Mahoning Valley native Jamie Alcroft is no stranger to large audiences and big stages.

As half of the comedy duo Mack & Jamie, Alcroft appeared several times on “The Tonight Show,” starred in a syndicated sketch comedy series and performed at venues and on cruise ships around the world.

He probably won’t get more than a few seconds of screen time during the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day, but that parade float will be one of his most cherished stages.

A SECOND CHANCE

Alcroft is a double organ recipient, and he will be an honoree on the One Legacy float to encourage people to register as organ donors.

He survived a widowmaker heart attack but eventually developed congestive heart failure and spent three months in the hospital waiting for a donor.

He used the time to write the book “The Tin Man Diaries: A Sudden Change of Heart.”

“I was just sitting there for three months and all this funny stuff’s going on around me,” Alcroft said during a telephone interview from his home in southern California. “I couldn’t help but write about it.”

After receiving his new heart and liver and waking up after a medically-induced coma, his doctor warned him there was a chance of internal bleeding or stroke.

“I looked at him and I said, ‘For me or for you?’ That’s just the way I approached the whole thing. I had to have a sense of humor about it. Whoever said laughter is the best medicine has never had a morphine drip, but laughter is a great healer.”

Despite the jokes, Alcroft takes the gifts he received seriously. Earlier this month, he attended the unveiling of the One Legacy float along with other organ recipients and family members of those who had donated organs to them.

“It’s very moving when you see someone standing there with a stethoscope listening to the heart of their son in the chest of a stranger,” he said. “It was probably the most emotional day of my life hearing all those donor families talk about their loved ones and the people they had saved.”

MAHONING VALLEY ROOTS AND A COMEDY CAREER

Alcroft, 76, was born at Northside Hospital and spent the first 12 years of his life in Liberty and Boardman. His father was the golf pro at Squaw Creek Country Club, and his grandfather was golf pro at Youngstown Country Club.

Growing up he rode his bicycle through Mill Creek Park and one of his friends saved him from trumbing into the falls there.

Alcroft’s sister lives in Canfield. He’s still friends with one of his kindergarten classmates from Liberty and some of the kids from West Boardman Elementary School. One of his Los Angeles neighbors is from Canfield. Whenever either of them comes back to the Mahoning Valley for a visit, they bring back Gorant’s candy for the other.

When he was 12, Alcroft’s family relocated to England. His father was working for Commercial Shearing, and he was sent there to open a manufacturing firm. They returned to the U.S. three years later, this time living in New Jersey. Alcroft returned to Ohio to attend Ohio University in Athens.

He was one of those people who always made those around him laugh, but his comedy career happened by chance. After college he went to work on a horse ranch in Colorado. He learned silversmithing while there and opened shops in Silverton, Colorado, and Key West, Florida.

“I got bored when I was in Key West, so I went to the local radio station and said, ‘Hey, I do impressions. I do a lot of voices. I could make your commercials more interesting’ … I started there, and I was the morning guy in Key West on the radio station for two and a half years.

“I got off the air one day, and I had a note waiting for me that said, ‘You must be one of the funniest men in Key West. I’m the other one.’ It was from Mack Dryden. I went over and met him, and we performed comedy as the comedy duo, Mack & Jamie for the next 35 years.”

They toured with such acts as Diana Ross and the Doobie Brothers. With their syndicated show “Comedy Break,” they helped launch the careers of Kevin Pollak and Jan Hooks and featured early TV appearances by such future stars as Ellen Degeneres, Paul Reiser and Sinbad. They made guest appearances on “Solid Gold,” “An Evening at the Improv” and “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in the ’80s and Jay Leno in the ’90s.

“That was a dream come true, very exciting, standing behind that gold curtain before they say your name,” Alcroft said about their first “Tonight Show” appearance. “Then you go out, and you got your one shot. You either do it or you don’t. We did it. They invited us back. And after Johnny retired, we did it one more time with Jay. But doing it with Jay was just hanging out with a friend. The comedian community is very tight, very small. We all know each other.”

In addition to his on-camera work, Alcroft also works as a voice actor, doing characters for such video games as “Gears of War,” “Minecraft” and “Star Wars: The Old Republic” and animated features such as Adam Sandler’s “Eight Crazy Nights.”

LAFFS4LIFE

After his heart and liver transplant, Alcroft wanted to find a way to repay that gift.

“I was frustrated because I thank my donor every day, but he’s dead, and I wanted to thank the people that have made that commitment to save lives when they pass. Nobody was thanking them.”

He found a way through comedy by creating LAFFS4LIFE earlier this year in conjunction with Improv and Levity Live comedy clubs. Registered organ donors can get free admission to select shows by top comedians at 14 clubs nationwide, including the Improv in Pittsburgh. Alonso Bodden, a “Last Comic Standing” winner and a regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me” who also donated a kidney to his brother, regularly does LAFFS4LIFE shows. Craig Shoemaker, who has more than 200 film and television credits, is doing three LAFFS4LIFE shows this weekend at the Pittsburgh Improv.

Alcroft’s work with LAFFS4LIFE, his appearance at the Tournament of Roses Parade and his other efforts all have the same goal.

“Eighteen people a day die in America because the organs they need aren’t available. I want to get that number down to zero. Nobody should die because the organs they need aren’t available … You know, you’re either gonna burn it or bury it. I say, why burn it or bury it when you can recycle?”