Chicago’s king of comedy lives on through laughter

CHICAGO (WGN) — He was a king of comedy and one of the most recognizable faces of early 2000s sitcoms. But before he was Mr. 3000 on the big screen, Bernie Mac was Mr. Chicago at heart.

“If he were alive today, he would still be in Chicago,” said Je’Niece McCullough, Mac’s daughter. “He loved Chicago. He would tell anybody that Chicago was the best city in the world.”

This weekend, McCullough sat down with WGN’s Sean Lewis to reflect on her late father on what would have been his 68th birthday.

Born and raised in Chicago, Mac never strayed far from his roots, even as his career took off.

For five seasons, he played the title role in The Bernie Mac Show, a series still beloved by fans today.

“People really believe that they’re real kids,” McCullough said. “I have to tell them that, ‘No, it’s just a joke’ and you can see them deflate in front of your eyes. Like, ‘Wait, those kids aren’t real?’ And I’m like, ‘No, that’s just how good he was at his job. He made y’all believe them kids were real.’”

Behind the laughter, Mac faced serious health challenges. He battled sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease, for years before passing away in 2008 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at just 50 years old.

In 2012, the Englewood street where he grew up was renamed in his honor.

“He had that tough, rough, rugged exterior on the South Side of Chicago in the ’60s and ’70s, but he had a heart of gold,” McCullough said.

For her, his legacy lives on not only in his comedy, but in the joy he gave to others.

“He wanted people to laugh because he truly believed that laughter was healing,” she said. “So, if his stuff lives on forever, generations from now when I and my daughter are gone, and people are still looking back and laughing, that’s what his legacy will be.”

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