TORONTO — Canadian standup comedian and broadcaster Mike Bullard has died, his family confirmed Sunday.
Bullard’s half-brother, musician Chuck Jackson, confirmed to The Canadian Press that Bullard’s family learned of his passing on Friday.
Jackson says the coroner is investigating and the exact cause of death remains unknown for now, but Bullard, 67, did have health problems.
A friend found him at a residence where he was staying and the body was being held by authorities, Jackson says. The coroner is expected to confirm a cause of death later this week.
Jackson said no funeral arrangements have been made, but a celebration of life will be held down the road when family from abroad are able to gather, but for now the family is asking to grieve in private.
A longtime standup comedian, Bullard hosted two late-night talk shows — “Open Mike with Mike Bullard” which ran between 1997 and 2003 on CTV and “The Mike Bullard Show” which ran briefly on Global between 2003 and 2004.
He won two Gemini awards for the CTV show.
Mark Breslin, co-founder of the Yuk Yuk’s comedy club chain, said they were still booking Bullard everywhere on a weekly basis.
“I met Mike — I can’t tell you what year it was — but right away he had an ambition, and he told this to me, to be a talk-show host in Canada,” Breslin recalled in an interview Sunday. As such, Bullard often asked him to give him as many MC slots as possible.
“That’s interesting because most comics want the headliner spots, but Mike wanted the MC spots because he knew that was the best way to train to be a talk-show host.”
Bullard also worked on radio as host of “Beyond the Mic with Mike Bullard” between 2010 and 2016 on CFRB in Toronto, but lost that show after being accused of making harassing calls to an ex-girlfriend.
In June 2018, Bullard pleaded guilty to a charge of harassing communications to the victim, Toronto TV journalist Cynthia Mulligan, as well as breaching court orders. He was given a conditional discharge.
He was still doing comedy, Breslin said. He remembered Bullard one of the most incredible hosts and MCs he’s ever seen.
“He was very generous with his time and concern for other comics: he always had time to tell them what he thought they were doing right and maybe even critique what they were doing wrong,” Breslin said. “He also thought big — which is maybe not a Canadian trait — and wanted to stay in the country and found that thinking big and staying in the country sometimes are mutually exclusive in Canada.”
Recently, he travelled to Ukraine in November 2022 to do humanitarian work, raising money and delivering supplies, often near the front line. He returned to Canada in February 2023.
“On some idealistic level, Mike wanted to go,” Breslin said of Bullard’s travels through the war-torn country, sending dispatches home.
“He’s not Ukrainian, but he felt strongly about it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2024.
— By Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal.
