Rick Mercer Biography
Rick Mercer is a Canadian comedian, TV personality, political satirist, and writer. He is most known for his roles on CBC Television’s comedy shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Rick Mercer Report.
How old is Rick Mercer? – Age
Rick Mercer Family – Education
His mother, Patricia Cook, is a nurse, while his father, Kenneth Mercer, is a fisheries ministry executive. Growing up, he went to Macdonald Drive Elementary and dropped out of Prince of Wales Collegiate in St. John’s before finishing his diploma requirements. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets during his adolescent years.
Rick Mercer Partner
Gerald Lunz, a television producer, has been Mercer’s spouse since 1990. Although the sexual relationship came first, Lunz is also Mercer’s long-term business partner, having discovered him, cultivated his career, and served as the executive producer of Rick Mercer Report. He keeps his personal life private and says little about it in public except to acknowledge that he is gay.
Rick Mercer Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $10 million.
Rick Mercer This Hour Has 22 Minutes
Rick worked with former CODCO members Cathy Jones and Mary Walsh to produce a new television series for CBC Television called This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Mercer’s most memorable moments on the show were an Internet petition to push Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day to change his first name to Doris, which was then repurposed to encourage Canadians to send Christmas cards to peacekeeping in Bosnia. Following an incident involving federal MP Rahim Jaffer, Mercer did a parody rap to Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” in 2001.
Mercer’s two-minute “rants” were the show’s defining feature. In 1998, he released Streeters, a book that collected several of his most famous 22 Minutes rants and became a national hit. In 2007, he released his second book, Rick Mercer Report: The Book. In 2010, Mercer wrote a rant for Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project about bullying of gay and lesbian teenagers in high schools.
Rick Mercer Talking to Americans
Mercer hosted Talking to Americans, in which he traveled to major American towns or institutions to conduct on-the-street conversations with Americans about issues such as Canadian politics and weather. He received support from Iowans and Governors Tom Vilsack and Mike Huckabee, and made international headlines in 2000 when he performed a Talking to Americans stunt on then-presidential candidate George W. Bush, successfully getting him to answer questions about non-existent Canadian Prime Minister Jean Poutine. Mercer also urged Democratic candidate Al Gore to vow to visit the “Canadian capital city” of Toronto following his election, and Gore did not dispute it.
In 2001, he co-produced a CBC special based on Talking to Americans, which drew 2.7 million Canadian viewers and became the highest-rated television program in Canadian history. Later, the respected ABC News program Nightline would dedicate an episode to it. This was Mercer’s final major effort for 22 Minutes, and he announced his resignation from the show to focus on his other TV show, Made in Canada.
Rick Mercer Books
On September 25, 2007, Doubleday Canada published Mercer’s book, Rick Mercer Report: The Book, based on his television program. This was Mercer’s first book since Streeters in 1998, and it comprised a collection of his rants from the first four seasons of Rick Mercer Report, as well as excerpts from interviews for the show and other works by Mercer. On CBC Radio’s Sounds Like Canada on September 21, Shelagh Rogers stated of the book, “It’s the most fun I’ve had in bed in a long time.” On October 6, the book debuted at number three on the Globe and Mail’s book chart. It reached number one on the Globe bestselling list the week before Christmas 2007 and was reprinted eight times.
An extended and updated paperback edition of Rick Report: The book, Rick Mercer Report: The Paperback Book, was published by Anchor Canada on September 16, 2008, and rapidly rose to the top 10 of the Globe and Mail bestseller list. It has been reproduced numerous times.
Mercer’s next book, A Nation Worth Ranting About, was released by Doubleday Canada on September 18, 2012. It was also a bestseller. Doubleday Canada published Rick’s Final Report in 2018.
Doubleday Canada published Talking to Canadians: A Memoir on November 2, 2021. Doubleday Canada published The Road Years: A Memoir Continued on October 31, 2023.