Michael Mackie is Des Moines-born, world-travelled and impeccably well-connected.
The Kansas City-based entertainment and travel reporter, who has interviewed celebrities from Tommy Lee Jones (his worst experience) to Jennifer Lopez, and became “at least chummy” with a few along the way, found his life’s work as many do: When opportunity knocked, he answered.
Opportunity, for Mackie, was named Jo Anne Worley. The 1960s comedian/actress/singer was due for an interview at KCCI in Des Moines in 1992, where Mackie had been freshly hired after a broadcast journalism education (with minors in French and acting) at the University of Iowa. The assignment editor had forgotten about Worley’s visit, Mackie told the Register.
The editor scanned the newsroom for a willing interviewer like a high school teacher desperate for a raised hand. Or maybe it was worse than that.
“It was like cockroaches when you turn the lights on,” Mackie said. “Like, reporters ran out of the newsroom. Nobody wanted to do features.”
Mackie had been obsessed with TV since he learned to turn one on. He knew Worley well as a television staple. He volunteered.
The resulting interview, horrible by Mackie’s recollection, christened the first chapter — “Jo Anne Worley Popped My Cherry” — of Mackie’s memoir.
“You Have Four Minutes: My Life As An Unlikely Celebrity Interviewer” was published last year with an audiobook scheduled for a Sept. 9 release. The book traces Mackie’s 34-year career interviewing celebrities, along with reflections on the life he’s lived off camera.
“It’s a chronological slice of life for me,” Mackie said. “Because there’s a lot of personal stuff in there. Like, I survived a stroke that almost took me out 16 years ago. I’ve been in recovery from alcohol for 10 years this year.”
After Worley, Mackie interviewed B- and C-list stars from the 70s and 80s before moving to Kansas City, where he has lived since. He’s worked for a bevy of news stations and websites, and he even co-hosted a Kansas City PBS travel show in 2024 — for one episode. Still, the resulting cachet was enough to entice a publisher to distribute his memoir.
Sometime after his interview with the famously curmudgeonly Jones to promote the 2000 war legal drama “Rules of Engagement,” he landed chats with Cameron Diaz and, “a week later,” he recalls, Jennifer Lopez. The rest of that year was filled with A-listers.
Along the way, he befriended the rock frontwoman of the B-52s, Cindy Wilson (“The one who goes ‘Tiiiin roof. Rusted!’” Mackie sang in a lively falsetto.) She wrote the forward for his book.
The writer, blogger and part-time fitness instructor still marvels at how his “stalwart engineer” father and “no-nonsense accountant” mother birthed someone so thoroughly right-brained.
He chalks it up to a record his father used to play for him in the mornings, starting on his first day of kindergarten. “Word of the Day,” it was called. With a precocious vocabulary absorbed over breakfast cereal, Mackie gained the tools to write.
One word he remembers learning from the time? Loquacious. Go figure.
Israel Schuman covers retailing and jobs for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at ieschuman@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Michael Mackie shares journey from KCCI to interviewing A-listers
Reporting by Israel Schuman, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Israel Schuman, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
