Rick Mercer will wear almost as many hats at Banff as he does in the TV biz as a quadruple-threat writer, performer, producer and director. The funnyman will grace the Rocky Mountain town to participate in a master class, co-host the awards show and, most notably, receive a special award himself.

Mercer is this year’s recipient of the Sir Peter Ustinov Award, named after the renowned British author, director and actor who starred in Spartacus and Topkapi. With the award, Mercer follows in the footsteps of John Candy, Barry Humphries, Bob Newhart, Martin Short, Tracey Ullman, Kelsey Grammer and John Cleese. The mandate of the award is to recognize ‘excellence in a body of work.’

Mercer, it should be noted, is 33 years old, his body of work far from complete, which says much about the imprint he has made so far in close to a decade in the business.

‘I’m glad the work was there and I’m glad it’s diverse,’ he says.

Mercer started his career as part of the Newfoundland comedy troupe Corey & Wade’s Playhouse. Within the troupe he started performing solo rant pieces that caught the attention of Gerald Lunz, an employee of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre who had been sent out east to find and book a one-person show for the NAC (see story, p.37). After Lunz saw Mercer perform, the pair became inseparable collaborators, producing Show Me the Button, I’ll Push It (Or, Charles Lynch Must Die), starring Mercer, which toured Canada and played in front of about 150 audiences. On several of those nights, CBC reps sat in the crowd.

‘A lot of people got into theatre to [stay in] theatre, and television was something they’d do – I got into theatre to get into television,’ Mercer admits. ‘I started doing commentaries – basically the black-and-white streeters – for [CBC’s] Midday and I became a regular. That’s when the discussions with the CBC to do a television project started.’

The project became Salter Street Films’ This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the award-winning comedy news show currently in its 10th season that turned Mercer and fellow cast members Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones and Greg Thomey into national stars. Mercer recalls that many involved in the show’s first six trial episodes were not expecting anything spectacular to come of it – several, including Mercer, had booked gigs for when it wrapped – but it caught on in a big way.

The comedian, who left the show to head up five seasons of Salter’s TV biz parody series Made In Canada, sees several factors contributing to 22 Minutes’ success.

‘The country was really angry when we started,’ he muses. ‘There was a real angry undercurrent. There was also a recession and people were just in a bad mood. This show gave a voice to that in a fun way.’

Even though 22 Minutes was surprisingly passed over by the recent round of Canadian Television Fund allocations, Mercer is confident about the show’s future.

‘I don’t believe 22 Minutes is in jeopardy,’ he says. ‘It’s ridiculous.’

Mercer was a force on Made in Canada, serving as writer, producer, star, and even directing the series’ final episode. Having matured in an industry he was lampooning, Mercer admits to being completely taken aback during the series’ early going.

‘From the writing to the production style to the directing, it was completely different,’ he recollects. ‘I really thought that after six years of 22 Minutes I knew pretty much everything there was to know about television and television production and I realized I knew nothing.’

But he does know comedy, which is why he and Lunz were approached to hold a Banff master class on comedy writing. The class, titled ‘Driving the Comedy Bus: We Do the Funny, You Do the Money or Don’t Let the Lawyers Pick the Jokes,’ will see the pair interviewed by Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle. It will be a first for the scribing duo.

‘Neither of us has ever gone to any seminars, conventions or festivals because luckily we’ve always been working,’ he explains. ‘We’re going to wing it. We’ve done a lot of comedy so maybe we’ll have something to say.’

Although he doesn’t get to watch as much TV as he once did, Mercer says that as far as he can see Canadian comedy is in as good a shape as ever.

‘There is always great comedy in Canada, it’s just a matter of whether or not it makes it on television,’ he says.

Mercer will also be co-hosting the 24th Banff Rockie Awards Show with CBC/SRC reporter/host Michaelle Jean. Banff Television Foundation president and CEO Pat Ferns admits he’s been after Mercer as a host for years, but the latter has been unavailable and has never even attended Banff until this year.

‘I don’t know why I like hosting award shows, but there aren’t many I haven’t done,’ says Mercer, whose credits include the Junos, Geminis and East Coast Music Awards. ‘There’s no way to ultimately prepare, because you never know what’s going to happen, especially with a live show. I guess it’s like being a junkie – you can kind of get hooked on the stuff.’

After Banff, Mercer and partner Lunz will continue to broaden their oeuvre with The Rick Mercer Show, a political comedy for CBC. He says it will be taped in front of a live audience, have a phone-in segment and will ‘hopefully make some lawyers nervous.’ The first episode will be shot and delivered in January, which Mercer hopes will make it more timely.

‘Made in Canada was shot in the summer and delivered six months later,’ says Mercer. ‘It’s difficult to make trouble that way. You have to catch them off guard.’