New dad reluctant star of reality TV
Leaving home gets harder for oilfield worker
Licence to Drill Louisiana Tuesday, Discovery
It’s the sort of personal, lifealtering twist that producers of reality TV love.
But, for now, this one belongs solely to Edmontonborn Mike Bencz, an oilfield worker and one of the reluctant stars of Discovery Channel’s Licence to Drill. Well, to him and his wife.
For Season 4 of the popular series, the workers have moved from the frozen Alberta oilfields to swampy Louisiana, landing off-season jobs and more than a few lessons in cultural differences as they toil away in the sweltering heat.
But for 29-year-old Bencz, his time in the Bayou state will likely be best remembered as the place where his son was conceived during a visit from his wife in New Orleans.
“We had a really good time there,” says Bencz with a laugh, from his home in Edmonton. “We made a baby there. Vodka and rum.”
Theo is now four weeks old, which certainly adds a significant wrinkle to Bencz’s life above and beyond the work life that has been chronicled for the past few years on Licence to Drill.
The baby’s arrival certainly plays into what has been a significant subtext of the series. Leaving home for weeks at a time becomes even harder, which is something other Licence to Drill regulars and veteran oil workers have long known, including fellow Edmontonian and father-of-five Cody Wilson.
“The hardest part of my job is to leave my wife and leave my family,” says Bencz. “I’ve been doing this for eight years. And it gets harder now that I’ve just had a little boy.”
Bencz has been a part of the series since its second season. But the biggest clue that he is a worker first and TV personality second is that he doesn’t seem to feel any real obligation to sell the series, even while on promotional duties with a reporter.
For one, he hates watching himself on television, although his wife loves it, particularly on those long weeks he is away on the job. And while he hopes to continue on the show, he admits that having a camera crew on a rig is often just plain irritating.
“Most people don’t realize you have a camera that is literally six inches away from your face and you’re trying to do a job, trying to fix something, and you’re not even 100 per cent sure of what it is,” Bencz says. “They’re asking you questions and you’re still trying to figure it out. You don’t want to look like an idiot on television.”
At the time of this interview, Bencz was about to leave for another long and untelevised run on a rig near Brooks. Still, while he shows pride in his work, that doesn’t mean the second-generation oil worker wishes it for his own son.
“Hell no,” he says. “My son will never work the rigs. Nope. There’s no way. It’s not a great lifestyle. I’m always gone. And my wife, Yvette, puts up with a lot. She’s basically a single mom half the time. I’m gone for three weeks a month so it’s a lot on her and a lot on the family. I do not want him to do it. I want him to get an education and go to school.”