onstage.

From the sounds of it, Foley is a smart, charming, well-read guy with a well-known brand who could make a nice living doing something a lot less perilous to his ego

?I just love it,? he says. ?It feels like being in the ring without getting hurt.

?There are nights when shows don?t go well and you feel a little down, but in the same way that as a young wrestler, I was always looking for a way to redeem myself at the next show, I get the chance on those off-nights to redeem myself very quickly.?

What isn?t in doubt is that wrestlers inspire passion in their fans, many of them young guys, far beyond that inspired by almost any other pop-culture figures.

The why of that eludes Foley for a moment, and then he recalls the perfect example to explain the passion of the wrestling fan.

?I just watched an amazing episode of the (online) David Lee Roth show,? he says. ?He just did a great 30 minutes on wrestling, seemingly off-the-cuff ? he had a few facts wrong, but had the entire feeling right.

?He just did this amazing job of explaining what wrestling meant to him as a kid.

?He was talking about Bruno Sammartino,? he says, ?and how Bruno looked to him like a guy who could have been up on a girder, building a skyscraper ? he had that everyman look.

?Wrestling has that ability to create these amazing impressions on people. I?m a big believer in creating moments.

?Maybe as a wrestler,? he says, ?I wasn?t someone who could, night in and night out, just create flawless performances, because I wasn?t athletically gifted enough. But I could create some pretty monumental impressions.

?I think that?s part of the reason that people still approach me and talk so fondly about their memories.?

And with comedy, Foley, has perhaps found a way back into making memorable moments for people?

?Yes you are,? he says. ?I was onstage in London and like I said, we took a huge chance that involved a classically-trained viola player coming onstage and accompanying me and I just said, this is the greatest moment of my (comedy) career.?