Take One (Dec 2003 - Mar 2004)

Say “Rick” to anyone and the response you get is a patient stare anticipating the rest of your statement. Say “Rick Mercer” and your listener will qualify it without your help. Rick This Hour Has 22 Minutes Mercer. Rick Talking to Americans Mercer. Rick Made in Canada Mercer. Rick “sole civilian recipient of the Canadian Armed Forces Commander Land Force Command commendation for his ongoing public support of Canadian Peacekeepers” Mercer. By God, I think we’ve got another Canadian icon. Quick! Market the sonuvabitch to within an inch of his life. Ah, but this is Canada where predacious marketing never really happens. Besides, in the case of Mercer, it would never happen. The nature of the Mercer beast is that he has the wherewithal to create a niche for his talents (talents which deserve a niche they can call their own). Very Canadian. While none of this is news, what is interesting is that Mercer was introduced to the nation on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, smoothly moved on to reappear in Made in Canada—a show he co-created with producer Gerald Lunz—and after five seasons moved on again without skipping a beat to Rick Mercer's Monday Report, which airs on CBC in January 2004. Mixed in with this he also hosted History ‘Television’s clip show It Seems Like Yesterday and made comedy television history in Canada by creating and co-producing the one-hour CBC special Talking to Americans that attracted 2.7 million viewers across Canada, making it the highest-rated comedy special in the history of the CBC. The timing and pattern of these career changes are a testament to Mercer’s keen understanding of how he needs to format himself successfully. Traditionally, dating back to Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster, Canadian comedy has always been digested in ensemble format. To stand alone, a comic moves south, which might say more about the American inability to pay attention to multiple personalities simultaneously than it does about the Canadian socialist inclination to celebrate groups rather than individuals. Mercer knew about comedy troupes, given this is where executive producer Gerald Lunz found him in the late 1980s, performing with Cory and Wade’s Playhouse. He equates them to bands that evolve as a pack, making their music, moving from stage to recording studio to video. “The dynamic changes when a comedy troupe moves from stage to television, and the Images courtesy of the CBC. 34 DECEMBER 2003 — MARCH 2004 transition isn’t always healthy,” he says. “But 22 Minutes was different. What the public saw as an ensemble was just a group of people who worked together, but didn’t move as a herd socially. I think that was its strength and made the show fun to do. There wasn’t the added pressure of being an ensemble group.” The pleasure of this arrangement was more than happenstance from Mercer's perspective. “I did that intentionally. I didn’t want to be part of a group. From the start I’ve wanted to have a long career and the freedom to do what I want to do.” As evidenced by the careers of the other 22 Minutes members, the benefits went across the board. That said, Mercer does a quiet about-face and mutters that he has always wanted to be in a band. Uh huh. He had his band moment in high school. This fact is often mentioned, but never beyond the “amusing anecdote” reference, which is likely sufficient because the bigger lesson he appears to have learned was not about music but that he is a performer. Hands down. Flat out. Whole hog. Loves it. Is honoured by it. He has the entire respect thing going on for the industry and he takes it beyond blowing sunshine. And, thankfully, he doesn’t even go near the humble pit of the self incrimination routine that reflexively begs listeners to accommodate the conflicted ego. Fact is, he’s pretty clear about straightforward gratitude. “I consider being able to work in this business a real privilege. If you are a writer and you get to write, that’s great. I think it’s a real privilege to be on a set, let alone acting on it.” This January the public will see the next incarnation of Mercer’s talents in a weekly show, airing Monday nights, which will follow him as he travels around the country covering news and current affairs and doing commentary. He is pleased with the notion of the show, except there is a slight squidginess about the name: Rick Mercer’s Monday Report. Recognizing the product identification element here, he erupts into laughter at the lame marketing excuse for settling for something less clever than is his standard.