Rick Mercer makes a splash in New West

Comedian Rick Mercer has made a splash as a merman thanks to a New West mermaid.

Along with being a professional harpist, longtime resident Lori Pappajohn is a “professional mermaid” with Mermaids International, which offers mermaid parties. She thought Mercer would be an ideal merman – and wasn’t disappointed when he taped a segment for the Rick Mercer Report.

“He’s a natural merman,” she said. “He had fun, we had fun. What’s great about him is he is a comedian so he’s making it up on the fly. It’s just so funny. We just laughed and laughed.”

Pappajohn said Mercer is really coordinated and mastered some of the trickier merman moves with ease. She’s been “mermaiding” for more than five years.

“It’s a total different way of swimming. When you are swimming you are kicking and pulling yourself through the water. As soon as you put the tail on, you’re no longer doing that. You literally become like a dolphin or a whale. It’s a totally different feel,” she said. “I always say watching a mermaid swim underwater is like poetry.”

Pappajohn recently emailed Mercer to see if he’d like to don a tail and be a merman for the Rick Mercer Report.

“The man is brilliant,” she said. “He likes to do fun and crazy things, and this is pretty crazy.”

Pappajohn will be tuning in for the season opener of the Rick Mercer Report, when the segment airs on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. on CBC

Within weeks of emailing the Rick Mercer Report, Mercer and his crew were sitting in her living room.

“He had to try on his merman tail. You’ve got to make sure it fits, right?” said the longtime New West resident and former Record reporter. “It was bizarre to see Rick Mercer sitting on my couch in my living room. How do you wrap your head around that? A national treasure sitting on your couch.”

The following day, the mermaids and film crew headed to the Vancouver Aquarium where Mercer took the plunge.

“He shot in one of the tanks with the fish,” Pappajohn said. “We assisted with that but we didn’t go in – it was six degrees.”

In the days that followed, the Rick Mercer Report filmed at Second Beach and Kitsilano Pool, Vancouver’s only salt-water pool. Pappajohn and several other mermaids, including some local kids, joined Mercer in the pool.

“He is so funny, he actually got suspenders. He didn’t need them but why not?” Pappajohn said. “He’s a rad kind of merman. What merman has suspenders other than him?”

Pappajohn is pleased to see the myth of mermaids resurfacing.

“Mermaids have been in every culture, literally from Chile to China. They are just part of every cultures folklore. The folklore has been around for over 3,000 years. It goes back to ancient Syria. So it’s there in our psyche as a myth,” she said. “I think in our modern age that myth is laying quiet. Suddenly this whole mermaid thing has been more in the forefront with people doing it.”

A freelance journalist, Pappajohn wrote an article about mermaid tail creator Monika Naumann, which led to an appearance on Good Morning America in 2012.

“Once you’ve done Good Morning America and Rick Mercer, you might as well pack your tail up and go home,” she laughed, when asked about future plans. “It doesn’t get any bigger than this.”