Shane McLean

Shane McLean is an award-winning actor and comedian who brings the character of Weird Owl to life.

## Background

Originally from Calgary, AB, Shane was offered admission into Vancouver's prestigious Blind Tiger School of Comedic Arts and spent the next four years achieving his undergraduate diploma in Improvisational Studies.

While in Vancouver, Shane lent his talents to the weekly comedy showcase Little Mountain Improv featuring Shane McLean, performing to sold out houses that described the show as "Vancouver's Best Comedy."

In-between his work managing Vancouver's independent comedy theatre, Little Mountain Gallery, Shane created a cast of unforgettable characters, such as crowd favourite and four-time Fringe Theatre Award Winner, Cabbage Baby. But Shane says his most treasured character remains Weird Owl.

"I like to think that all of my characters are part of a larger whole," Shane mused, through email. "Weird Owl came so naturally to me and felt like he had always been inside of me, all along."

When not behind his artisanally crafted puppet-stand, Shane also delighted audiences with his own parody song performances, such as "Hey, Have you Seen the Wire?" set to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

"I've always been an admirer of Billy's work," Shane laughed, during an email interview. "When the chance came up to collaborate on a project I jumped at it."

Shane said the strength of the song is that you don't need to listen to the original song to enjoy his.

"Though I would recommend you watch the Wire," Shane suggested, through a follow up email.

Now making his home in Toronto, ON, Shane has been auditioning for some of the top talent agencies in Canada and continues to perform across the country at a number of festivals.

## Personal Life

Shane McLean grew up as a son with one brother and a half-sister.

He currently resides in Toronto, Canada where he moved to be with a romantic partner in 2018. McLean ended this relationship in 2019 and, within several months, was involved in a new relationship with Documentary Researcher and Editor Jamie Hurcomb. The pair live in Toronto with their cat, Morty, who was adopted and then flown from Egypt.

In 2022, McLean went on what he described through email as "a well deserved trip to Mexico." In 2023, he emailed to update that he had plans to vacation in Costa Rica but would prefer to travel to Japan, if possible.

McLean has developed his abilities in aerial drone videography and said, through email, that he now considers his skill level to be "intermediary" as of Winter, 2023.

## Filmography

Some of Shane's other work includes Love Me (2013), Home Brewed (2014) and Prisoner 7 (2011).

Shane is perhaps best known for his work opposite the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2016's smash hit Mobile Strike: My Explosions, in which McLean plays a man with the ability to enter a fantasy war zone using only his imagination and phone.

The program has been viewed over 500,000 times on YouTube alone.

Fans can watch the full video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhbeDuSd3RA

## Notable Scenes

Shane's most famous improv scenes include "Return Line What Is It?" where Shane attempts to guide junior improvisors through a series of prompts to correctly identify the item they are pretending to return.

"I love the game because it involves all of my favourite areas of improv," Shane noted, through email. "Audiences will really give it up when we get the item right, like we were all working as a team."

## Characters

Weird Owl, Weird Owl Jr., Weird Owl Sr., Weird Vowel, Weird Trowel, Weird Towel, Weird Bowel, Mister Tiddlywinks.

Shane is also well known for his original character Charles Spookowski, the owner of a discount Halloween Supply Warehouse. Spookowski was reportedly eaten by Weird Owl in 2017, but this hasn't been confirmed.

## Behind the Scenes

Shane originally came up with the idea for the Nega Verse gun. In original drafts of the script, Weird Owl Sr. was set to use a Nega Verse Bomb.

"The bomb seemed too confusing," Shane wrote in a email 2017 interview. "Weird Owl Sr. was also using all the bombs on the audience, I thought it might make people think he was going to send everyone to the Nega Verse."