THEATRE PEOPLE: Jesse Lipscombe running race
Jesse Lipscombe is perfect for the Citadel Theatre’s latest madcap adventure – two political comedies running simultaneously in two different theatres inside the building, one in the Maclab, one in The Club on the third floor, with the same characters played by the same actors – who have to literally run up and down the stairs between scenes.
Lipscombe is an actor and an athlete. The former high jumping champion and grandson of Edmonton football legend Rollie Miles stars in Kat Sandler’s dueling productions of The Candidate (about a political scandal running up to an election – timely!) and The Party (an immersive play where audience members attend a political fund-raising party). They open Saturday.
Lipscombe’s biggest live theatre gig to date also falls in line with his driving ambition. His personal schedule boggles the mind. In addition to acting (he’s been in 35 films, including one with Sidney Poitier, and another with Alan Thicke), Lipscombe runs a production company, a fitness company, and does motivational speaking gigs (mainly due to his notoriety from the #MakeItAwkward anti-racist campaign, which started when Lipscombe was called the n-word by two white guys in a car while he was making a film to promote Edmonton’s downtown; guess they didn’t notice the video camera – here’s the story).
Between paid work, Lipscombe plays in at least two amateur sports leagues a week. Plus poker once a week, and that can pay, too. All this on top of raising a toddler with his wife Julia Lipscombe, who’s the director of CBC’s Radio Active; and then shared custody of Jesse’s two older boys, 11 and 9, that he had with his ex-wife Shannon Tyler, who’s the midday host on UP! 99.3 FM. They all get along, and often get together like one big happy co-parenting media family.
“It takes a big blended giant village to raise these kids,” Jesse says, in a recent interview via Bluetooth in his car driving to grab lunch before a business meeting in the break between rehearsals at the Citadel.
On being busy, “Busy sounds bad,” Jesse says. “I’m happy to be busy. I’m a professional passion follower.”
It was sports, he says, that helped give him the discipline to work hard at what he loves.
“I traveled the world and became one of the best high jumpers on the planet,” he says. “It gave me the idea that I can do anything I want. Anything I love and have an interest in, it seems weird to not put all my effort into it to make it work. You put the work in, and it pays off. It’s not a hobby – it’s my job.”
But dude – aren’t you tired?
“I’m tired all the time,” the 38-year-old actor says. “There’s only so many hours in the day. But I’ve kind of become addicted to this level of exhaustion. It’s fruitful to me.”
The Candidate and The Party both run March 30-April 21.
