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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
I am sad I didn't discover this person in the 90s, I would have appreciated the political view. He's funny.
I’ve watched Rick Merced for years, and laughed lots at his performances. Reading about his life and how hard he worked to produce skits and shows had me frequently in stitches.
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Only Rick Mercer can do justice writing about Rick Mercer! Hilarious and as was his style all through The Rant, wittily hard-hitting. I was laughing out loud.
Would have given it 5 stars but found the initial essays on his childhood and schooldays were a bit repetitive. Also, as I am not familiar with a lot of the personages that he writes about, it did not hold my interest. Otherwise, brilliant!
Would have given it 5 stars but found the initial essays on his childhood and schooldays were a bit repetitive. Also, as I am not familiar with a lot of the personages that he writes about, it did not hold my interest. Otherwise, brilliant!
From the timing, I presume Rick Mercer's first memoir was written during the pandemic, and it's a welcome account of his history to date in show business, starting with the precocious third-grader being "kidnapped by pirates" by "those hippies in a van".
There was a lot I didn't know about Mercer, which makes his story all the more engaging. Always opinionated, he hijacked the school newspaper, joined the drama club, and wrote a satirical one-act play which made it to the provincial championships, with a lot of adventures along the way. By the end of high school, he'd founded a comedy troupe, toured Newfoundland with a professional clown, won the respect of his drama teacher, but failed at math. To paraphrase, "Stay in school, kids.... there may be dollar signs attached to those numbers."
Working behind the scenes with Cathy Jones on her one-woman show, he met producer and future partner Gerald Lunz. (By the way, happy Pride Month!) The rest was a combination of networking and dumb luck. As an "angry young man", he wound up doing a one-man rant/show baiting journalist icon Charles Lynch that wound up touring the country. He became part of This Hour has 22 Minutes together with Jones, Mary Walsh, and Greg Thomey, and invented the wildly popular "Talking to Americans" segment on the spur of the moment in Washington, DC. He tells further tales of getting "everyone" on Parliament Hill to sing along with Trooper's "Raise a Little Hell" to encourage people to vote, having a "power lunch" with PM Jean Chretien at Harvey's, and, more seriously, of doing a Christmas special with the peacekeeping troops in Bosnia.
After leaving 22 Minutes, he tells the story of the comedy Made in Canada a.k.a. The Industry, and the genesis of The Mercer Report, including the moving and somewhat harrowing tale of another special with the Canadian Forces in Christmas in Kabul.
Always the raconteur, he was able to make me laugh out loud or bring a tear to my eye with his tales. The book is engaging and compelling reading, and I found it hard to put down. I'm glad that it was by chance that this book landed in my hands.
There was a lot I didn't know about Mercer, which makes his story all the more engaging. Always opinionated, he hijacked the school newspaper, joined the drama club, and wrote a satirical one-act play which made it to the provincial championships, with a lot of adventures along the way. By the end of high school, he'd founded a comedy troupe, toured Newfoundland with a professional clown, won the respect of his drama teacher, but failed at math. To paraphrase, "Stay in school, kids.... there may be dollar signs attached to those numbers."
Working behind the scenes with Cathy Jones on her one-woman show, he met producer and future partner Gerald Lunz. (By the way, happy Pride Month!) The rest was a combination of networking and dumb luck. As an "angry young man", he wound up doing a one-man rant/show baiting journalist icon Charles Lynch that wound up touring the country. He became part of This Hour has 22 Minutes together with Jones, Mary Walsh, and Greg Thomey, and invented the wildly popular "Talking to Americans" segment on the spur of the moment in Washington, DC. He tells further tales of getting "everyone" on Parliament Hill to sing along with Trooper's "Raise a Little Hell" to encourage people to vote, having a "power lunch" with PM Jean Chretien at Harvey's, and, more seriously, of doing a Christmas special with the peacekeeping troops in Bosnia.
After leaving 22 Minutes, he tells the story of the comedy Made in Canada a.k.a. The Industry, and the genesis of The Mercer Report, including the moving and somewhat harrowing tale of another special with the Canadian Forces in Christmas in Kabul.
Always the raconteur, he was able to make me laugh out loud or bring a tear to my eye with his tales. The book is engaging and compelling reading, and I found it hard to put down. I'm glad that it was by chance that this book landed in my hands.
Listened as an audiobook. Very entertaining, as Rick always is. However, it did seem to just end quite abruptly, like he realized he had been talking for 26 chapters, was about to talk about 15 more years when he said, nah, this will be in the next book.
If you like large helpings of humour with your autobiographies, Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer is the one for you. I have had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook, read by the author, which by itself adds more comedy to the book: Mercer retells stories of his life with tongue firmly planted in cheek. He begins with stories of family life when he was a child, then on to school days, and then of his life as he navigated his career in comedy. Each chapter deals with a different part of his life and spending time with this book has proven to be hilarious and enchanting. This is a book well worth reading during a pandemic or at any other time. Highly recommended.
Definitely a great read if you've got any interest Rick, or Canadian culture in general. Funny stories anyone can enjoy and interesting insight into the development of Rick's career.
Charming, Easy Read. Probably best if you have followed most or Ricks careers
I'm a fan of Rick Mercer and so reading his memoir was a delight for me. Mercer is without a doubt one of our country's greatest comedians and political commentator/satirists. Learning more about his childhood and the lead up to his storied career was very interesting and enjoyable. A great read for all Canadians!