5 minute read
The Next Chapter with John McGivern
Chapter One – The Early Years
Network Health Medicare member John McGivern grew up in an Irish Catholic family on the east side of Milwaukee. From a young age, John knew he was different from his brothers.
“I have two older brothers and a younger brother. Sports were important in my family, so all three of my brothers were sports lovers, but I wasn't,” John said.
That didn’t stop his parents from trying, though. “They put me in little league and basketball, assuming I was a late bloomer and would catch up to my brothers, which I never did,” John continued. “I was the boy who couldn’t throw a ball, which in my generation, and as part of a large Irish Catholic family, must mean that I have a calling to be a priest. So, my parents sent me to St. Lawrence Seminary in Mount Calvary for high school.”
While he was in high school, John realized he was gay. “I came out to my family once I left seminary, and none of them were surprised. They’d known me my whole life, so they probably knew before I did,” John said with a laugh.
After high school, John went to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for two years then returned to St. Lawrence Seminary for another three and a half years. He left seminary to move with his brother to Florida, where he started studying theatre. Once he graduated, John took a job at The Academy Theatre in Atlanta as a directing intern. While working there, he learned he wasn’t very good at directing, but he was a decent actor, so he launched his acting career.
Chapter Two – The Start of Something Great
In 1993, John had enough of the constant auditioning and rejection of acting, so he decided to try something new. He wrote a show about growing up in Milwaukee in the 1960s, called Midwest Side Story. His family and friends attended the premiere of the show in Chicago.
“After the show, so many people said, ‘Tonight we
witnessed the start of something great,’” John said. And, they were right. Three weeks later, he had offers from Comedy Central and HBO to do work for them. At 38 years old, John had found his calling.
In 1994, John performed in Comedy Central’s special, Out There 2, which included stand-up and sketch comedy performances by LGBTQIA+ comedians. Dave Luczak, host of the morning radio show on Milwaukee-based station, WKLH, watched the special with his wife.
“I often credit Dave for my success in this market, because when he saw the special and heard me talk about being from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he found my agent, found me and asked me to be on his show,” John said. Since then, John has been a feature on Dave’s show every couple of weeks. They do a segment together called Topics, where John brings a list of things to talk about and Dave weaves them into his morning talk show.
Dave said he looked me up because my stories felt like home to him. And that’s something I get a lot.
“I’ll do shows around the country and all over the state and people say to me, ‘It was a different street or different name, but the feeling around what you talked about was the exactly same,’’’ John said. “I’ve found that talking about family and real life aren’t neighborhood-specific or Milwaukee-specific or even generation-specific. They’re universal human experiences that we all share.”
Chapter Three –A Flourishing Career
Once John started writing his own material using his experiences, his career took off. He began doing live one-man shows around the country, where he would talk about growing up in Milwaukee. The topics of these shows varied from holidays to nightly bedtime routines, but they always got the audience laughing and reminiscing about their own childhoods.
From 2012-2019, John hosted Around the Corner with John McGivern, which won him five regional Emmys. Each season had 13 episodes where John would travel to different Wisconsin cities and talk to locals to learn about life in that community. To the dismay of many, the show was canceled in 2020 due to economic reasons related to the coronavirus pandemic.
John’s fans are happy to learn that he’ll be returning to TV. His new show, John McGivern’s Main Streets will air in January of 2022. It has a similar premise to Around the Corner with John McGivern, where he’ll visit different Midwest neighborhoods and talk with residents to learn about life in that community. To learn more about this new show, visit mainstreets.tv.
While producing his TV shows, John still finds time to perform his one-man comedy shows. He also gets a lot of requests for corporate work, doing things like performing for company corporate retreats and teachers at schools. John plans to continue working for as long as he can. “I’ll perform as long as people are still watching my TV show and coming to my in-person shows,” John said.
Chapter Four –The Next Chapter
In 2019, John was 64 years old and reaching Medicare eligibility. “I was excited about turning 65 and joining Medicare. I was paying so much for my health insurance that I knew Medicare would be a relief financially,” John said.
Like many people aging into Medicare, John received a lot of solicitations from health insurance companies. “Each company said, ‘I’m the one you should choose.’ It got very confusing for me. I didn’t know anything about Medicare, and I didn’t know where to start,” John said.
Luckily, John’s brother-in-law is eight months older than him, so he had to navigate the Medicare system first. John tapped into his brother-in-law as a resource to start his Medicare journey.
He found a broker and told me I needed to talk to him. So, when I met with [the broker] Ken, he sat me down and talked to me like I was in third grade. He had big, beautiful, color charts that explained everything so well. Everybody needs someone like Ken in their life.
My experience with Network Health has been remarkable. I called, and a person answered the phone. I didn’t have to push a whole bunch of buttons or wait on hold to talk to someone. And, the person that I talked to at Network Health, called me back. It was the same person. I couldn’t believe it.
During their meeting, Ken asked John about his medications and his lifestyle—how physically active and healthy he was. “Eventually, we talked about the companies that offer Medicare insurance. When he [Ken] mentioned that Network Health is Wisconsinbased, I knew I had to pick this company. It made so much sense to me because my whole life has been about getting back to Wisconsin. Now, I have a job and TV show that celebrate Wisconsin. And there’s this Medicare plan that’s Wisconsin-based. It was a no brainer for me,” John said.
