“We never wrapped ourselves in the flag,” like the Americans, writes Canadian TV star Mark Critch in his new book, Sorry Not Sorry: An Unapologetic Look at What Makes Canada Worth Fighting For,  “. . . perhaps because stripes are more slimming than the Maple Leaf.”

It’s a good line, both incisive and absurd – a brand of comedy that Critch knows perhaps all too well, having spent 23 years on CBC’s stalwart sketch comedy show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Of course, he’s also the creator and star of the CBC hit Son of a Critch, about family life in Newfoundland, circa the 1980s and ’90s.

“We’ve never been the big chest thumpers,” he elaborated to Zoomer recently in a call from St. John’s. Ironically, though, it is President Trump who’s made us conscious of our nation in a transformational way, Critch argues, adding that with the U.S. president’s browbeating of Canada over the last year and a half, it “reminded us of our sovereignty.”

And is Trump, indeed, who prompted him to conceive this book, written in a white-hot rage over just a three-month period? “I was actually writing a different, historical-fiction book, set in Newfoundland,” says Critch. “And I kept hearing Mr. Trump in the background on the news, talking about 51st state, and all that stuff.”

Operation hard pivot! Fortunately, his publishers were all for it. “A random book of essays,” is how the funnyman adroitly sums up the book that he ended up writing. “Some of it is historical, whether talking about the flag or whatnot. Others are more like: ‘Hey, what if Santa got taken in by ICE?’” Some of it veers toward the nostalgic – like a consideration of Canadian icon, Ernie Coombs, a.k.a. Mr. Dressup. And, in what feels like a very personal chapter, Critch evaluates the place of the monarchy in Canada, recalling his mother’s excitement when Queen Elizabeth II visited Newfoundland way back in 1978.

When I told him that parts of his book reminded me of the forky stylings of satirist Christopher Buckley, he was flattered. David Sedaris is always an influence, he adds. And, of course, the patter of Stephen Colbert.

About the idea of political satire itself – a tradition that goes back to Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain – Critch, 51, says: “Comedians are kind of a voice of the people.”

We asked this “voice” to tell us more about the books that have shaped him, and continue to do so. Critch was happy to fill us in!    

 

What’s the best book you’ve read this year?

I don’t get to read as much as I want to, but I loved An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit, and Exile by Linden MacIntyre. About Sir Hugh Tudor! He was Churchill’s best friend. Tells the story of this man in history – the before and after. It’s a fascinating life.

What book can’t you wait to dive into?

My buddy [Great Big Sea frontman] Alan Doyle’s book, A Smiling Land.

What’s your favourite book of all time?

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston. Yeah, it’s the Newfoundland thing again: a fictionalized telling of the story of Joey Smallwood, the premier who brought us into Confederation. It’s a beautiful mix of history and prose. 

What book completely changed your perspective?

Naked, by David Sedaris. It was his second book. The way he wrote about his family, in a kind of brazen, unfiltered way – it was critical but loving, beautiful yet darkly funny. When I read it, it was like hearing a band play a different kind of groove for the first time.  

If you could have dinner with any author, living or dead, who would it be?

I’m going to cheat a bit and say Charlie Chaplin. He did write an autobiography. It was one I read when I was pretty young. That story of going from intense poverty – a family begging on the streets in Victorian England – to becoming the most well-known person on earth because of silent movies. I think his life was unlike anything else!