It's a Wrap
He's experienced zero gravity with the Canadian Space Agency, flown in the back of a fighter jet, developed friendships with the likes of Jann Arden and Chris Hadfield, and threw his childhood hero, Paralympian Rick Hansen, off a bridge.Rick Mercer has travelled from one end of the country to the other and up to the High Arctic on a quest to bring Canadians closer together in his hit CBC TV shÂÂow, âRick Mercer Report.â âIâve been all over the country and thatâs always been a passion of mine. I have always wanted to travel the country and Iâve been able to do it through work, non-stop for 15 years. Thatâs something that I wouldnât change for anything in the world,â he says. But this month heâll file his last report for the show. Last September, Rick announced this would be the 15th and final season, a decision he didnât make lightly.In the early days he says he used to worry about running out of Canadian adventures to embark on, until he came to the conclusion heâd never run out. âWhen you start a show you hope to get through a year or two and then, you know, you dream of hitting five or six years, but thatâs basically the lifespan of a TV show.âWhile the ratings are still high and Rick still loves his job, he decided it was time to try something new. âAnd I always admired shows that ended on their own terms, and thatâs a pretty rare thing in show business. Shows generally get cancelled,â he confides. âThe creators donât generally stop doing it.â A Mandate to Celebrate The âRick Mercer Reportâ is a beloved staple of Canadian television and it was a show that could only work here. A number of years ago the show won a Rose dâOr award for best comedy. Afterwards, people from all over were interested in buying the format rights to replicate its winning formula to launch a German, Italian or Australian version of the âRick Mercer Report.ââBut when they looked at the show, none of them could figure out why anyone would create a show like that. I mean, one week my guest could be the Prime Minister of Canada, another week itâs an oyster fisherman, another week itâs a guy sheep farming off the coast of Newfoundlandâ¦another week itâs a rock star. People couldnât figure that out.âThey were like, âWell, whoâs going to tune into this show? People who want to see rock stars or people who want to see, you know, sheep farmers?â And then there was an adventure tourism travel component to it. And that didnât seem to make sense to them. And then there was a sketch element and then there was a political element, and it was all in one show.âHe laughs, recalling the foreign producers all determined it wouldnât work in their home countries. âBut it kept working in Canada because I think, at the end of the day, the show celebrates; thatâs what it does. Its mandate is to celebrate. If I visit Ferryland, itâs because itâs the greatest place on earth. And if I go out with an oyster fisherman, itâs because itâs a fascinating job. And if Iâm there, Iâm celebrating.âTypically, a comedianâs instinct is to tear others down, but that was never Rickâs approach. âAnd over the years Iâve gotten tremendous access because I think people trust me and they know that if Iâm there, Iâm there to celebrate them.âHe calls the show âunapologetically Canadian,â which people responded to. âEverything about our show is Canadian, right down to the music,â he says. âAnd I think people find it fascinating to see other parts of the country. Travel in this country is often prohibitive for most people; itâs a big country, itâs really expensive to do. So I think they like looking into these windows that I put on the show every single week.â Viewers tuned in to catch a glimpse into a world completely unlike their own, perhaps that of a Ferryland sheep farmer. âAnd I think thatâs what theyâll remember the most.âRick alongside astronaut Chris Hadfield at the 2011 Windsor International Air Show (Michal Grajewski, Mercer Report photo)Ranting Like RickOne of the most iconic images of Rick is of him looking right into the camera, engaging viewers as he launches into a rant like no other, stalking the graffiti-plastered back alleys of Toronto.Ranting has taken on a life of its own beyond the TV show. Laughing, Rick says heâs actually putting together a ranting guide for schools because itâs become part of the curriculum across the country. Creating a rant can teach young people how to research a subject, write succinctly and structure an argument, while enhancing public speaking skills.âI could spend all day, every day answering letters from teachers who are running rant programs in the school,â he chuckles. âAnd I love it, I absolutely love that thatâs happening. And being able to rant and do it on national television is certainly a privilege that Iâve felt very grateful to experience because I think there are a lot of ranters, certainly in Newfoundland thereâs a hell of a lot of ranters. Itâs just I get to do it on television.âThereâs something cathartic about ranting, too. âYou donât want to keep things bottled up too much. The thing about a rant is it can be anything. I mean I tend to rant about things I find absurd or sometimes I rant about things that make me angry, and sometimes I just rant about things that make me happy,â says Rick. He canât name a favourite rant, though a few do mean something special to him. When Gord Downie passed away last year, Rick thought a lot about his longtime friend. âIt didnât cross my mind to rant about Gord, didnât seem appropriate,â says Rick. But one day he was in the office and ended up telling a story about Gord getting in touch with Rickâs father because Gord wanted to know how to properly pronounce the name of a town in Newfoundland and Labrador. It led to Gord developing a friendship with Rickâs father. âI thought it told a story about Gord, that spoke to the nature of the man in ways that maybe hadnât been said before. So I told that story in the form of a rant, and I was very pleased with that,â says Rick.Primarily, a rant has to come from a place of passion, says Rick. âYou canât fake it and Iâve never, ever faked it. And sometimes thereâs subject matters that I think I should rant about, but I just canât do itâ¦It has to be something that youâre sincere about,â he says.âThey truly are, you know, opinion pieces. Itâs the one aspect of the show that I have always written, 100 per cent on my own. Because it is opinion and you canât have an opinion by committee.âRick says heâs been privileged to use this platform as a way to reach out to the audience about stories not in the news or not being talked about. For instance, he has a veteran friend who lost both his legs - and every year he has to go to Veterans Affairs and prove he still has no legs in order to keep receiving his benefits. âAnd I ended up ranting about that and, you know, there was some progress - not great progress, but there was some progress made on that file because of the rant, and thatâs a pretty good feeling if you can create a conversation.âWith the âRick Mercer Reportâ about to go off the air, Rick says heâll still have plenty of opportunities to reach audiences. âTimes have changed so much. I mean if I want to rant about something, I can just turn on my phone and rant about it,â he says.Rick with longtime friend Jann Arden at the top of Toronto's CN Tower (Mercer Report photo)The Road to SuccessGrowing up in St. Johnâs, Rick had plenty of homegrown comedians to look up to. On television he watched acts like the Wonderful Grand Band and CODCO, who taught him that it was possible to make a living in comedy, âAnd so it didnât seem [a] completely farfetched notion, I knew at least there was a handful of people doing it. So it was possible.âPrior to launching the âRick Mercer Report,â he was part of the team that formed another long-running CBC TV show, âThis Hour Has 22 Minutesâ (now in itâs 25th year and still going strong). âI think that one of the critical elements of the success of âThis Hour Has 22 Minutes,â especially in the beginning, was the fact that the show was driven by four people from Newfoundland. It was four Newfoundland voices, and I think that has always played a big part in the success of the show.âLike many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, Rick moved to the mainland to make a living and now resides in Toronto, but he still keeps close ties to home. âI have a cabin in Newfoundland and my parents are in Newfoundland, and Iâve only ever thought of Newfoundland as home,â he says, breaking off into laughter. âYou know, wherever Iâm living, Iâm living there because thatâs where my job is. So I honestly canât say what the future holds, but Iâm certainly going to spend a lot more time in Newfoundland.âThe last episode of the âRick Mercer Reportâ airs this month, but heâs certainly not looking to retire, saying people in show business never really call it quits. âYou know Christopher Plummer just got an Oscar nomination, heâs still working, God love âim. You know Gordon Pinsent; any time I bump into Gordon Pinsent, heâs talking about what heâs doing next at his next job, and I donât think that will ever change.âHe does have a few live shows booked, but he expects to have more downtime than before. âThe TV show is absolutely all encompassing, I mean itâs nothing to go like 20, 21 days at a time without half a day off...So when the show is in production itâs just go-go-go-go-go and thatâs certainly going to be a big change in my life, but Iâm looking forward to that,â Rick admits.âAnd as much as Iâve enjoyed every single, pretty much every single adventure that Iâve ever gone on, Iâm getting to a point in my life where Iâm a little less eager to jump out of a plane or throw myself off the side of a cliff.â - By Elizabeth Whitten
