I managed to get four tickets to the Rick Mercer Report live taping for Friday night, Susan and I were going to go with friends, but plans changed, so Angela and Claudia came with us. Gillian had her Grade 11 semi-formal that she was attending. The taping is at the CBC Broadcasting Centre on Front Street. Here is Roy Thompson Hall.

Looking north-west from near Metro Hall.

Near the eternal flame outside Metro Hall. We had dinner at Sushi Oniwa Japanese Restaurant on King Street W. We were headed to the Swiss Chalet that was next door, but it has since closed down.

The girls waiting for the show to begin.

He does some crowd interaction at the beginning.

For the segments of the show that are done on location, he comes out and introduces the segment and then they play it on the video screens. This week he was in Ottawa at the Governor General’s residence and working at the Chateau Laurier. The show will air on Tuesday February 14th.

During the show he is always chatting with the floor director.

Rick waving to someone in the audience.

The audience holds 350 people, and almost every friday night for 20 weeks it is full. The best chance for rush tickets are if there is a snow storm, since the tickets are free, people are more apt to not show up if the weather is bad.

Waiting for the crew to install his desk.

The end of show 15 of season 9.

The wait to meet Rick Mercer wasn’t that long, or we got out of the studio quicker. He liked Claudia’s panda hat. He talked about the pandas coming to Canada and what citizenship a baby panda would be if born here.

 The Mr Dressup display in the CBC Museum.

 Angela and Claudia in front of Casey and Finnegan’s treehouse. The original show had gone off the air before either of the girls were born.

Both Angela and Claudia really enjoyed the show.