Rick Mercer Report: The Book: Amazon.ca: Rick Mercer: Books

Product Description

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, prepare yourself for the next big thing in publishing – Rick Mercer Report: The Book.

After a decade-long absence from our book stores, Canada’s preeminent satirist returns with a new collection of rants, writings, and comic encounters with the great and good of politics, showbiz, and literature. (Yes, relive Pierre Berton offering advice on rolling a joint, and Margaret Atwood showing off her hockey skills as a goalie.) Rick, a tremendous writing talent as well as a verbal one, has selected the best of his rants from the first four seasons of RMR, sprinkled in choice moments from his interviews, added a generous helping of other material that has never been broadcast, and arranged the whole into revealing themes and groupings with all-new introductions, reflections, and updates. Who knew that Stephen Harper was quite so preoccupied with gay sex? That Paul Martin could be so forgetful? That politicians could be so sleazy? Well, no doubt most of us did — but it’s wonderful to have it pointed out again by this brilliantly funny and charismatic talent.

About the Author

Rick Mercer is Canada's sharpest and funniest political satirist. He first came to fame with "Show Me the Button I'll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die," a one-man show that toured across Canada. He co-created and was a resident performer on CBC's "This Hour Has 22 Minutes", and is now the host of "The Rick Mercer Report", the Corporation's highest-rated comedy show. Rick is co-chair of the Spread the Net campaign, dedicated to preventing the spread of Malaria in Africa, and has also campaigned for the Canadian AIDS Society's The Walk for Life project. His many honours include 21 Geminis and the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. He is from St. John's and currently resides in Toronto.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews

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4.6 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading and ranting, Oct 1 2007

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Reader (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rick Mercer Report: The Book (Hardcover)

I was sceptical at first. I love the Rick Mercer Report, and think the rants in particular are far and away the best political satire on Canadian tv. Those rants seem so spontaneous and essentially verbal that I couldn't imagine they would make great reading. But actually they work well on the page - just as funny, and at the same time the seriousness that informs them comes through even more clearly. This book is altogether a surprisingly satisfying read. And it's not all rants, either (though the bulk of them appear to have ben included. There are also excerpts from skits and interviews, new pieces updating certain topics (the material is arranged into into themed sections), blog entries and journalism, including one classic, hilarious piece called From the teleprompter of Michael Ignatieff. Lots of great photographs too.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Political Satire par excellence, Nov 15 2007

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Joshua Spencer (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rick Mercer Report: The Book (Hardcover)

Rick Mercer has shoved fun at politicians and social issues for years. Some I have watched personally on tv. Now someone has prudently spurred the genius to get all this solid bunch of verbal entertainment onto the pages of a book, The Book. The weird fling about it all, is that not only are these groupings of political satires more entertaining on paper but they seem to take on an even more realistic ambience of serious entertainment. Ones that really stimulate the mind as one reads and rereads at one's own pace, over and over, again. This is an excellent book! A MUST buy a great book of solid laughter to cherish for a life time

Some other great books: "Fluctuating Life" by Canadian, author, teacher and poet, Joshua Spencer and "Quest for a Dream - A Life Committed to Progress" by Joyce Buchanan

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Political Satire at its Best, Nov 16 2007

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Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rick Mercer Report: The Book (Hardcover)

Mercer's latest collection of political wit and satire disarmingly takes dead aim at some big names in the Canadian establishment. To discover and then exploit those hard-to-find foibles behind the armour of a typical Canadian public figures like Rona Ambrose,Bob Rae, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper and Jack Layton, Mercer spends considerable time hobnobbing with them. These national figures get to showcase their private and more human side on their own terms, which Mercer then takes and matches with what he knows about them in public life. The result is a treasury of light-hearted, but truly wicked satirical moments emerging from the many glaring inconsistencies between the two lifestyles. In this book, a faux pas or gaff is measured by how forgetful politicians are in remembering how quick the public is pick up on the great gap between what they say and what they do. When the two sides of the human condition (private and public) are not in sync, or, in other words, we forget to walk the talk, we immediately, like the rest of those wretched politicians, fall victim to the rapier wit of that loveable yet mischievous satirist named Rick. It seems that he is gifted in finding out the deepest, dark secrets that motivate most of us to want to seek power and, once we have it, pretend that we're everyone's friend. Well worth the read just for the laugh.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Political Satire
Rick is Canada's greatest political satirist. The book is a review of a the lighter side of Canadian political personalities beginning from 2004 when The Rick Mercer Report first... Read more

Published on Nov 13 2009 by V. Ferrier

4.0 out of 5 stars The best Canadian political satire around
(This review has also been posted on LibraryThing)

There aren't many political satirists to choose from here in Canada but Rick Mercer is one of our best. Read more

Published on July 28 2009 by Andrea