Mercer tries his hand at standup in Just For Laughs comedy tour
After nearly two decades as a fixture on Canadian TV, Rick Mercer is enjoying a new career as a touring standup comic.
Following his turn as a host and working comedian on the Just for Laughs Comedy Night in Canada Tour in 2019, Mercer has returned to the post, alongside comics Dave Merheje, Eman El-Husseini, and Vancouver's Ivan Decker. We talked to the comedian/author/TV star about the 18-city cross-country tour, the trials and tribulations of standup, and his new memoir, Talking to Canadians.
Q You're halfway into this tour. What are people responding to? What do they want to hear?
A They're excited to be out. I've had that experience myself going to things in the last month. I couldn't believe the impact it had on me just sitting in seats before a show began. And people want to laugh. What we're serving is exactly what people want. The comedians I'm on the road with, they all have their A-game with them. From the moment I walk onstage to the end the show is just solid laughs.
Q You recently said that you love standup. Did you think you would when you started?
A Before The Mercer Report started, I hosted a Just for Laughs Comedy Night in Canada Tour that went from St. John's to Vancouver and I was on the road with five incredible comedians. I'd hosted the Junos, the Geminis, Canada Day, so it was something I was comfortable with. But I wasn't a standup comic. I was in awe of them and I said to myself, If I ever do this again, I'm going to go out as a comedian. I'll have my 25-minute opening set and have my set in the show and I'll go toe-to-toe with them. When the opportunity came along, I went to work in a way I never had before. I started doing standup at open-mike nights in comedy clubs. It was a challenge, but all the people who are brilliant at it told me the only way to do it was to forget hosting the Juno Awards, you have to go to an open-mike night where there'll be 16 people in the back of the room and four of them are drunk and two of them are asleep.
Q What are you learning from seeing the same comedians do variations on the same set?
A This is like a master class. They're all very different. We were in St. John's and Dave Merheje told me about wandering around the city in the van on the way to the show and then he spent the first six minutes of his set doing the material for the audience. It was so honed, so polished. I couldn't believe it was something he'd created in the last 24 hours. And then Eman, she engages the audience, which is amazing because that's a tightrope.
And Ivan Decker, watching him is like watching a maestro. He has the audience in the palm of his hand. I watch him every night. It's always subtly different. The audience goes nuts. It's an honour, really, to be onstage with these folks.
Q Your new book Talking to Canadians is a departure, too.
A Yes. This was a complete learning curve. My books have traditionally been rants from the TV show wrapped around some comedic essay. This is a memoir, an origin story. I'm not someone who is used to talking about my personal life. I've been really gratified that people find it funny. I do like memoirs, but I gravitate toward ones that give me a laugh on every page and that was my goal.