Colin Mochrie.Kevin Van Paassen
Colin Mochrie is Canada's King of Improv - best known from his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? - and he has just received the top honour for his work, the 2010 ACTRA Award of Excellence.
He has also appeared in more than 50 film and TV shows and has won numerous other awards including two Geminis, two Canadian Comedy Awards and a Writer's Guild of Canada Award.
The quick-witted master of improvisation is fast on his feet, but on the road his pace is slower, especially when driving his 2005 Subaru Legacy sedan.
"I know nothing about cars.
"I came into driving quite late in my life. I got my driver's licence the day my son was born 19 years ago in Los Angeles so I was never really a car guy," says the 53-year-old, who will star in the Canadian Stage Company's production of 'Art,' which runs from March 15 to April 10 at the Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto.
"When I moved to L.A., my wife was seven months pregnant so I thought it would take the pressure off her having to drive everywhere if I actually learned how to do it."
But that task was pretty daunting. "It was a little nerve-racking on my first lesson; I was on the L.A. freeway going, 'This is wrong! I should have worked my way up to this.'
"My driver's test was basically pulling out of the parking lot and turning left - it was a three-minute test, which didn't fill me with a lot of confidence going out on the road with those drivers."
"I had gone to the hospital and my son was born. And then I had to drive illegally to my test. I drove back to the hospital and took them home. Thank God it was only a three-minute test. I had an angel watching over me."
Mochrie was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and has lived in Montreal, Vancouver and Los Angeles - he now calls Toronto home.
"When we moved back to Toronto, the first car we had was a Subaru. We just liked the way it drove.
"I'm also really lazy and bad at keeping up with things - they call you every couple of months when you're due for a checkup. For a lazy person, it was the best choice."
"It says I'm a simple man who knows what he likes and goes with it. It's no-fuss. It's the perfect car for a lazy, low-maintenance man," he says.
Mochrie bought his first car in Vancouver before he could drive. "It was a '64 Volkswagen. I got it for $400. You could actually see the road through the floor.
"My girlfriend at the time tried to teach me how to drive it. That's probably the main reason I didn't get my wife to teach me how to drive. You don't want to put any strain on your seven-month pregnant wife," says Mochrie, who is married to actress Debra McGrath and is writing a stage play with her.
He got a few driving lessons for work, too. "I got cast in a pilot where I had a small part and I had to drive a car … It was standard. It was hell!" he laughs.
"So I got a friend of mine to give me a quick standard driving lesson. The shooting went fine except there were a couple of moments where the car leaps," he reminisces.
Mochrie had his first accident in a rental car in France. "There was a strange intersection that wasn't really clearly marked. As I went through someone plowed into me and it was the only person we met in France who didn't speak English. …
"When I returned the car, the person said, 'any problems?' I said there was a bit of an accident. He just did a little shrug - that was it. It was such a French moment," says Mochrie, whose charitable work includes being an ambassador for Lupus Canada and work for Oolagen, a youth mental health group in Toronto.
That's not the only brush Mochrie has had with the law. "My son was going to Wonderland - I told him I'd drive him. I was picking up his friend. Somehow I missed a stop sign in his friend's neighbourhood.
"As I pulled up to his friend's house, I noticed there was this police car behind me … Then I realized I'd left the house without my wallet and my registration!"
But he didn't get a ticket. "Thank God she knew who I was and she let me go.
"It makes me feel guilty - although I never go as far as to say just give me the ticket because I deserve it. I trade on whatever minor celebrity I have," says Mochrie, who tours regularly across North America with co-star from Whose Line Is It Anyway? , Brad Sherwood, on a live improv show.
One of his most memorable drives was taking his son to the airport to attend school in New York, "thinking this could be the last time I drive him anywhere.
"It was the beginning of our empty-nest years. It was an emotional drive; it was bittersweet - seeing him leave us and excited about what he was going to do.
"We knew it was a major milestone in our life. My wife likes to call those moments merry-go-sorry - where you're on the verge of tears and laughter at the same time."
Mochrie is addicted to Subarus. His previous vehicle was also a Legacy. "We're very loyal. Once we find something we like, we stick with it.
"I'm not a modern guy. I don't move along with technology. When I get comfortable with something I think this is it. I don't need GPS and all that stuff."
But he would take a little sports car like a Mazda MX-5 Miata in a heart beat. "It sounds like something a 53-year-old man would say.
"A convertible is nice. Although I don't have the hair to wave in the wind any more, I think it's still a cool look."
pgentile@globeandmail.com