Looking For a Change of Pace, Literally? MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBY Has Spare Time on its Side

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede The new CTV Original comedy MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBY is a full-circle moment for the man himself. “My career, you know, started as a hobby,” McKinney said. “I would have done improv comedy forever. It was really fun, and I still kind of approach acting that way. But it became my job at a certain point. So this was kind of like, ‘I need a hobby from my hobby.’ ” Premiering Wednesday. Oct. 2 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBY follows actor, comedian, and writer McKinney (THE KIDS IN THE HALL, SUPERSTORE) as he explores various pastimes to find the one true hobby that he can claim as his own. From birding and fly-fishing, to puppetry and hockey-playing robots, the inaugural season sees McKinney travelling all across North America, discovering amazing people and communities along the way. McKinney was asked if he’s naturally a hobby person, or if this show is actually for him? “I think it’s for me!” he replied enthusiastically. “You need contrast in pace. If you’re a person who works very fast, and very frantically, why not do something a little slower, like making a stew, or I don’t know, building a boat, or something like that. Contrast is good. Contrast, I think, is demanded at a certain point.” What’s demanded of McKinney in MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBY, interestingly, is being himself. It’s a new experience for someone accustomed to playing characters. “There were some moments of, ‘can I do this? Where are my lines?’ ” he said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. When we saw the first cuts, I had to ask other people what they thought of it. Because I think I’d know a lot more about a comedy sequence, or something that I’d written, or something I was acting in, than I would about, you know, going to meet a synchronized swimming team, and things like that. So I was really happy when the feedback I got from close friends was, ‘yeah, it’s working, it’s working.’ ” As for the overall subject matter, McKinney is well aware that the idea of having hobbies is a fairly new thing, in the context of the history of the human race. “It’s true, in the old days, nobody had weekends, nobody had hobbies – it’s a very luxurious pursuit,” McKinney acknowledged. “But it’s also about diversification. If you’re someone who’s a bit of a workaholic, and you probably have enjoyed your work for decades, and continue to enjoy it, how do you diversify when you’re kind of programmed to just keep going with that first thing? But you’re right, we wouldn’t be thinking about that in the old days, not at all. We’d be thinking about if that bear was going to get in our cabin, or what that spot on our face meant.” Bears and spots aside, the vast array of what can be considered a hobby in the 21st century is mind-boggling. McKinney admitted he was taken aback by the depth of commitment displayed by some of the hobbyists featured in MARK MCKINNEY NEEDS A HOBBY, not to mention the sheer numbers. “It was just like, ‘oh, you really do that?’ And then you’d go to a place, and there’d be 500 people doing it,” he said. But what about collecting things? Is that a different category? “Well, actually, we covered collecting in the show, and visited some people who had started with their amateur collections, which are now overflowing into warehouses and garages and full apartments in Hollywood,” McKinney said. “There’s some incredible, precious stuff, like Sammy Davis, Jr.’s turntable, for example. Collecting goes deep. With collecting, you get a completionist imperative at a certain point. You will drive across the country to get that item, because you must have it. But I would say collecting is a legit hobby. It’s in the family of hobbies, for sure.” Sometimes collecting has consequences, though. Taken to extremes, it can put a strain on even the most solid of relationships. “I asked one collector, ‘hey, what would you do if this incredible collection of yours burned to the ground? Would you start again?’ And they were like, ‘oh, God, no,’ ” McKinney recalled with a laugh. “So the question is sort of, who’s running who? There might have been some relief in the idea that they wouldn’t have all this stuff. But it’s interesting that you honed in on collecting, because that was one of the trickier ones.” Ultimately, the search for hobbies is a craving for community. “Yes, and it’s instant,” McKinney agreed. “Have you ever been behind two people at Starbucks who suddenly discover that they both have fantasy football teams? I think community becomes a hunger. And this is a good time to be talking about hobbies. We’ve finally gotten out of our COVID basements. I think I’m at the zeitgeist with this show.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv