Rick Mercer didn't expect this Canadian musician to become a Rick Mercer Report regular
The broadcaster and author tells us how he became friends with Jann Arden
Fans of Rick Mercer Report, a satirical news show that ran for 15 seasons on CBC, will remember there was one guest who came on more than most: musician Jann Arden.
"She became a regular on a show that didn't have regulars as a philosophy," Mercer tells Q host Tom Power in a recent interview.
Mercer recalls the first time he asked Arden to come on Rick Mercer Report. He and his crew arrived in Calgary only for the shoot they had planned for to fall through.
"We had no net," says Mercer. "We thought at the very least, I could explore Calgary. But I thought, 'I'm not going to show Calgary to Canada because I have no voice or authority. I need someone on the inside.'"
He called Arden, who was born in Calgary, to ask if she would give him a tour of the city for the show. But he says that at the time, he wasn't sure she would fit the satirical tone of the show.
"Honestly, I didn't know her. I had never met her. I knew her music, and I knew it was really sad…. I was actually very worried about that. I thought this person who writes those songs might be a bit of a downer."
WATCH | Rick Mercer and Jann Arden tour Calgary in 2004:
Arden agreed, and the next day she showed up ready to show Mercer the Calgary Zoo and Canada Olympic Park — a plan that didn't fill Mercer with confidence.
"I was like, this is going to be a disaster. You can't show up at a zoo and say, 'We're shooting.' You can't show up at Canada Olympic Park…. These things take weeks of planning — unless you're Jann Arden," says Mercer.
"We went to the zoo, and within minutes we were in the hippo compound in the back, shoveling food into the hippo's mouth, and we were in the elephant compound being nuzzled by elephants. It was all this backstage stuff."
It wasn't until they got to Canada Olympic Park, though, that Mercer realized Arden would be on the show for years to come.
"We went up to Canada Olympic Park, and this guy was showing us the luge, and I just said, 'Could we put Jann on the luge?' And he was like, 'If she signs the waiver.' And so she signed the waiver. She put on the spandex. I put her in the luge. I kicked the back. It went down the mountain. Her screams reverberated off the hills and I just thought, 'She's just going to be on the show an awful lot,'" he tells Power.
"She's hilarious, and I didn't know that. And she's saucy. Within minutes of the first interview, I was so relieved that this was going to work."
The full interview with Rick Mercer is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. He talks about all the times he nearly died while filming the show, how he got involved with Spread the Net, and how it felt to land a rare interview with Rush drummer Neil Peart. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Rick Mercer produced by Glory Omotayo.
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