skippy the bush kangaroo

Saturday, August 09, 2008

rip bernie mac

it is with great sadness that we report the death of bernie mac at age 50.

bernie had been in the hospital w/pneumonia the past week. we had no idea it was so serious. entertainment weekly:

mac had been admitted to chicago's northwestern memorial hospital on aug. 1, but had been expected to recover. the 50-year-old actor had battled sarcoidosis, a chronic disorder that can cause inflammation in the lungs. he spoke about his battle with the disease in 2005, after production was halted on his sitcom, the bernie mac show, delaying its season premiere by more than two months.

mac is best remembered for five seasons of that series, for which he earned two emmy and two golden globe nominations. it debuted in 2001, a year after the spike lee-directed concert film the original kings of comedy introduced a wider audience to the stand-up routines of tour mates mac, steve harvey, d.l. hughley, and cedric the entertainer.

mac had been a working comedian for 31 years.
skippy worked on the bernie mac show, and knew bernie to be a kind-hearted, giving performer, very comfortable w/himself, and always ready to let his fellow actors get the laugh and the spotlight.

when skippy first got onto the bernie mac set, bernie came over and shook skippy's hand in welcome, then stopped all work on the set with an announcment introducing skippy to everybody. bernie was also very concerned w/the quality of his show.

skippy's bit on the show had to do w/a misunderstanding on an airplane. bernie was concerned that a terrorism joke wasn't funny (it was many years ago, just a short while after 9/11), and that the audience would cringe, rather than laugh.

bernie insisted the joke get cut, and the producer, the director and the writer eventually capitulated and the joke indeed was cut. (but not skippy's bit, don't worry, skippy even got a residual last week for his appearance on the program).

here's bernie doing his stand up on the kings of comedy about his sister's kids:



rest in peace, bernie mac.
posted by skippy at 9:51 AM |

3 Comments:

I was shocked when I heard this. Just last week, we were all told, oh, Bernie's fine!

I'm glad you had a chance to work with him Skip. Particularly while he was still alive.

Too soon?
commented by Blogger Carl, 7:45 PM PDT  
skippy, thanks for the memories, it says a lot about Bernie Mac (and you) that you've shared this with us.

p.s. carl, yep, too soon.
commented by Blogger The Sailor, 10:30 PM PDT  
Yeah, I was sorry to hear this. Nice story, skippy.

I have a friend that worked with him or knew him, and told me years ago about his lung issues, which surprised me. She had said his health halted production of the show for a while, which I was sorry to hear - the best episodes had some really sharp writing. But Bernie was doing quite a few films and appearances, so I thought things had gotten better. I'm sad to hear this.
commented by Blogger Batocchio, 1:53 AM PDT  

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