Rick Mercer hosts and performs at this year's Just For Laughs Comedy Night in Canada at the Orpheum Theatre May 21, and the Royal Theatre in Victoria May 22.Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St., Vancouver; Victoria’s Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St.
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.Advertisement 3They’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.
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.