April 24, 2024 • 28 mins
The idea was to talk with him about his upcoming cross-Canada jaunt with singer/songwriter Jann Arden. But I had to find out the origin story of this upcoming adventure called the “Will they or won’t they tour”. It launches April 27th in Kitchener before coming to Halifax on the 29th, Moncton on the 30th and St. Johns on May 2nd. Rick Mercer shares what it’s like dividing his time between Newfoundland and Toronto and what to expect when he takes the stage with his friend Jann.
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Episode Transcript
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Well, this bio says Rick Mercer, Canadian comedian, television personality, political
satirist and author, best known forhis work on the CBC television comedy show
This Hour's twenty two minutes of coursemade in Canada and Rick Mercer report and
he's an author. He is aboutto embark on a tour they will they
or won't they tour with Jan ArdenAnd I have to say, it's been
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a while, it's been a minute. As the kids say, Rick Mercer,
it's so nice to speak with you. How are things today? For
Rick Mercer? Things are pretty good. I can't complain. I'm in Newfoundland.
I managed to get an extended stayinline this trip home, and you
know, did some work at myfolks place, and yesterday in the pouring
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rain, was loading a trailer tothe dump, but it was cathartic.
It's done. It's good. Well. I was going to ask, I
know you had a Toronto area cellphone number, an Ontario cell phone,
and you said new Time and Ithought, well, maybe he's such a
Newfoundland nationalist. That's part of hisplan to always give his times in Newfoundland
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time zones. All the clocks inmy house completely different times. Up.
No, I'm pretty much. I'mclose to fifty to fifty now between Newfoundland
and Toronto. You know, whenthe Mercery Report wrapped up, it was
a big adjustment for a whole bunchof reasons, but the main one was
I no longer had to go toan office, and any kind of concern
I had about whether I made theright decision to shut the show down or
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not was quickly eclipsed by the pandemic. And I was very fortunate I had
a cabinet Newfoudland that I could gohie to. And then I wrote a
book and it was a memoir.And I had been resisting the suggestion that
I write a memoir, and itwas easy to resist because I had work.
And then suddenly, like so manyother people, I was thrown out
of work. There was no work. So I wrote the book, and
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I discovered I really like the bookwriting business. I've since written another one,
and I don't need to be anoffice every day like I did when
I had the TV show, Andmy office is my shed where I wrote
two books. So I don't knowwhere I am. I'm a nomad currently
a nomad, and so much ofthe conversation has been about the pandemic and
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what we did to survive. Andas you say, you wrote a book.
And it's not a surprise to methat I went back. And never
mind that Wikipedia gets things wrong,but you're in the Canadian Encyclopedia and it
has all of this information about theawards and the accomplishments. And there are
two sentences in the section that sayspersonal life, just two sections. You
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have been very guarded about your privatelife. You've kept it private and for
Canadian celebrity, I have to giveyou full kudos for that, and it
had to be on purpose, ithad to be conscient. How have you
been able to avoid talking about yourpersonal life for so many years? Certainly,
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I mean it's a tricky one becausecertainly I am a private person and
I don't like talking about my personallife per se. That said, you
know, I'm a gay man.I have always you know, you know,
I don't mind talking about being agay man. I felt it was
important that if you're a gay personand you're visible for whatever reason, you
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work in the media, or you'rea cop or whatever that you do,
whatever it is, that so youcan be visible, because I think it's
just it's the right thing to do, especially for younger generations and all that
business. But that's said, asmuch as I believe that I found it
and nothing to do with sexuality,I just found it not in my comfort
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zone to talk about my personal life. In fact, I've done probably thousands
of interviews over the years promoting differentthings that I've done. And occasionally you
could be working with a publicist andsay you're promoting a book or something and
they say, oh, there's thiscolumn that's very popular and they would like
to interview you about your book,but the gist of the column is your
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favorite room in your house, andthat would be like, oh, my
god, you mean that someone's comingin the house. No, or even
you could ask me anything in thisinterview, but if you ask me,
so, what kind of curry you'redriving these days, I'd be like,
well, that's a very personal question. I don't know if I want to
go there. So it's just alwaysbeen me. So it was a big
learning curve to write memoir, andlike I said, I really had no
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other choice because there was nothing elseto do. To write about my personal
life was a big learning curve,and being on the road with Jan arden
is also a learning curve because Ihave no idea what she's going to ask
me or say out there, orwhere she's going to bring the conversation.
And I've done this before the tourstarts. We did four events before Christmas,
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and they were large events, elevenhundred seat theaters, and every single
time night something came out of leftfield and I found myself in a discussion
that I would normally never have infront of an audience. I probably wouldn't
even have in front of friends sometimes, but that's that's what it's like being
with jan I'm so happy you mentionedthat because I did see what went through
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YouTube has all of the collaborations,all of the appearances, and I heard
you in an interview say when yourealized that you and her, that the
two of you had a connection,and that was after the very first meeting.
Tell me about that, Tell meabout how it felt to come into
contact with this incredibly dynamic human.Well, like so many great things over
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through the centuries, it was acomplete and total mistake. It was a
fluke. It was an accident inthe lab, just like cornplates. I
was in Calgary and I was shootingsomething and I can't remember what it was,
but it fell aparent that the shootwas just not going to happen,
and we didn't have anything in thecamp. We had no safety at so
basically my job was to get upthe next morning and figure out six or
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seven minutes of national television. Andwe had nothing planned, and the only
thing we could come up with offthe top of our head was that someone
would show me around Calgary, whichin him itself is tricky because these things
have to be planned in advance,and I thought, I can't show people
around Calgary. I had no voiceof authority. We need someone who's an
Alberton, who loves Calgary, who'swell spoken, can be funny, hopefully,
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and just be really passionate about Calgary. And my first choice was Jason
Kenny, who at the time wasthe Stephen Harper Senior Cabinet Minister. And
I thought, we'll get Jason Kenny. Of course he wasn't available, and
then someone else suggested Jan Earndon,and I was a fan of her music,
but that's all I knew of Janwas her music, and based on
her music, I thought, Idon't know if she's going to be a
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great tour guide. She seems likeshe's depressive if you ask me. Listening
to the songs, they're so sad. But you know, beggars can't be
true. Us and Jan Godlover saidyes, like on hours notice, and
she showed up and I didn't knowwhat to expect, and everything was one
take, and everything out of hermouth was hysterically funny, and just as
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the interview progressed, I was justdoing a mental calculation. Funny, funny,
funny. You can never say thaton television. You could never say
that on television. And then shewould say things like I've never seen a
grown woman even say those words before. It just went on and on,
and then I took her to theCalgary Olympic Park and put her on a
looge and sent her down the mountain. And while she was screaming and her
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screams were reverberating off the hills,I thought, well, I almost I
kind of fell in love, andI thought I need more of this.
And then the audience had the samereaction, and she became a regular guest
on a show that philosophically did nothave regular guests, and the audience demanded
it, which was wild. Youknow, I jumped out of an airplane
with General Rick Hillier. Nobody cameup to me the next week and said,
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that was great, jumping out ofthe plane with Rick Hillier. When
are you gonna do something else withRick Hillier? No one ever said that
about anyone, you know, theywere, hey, Neil Pierre taught your
drum lessons, that's great. When'she coming back? They just never did,
except for Jan They demanded the Jencome back. It was it ten
different appearances on the show. Ohat least, yeah, at least,
and it would have been more,except of course, she's incredibly busy.
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She's she's got more balls in theair than anyone I know, and on
top of the ones you see,and she's always like writing a book or
there's all these different projects, andso she was just very hard to book
because she does these European tours andshe's always singing, and she has an
acting career, and you know,goes on and on and on. And
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clearly, when I saw that theentire premise of the show is two people
sitting down and talking unscripted. You'renot at all adverse to going off script,
but you know, this is differentthan a rant. This is.
It seems like you two are settingup a conversation with no real destination other
than to have a good time listen. And I have to back up a
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second when you say, oh,you don't mind going off script. I
like to be scripted. I liketo be prepared. Before we walked on
stage at Hot Dogs, which isa theater in Toronto, to do the
first appearance between us, I wasbackstage begging her for a plan, Please,
God, give me some idea.She just kept saying it's gonna be
fine. And as we walked outon stage, it was like the actor's
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nightmare. I was like, I'mwalking on stage and there's nothing prepared.
Now. Colin Mockery, of whoseline loves that, I know people who
love that. I've just never evenconsidered it. But with Jen, I
was just thrown into the deep endand it was very improvisational and it was
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one of the wildest hour and ahalf of my life. And the next
four we're the same experience. Itwas just wild and the audience loved it.
And by the time we got toVancouver and we're playing in the Chan
Center, which sold out in recordtime. You know Bruce Allen, who's
Jan's manager and manages Bouble and allthese rock legends. He was planning a
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national tour. So maybe that's herrevenge for all those times you put her
on the spot, which is tested, which is delicious. You know,
I had a chance to chat withher before she came to Halifax for a
charitable event, and we talked politicsa bit. And that's your world.
You go back to the meach LakeAccord, and for those of you who
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don't know what the Meachlak Accord was, google it and find out Rick Mercer's
connection to it, because I thoughtit was just fascinating. How as you
point out the exuberance of youth sometimesperhaps clouds the judgment, and that you
can do many things that you wouldnever even expect of yourself. What is
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it you said? As you getolder, the shades of gray tend to
become more apparent, and life,oh for sure. I actually, when
you write a book, and Isuggest that everyone write a book, you
realize, you know you have toreflect. And part of reflecting, which
I was never very good at,you try to figure out what you know
and what you figured out along along, you know your time on this earth.
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And for me, anyone anyway.I look back and I thought,
my god, I had way moreanswers at eighteen than I did it at
fifty fifty seems like a lot ofquestions, but oh, at eighteen,
you couldn't stop me. I knewexactly the way things should go and the
solution to every problem. And Ithink that's just natural. And and I
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obviously still follow politics quite closely,but I'm glad that I'm out of the
opinion business. Why is that isit? I mean, you talked about
talking to Americans. Probably wouldn't havehappened if you knew they would have a
chance to see it, Like youknow, YouTube is a ubiquitous, really
right. In fact, I alwaysfelt a little bit guilty doing talking to
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Americans. And the way I justifiedit in my head, right or wrong,
was like, well, they'll neversee this. They had no idea.
This poor university professor from Harvard,he has no idea what he's doing.
But it doesn't matter. No onewill ever see. It'll be on
the CDC. It'll be And inthose days, we didn't even Rewrong,
so it'd be like, there's nochance anyone's ever going to see it.
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Now of course it just gets constantus on YouTube. Yeah, but things
evolve, technology moves on. Buteveryone has an opinion now and they have
a platform to deliver it. I'mnot sure what you make of the amount
of Whenever you delivered a pointed rent, it was exactly that it was well
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thought out and it flowed and ithad a conclusion that most people would say
I agree with or you got itwrong. But now everyone has got this
echo chamber the internet is give you. And I don't know how well thought
out my rants were, but therewas certainly time thinking put into them,
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a lot of time because they hadto be written in such a way that
I would have to write a substantialpiece, figure out what it is I
wanted to say, and then Ihad to distill it and distill it and
distill it so it could be performedin a minute and a half. So
there was a lot of time tothink and reflect on what exactly you were
going to say. I think theproblem with social media, of course,
is that people are posting their opinionwithin seconds or minutes, and also so
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there's no thought put into it,and they may be right, but they
could easily be way off. Butalso of course they're entirely anonymous, and
that just changes everything. And Idon't know what the solution is there.
But you know, when you knowAngry Dad sixty nine is calling you a
Nazi, you know you have totake that with a grain of salt.
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But there's a lot of it.It's everywhere. Do you do you foresee
a conversation about politics on stage?Because Jan has a very strong pigions about
politics these days, and I hopenot. Why why why would you want
to take that on? She's ahandful of that, Jan, And I
tell you, I don't know,honestly, it could go anywhere. I
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think both of us realize what ourjobs are there, and it's to have
fun. And I think right nowin this day and age, everyone you
know wants that fun night out.And I think we realize what our job
is, and certainly our job isnot to, you know, preach to
the choir or beat anyone over thehead with any kind of political views.
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But anything is possible, really,like I would be loath to say no,
that's not possible about anything you askedme. I had asked her if
she had any interest in it actuallybecoming political, and in a really specific
way as becoming a candidate. Infact, I said this quote, and
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maybe you've heard this before, thatwhen it comes to politics, as men
get older, they tend to getmore sew small sea conservative in their way
or the view of outlook, andthat sometimes women get more angry. And
she kind of took umbage to thatand said, actually, I think she
scolded me mildly, saying that mighteven be considered misogynistic in a little way.
And there's nothing worse than having janArden kind of put you in your
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place. You wouldn't know that betterthan anyone would Rick Mercer ever entertain entering
politics in that way. I mean, you're always in the back of my
mind. I was very much likeI would suggest if you were a sports
columnist for a major newspaper or anewspaper, you in the back of your
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mind, you think, one ofthese days, the phone is going to
ring and it's going to be theToronto may Be Leiefs and they're going to
say, damn it, you comein to be the general manager, turn
this franchise around it, and theygot find me. Someone has asked my
opinion. So I think in theback of my mind, thirty years of
covering politics. You go like,one of these days, maybe I would
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dip my toe in there. Butnow I have less interest in that process
than I've ever had in my entirelife. And I was pretty interested when
I was fourteen and fifteen years old, and then it became a professional career.
But I have less interest. AndI hate to join the choir of
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people who say there's just far toomuch power in the leader's offices of the
political parities, but there really is. And if you do enter politics and
you become, say a member ofparliament, I mean, you have less
of a voice than almost anyone inthe country because you can't say boom unless
you run through head office. Andworse, they can send you an email
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saying this is what you're saying today, and this is how how you're jumping,
and this is what you're going todo. And I think I would
find that at this point in mylife anyway, very difficult. Now.
Maybe many of the people in thatposition they do it for the greater good,
and that's something they suck back becausethey feel like they're accomplishing goals they
have in another way, but don'tI don't have much of an interest in
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it right now. I heard youin your conversation with Jesse Brown in a
roundabout way talk about Pierre Pauliev andoddly enough your piece about him becoming the
youngest Canadian politician to get a fullpension by the time he was thirty one
popped up as a recommendation, andsome of the other times you've taken to
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task that whole idea of a careerpolitician. And what do you make of
what's been happening with this very simplemessaging of you know, the rhyme,
the acts, the tax and thosetypes of things, and how that appeals
to people that seems to be resident. Everyone's got to sit back and just
realize it is being advertised to andyou have to be careful when you know
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incredibly complex issues are wrapped up ina simple slogan, and whether it's sunny
ways or AX the tax or I'mgonna turbo charge your paycheck and what does
that even mean. I had aconversation with someone who legitimately said he's gonna
turbo charge my paycheck. I waslike, what are you even talking about?
What does that even You're gonna he'sgonna turbo charge your paycheck? So
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you's got to be very careful aboutthat. And yeah, I used to
do stuff about him being a careerpolitician because I think most of Canada is
kicking the tires on peer PLA rightnow. Obviously they are, he's polling
incredibly well, but people in thebusiness of covering politics have been covering him
forever because he's being there forever.I mean, it's funny to see him
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out there. His latest slogan islike less you know, less suits,
more boots. I mean, thisis one of those guys we all went
to school with who went to schoolin a suit in grade seven. I
mean, and bokeally said I willbe Prime Minister of Canada someday and then
you'll be sorry. I mean,we all went to school with that guy.
This is that guy, and that'sfine. We need those people,
I guess. But it's pretty funnywhen he's out there saying, you know,
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less suits. He's probably more ownmore suits and his life than Peter
Manswrich for God's sakes, Rick Burserand Jan Arden and the Will They or
Wren't They Tour coming to the Maritimes. The second show was in Halifax.
I believe of this tour. Iwant to pivot just a little bit.
And I know you don't like totalk about things that are personal, But
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are you watching Son of a Critch? Have you watched any of that television?
Yeah? Well, I'm not thattightly wound. I won't tell you
what I'm watching. I love Sonof a Cringch, I really do.
I love the show. I loveit, it's sweet nature, I love
everything about it. Actually, Ithink it's it's a home run, and
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I think the performances are great.I love Malcolm McDowell. Of course,
I think Rich doing a great jobplaying his dad, which for Newfoundland audiences
is tricky because we all knew hisfather, certainly the voice of his father
and as an icon, So that'sa that's a tough job to do.
Big slippers to fill, as itwere. Yeah, I just I really
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enjoyed the show. I think it'sgreat, and I think it's exactly the
type of thing the CBC should bedoing, and it's paying off in ratings,
which is fantastic. The reason Imentioned the show in particular is that
you talked about an event where whereAndy Jones came to the school when you
were a kid, and there's anepisode of sot of a Christ this year,
which which Mark Kritch talks about AndyJones helping him become a stand up
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comedian. To you, you talkedabout not really doing stand up until you
were in your forties. But thatconnection of Andy Jones, it's almost like
a list of Canadian artists and icons. Newfoundland are icons who have had a
touch on the people who have beenso funny for so long and have been
part of our life. And I'mjust kind of curious about that pass that
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you were on at that time andRick Mercer as a pirate and it was
in grade three. You know howthat puts you down this road. Well,
it was an experience that I guessalmost all children had. One day
we suddenly got dragged into the libraryand there was going to be some sort
of local theater troupe performing, andno one really knew what it was,
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and everyone had a good time.It was great. It was called Sheila's
Brush and Andy Jones who was playinga character and called huncle Val Andy Jones,
of course, who is a memberof Codco. And all the kids
liked it, but for me itwas it was life changing. I didn't
know that people did this. Ididn't know you could travel around in a
van and entertain kids. I didn'tknow you could do shows like this.
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I had never been exposed to theateror anything. And it was a complete
mind blowing experience. And then,just to make it even more mind blowing,
this you know, this character wentout to the audience and picked ball
Tears and I was like, youknow, the kid going me, me,
me, me me, And Igot picked and I was dragged backstage
and I was dressed up as apirate and I was put into the show.
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And then that was it. Iwas like done for him for the
rest of my life. I kindof knew what it was I wanted to
do and Andy. I only figuredout later it was Andy who was there.
But I think if you talk tomy generation, going a little while
wide, because like Mark Critch isyounger than me. But but if you
talk to Mark Ritch, if youtalk to me, if you talk to
Tom Power, if you talk toyou know, Johnny Harris, Alan hawk
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Out, and the list goes onand on, and everyone is really I
don't know, it's not respectful,but grateful to that generation they came before
us, because that generation they hadto create everything. There was no theater.
They built the theater, there wasno place to go make short films,
so they created the film co Opand it's you know, Kate Pretton
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is the exact same thing. NovaScotia is the exact same thing. There
were these pioneers, and we couldn'tdo what it is that we do without
them having done it beforehand. SoI always feel like I stand on the
shoulder of these giants, and Iknow Kritch feels the same. And I
think that bad episode certainly reflected that. It was touching and and funny and
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all of the things that we lookforward to with Canadian entertainment. But there
is there is a gap. Iwas gonna say there's a hole, but
that might be taken the wrong way. But there's this gap in Canadian comedy
right now in some ways that RonJames says, you know, in Canada,
it's it's too hard to be oneside. You have to make fun
of everybody politically or as you pointedout, you know, equal opportunity offender.
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This what is it the parasitic relationshipbetween what you were doing in politics?
But is there anyone who covers politicsin a way will always be accused
of siding with, you know,one parody over another, and quite often
my people who don't even watch yourworks. That's just part of the occupation,
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quite frankly. And there were periodsof time, you know, near
the end of Jean Cretchen's time andpower, and certainly Paul Martin's. I
mean, I would get personal treatiesfrom people saying, what do you have
against Palmerton? My god, weekafter week, what is it you're saying?
And I don't have anything against PaulMartin. I was just doing my
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job and you know, and Iactually had great respect for him, but
his government was just, you know, the wheels were off the bus and
it was just constantly teetering and headinginto the ditch. And I was just
reflecting that, which is what themajority of Canadians kind of felt. And
of course he ended up losing.That's just the that's the nature of the
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beast. But then people will comeback and say, you've always been a
liberal hat you are you still workingon a talking to prime minister's book?
Ye? No, I uh,you know, once I got into the
book writing business and I realized howmuch I liked it, and then I
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wrote two books that qualify as memoirs. I realized that I've completely run out
of runway. There's no more memoirthank god, So I have to figure
out what to write next, andtragically that changes. If you're looking at
my screen now, there's like,literally there's like thirty books. Some of
them are a blank page with atitle or an idea, but there's at
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least thirty there, and I haveto eventually whittle it down and pick out
what the next one's going to be. But being on the road with Jen
is also going to help that becauseshe's constantly writing a novel. So I
guess I'll have to sit next toon the plane and go, well,
I'm writing a novel too. Hewill be in Halifax with Jen Arden,
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though, will they or won't they? You guys are just there's such chemistry
there and I think we're all enviousof that relationship in a way. We
all want to be Rick Mercer,we all want to be Jen in a
way. And it'll be here inHalifax coming up on the twenty ninth.
That's on a Monday, so Ican't we have three Atlantic Canadian dates.
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We didn't get Pei. Unfortunately,one thing I'm learning about these big tours.
It's all about the routing, andthese things are done years in advance,
so we're actually lucky to get thedates that we got across the country
as it is. But yeah,we're in Halifax to twenty ninth, monked
in the thirtieth, and then SaintJohn's May second, and yeah, I
can't wait. It's such a funnight. And it's also it's something I
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never saw coming. Like all mylife, I wanted a TV show,
And if you asked me when Iwas in grade ten, I think I
would have said that. In fact, there's footage of me, I think,
claiming that I'm going to have aTV show when I'm in I was
in like grade eight. I alwayskind of knew that, but this kind
of thing, and then I wantedto become a stand up comedian and I
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did do national tours with Just forLats, but I just never thought that
I would be part of a duowith someone like Janner on a national tour.
I just I didn't see that coming. It shocks me to this day,
and it's the most fun I've had. And so if you can get
this foreign life and still have thatmuch fun, it's pretty good. I'm
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pretty grateful. Does your partner,Gerald, does he travel with you?
Is that going to happen? No, The last thing on earth he would
rather do is sit there and watchme talk two hours. No, He's
done a lot of that in hislife. Gerald is a you know,
was the executive producer and the showrunnerof everything I've done on television. I
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guess, well, he was acreative producer twenty two minutes. But he
was the showrunner of Mercery Report inMaide in Canada, and so that's what
he does. He produces, heruns ahead office makes sense. Thanks again
for doing this, and I thinkI have something in common with you.
As it was said, a manwith no discernible skills. I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for this opportunity and Iknow you've had an amazing career thus far.
(28:04):
And it's a dot dot dot tobe continued and break a leg on
this tour. Thanks very much,thanks for chatting Rick Mercer. All the
best you, sir,
Well, this bio says Rick Mercer, Canadian comedian, television personality, political
satirist and author, best known forhis work on the CBC television comedy show
This Hour's twenty two minutes of coursemade in Canada and Rick Mercer report and
he's an author. He is aboutto embark on a tour they will they
or won't they tour with Jan ArdenAnd I have to say, it's been
(00:25):
a while, it's been a minute. As the kids say, Rick Mercer,
it's so nice to speak with you. How are things today? For
Rick Mercer? Things are pretty good. I can't complain. I'm in Newfoundland.
I managed to get an extended stayinline this trip home, and you
know, did some work at myfolks place, and yesterday in the pouring
(00:46):
rain, was loading a trailer tothe dump, but it was cathartic.
It's done. It's good. Well. I was going to ask, I
know you had a Toronto area cellphone number, an Ontario cell phone,
and you said new Time and Ithought, well, maybe he's such a
Newfoundland nationalist. That's part of hisplan to always give his times in Newfoundland
(01:06):
time zones. All the clocks inmy house completely different times. Up.
No, I'm pretty much. I'mclose to fifty to fifty now between Newfoundland
and Toronto. You know, whenthe Mercery Report wrapped up, it was
a big adjustment for a whole bunchof reasons, but the main one was
I no longer had to go toan office, and any kind of concern
I had about whether I made theright decision to shut the show down or
(01:30):
not was quickly eclipsed by the pandemic. And I was very fortunate I had
a cabinet Newfoudland that I could gohie to. And then I wrote a
book and it was a memoir.And I had been resisting the suggestion that
I write a memoir, and itwas easy to resist because I had work.
And then suddenly, like so manyother people, I was thrown out
of work. There was no work. So I wrote the book, and
(01:53):
I discovered I really like the bookwriting business. I've since written another one,
and I don't need to be anoffice every day like I did when
I had the TV show, Andmy office is my shed where I wrote
two books. So I don't knowwhere I am. I'm a nomad currently
a nomad, and so much ofthe conversation has been about the pandemic and
(02:15):
what we did to survive. Andas you say, you wrote a book.
And it's not a surprise to methat I went back. And never
mind that Wikipedia gets things wrong,but you're in the Canadian Encyclopedia and it
has all of this information about theawards and the accomplishments. And there are
two sentences in the section that sayspersonal life, just two sections. You
(02:37):
have been very guarded about your privatelife. You've kept it private and for
Canadian celebrity, I have to giveyou full kudos for that, and it
had to be on purpose, ithad to be conscient. How have you
been able to avoid talking about yourpersonal life for so many years? Certainly,
(03:00):
I mean it's a tricky one becausecertainly I am a private person and
I don't like talking about my personallife per se. That said, you
know, I'm a gay man.I have always you know, you know,
I don't mind talking about being agay man. I felt it was
important that if you're a gay personand you're visible for whatever reason, you
(03:22):
work in the media, or you'rea cop or whatever that you do,
whatever it is, that so youcan be visible, because I think it's
just it's the right thing to do, especially for younger generations and all that
business. But that's said, asmuch as I believe that I found it
and nothing to do with sexuality,I just found it not in my comfort
(03:45):
zone to talk about my personal life. In fact, I've done probably thousands
of interviews over the years promoting differentthings that I've done. And occasionally you
could be working with a publicist andsay you're promoting a book or something and
they say, oh, there's thiscolumn that's very popular and they would like
to interview you about your book,but the gist of the column is your
(04:08):
favorite room in your house, andthat would be like, oh, my
god, you mean that someone's comingin the house. No, or even
you could ask me anything in thisinterview, but if you ask me,
so, what kind of curry you'redriving these days, I'd be like,
well, that's a very personal question. I don't know if I want to
go there. So it's just alwaysbeen me. So it was a big
learning curve to write memoir, andlike I said, I really had no
(04:30):
other choice because there was nothing elseto do. To write about my personal
life was a big learning curve,and being on the road with Jan arden
is also a learning curve because Ihave no idea what she's going to ask
me or say out there, orwhere she's going to bring the conversation.
And I've done this before the tourstarts. We did four events before Christmas,
(04:54):
and they were large events, elevenhundred seat theaters, and every single
time night something came out of leftfield and I found myself in a discussion
that I would normally never have infront of an audience. I probably wouldn't
even have in front of friends sometimes, but that's that's what it's like being
with jan I'm so happy you mentionedthat because I did see what went through
(05:17):
YouTube has all of the collaborations,all of the appearances, and I heard
you in an interview say when yourealized that you and her, that the
two of you had a connection,and that was after the very first meeting.
Tell me about that, Tell meabout how it felt to come into
contact with this incredibly dynamic human.Well, like so many great things over
(05:43):
through the centuries, it was acomplete and total mistake. It was a
fluke. It was an accident inthe lab, just like cornplates. I
was in Calgary and I was shootingsomething and I can't remember what it was,
but it fell aparent that the shootwas just not going to happen,
and we didn't have anything in thecamp. We had no safety at so
basically my job was to get upthe next morning and figure out six or
(06:05):
seven minutes of national television. Andwe had nothing planned, and the only
thing we could come up with offthe top of our head was that someone
would show me around Calgary, whichin him itself is tricky because these things
have to be planned in advance,and I thought, I can't show people
around Calgary. I had no voiceof authority. We need someone who's an
Alberton, who loves Calgary, who'swell spoken, can be funny, hopefully,
(06:29):
and just be really passionate about Calgary. And my first choice was Jason
Kenny, who at the time wasthe Stephen Harper Senior Cabinet Minister. And
I thought, we'll get Jason Kenny. Of course he wasn't available, and
then someone else suggested Jan Earndon,and I was a fan of her music,
but that's all I knew of Janwas her music, and based on
her music, I thought, Idon't know if she's going to be a
(06:51):
great tour guide. She seems likeshe's depressive if you ask me. Listening
to the songs, they're so sad. But you know, beggars can't be
true. Us and Jan Godlover saidyes, like on hours notice, and
she showed up and I didn't knowwhat to expect, and everything was one
take, and everything out of hermouth was hysterically funny, and just as
(07:15):
the interview progressed, I was justdoing a mental calculation. Funny, funny,
funny. You can never say thaton television. You could never say
that on television. And then shewould say things like I've never seen a
grown woman even say those words before. It just went on and on,
and then I took her to theCalgary Olympic Park and put her on a
looge and sent her down the mountain. And while she was screaming and her
(07:38):
screams were reverberating off the hills,I thought, well, I almost I
kind of fell in love, andI thought I need more of this.
And then the audience had the samereaction, and she became a regular guest
on a show that philosophically did nothave regular guests, and the audience demanded
it, which was wild. Youknow, I jumped out of an airplane
with General Rick Hillier. Nobody cameup to me the next week and said,
(08:01):
that was great, jumping out ofthe plane with Rick Hillier. When
are you gonna do something else withRick Hillier? No one ever said that
about anyone, you know, theywere, hey, Neil Pierre taught your
drum lessons, that's great. When'she coming back? They just never did,
except for Jan They demanded the Jencome back. It was it ten
different appearances on the show. Ohat least, yeah, at least,
and it would have been more,except of course, she's incredibly busy.
(08:24):
She's she's got more balls in theair than anyone I know, and on
top of the ones you see,and she's always like writing a book or
there's all these different projects, andso she was just very hard to book
because she does these European tours andshe's always singing, and she has an
acting career, and you know,goes on and on and on. And
(08:45):
clearly, when I saw that theentire premise of the show is two people
sitting down and talking unscripted. You'renot at all adverse to going off script,
but you know, this is differentthan a rant. This is.
It seems like you two are settingup a conversation with no real destination other
than to have a good time listen. And I have to back up a
(09:07):
second when you say, oh,you don't mind going off script. I
like to be scripted. I liketo be prepared. Before we walked on
stage at Hot Dogs, which isa theater in Toronto, to do the
first appearance between us, I wasbackstage begging her for a plan, Please,
God, give me some idea.She just kept saying it's gonna be
fine. And as we walked outon stage, it was like the actor's
(09:28):
nightmare. I was like, I'mwalking on stage and there's nothing prepared.
Now. Colin Mockery, of whoseline loves that, I know people who
love that. I've just never evenconsidered it. But with Jen, I
was just thrown into the deep endand it was very improvisational and it was
(09:48):
one of the wildest hour and ahalf of my life. And the next
four we're the same experience. Itwas just wild and the audience loved it.
And by the time we got toVancouver and we're playing in the Chan
Center, which sold out in recordtime. You know Bruce Allen, who's
Jan's manager and manages Bouble and allthese rock legends. He was planning a
(10:11):
national tour. So maybe that's herrevenge for all those times you put her
on the spot, which is tested, which is delicious. You know,
I had a chance to chat withher before she came to Halifax for a
charitable event, and we talked politicsa bit. And that's your world.
You go back to the meach LakeAccord, and for those of you who
(10:33):
don't know what the Meachlak Accord was, google it and find out Rick Mercer's
connection to it, because I thoughtit was just fascinating. How as you
point out the exuberance of youth sometimesperhaps clouds the judgment, and that you
can do many things that you wouldnever even expect of yourself. What is
(10:54):
it you said? As you getolder, the shades of gray tend to
become more apparent, and life,oh for sure. I actually, when
you write a book, and Isuggest that everyone write a book, you
realize, you know you have toreflect. And part of reflecting, which
I was never very good at,you try to figure out what you know
and what you figured out along along, you know your time on this earth.
(11:18):
And for me, anyone anyway.I look back and I thought,
my god, I had way moreanswers at eighteen than I did it at
fifty fifty seems like a lot ofquestions, but oh, at eighteen,
you couldn't stop me. I knewexactly the way things should go and the
solution to every problem. And Ithink that's just natural. And and I
(11:41):
obviously still follow politics quite closely,but I'm glad that I'm out of the
opinion business. Why is that isit? I mean, you talked about
talking to Americans. Probably wouldn't havehappened if you knew they would have a
chance to see it, Like youknow, YouTube is a ubiquitous, really
right. In fact, I alwaysfelt a little bit guilty doing talking to
(12:03):
Americans. And the way I justifiedit in my head, right or wrong,
was like, well, they'll neversee this. They had no idea.
This poor university professor from Harvard,he has no idea what he's doing.
But it doesn't matter. No onewill ever see. It'll be on
the CDC. It'll be And inthose days, we didn't even Rewrong,
so it'd be like, there's nochance anyone's ever going to see it.
(12:26):
Now of course it just gets constantus on YouTube. Yeah, but things
evolve, technology moves on. Buteveryone has an opinion now and they have
a platform to deliver it. I'mnot sure what you make of the amount
of Whenever you delivered a pointed rent, it was exactly that it was well
(12:48):
thought out and it flowed and ithad a conclusion that most people would say
I agree with or you got itwrong. But now everyone has got this
echo chamber the internet is give you. And I don't know how well thought
out my rants were, but therewas certainly time thinking put into them,
(13:11):
a lot of time because they hadto be written in such a way that
I would have to write a substantialpiece, figure out what it is I
wanted to say, and then Ihad to distill it and distill it and
distill it so it could be performedin a minute and a half. So
there was a lot of time tothink and reflect on what exactly you were
going to say. I think theproblem with social media, of course,
is that people are posting their opinionwithin seconds or minutes, and also so
(13:37):
there's no thought put into it,and they may be right, but they
could easily be way off. Butalso of course they're entirely anonymous, and
that just changes everything. And Idon't know what the solution is there.
But you know, when you knowAngry Dad sixty nine is calling you a
Nazi, you know you have totake that with a grain of salt.
(13:58):
But there's a lot of it.It's everywhere. Do you do you foresee
a conversation about politics on stage?Because Jan has a very strong pigions about
politics these days, and I hopenot. Why why why would you want
to take that on? She's ahandful of that, Jan, And I
tell you, I don't know,honestly, it could go anywhere. I
(14:20):
think both of us realize what ourjobs are there, and it's to have
fun. And I think right nowin this day and age, everyone you
know wants that fun night out.And I think we realize what our job
is, and certainly our job isnot to, you know, preach to
the choir or beat anyone over thehead with any kind of political views.
(14:43):
But anything is possible, really,like I would be loath to say no,
that's not possible about anything you askedme. I had asked her if
she had any interest in it actuallybecoming political, and in a really specific
way as becoming a candidate. Infact, I said this quote, and
(15:03):
maybe you've heard this before, thatwhen it comes to politics, as men
get older, they tend to getmore sew small sea conservative in their way
or the view of outlook, andthat sometimes women get more angry. And
she kind of took umbage to thatand said, actually, I think she
scolded me mildly, saying that mighteven be considered misogynistic in a little way.
And there's nothing worse than having janArden kind of put you in your
(15:24):
place. You wouldn't know that betterthan anyone would Rick Mercer ever entertain entering
politics in that way. I mean, you're always in the back of my
mind. I was very much likeI would suggest if you were a sports
columnist for a major newspaper or anewspaper, you in the back of your
(15:46):
mind, you think, one ofthese days, the phone is going to
ring and it's going to be theToronto may Be Leiefs and they're going to
say, damn it, you comein to be the general manager, turn
this franchise around it, and theygot find me. Someone has asked my
opinion. So I think in theback of my mind, thirty years of
covering politics. You go like,one of these days, maybe I would
(16:07):
dip my toe in there. Butnow I have less interest in that process
than I've ever had in my entirelife. And I was pretty interested when
I was fourteen and fifteen years old, and then it became a professional career.
But I have less interest. AndI hate to join the choir of
(16:30):
people who say there's just far toomuch power in the leader's offices of the
political parities, but there really is. And if you do enter politics and
you become, say a member ofparliament, I mean, you have less
of a voice than almost anyone inthe country because you can't say boom unless
you run through head office. Andworse, they can send you an email
(16:53):
saying this is what you're saying today, and this is how how you're jumping,
and this is what you're going todo. And I think I would
find that at this point in mylife anyway, very difficult. Now.
Maybe many of the people in thatposition they do it for the greater good,
and that's something they suck back becausethey feel like they're accomplishing goals they
have in another way, but don'tI don't have much of an interest in
(17:15):
it right now. I heard youin your conversation with Jesse Brown in a
roundabout way talk about Pierre Pauliev andoddly enough your piece about him becoming the
youngest Canadian politician to get a fullpension by the time he was thirty one
popped up as a recommendation, andsome of the other times you've taken to
(17:37):
task that whole idea of a careerpolitician. And what do you make of
what's been happening with this very simplemessaging of you know, the rhyme,
the acts, the tax and thosetypes of things, and how that appeals
to people that seems to be resident. Everyone's got to sit back and just
realize it is being advertised to andyou have to be careful when you know
(18:04):
incredibly complex issues are wrapped up ina simple slogan, and whether it's sunny
ways or AX the tax or I'mgonna turbo charge your paycheck and what does
that even mean. I had aconversation with someone who legitimately said he's gonna
turbo charge my paycheck. I waslike, what are you even talking about?
What does that even You're gonna he'sgonna turbo charge your paycheck? So
(18:27):
you's got to be very careful aboutthat. And yeah, I used to
do stuff about him being a careerpolitician because I think most of Canada is
kicking the tires on peer PLA rightnow. Obviously they are, he's polling
incredibly well, but people in thebusiness of covering politics have been covering him
forever because he's being there forever.I mean, it's funny to see him
(18:48):
out there. His latest slogan islike less you know, less suits,
more boots. I mean, thisis one of those guys we all went
to school with who went to schoolin a suit in grade seven. I
mean, and bokeally said I willbe Prime Minister of Canada someday and then
you'll be sorry. I mean,we all went to school with that guy.
This is that guy, and that'sfine. We need those people,
I guess. But it's pretty funnywhen he's out there saying, you know,
(19:11):
less suits. He's probably more ownmore suits and his life than Peter
Manswrich for God's sakes, Rick Burserand Jan Arden and the Will They or
Wren't They Tour coming to the Maritimes. The second show was in Halifax.
I believe of this tour. Iwant to pivot just a little bit.
And I know you don't like totalk about things that are personal, But
(19:33):
are you watching Son of a Critch? Have you watched any of that television?
Yeah? Well, I'm not thattightly wound. I won't tell you
what I'm watching. I love Sonof a Cringch, I really do.
I love the show. I loveit, it's sweet nature, I love
everything about it. Actually, Ithink it's it's a home run, and
(19:55):
I think the performances are great.I love Malcolm McDowell. Of course,
I think Rich doing a great jobplaying his dad, which for Newfoundland audiences
is tricky because we all knew hisfather, certainly the voice of his father
and as an icon, So that'sa that's a tough job to do.
Big slippers to fill, as itwere. Yeah, I just I really
(20:18):
enjoyed the show. I think it'sgreat, and I think it's exactly the
type of thing the CBC should bedoing, and it's paying off in ratings,
which is fantastic. The reason Imentioned the show in particular is that
you talked about an event where whereAndy Jones came to the school when you
were a kid, and there's anepisode of sot of a Christ this year,
which which Mark Kritch talks about AndyJones helping him become a stand up
(20:41):
comedian. To you, you talkedabout not really doing stand up until you
were in your forties. But thatconnection of Andy Jones, it's almost like
a list of Canadian artists and icons. Newfoundland are icons who have had a
touch on the people who have beenso funny for so long and have been
part of our life. And I'mjust kind of curious about that pass that
(21:02):
you were on at that time andRick Mercer as a pirate and it was
in grade three. You know howthat puts you down this road. Well,
it was an experience that I guessalmost all children had. One day
we suddenly got dragged into the libraryand there was going to be some sort
of local theater troupe performing, andno one really knew what it was,
(21:26):
and everyone had a good time.It was great. It was called Sheila's
Brush and Andy Jones who was playinga character and called huncle Val Andy Jones,
of course, who is a memberof Codco. And all the kids
liked it, but for me itwas it was life changing. I didn't
know that people did this. Ididn't know you could travel around in a
van and entertain kids. I didn'tknow you could do shows like this.
(21:47):
I had never been exposed to theateror anything. And it was a complete
mind blowing experience. And then,just to make it even more mind blowing,
this you know, this character wentout to the audience and picked ball
Tears and I was like, youknow, the kid going me, me,
me, me me, And Igot picked and I was dragged backstage
and I was dressed up as apirate and I was put into the show.
(22:07):
And then that was it. Iwas like done for him for the
rest of my life. I kindof knew what it was I wanted to
do and Andy. I only figuredout later it was Andy who was there.
But I think if you talk tomy generation, going a little while
wide, because like Mark Critch isyounger than me. But but if you
talk to Mark Ritch, if youtalk to me, if you talk to
Tom Power, if you talk toyou know, Johnny Harris, Alan hawk
(22:29):
Out, and the list goes onand on, and everyone is really I
don't know, it's not respectful,but grateful to that generation they came before
us, because that generation they hadto create everything. There was no theater.
They built the theater, there wasno place to go make short films,
so they created the film co Opand it's you know, Kate Pretton
(22:52):
is the exact same thing. NovaScotia is the exact same thing. There
were these pioneers, and we couldn'tdo what it is that we do without
them having done it beforehand. SoI always feel like I stand on the
shoulder of these giants, and Iknow Kritch feels the same. And I
think that bad episode certainly reflected that. It was touching and and funny and
(23:17):
all of the things that we lookforward to with Canadian entertainment. But there
is there is a gap. Iwas gonna say there's a hole, but
that might be taken the wrong way. But there's this gap in Canadian comedy
right now in some ways that RonJames says, you know, in Canada,
it's it's too hard to be oneside. You have to make fun
of everybody politically or as you pointedout, you know, equal opportunity offender.
(23:38):
This what is it the parasitic relationshipbetween what you were doing in politics?
But is there anyone who covers politicsin a way will always be accused
of siding with, you know,one parody over another, and quite often
my people who don't even watch yourworks. That's just part of the occupation,
(24:02):
quite frankly. And there were periodsof time, you know, near
the end of Jean Cretchen's time andpower, and certainly Paul Martin's. I
mean, I would get personal treatiesfrom people saying, what do you have
against Palmerton? My god, weekafter week, what is it you're saying?
And I don't have anything against PaulMartin. I was just doing my
(24:25):
job and you know, and Iactually had great respect for him, but
his government was just, you know, the wheels were off the bus and
it was just constantly teetering and headinginto the ditch. And I was just
reflecting that, which is what themajority of Canadians kind of felt. And
of course he ended up losing.That's just the that's the nature of the
(24:45):
beast. But then people will comeback and say, you've always been a
liberal hat you are you still workingon a talking to prime minister's book?
Ye? No, I uh,you know, once I got into the
book writing business and I realized howmuch I liked it, and then I
(25:06):
wrote two books that qualify as memoirs. I realized that I've completely run out
of runway. There's no more memoirthank god, So I have to figure
out what to write next, andtragically that changes. If you're looking at
my screen now, there's like,literally there's like thirty books. Some of
them are a blank page with atitle or an idea, but there's at
(25:27):
least thirty there, and I haveto eventually whittle it down and pick out
what the next one's going to be. But being on the road with Jen
is also going to help that becauseshe's constantly writing a novel. So I
guess I'll have to sit next toon the plane and go, well,
I'm writing a novel too. Hewill be in Halifax with Jen Arden,
(25:48):
though, will they or won't they? You guys are just there's such chemistry
there and I think we're all enviousof that relationship in a way. We
all want to be Rick Mercer,we all want to be Jen in a
way. And it'll be here inHalifax coming up on the twenty ninth.
That's on a Monday, so Ican't we have three Atlantic Canadian dates.
(26:08):
We didn't get Pei. Unfortunately,one thing I'm learning about these big tours.
It's all about the routing, andthese things are done years in advance,
so we're actually lucky to get thedates that we got across the country
as it is. But yeah,we're in Halifax to twenty ninth, monked
in the thirtieth, and then SaintJohn's May second, and yeah, I
can't wait. It's such a funnight. And it's also it's something I
(26:33):
never saw coming. Like all mylife, I wanted a TV show,
And if you asked me when Iwas in grade ten, I think I
would have said that. In fact, there's footage of me, I think,
claiming that I'm going to have aTV show when I'm in I was
in like grade eight. I alwayskind of knew that, but this kind
of thing, and then I wantedto become a stand up comedian and I
(26:56):
did do national tours with Just forLats, but I just never thought that
I would be part of a duowith someone like Janner on a national tour.
I just I didn't see that coming. It shocks me to this day,
and it's the most fun I've had. And so if you can get
this foreign life and still have thatmuch fun, it's pretty good. I'm
(27:17):
pretty grateful. Does your partner,Gerald, does he travel with you?
Is that going to happen? No, The last thing on earth he would
rather do is sit there and watchme talk two hours. No, He's
done a lot of that in hislife. Gerald is a you know,
was the executive producer and the showrunnerof everything I've done on television. I
(27:40):
guess, well, he was acreative producer twenty two minutes. But he
was the showrunner of Mercery Report inMaide in Canada, and so that's what
he does. He produces, heruns ahead office makes sense. Thanks again
for doing this, and I thinkI have something in common with you.
As it was said, a manwith no discernible skills. I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for this opportunity and Iknow you've had an amazing career thus far.
(28:04):
And it's a dot dot dot tobe continued and break a leg on
this tour. Thanks very much,thanks for chatting Rick Mercer. All the
best you, sir,
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