Canadian comedian Dave Thomas says a close call with death in 2020 brought his life into sharper focus.
“I had sepsis and my arms and legs were twice their size. I was in the hospital. I was actually in hospice. And I thought I was basically done,” the "SCTV" actor and writer says in a recent video call from Los Angeles.
“I looked back on my life at that time and I thought, ‘You know what, I’ve got no regrets. I've had a really good run,’” says Thomas, who portrayed one-half of "SCTV"'s fictional patriotic brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie with Rick Moranis.
But after being pumped full of "bags and bags of antibiotics," Thomas pulled through — and found himself thinking differently about the time he had left.
“What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” the 75-year-old recalls thinking.
“How do I put some meaning into this life before I kick the bucket?”
The St. Catharines, Ont.-native found his answer in an unexpected place: Ukraine, a country still under siege as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into its third year.
On Wednesday, Thomas says he will fly to the war-torn country to help create a video campaign for the Ukrainian Freedom Fund, a Kyiv-based U.S.-registered charity run by his American friend Andrew Bain, a retired colonel for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
Bain co-founded the UFF in 2014 to provide what the group's website describes as "non-lethal equipment" to outgunned Ukrainian forces after Russia annexed Crimea. The organization was reactivated in response to Russia's invasion in 2022.
Thomas says the UFF now includes more of a "humanitarian effort" and is working on getting charity status in Canada. He says part of the goal is to raise awareness and drive donations to provide food, clothing and medical supplies to soldiers and civilians, and evacuation support for children and elderly people caught in the crossfire.
Thomas says Bain asked him to participate in order to put a face on the charity and “get the human story” of the war by talking to Ukrainians on the ground.
“I looked at this situation in the Ukraine and I thought, ‘Well, this is terrible. And I should try to help,’” says Thomas, whose credits include 1993's "Coneheads," the 2001 film "Rat Race" and '90s sitcom "Grace Under Fire."
“This might sound corny, but I hope in some small way what I do might help raise money that'll ease suffering and maybe remind people that one person can make a difference if you decide to. You can't make a difference if you don't try.”
Thomas says he will travel to Dnipro, a city close to the front line, where a camera crew will follow him as he speaks to locals at a comedy club.
He says that in conversations with Ukrainians in Canada, he’s learned how vital humour can be — offering a release amid the trauma of war — and he hopes to explore that connection during his visit.
“I want to find out why they're laughing and what they're laughing at,” he says.
“I'm tremendously disadvantaged because I don't speak the language, but I'm going to get in there and try to figure that out. I'm going to go for the human side of this, which will include laughter and the need to laugh when things are really terrible.”
Thomas and Bain co-founded the animation studio Animax in 2001, building a client roster that included Disney and Warner Bros. Among their projects was an animated version of the McKenzie brothers for MTV in 2009.
Bain had been living in Ukraine since the early '90s and purchased an animation studio there, outsourcing work to local artists — a connection that led Thomas to form friendships with several Ukrainian creatives.
Thomas says his four children are all worried about his trip to Ukraine, and he's also been grappling with nerves.
“I don't know what this experience is going to be. I’ve got a lot of apprehension. It's scary on some levels and on other levels it's humbling.”
He says that during his "SCTV" days, he never imagined he'd one day be entering a war zone.
"I guess that's one of those curves that life throws at you. My life is different now," Thomas says.
"I'm not the guy anymore who was doing Bob and Doug McKenzie with Rick. And that was fun. We had a great time doing it, but we're different people now."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2025.
Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press
