October 5, 2003

The cars in John McGivern’s old neighborhood bring back as many memories as the people. Both are comically intertwined in the successful actor-comedian’s stories about growing up on Milwaukee’s Polish-Jewish-Irish-German-Italian East Side, near St. Peter & Paul Church.

A new car - even a new used car - was a neighborhood event, McGivern recalls. “My dad worked for American Motors. Everyone in the neighborhood had a Rambler,” he says. Back in those pre-seat belt days, attitudes towards child safety were a little more lax. “We had a white Rambler American when I was growing up. It seated five, but we fit in six kids,” he says, with children stuffed in the back seat or tucked between his parents.

Funnyman McGivern (who now drives a Hyundai) is perhaps best known for his role as a gay hairstylist in the hit comedy-mystery, “Shear Madness,” which enjoyed two long runs at the Marcus Center. He has performed in theater productions all over the country, appeared in the movie “The Princess Diaries,” is a regular guest on the “Dave and Carole” morning show on WKLH, and has performed in several one-man shows.  

McGivern, who lives in Milwaukee, travels widely for performances. He is close to his family, and his growing up years provide comic inspiration for many monologues. “My dad was a car head,” says McGivern. “He really liked his cars…always tinkering with them.”

As McGivern grew older, his dad expanded the family’s automotive horizons beyond the Rambler. He bought a Dodge Charger with four bucket seats, McGivern recalls. His mother’s reaction: “You’re an idiot. We have six kids!” His father also got into Thunderbirds, McGivern says, particularly the 1968 Thunderbird – “the one with those suicide doors that opened the wrong way.”

When his father died, he left three vintage T-Birds, which the family sold. Now, says McGivern, “I wish I’d had a clue.” McGivern eventually inherited some of his dad’s love and knowledge of card, so it could be said that he’s a car guy. Well, sort of. “I can drive down the street and identify what everyone is driving.” He also knows how to maintain a car and could even change his own oil – but does he? “Not when I can pay somebody to do it,” he says with a laugh.

Comfort and reliability are two characteristics he wants in a car. Right now, he owns a Hyundai Santa Fe after driving Toyotas “forever.” “They offered me a choice of colors – pewter or Himalaya,” he says, quipping that the same people who name nail polish colors must also name car colors. “Budget (car rental) kept giving me Hyundais and I found them really comfortable,” he says, so he bought his own a year ago.

He’s into long-term relationships with his cars. “I become really fond of them…like a partner.” He drove one his Toyotas 287,000 miles and then gave it to his niece, who recently took it off to college. “It was a funny feeling…’Oh, there goes my car…it’s so grown up.” Another Toyota, a Corolla, was part of his life for 190,000 miles.

One other thing: his cars are always clean. “My dad always kept his cars incredibly clean. I have some anal retentiveness about keeping a car neat. When I walk by somebody’s messy car, I have to keep myself from asking, ‘Would you mind if I clean this up?”