Actor recounts growing up in St. John’s

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This article was published 20/11/2018 (2849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Anyone familiar with Mark Critch’s antics on CBC’s This Hour has 22 Minutes won’t be surprised his memoir never gets too heavy or bleak. Instead, the 44-year-old performer and comedy writer crafted a lighthearted book filled with childhood memories, his first forays of performing and the love he developed for his hometown of St. John’s, N.L.

Critch comes to Winnipeg today in support of his new book Son of a Critch: A Childish Newfoundland Memoir. He will read from the book and have a conversation with local comedian Dean Jenkinson at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location in an event co-presented by the Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

The book details Critch’s experience growing up on the far outskirts of St. John’s. “Everyone thinks of Newfoundland and they think of lighthouses and whales and icebergs — that wasn’t my experience,” Critch says by phone from Charlottetown — where he had launched his book the night before — in advance of his Winnipeg appearance. “My life was living next to a radio station, and the transport trucks that would drive past the house (on the Trans-Canada Highway) all the time.”

Until he began grade school at St. Teresa’s — a Catholic school where he quickly developed his sense of humour and comedic timing to avoid being bullied — Critch’s primary knowledge of St. John’s was limited to the family’s small home located next to radio station VOCM, where his father, Mike, worked as a broadcaster.

It wasn’t until even later in his childhood that Critch began going downtown to act in plays during his high school years — an activity that led to his pursuing a career in entertainment, which was briefly protested by his father — and truly developed a sense of the city. “I love St. John’s — part of my love of it probably comes from the whole city opening up to me in my teenage years,” he explains. “I got to fall in love with the place as I entered adolescence.”

The book’s title tips the hat to the comedic nature of the 22 Minutes co-star’s sense of humour, but it also plays into Critch’s experiences as both the son of a well-known broadcaster as well as his own celebrity. “Everyone knew my dad from the radio,” Critch says. They’d say, ‘Oh, you’re Mike Critch’s kid.’ My kids have the same experience with me — ‘Oh, you’re Mark Critch’s kid.’”

Critch’s two sons have developed interests of their own in the performing arts — just like their dad; younger son Will has just started acting in local theatre, while older son Jacob has been accepted into the music program at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. “You’re supposed to encourage them to do the sensible thing, but one of the great joys that I’ve seen in life is that if you can find something you love for a living, you’ve hacked life,” he says, before adding “although I thought it would skip a generation, that I’d get a dentist or something.”

Critch had hoped his mother, Mary, would be the first person to read his memoir; however, over the course of a month — while Critch was still writing the book — she took ill and died shortly after he had submitted his manuscript. “I’d talk to her about certain aspects of growing up, and get some clarification on certain things,” Critch says. “Writing the book helped me deal with her death — doing so much looking back and reflecting was so helpful, and I’m so thankful and appreciative.”

That reflection helped Critch put his parents’ support into perspective, both as a child and as a parent himself. “As I was writing, I became more and more appreciative of my parents — you see all the little gentle pushes and nudges people give you along the way to keep you on a path, or to support you, that you’re not really aware of at the time,” he says. “Whatever my kids want to do in life, I’m more than happy to support.”

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