{"id":32,"date":"2019-04-06T22:25:25","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T22:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:04:01","slug":"bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/bio\/","title":{"rendered":"Bio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In over 30 years of performing, Rick Currie has earned a reputation as one of the country\u2019s most popular and consistently hilarious performers. His whimsical and sometimes musical act stands out as an example of excellent writing and timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">His work has been featured on\u00a0<strong>CTV, SiriusXM,\u00a0CBC Television<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>CBC Radio<\/strong>. Rick has also taken the stage at major festivals including\u00a0<strong>Just for Laughs,\u00a0Winnipeg Comedy Festival<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>Halifax Comedy Festival<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">His country\u2011crooner alter ego, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dustybucks.ca\">Dusty Bucks<\/a><\/strong>, is another crowd favourite, charming audiences wherever he performs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Rick\u2019s writing credits span some of Canada\u2019s biggest broadcasts, including\u00a0<strong>The Scotiabank Giller Prize, the\u00a0Canadian Country Music Awards<\/strong>, six <strong>national\u00a0CBC New Year\u2019s Eve\u00a0specials<\/strong>, and\u00a0the <strong>Canada 150\u00a0celebrations<\/strong> live from Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For eight seasons, Rick was a staff writer on\u00a0CBC\u2019s\u00a0<strong>Rick Mercer Report<\/strong>, where he collected\u00a0three <strong>Canadian Screen Awards<\/strong>. He continues to collaborate with the Rick Mercer team on select projects, most recently the\u00a0<strong>2025 \u201cStand Up for Canada\u201d\u00a0national theatre tour<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"220\" src=\"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/FathersOfConfederation.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/FathersOfConfederation.jpg 550w, https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/FathersOfConfederation-350x140.jpg 350w, https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/FathersOfConfederation-300x120.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The early days &#8211; these guys loved my bit about railroad food!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">THE LONG STORY<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick\u2019s comedy career began in high school in 1984\u2014yes, 1984\u2014when he landed a job running sound and lights at Ottawa\u2019s improv club Skit Row. From the booth, he learned by watching a troupe that regularly sold out shows, eventually joining them as stage manager for three National Arts Centre productions, the Miss Grey Cup Pageant, a run in London, England, and a CBC national TV pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the late \u201980s, Rick stepped out of the wings and onto the stage. After a short stint at Yuk Yuks amateur nights, he was touring comedy clubs and one\u2011nighters across Canada. His clean, whimsical style quickly found a home on the national circuit, leading to bigger stages throughout the \u201990s across Canada, Europe, and the U.S. Highlights include CBC Radio\u2019s <em>Madly Off in All Directions<\/em>, the Comedy Network\u2019s <em>Club 54<\/em>, Toronto\u2019s People\u2019s Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs in Montreal, and roles in national TV ads and films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick returned to Ottawa in 1999 and became widely recognized for the parody \u201cI Am an Ottawa Senators Fan,\u201d played nightly at the Corel Centre during the 2000 playoffs and broadcast across North America. That same year, he produced <em>The Ottawa Comedy Collision<\/em>, a sold\u2011out fundraiser at Barrymore\u2019s benefiting the Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2001, Rick was selected from hundreds of applicants to join the writing team for <em>Open Mike with Mike Bullard<\/em>, where his material appeared nightly for four seasons. Other early\u20112000s highlights include a standout set at Yuk Yuks\u2019 25th Anniversary Show at the NAC, a <em>Comedy Now!<\/em> special for CTV, and multiple appearances on CBC Radio\u2019s <em>The Debaters<\/em>. He also served as remote correspondent for 93.9 BOB FM\u2019s <em>The Morning After with JR and Sandy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick performed at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival in 2008 and 2009 (both aired on CBC TV), and in 2009 Ottawa embraced his viral \u201cOC Transpo Strike Song.\u201d Another gala TV taping followed at the Halifax Comedy Festival in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2010, Rick joined the writing team for CBC\u2019s <em>Rick Mercer Report<\/em>, remaining until the show wrapped in 2018. Career highlights include writing a sketch filmed aboard the International Space Station, scripting a bit in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared \u201ca national 24\u2011hour period of peace and forgiveness,\u201d and winning three Canadian Screen Awards for Best Writing in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick has continued collaborating with Rick Mercer on numerous projects, including the Canadian Country Music Awards, Canada 150 celebrations on Parliament Hill, six national CBC New Year\u2019s Eve specials, the 2018, 2023, and 2025 Scotiabank Giller Prize broadcasts, and <em>Just For Laughs: Comedy Night with Rick Mercer<\/em>\u2014both the TV series and national theatre tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most recently, he toured the country with the 2025 <em>Stand Up for Canada with Rick Mercer<\/em> national theatre tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick Currie still performs at clubs, theatres, and private events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In over 30 years of performing, Rick Currie has earned a reputation as one of the country\u2019s most popular and consistently hilarious performers. His whimsical and sometimes musical act stands out as an example of excellent writing and timing. His work has been featured on\u00a0CTV, SiriusXM,\u00a0CBC Television and\u00a0CBC Radio. Rick has also taken the stage &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/bio\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Bio&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-32","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5949,"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions\/5949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickcurrie.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}