Laughter is the best medicine for 64-year-old Island comedian

Margaret Macgillivray is just beginning her comedy career at 64 years old and she is piling up the accolades quickly. The Newfoundland native won The Great Upstreet Joke Off in Charlottetown April 4.

Although she comes from away, Macgillivray has been living on P.E.I. since she was 11 and raised two kids on the Island.

Her whole life Macgillivray has been told she's funny, but didn't know she would end up performing standup comedy.

"I said, 'yeah one of these days I might actually be able to get up on stage,'" Macgillivray said.

But sometimes tragedy forces a person to pursue the things they never thought they could.

Macgillivray's daughter took her own life June 7, 2017.

"She was in a dark place," Macgillivray said.

It was then Macgillivray started thinking seriously about performing comedy and she said she hit the stage six months later.

"It was what I needed to help me through my daughter's death. It really was there for me and I don't think I would have ever gotten through it without it. It's almost laughter through pain."

Comedy helps her with mental health

Macgillivray is a member of the Fitzroy Centre, which provides an environment to help individuals with mental-health challenges achieve a level of confidence that promotes productive and socially satisfying lives.

It was there Macgillivray was approached by a member of the Out of Our Minds Network to join the P.E.I. mental health comedy group.

"I jumped on that because it was something I always wanted to do," Macgillivray said.

Macgillivray's first show was in November of 2017 at The Guild in Charlottetown, and the room was packed, she said.

"I was in my element. It just felt like I had them in the palm of my hands right away. It was just natural to me."

Stage fright didn't hit her until she walked off stage. "I almost passed out," she said.

A lot of the time Macgillivray will start her comedy set with a Newfoundland joke, she sometimes starts with one she used to tell her kids.

"There are two Newfoundlanders and they were going to apply for a job."

The first one went in and took the test and told the other one he would give him the answers, Macgillivray said.

"So the interviewer asks him: 'What would happen if I poked out one of your eyes?' and the first Newfoundlander said: 'Well I'd be half blind.'"

Then the interviewer asks him what would happen if he poked two of his eyes out, Macgillivray said the man answered, "I'd be totally blind."

So, he comes out and tells the other Newfoundlander the answers, "half blind" and "totally blind."

The second man goes in, Macgillivray said and the interviewer asks him "What would happen if I cut one of your ears off?"

The man answered, "I'd be half blind."

When the interviewer asked him what would happen if he cut both his ears off the man said, "I'd be totally blind."

Macgillivray said the interviewer was confused and asked the man how he would be blind without both his ears?

The Newfoundlander replied, "Well it's like this, if you cut off both my ears my hat is going to fall over my eyes and I'm not going to be able to see," Macgillivray said.

Telling the truth

Although she works the room with some Newfoundland jokes Macgillivray gets to the serious stuff.

"Everything that I tell is pretty well all the truth, you know, stories right, but it's true stories that happened to me and I think that's what makes it really funny."

Macgillivray tells stories of when she escaped Unit 9 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital or threatened a woman who annoyed her with a wooden gun replica, Macgillivray said.

And while those incidents were serious at the time, comedy allows her to look back and laugh at those parts of her life. Telling her stories comedically has helped her with her mental health, and she discovered it at the right time Macgillivray said.

"I was going through a rough time and I was able to release, instead of being down and depressed, to release laughter and get that out of me and I was able to address myself in another way."

More P.E.I. news