Not really wanting to get into a long explanation, I simply made up an answer on the spot. This guy was no slouch when it came to connecting the dots. He snapped his fingers, pointed at me with a big smile and said, “CANADA!” He looked at me and said, “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation?” There was a faded sticker that featured the CBC logo, and underneath it the words “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.” He read those words out loud, rolling them over his tongue. On September 28, 1998, I found myself on the East Plaza of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, waiting to shoot a rant for “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.”Ī well-dressed, middle-aged white guy with a Capitol Hill security pass on his belt happened to wander by. In this edited excerpt from his new memoir “Talking to Canadians,” Mercer remembers how it all began. It still holds the record as the most-watched comedy broadcast in Canadian television history, with 2.7 million viewers. Before the “Report,” where he travelled across the country talking to Canadians in celebration of their hometowns and cities, Mercer visited many places in America with a very different agenda, culminating in a one-hour comedy special “Talking to Americans,” a spin-off from a regular segment on CBC’s “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.” The show aired on April 1, 2001. With his show “The Rick Mercer Report,” he pushed the boundaries further than he had before - with reporter-like stealth, approaching people and interviewing them - and seeing what he can get away with. Newfoundland comedian Rick Mercer has had Canadians laughing for years.

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