Conrad Black Spoofs Self On CBC Comedy Video

By: Mark Fitzgerald Conrad Black may be facing years in prison and the loss of his fortune and the Palm Beach, Fla., mansion where he's holed up awaiting sentencing on U.S. fraud charges, but he demonstrated on Canadian television that's he's still good for a laugh -- on himself.

Black appeared Tuesday night on the season opener of the CBC-TV comedy show "The Rick Mercer Report." The three-minute segment was filmed at the Palm Beach home, where Black has been staying since a federal judge prohibited him from returning to Canada before his sentencing Nov. 30.

The Celebrity Tip With Conrad Black segment opens with Black, in an open-necked shirt and sports coat, walking from the shadows as an announcer intones, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Officer of the Order of Canada, Knight of the Order of St. Gregory, doctor of laws, distinguished entrepreneur, philanthropist, and noted author, Lord of Crossharbour, Conrad Black."

Looking into the camera, Black says, "You can call me Connie."

In a Martha Stewart-like segment, he deadpans that he will demonstrate the "ancient art of waxing maple leaves." To press the leaves, he selected the tomes he wrote on U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

At the end, he shows off his handiwork and says: "Here we have a perfectly waxed maple leaf, a great solace to everyone and especially to those who, for complicated reasons, can't at firsthand observe the changing of the seasons this autumn in Canada."

In an interview with Canadian Press, host Rick Mercer said it was difficult to convince Black -- who showed his contempt for the press during his trial by once giving the finger to waiting reporters and intentionally shouldering a cameraman -- to tape the segment.

"After negotiating this, I could probably handle Middle East peace," CP quoted Mercer as saying with a laugh. "I'm nothing if not tenacious. I just basically wouldn't take no for an answer, and that seemed to work. It certainly wasn't something that happened overnight; it's something I started working on during the trial, actually, and luckily it worked out."

Mercer has been merciless on Black in the past, once, in an October 2006 "rant," that his request to regain his Canadian citizenship has "every man, woman, and child was united and gloating as one." Black had abandoned his Canadian citizenship to become "Lord Poo-Poo of Cross-Dressing."

In a tiff with the then-prime minister, Black renounced his citizenship to accept an appointment to the British House of Lords.

Black and three other former top executives of the Chicago Sun-Times parent then known as Hollinger International Inc. were convicted on three counts of mail fraud July 13 following a 15-week trial in Chicago. Black was also convicted on obstruction of justice.