Outrageous, isn't it, that despite occasional efforts by the likes of the Comic Strip team, it was a foreigner who made a box-office smash of the advanced and relentless crudity of the British sense of humour? As Austin Powers, Saturday Night Live comedian Mike Myers, with his legendary catch-phrases "Oh, beeeHAVE!" and "YEAH, baby!", his crushed velvet suits, hot-babe girlfriends and naughty, naughty knob-gags, has become one of the most recognisable entertainers on the planet. How can this be, wonder the Brits, when Americans have no sense of irony or high-minded silliness?

One could argue that Myers' success proves once and for all that Americans do have a mighty appreciation of irony. Indeed, considering the likes of Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks and Steven Wright, one might add that they often top the Brits in that quarter. Inspired silliness can be their forte, too. Just think of Emo Phillips or the godlike Pee-Wee Herman. But eventually, in the case of Myers, it's a non-argument. Because he's British. Well, kind of...

Mike Myers was born on the 25th of May, 1963, in the Scarborough district of Toronto, known to the snobbier

as Scarberia - a cultural wasteland. His father, Eric, was formerly a cook in the British Army, while his mother, Alice, known as Bunny and formerly in the RAF, was an aspiring actress who'd attended London's Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Both hailing from Liverpool, they married in 1955 and emigrated to Canada the next year, producing three sons - Paul (later in Toronto band The Gravelberrys), Peter and finally Mike, all of them holding British passports. Learning the English language from Eric and Bunny, Mike spoke with a Scouse accent until the age of 6.


Once in Canada, Bunny would give up on the acting to raise her sons and work as a data processor. Eric, meanwhile, would sell the Encyclopaedia Britannica - Mike still wears the ring he received for outstanding service. Throughout his early years, Mike would be immersed in British culture. With his dad, he'd watch Bond movies, The Saint and The Avengers. The folks from back home would send over Beatles boots, clothes and even albums, making Mike the only kid in Toronto to wear an olive-green Nehru jacket and support Liverpool FC.

And there was comedy, too. Eric prized humour above most things and introduced young Mike to the Goons, to Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and to Monty Python. When Mike had friends over to play table-hockey in the basement, Eric would actually refuse entry to any child he considered to not be funny. Indeed, as he grew older, Mike began to rely on Eric as a barometer for his own humour. If dad laughed, it was good. He claims that, despite trying for years, he didn't make "the house" laugh till he was 11. When he finally managed it, it was one of the biggest moments of his life.

A cute kid, Mike was a natural for TV, and began work when aged 8, appearing in many adverts, including spots for Pepsi and Kit-Kat (that most British of chocolate bars). When he was 9, he appeared in an ad for British Columbia Hydro. Playing his mother was Gilda Radner, star of Saturday Night Live, soon to be one of America's most popular shows, and one of Eric's favourites. Mike had a great time on the shoot, and wept when it ended, causing his brothers to refer to him as Sucky Baby from then on. Undeterred, Mike swore that one day he'd appear with Radner on SNL. He would make the show, but sadly in the

roduced young Mike to the Goons, to Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and to Monty Python. When Mike had friends over to play table-hockey in the basement, Eric would actually refuse entry to any child he considered to not be funny. Indeed, as he grew older, Mike began to rely on Eric as a barometer for his own humour. If dad laughed, it was good. He claims that, despite trying for years, he didn't make "the house" laugh till he was 11. When he finally managed it, it was one of the biggest moments of his life.

A cute kid, Mike was a natural for TV, and began work when aged 8, appearing in many adverts, including spots for Pepsi and Kit-Kat (that most British of chocolate bars). When he was 9, he appeared in an ad for British Columbia Hydro. Playing his mother was Gilda Radner, star of Saturday Night Live, soon to be one of America's most popular shows, and one of Eric's favourites. Mike had a great time on the shoot, and wept when it ended, causing his brothers to refer to him as Sucky Baby from then on. Undeterred, Mike swore that one day he'd appear with Radner on SNL. He would make the show, but sadly in the same year that Radner died of cancer.

Attending Stephen Leacock High School, Mike was a fair student, but always interested in entertainment. He took dance lessons and built a series of comic characters, some of which he'd use in later years. At parties, he'd try to make girls laugh by playing one fellow who'd bring him monumental success - Wayne Campbell. He graduated in 1982 and, though he'd applied for a place at Toronto's York University, won a place with the Second City comedy troupe, which he seized upon. The good news had arrived on the day of his final High School exam.

Second City was one of North America's most prestigious comedy groups. It had been formed back in the early Fifties, when a gang of Chicago students, including Mike Nichols and Elaine May, had joined up with a group of townies, including Barbara Harris, Ed Asner and Byrne and Joyce Piven (friends of John and Joan's Cusack family), to form the Playwrights Theatre Club. This went through several incarnations till, in 1959, it settled as Second City - its name a joke concerning Chicago's supposed inferiority to New York. In 1973, a new branch was opened in Toronto, featuring both Dan Aykroyd and Mike's mate Gilda Radner but, without a liquor licence, closed quickly. It re-opened, with a licence and based in an old fire station, in early 1974, this time featuring Radner, John Candy, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara. By 1976, the team were writing for TV, producing specials and their own show, called SCTV, which satirised TV itself, and ran for 7 years. Onboard now was Rick Moranis and, soon after, Martin Short.

With branches in Chicago, Toronto and Detroit, Second City became the nation's premier breeding-ground for comic talent. Besides those mentioned above, Alan Arkin was an alumnus, as were Joan Rivers, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chris Farley and the glorious George Wendt. And it didn't simply give people a chance to perform, it was a serious training centre, providing lessons and lectures in many forms of entertainment, specialising in the encouragement of creative freedom, spontaneity and improvisation being of prime importance.

So, this hot-bed of ingenuity was where Mike Myers received his first formal training, and the screaming success of his predecessors and peers must have given him high hopes for the