Rick Mercer Final Report - Softcover

Mercer, Rick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385692498 ISBN 13: 9780385692496

Verlag: Doubleday Canada, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

Canada's pre-eminent satirical commentator brings down the curtain on his hugely successful show in this instant #1 national bestseller.

Rick Mercer startled the nation when in 2017 he announced that the 15th season of Canada’s most-watched and beloved comedy show the Rick Mercer Report would be the last. As this book reminds us, he quit while he was way, way ahead. Final Report includes blisteringly good rants from the final five seasons and some of the very best rants from the show’s early years. And in three brilliant new essays that include a love letter to Parliament Buildings, how Doug Ford became Ontario premier (hint: it had nothing to do with talent) and how he managed not to freak out in the year after the RMR wrapped, Rick, a recipient of a 2019 Governor General’s Performing Arts Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award, reveals himself as a comic writer and entertainer at the very top of his game.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

RICK MERCER co-created and performed on CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes, created and starred in Made in Canada, and created and starred in Talking to Americans, the most-watched comedy special in Canadian television history. He went on to host the hugely successful Rick Mercer Report for 15 seasons. Rick was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2014 for his work with charitable causes and "his ability to inspire and challenge Canadians through humour." He is the co-founder of the Spread the Net campaign. In 2019, he received a Governor General's Performing Arts Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award. He is from Middle Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Pierre Berton: That's How He Rolled

They were called Celebrity Tips—a series of instructional videos starring Canadian icons.

In the early years of the Mercer Report, some of the nation’s most famous people appeared on the show, demonstrating simple, often mundane but crucial skills.

How does one safely boost a car battery? Every Canadian should know how to do that. And who better to teach the nation than the most glamorous woman I have had the privilege of knowing: Ms. Shirley Douglas.

Shirley was thrilled to take part. And so the daughter of Tommy Douglas, the famous actress, activist and member of the Order of Canada, grabbed the booster cables and taught the nation.

It was thirty below, her hair was impeccable and she refused to wear a hat. It should be noted for the record that she needed absolutely no direction when it came to the issue of which cable went where.

When she finished, she said, “While we are here, would you like me to show you how to change a tire?” 

Celebrated novelist Margaret Atwood appeared in a Celebrity Tip to teach Canadians how to stop a hockey puck. I will always remember standing on location, in a hockey rink, with the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, explaining to her that her line about “protecting your five-hole” was an actual thing and not a double entendre.

Geddy Lee, the lead singer of Rush—considered by millions of Canadians and Latin Americans to be the greatest rock and roll band in the history of the world—taught us the importance of toboggan safety.

Yes, thanks to my job, I got to go tobogganing with Geddy Lee in the park by my house. Scratch that off the bucket list.

The problem with the Celebrity Tips, I discovered, was that in order for them to work, the celebrity had to be much more than a celebrity. They had to be an icon. And the thing about icons is that there aren’t a lot of them around. We were running out fast.

And then there was the matter of convincing these people to do something perhaps outside of their comfort zone—NHL enforcer Tie Domi gave tips on how to set a pretty Thanksgiving table. Tie is the kind of guy who is up for anything, but not everyone is quite so self-deprecating.

Ever since the tips began, we had always tossed around the notion of producing one entitled “How to Roll a Joint.” We never put any real thought into the logistics because, for the life of me, I could not think of a single Canadian icon who might be prepared to go on TV and roll a joint.

As I said, Celebrity Tips was an item in the early days of the show, as you can tell from the fact that we were even considering including one on joint rolling. This was before we realized that with our high ratings, we had inadvertently become a family show. We were thrilled when we got the data that showed college students were watching in droves.

And we knew adults were watching too. But when we found out that entire families and small kids were a part of our growing audience, that changed a few things.

We loved the idea that families were watching together, and Gerald and I decided that while we wouldn’t change the show, we would be careful to avoid embarrassing parents or kids while they watched together. That meant no jokes that might lead to conversations like “Mommy, what does autoerotic asphyxiation mean?”

These are the sacrifices we make for prime-time television.

But in the early days, I did find myself saying with regret, “We are never going to find someone famous to go on TV and teach people how to roll a joint.”

It was Gerald who said, “Pierre Berton might.”

I have long since given up figuring out how Gerald knows some of the things that he knows. He has better show business instincts than anyone I have ever met. But in this instance I was pretty sure he had taken leave of his senses.

Pierre Berton was not just an icon, he was an icon’s icon.

He was Canada’s first celebrity author. He wrote important books. A lot of them. I had four feet of them on my shelf. He was the reason I became enamoured with Canadian history. If it weren’t for Pierre Berton and the Heritage Minutes, most of us in Canada would be like goldfish—no idea where we came from or where we were going.

I said with authority, “There is no way Pierre Berton is going to come on the show and roll a joint.”
Gerald said, “Give him a call. I heard that back in the day he liked a puff.”

Remember, while this was no longer “back in the day,” this was still thirteen years before any credible political figure in Canada was actually using the phrase “legalize it.”

The prospect, no matter how slim, of booking Pierre Berton was too tempting. So at the risk of embarrassing myself in an encounter with someone I admired so much, I gave him a call.

Tracking famous people down to ask them a favour involves breaking through the lines of defence—publicists, managers, husbands, wives and protectors. It takes time and patience.

Reaching Pierre Berton was not hard. He was listed in the phone book.

I had remembered reading a profile on him years earlier in which he talked about his days as a columnist for the Toronto Star. For many years he was the most-read opinion columnist in Canada’s largest newspaper. He was often controversial, often cantankerous and wildly opinionated. He wrote the kind of columns that made people angry. And when he wrote something he knew people would complain about, Berton would say, “You don’t like it? Call me. I’m in the book.”

Throughout his entire career this most famous Canadian was reachable by any Canadian who could read or dial 411.

That was a different time. The drummer for Great Big Sea has an unlisted number to this day, and they broke up six years ago.

It was the end of the day and I went downstairs and got in the van. A young man by the name of Nik Sexton was driving. Nik was a new addition to the team. How he came to be with us is a classic Newfoundland tale. I knew Nik’s mother. Gerald knew Nik’s mother. Gerald had worked with Nik’s uncle, the late Tommy Sexton, on the CBC comedy show CODCO. Tommy was one of my comedy idols. I had known Nik since he was five.

Nik had come to Toronto from St. John’s to attend film and TV school. For whatever reason, Nik decided it wasn’t for him and dropped out before the tuition cheque cleared. Nik admitted that he was somewhat embarrassed that he hadn’t stayed in school, and rather than head back to St. John’s he decided he was going to stick around and make it on his own in the big city.

In that classic St. John’s way, Nik’s mother, Mary, said, “I’ll call Rick and Gerald,” which she did. Gerald said, “There is always a place for Nik,” and he came on board. He started as a production assistant. In television this can mean many things, but it is almost always what is politely called an “entry-level position.”

On this day I sat in the van and prepared to contact Pierre Berton. Nik was behind the wheel.

I dialed 411. “A number for Pierre Berton, please. Kleinburg, Ontario.”

Nik said, “Pierre Berton? Dude with the bow ties?”

This is when I knew that Pierre Berton and only Pierre Berton would be perfect for this tip. It was too good. He was a ninety-year-old historian and the nineteen-year-old skateboarder sitting next to me knew who he was.

The robot voice gave me the number and I dialed....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Doubleday Canada
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0385692498
• ISBN 13: 9780385692496
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar