On The Mark
Behind the news desk, Mark Critch stands up straight, adjusts his tie and flips through the scripts in front of him. By all accounts, his demeanour is one of a serious news anchor. But, there's a faint twinkle in his eye. And if you look closely, you can see the corners of his mouth turn upward, just slightly.The dramatic, blank stare after the punchline gives it away. It's the kind of look you might expect from Rex Murphy if you were to ask him the most trivial question in the world. It's all in the facial expressions and comedic timing. The audience in front of him erupts into laughter.Of course, Mark isn't really a reporter. He just plays one on TV. At 42 years old, heâs an actor, comedian, writer and star of the CBCâs award-winning news parody, political satire and sketch comedy show âThis Hour Has 22 Minutes,â now in its 24th season. âBut, if I wasnât doing that, Iâd probably do journalism,â says Mark. His father was a prominent radio news director in his hometown of St. Johnâs, Newfoundland, and politics was often a conversation at the dinner table - which isnât surprising, given that Critch is well known for his witty political commentaries and ambush-style interviews with politicians and celebrities. His ability to manoeuvre between the lines of news, comedy and politics is impressive and his knowledge of all fields is extensive.âItâs amazing, the way Mark is able to focus so intellectually on whatâs going on in the world, comment on it, go toe to toe with world leaders and then switch it back the other way, and just come in and be entirely silly and make people laugh,â says Jason Shipley, a floor director on â22 Minutes.â Co-star Meredith MacNeill agrees. âHe just knows it, he knows what to do. His mind is so quick; he works really fast. Iâd say that working with Mark Critch is like working with one of the quickest minds in the world,â says Meredith. Mark always knew what he wanted to do when he grew up. As a child, he was hugely influenced by the comedy show âWonderful Grand Band,â which featured Newfoundland and Labrador entertainment legends like Ron Hynes, Tommy Sexton and Greg Malone.âI didnât want to be on âHappy Days,â I didnât want to be on âThreeâs Company,â I wanted to be on that show. I wanted to write my own stuff, set in Newfoundland, and do it. And thatâs what Iâve been able to do,â he says.At 15, he rented the iconic LSPU Hall in downtown St. Johnâs and would sneak away from school to practice sketch comedy, mostly satirical commentaries on Newfoundland and pop culture. After his first performance, he was hooked. That show ran for seven years, and Mark began to make a name for himself, landing more and more acting and comedy gigs. The CBC approached him, offering him work as a radio commentator and eventually on the evening news hour. Thatâs when Mark really started getting into the political side of comedy.Newfoundland and Labrador has produced some of Canadaâs most well-known political commentators and satirists - Rex Murphy, Rick Mercer and Mary Walsh, to name a few. Since its beginning, the cast of â22 Minutesâ has been mostly made up of Newfoundlanders, something Mark attributes to a political culture within the province that easily lends itself to comedy.âWe joined [Canada] in â49, so that shapes the point of view. Youâre always an outsider, which is great for comedy. Itâs a hard place to live and thereâve been very hard times there and that forms a certain snarky, dark sense of humour because you need that to get through the hard times.âNewfoundlanders talk about politics all the time, thereâs a lot of arguing, and I think that comes from having to give up your nation not all that long ago. People argued about politics in a big way, and I think that kind of stuck,â explains Mark."This Hour Has 22 Minutes" host Mark Critch has been making audiences laugh since he was a teenager. (Courtesy 22 Minutes)When it comes to arguing about politics nowadays, however, the Internet has changed things significantly, and Mark has noticed a shift in the way that people deal with politics and each other.âThe way politics goes online, people are just âI hate you, youâre evil, youâre different,â and itâs getting crazy now. Itâs gone way too far. Thatâs not what politics is,â says Mark.âWith Facebook, itâs all your friends, and algorithms show you things that youâre going to agree with. And thatâs why people are shocked that Donald Trump won, because everything online is showing them that everyone on the planet thinks the way they do. And itâs a lie.âAs far as Mark is concerned, the only way to really understand whatâs going on in the world is to get out there and actually speak to the people you may disagree with.âThe more discourse like that, the more the world becomes a better place because you can start to see maybe some cracks in your own logic, but you also get to see peopleâs reasonings for why they think the way they do,â he says.In that spirit, Mark feels that itâs his duty as a public figure with a large platform to interview politicians from all parties and backgrounds as fairly as he can - fairness in both the amount that he pokes fun at them and in allowing them to respond.âIâm not just ranting at them, they can say something and I have to respond to it, so itâs fair. Weâre both doing it without a net, so itâs an equal contest. When youâre listening to them, when youâre reacting to them, thatâs when the best stuff happens,â says Mark.Mark Critch ribbing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Courtesy 22 Minutes)Mark also feels that itâs his responsibility to air things that some politicians would rather not see made public. He made national headlines back in 2013 when â22 Minutesâ aired a clip of him hauling out a joint in Justin Trudeauâs office, a stunt which Trudeauâs staff requested not to be broadcast. According to Mark, âIf somebody asks you to take something out, you canât, because then you work for them.â Stephen Harper, on the other hand, required that questions be screened prior to an interview, something Mark refused to agree to.For Mark, the political satire on â22 Minutesâ isnât just about making people laugh; itâs a way of engaging the nation with politics on a larger level. Clips on the showâs Facebook page often have millions of views each. According to Mark, more Canadians will tune into â22 Minutesâ on a Tuesday night than The National, which is one of the reasons why so many politicians agree to appear on the show and keep coming back.âIf you have people who are interested in your party or your view, thatâs great,â Mark says. âBut when you get your message to people who donât care at all, or would never care about it in a million years, and you get them to watch it for two minutes, thatâs a pretty powerful tool, and itâs a great agent for change.â - By Stacey Seward
