No one has really just ‘heard of’ Mark Meer. They either know exactly who he is or haven’t the foggiest idea. Despite the fact that he is very much Alberta-centric, he has accrued a very international fan base, which tends to happen when you’re involved in something as big as Bioware gaming.

While Meer has voiced many characters, Commander Shepard in the popular video game series Mass Effect is probably one of his most well known roles, as he knows too. A couple of years back, when a friend of his made him a set of Commander Shepard’s space-age badass astronaut armour, Meer wore it gleefully to Dragon*Con, no less. Dragon*Con is one of the largest geek conventions in North America, and the four day outing has managed to turn into a six day party by its members. There is a well-documented moment on YouTube where a fan, videotaping the costume parade, realizes that it’s Meer cosplaying as his own character, and freaks out.

"I’m not going to pretend that I don’t have that bookmarked, because it is pretty awesome," Meer admitted. He is a striking and angular man, but affable enough that you almost don’t notice it. He emanates friendly vibes, and is enthusiastic about what he does and the industry he is in. He is a nerd, first and foremost, and he says he’s lucky to be in the position where work and pleasure overlap. "I have been going to Dragon*Con since 1998 as a fan. A few years ago, I started going as a guest."

When we asked him about his main draw in going to conventions, and if he looks forward to the other guests, he answered that he has "always been more of a merch guy. In my first years of Dragon*Con I would hit the dealer room. Now that I’ve got this gig I’m fortunate enough that I get to share the green room with the other guests, and I get to meet them that way. I do still line up for comic creators’ autographs."

While pop culture and comics are all well and good, maybe that’s not where you know Meer from. You might know him from a couple of years back, when he had a monthly stint in drag. Oh Susanna! was a monthly variety talk show hosted by Mark as the titular character, Susanna Patchouli, and ran at Edmonton’s Varscona Theatre for 14 seasons. "It was a combination of a talk show and a variety show. We had jugglers, animal acts, puppets – all kinds of things. We usually taught the audience how to make a cocktail and then handed that cocktail out to the audience. It was a lot of fun."

Unable to commit to the show any longer, Oh Susanna! has since been replaced by That’s Terrific!, which runs with a different set of hosts, still on a monthly basis.

More recently Meer has been involved in live recordings of a sketch comedy show called The Irrelevant Show. "Almost every comedy show on CBC always had something to do with current events and politics. All great shows – but we wanted to do a show where, say, I wanted to do a sketch about Darth Vader getting a performance review from his boss; sketches that weren’t tied directly to Canadian politics."

Meer’s sense of humour is full swing; he is also one of the principal characters on Canadian TV Show Tiny Plastic Men, a sketch comedy surrounding the lives of three toy and game testers. The show involves madcap adventures, many references to ninjas, and general self-mockery of fandom and its subcultures. For those interested, don’t fret: episodes, promos and much more are available on Tiny Plastic Men’s official YouTube channel.

Suffice it to say, Meer has certainly accumulated a varied resume. He has donned both armour and lipstick in his line of work, and so naturally we wanted to know how it was learning to get into the dress. "Usually it was a miniskirt," he corrected. "I had to show off my legs. The least comfortable, hardest part of it was definitely the shoes. Luckily, Susanna Patchouli mostly sat down and interviewed the guests."

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Contributor Jason Clevett |

Person Mark Meer |

Topic Calgary Expo | Celebrity Interview |Comic Expo | Edmonton Expo |