Biography
The 'showbiz blurb'
Rick Currie is a veteran.... blah blah
The long story (blah, blah, blah, more about me...)
In the 1980's, Ottawa was in the middle of a comedy boom. Across Canada, comedy clubs were all the rage and in 1984, a Yuk Yuks club and an improv club, Skit Row, both opened with lineups around the block.
I was in my last year of high school and somehow convinced my English teacher that a magazine article about this emerging new scene was a legitimate school project. So I set up interviews with Derek Diorio of Skit Row and Howard Wagman of Yuk Yuks.
My interview with Derek for my project somehow turned into an interview for a job at the club, and I spent the rest of the 1980s in the sound booth watching some of the most dynamic, creative and hilarious people I'd ever seen. Working with Skit Row gave me opportunities to stage manage yearly summer runs at the NAC, work on CBC television shows, take a show to Canada House in London UK and most importantly to me back then, stage manage the 1988 Miss Grey Cup pageant.
Like everything magical, it was too fleeting and by the 1990s, members of the troupe had gone their separate ways.
I had spent the years that I probably should have spent in university, watching and learning comedy, so I decided to try the stage myself. I went down to Yuk Yuks and the next thing you know, I spent that entire decade doing shows in every nook and cranny across Canada. My years as a touring comic also brought me to Europe, New York & LA. I did my first TV and CBC radio spots, played the Just for Laughs festival and even acted in some TV ads. It was all a very excellent adventure.
Are we supposed to brag in these biographies? It seems like that's the point of it - to highlight your highlights. In which case, I have saved my biggest brag until now. By the 2000s, I shacked up with my wife. Thank you, thank you. Despite being an 'excellent adventure' the road is also very, very lonely and I was so ripe to make a home and start a family. Thank god she was there to start making sense of life for me. Our daughters were born in 2003 and 2005.
This is when I started TV writing. I had worked with Mike Bullard many times over the years and he had just signed a deal with CTV to do a nightly Canadian late night talk show. I wrote for 4 seasons of that show and the amazing thing was, he let me do it from Ottawa. I had daily deadlines - noon for desk bits and sketches, 2pm for monologue jokes. So I spent all my time changing diapers and trying to think of jokes. It was fun emailing my bits to Toronto, then watching the show each night to see what made it in. A lot of people share a certain opinion about that show and that's fair enough, but it was a turning point for me and I have Mike to thank for that.
When that show ended, I looked around and I still had two toddlers. So I became a letter carrier at Canada Post. I thought that sounded like a fun job, just strolling around delivering the mail. Nope, hardest job I ever did. I remember slipping on black ice one day and going down hard on my back. I just lied there in someone's driveway, just staring at the clouds for about 10 minutes.
During this time, I was also still doing standup comedy at Ottawa's Absolute Comedy. I was somewhat regular on CBC radio shows like "Madly off in All Directions" and "The Debaters", I also also contributed written scripts through CBC's Content Factory. I made a few appearances at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival and Halifax too. For about two years was remote correspondent for BOB FM's morning show - reporting on Senators games and other events around town. I had also started my own booking company, Great North Talent.
I had a lot of balls in the air in the late 200os, so it was an absolute godsend when in 2010, I got an email from Gerald Lunz, executive producer of the Rick Mercer Report. They needed a writer and I badly needed a steady gig.
I've listed a few people who changed my life here and Gerald and Rick are undoubtedly two of the biggest influences my career has ever had. They kept me on for the rest of the run of the Mercer Report - eight seasons. Other that show, they have also provided me with every major writing credit I have. Canada 150 from Parliament Hill, Giller Prize, CBC New Years specials, Just for Laughs galas, theatre tours, and my small collection of Canadian Screen Awards. I'm happy to be still working with Rick and looking forward to our next project.
Also having a lot of fun with my country character, Dusty Fenders and being back out on the standup stage, especially out with my buddy Jim McNally who's been there right from the touring years in the 90s. Please check the listings to see where we'll be next.
