Harry Shearer-Actor, author, Radio Personality, Musician
Le Show, Plain Clothes, Miami Vice, Portrait of a White Marriage, Merrill Markoe's Guide to Glamorous Living, My Stepmother is an Alien
Interview with Harry Shearer-June 23, 2012
picture taken from imdb
picture taken from imdb
We are honored today to have Mr. Harry Shearer with us at the film project. He has spent his life as an actor, a voice artist, author, satirist, musician, and so much more. Of course, he has also spent the last 25 years voicing some of the most adored characters on The Simpsons including Mr Burns, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Otto, Kent Brockman, and Reverend Lovejoy, among others. He is the author of several books, runs a regular satirical radio program called Le Show, has appeared in more than 50 movies (of which the Christopher Guest series top my list of Harry Shearer favorites, as well as his role as Handsome Dan in Wayne’s World 2, and the announcer in “Little Giants”). I would love to talk to him about his amazing career that spans through his time spent with Jack Benny and Mel Blanc, being cast as the original Eddie Haskell, and working an amazing run of films and activities. But, of course we are the 1988 film project and must hold to our mission of gaining voices from 1988 for our archives. In 1988 Harry could not only be heard and seen in and on his radio show Le Show, but also in My Stepmother is an Alien , Merrill Markoe’s Guide to Glamorous Living, and Plain Clothes(another one of my all time favorites!), and a spot on Miami Vice. He performed his comedy show, The Magic of Live and attended his first New Orleans and Jazz and Heritage Festival. We are so excited that Harry Shearer has agreed to join us to talk about 1988. Welcome Mr. Shearer to the 1988 project.
88 Project: What do remember most about 1988?(film wise, politically, personally, whatever you would like to talk about)
Harry Shearer: I most remember doing the HBO special, and going to New Orleans 3 times after I fell in love with it at Jazzfest.
88 project; I was reading your satirical scripts about Reagan that you wrote towards the end of his Presidency in 1988. Do you think satire has changed since 1988 and does the country still have a spot for satire?
Harry Shearer: I think a certain, very partisan kind of satire, is more successful than ever. But when a Nobel Peace Prize-winning President has a “kill list”, and most working satirists prefer to focus on Romney’s dog, something’s off.
88 project: If you could go back to 1988 and change something, would you and what would you change?
Harry Shearer: I loved 88. It was a year in the century with a number that matched the number of keys on the piano. What’s to fix?
88 project: You have reportedly gone to the New Orleans jazz festival every year since 1988. How did that first experience in 1988 bond you to the culture and to the city itself?
Harry Shearer: Jazzfest opened the door, as it has for so many, to a city that is one of a kind in this country. I fell in love in about 18 hours.
88 project: The 80′s was awash in stand up comedy; the brick wall, the smoky room, the hecklers. Networks began snatching up these comedians to create sitcoms. HBO, VH1, and more were all running comedy specials. It became such a prominent part of our culture that they made the movie “Punchline” in 1988. How would say that your show “The Magic of Live” differed from the other shows at the time?
Harry Shearer: I don’t think the show stood out at all. HBO gave it to me as a consolation prize for another project gone bust. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the show, it made fun of the whole “live” concept, which I found lame.
88 project: How did the 88 writer’s strike impact your work as a writer and a comedian?
Harry Shearer: The Writers’ strike inspired a song which was the closing number in “Magic of Live”, “We Write the Stuff” which I sang in a white tux surrounded by giant pencils.
Project:The Lightning fun round:
It is 1988, you are listening music at the radio station. The song you don’t mind hearing over and over is___________________________
A. George Michael’s “Faith”
B. Whitney Houston “I get so Emotional”
C. Beach Boys “Kokomo”
D. Debbie Gibson “Foolish Beat”
E. Bobby McFerrin “Don’t Worry Be Happy”
F. Guns N Roses “Sweet Child of Mine”
G. None of the above, I preferred to listen to __________________________________
Harry Shearer: None of the above. I preferred to listen to The Smithereens
(Here is a link to The Smithereens, Green Thoughts)
Project It is 1988, you want to catch a movie. What are you most likely to watch out of the top 10 movies that year?
a. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
b. Rain Man
c. Cocktail
d. Big
e. Twins
f. Crocodile Dundee II
g. Naked Gun
h. Beetlejuice
i. Coming to America
j. None of the above, I preferred to watch______________________________________
Harry Shearer: Naked Gun
Project: It is 1988, you have downtime from work. You were most likely to read____________
a. a Tom Clancy book
b. Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”
c. Stephen King’s “The Tommy Knockers”
d. Thomas Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”
e. None of the above, I was reading ______________________________________________
Harry Shearer: Not Thomas, Tom. Different guys. I bought “Brief History of Time” then. Still waiting to read it. Time’s a bitch.
MY INTERJECTION : I just slapped my own head for being so absent minded as to put Thomas Wolfe…when the book is sitting right in front of me on my shelf. I feel like I just lost a shred of 88 cred. But bonus points to Harry Shearer for being the first one to call me on it in 7 interviews.
Project: It is 1988, you manage to catch some TV …would it most likely be?
a. Roseanne
b. The Cosby Show
c. Cheers
d. The Wonder Years
e. None of the above I was watching ______________________________________________
Harry Shearer: I was watching VHS’s of the early “French and Saunders” shows from UK. Sue me. I’m a f#@* ! ng snob.
(here is a link to French and Saunders in “Computer Trouble“
Project: Bonus Questions:What are you working on right now?
Harry Shearer: Doing the next 5 episodes of “Nixon’s the One”, a comedy series about a former US President for Sky TV in UK, and just about to release my 4th album of (mainly) comedy music, with amazing and famous guest stars, “Can’t Take a Hint”.
88 Project: Do you have a particular character you like to do best on The Simpsons?
Harry Shearer: C Montgomery Burns. He has the guts to be pure evil, never trying to dilute it with fake TV goodness.
88 project:Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. Thank you also for great performances and memorable pop culture.
Harry Shearer: Thanks for asking, my pleasure
88 Project: What do remember most about 1988?(film wise, politically, personally, whatever you would like to talk about)
Harry Shearer: I most remember doing the HBO special, and going to New Orleans 3 times after I fell in love with it at Jazzfest.
88 project; I was reading your satirical scripts about Reagan that you wrote towards the end of his Presidency in 1988. Do you think satire has changed since 1988 and does the country still have a spot for satire?
Harry Shearer: I think a certain, very partisan kind of satire, is more successful than ever. But when a Nobel Peace Prize-winning President has a “kill list”, and most working satirists prefer to focus on Romney’s dog, something’s off.
88 project: If you could go back to 1988 and change something, would you and what would you change?
Harry Shearer: I loved 88. It was a year in the century with a number that matched the number of keys on the piano. What’s to fix?
88 project: You have reportedly gone to the New Orleans jazz festival every year since 1988. How did that first experience in 1988 bond you to the culture and to the city itself?
Harry Shearer: Jazzfest opened the door, as it has for so many, to a city that is one of a kind in this country. I fell in love in about 18 hours.
88 project: The 80′s was awash in stand up comedy; the brick wall, the smoky room, the hecklers. Networks began snatching up these comedians to create sitcoms. HBO, VH1, and more were all running comedy specials. It became such a prominent part of our culture that they made the movie “Punchline” in 1988. How would say that your show “The Magic of Live” differed from the other shows at the time?
Harry Shearer: I don’t think the show stood out at all. HBO gave it to me as a consolation prize for another project gone bust. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the show, it made fun of the whole “live” concept, which I found lame.
88 project: How did the 88 writer’s strike impact your work as a writer and a comedian?
Harry Shearer: The Writers’ strike inspired a song which was the closing number in “Magic of Live”, “We Write the Stuff” which I sang in a white tux surrounded by giant pencils.
Project:The Lightning fun round:
It is 1988, you are listening music at the radio station. The song you don’t mind hearing over and over is___________________________
A. George Michael’s “Faith”
B. Whitney Houston “I get so Emotional”
C. Beach Boys “Kokomo”
D. Debbie Gibson “Foolish Beat”
E. Bobby McFerrin “Don’t Worry Be Happy”
F. Guns N Roses “Sweet Child of Mine”
G. None of the above, I preferred to listen to __________________________________
Harry Shearer: None of the above. I preferred to listen to The Smithereens
(Here is a link to The Smithereens, Green Thoughts)
Project It is 1988, you want to catch a movie. What are you most likely to watch out of the top 10 movies that year?
a. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
b. Rain Man
c. Cocktail
d. Big
e. Twins
f. Crocodile Dundee II
g. Naked Gun
h. Beetlejuice
i. Coming to America
j. None of the above, I preferred to watch______________________________________
Harry Shearer: Naked Gun
Project: It is 1988, you have downtime from work. You were most likely to read____________
a. a Tom Clancy book
b. Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”
c. Stephen King’s “The Tommy Knockers”
d. Thomas Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”
e. None of the above, I was reading ______________________________________________
Harry Shearer: Not Thomas, Tom. Different guys. I bought “Brief History of Time” then. Still waiting to read it. Time’s a bitch.
MY INTERJECTION : I just slapped my own head for being so absent minded as to put Thomas Wolfe…when the book is sitting right in front of me on my shelf. I feel like I just lost a shred of 88 cred. But bonus points to Harry Shearer for being the first one to call me on it in 7 interviews.
Project: It is 1988, you manage to catch some TV …would it most likely be?
a. Roseanne
b. The Cosby Show
c. Cheers
d. The Wonder Years
e. None of the above I was watching ______________________________________________
Harry Shearer: I was watching VHS’s of the early “French and Saunders” shows from UK. Sue me. I’m a f#@* ! ng snob.
(here is a link to French and Saunders in “Computer Trouble“
Project: Bonus Questions:What are you working on right now?
Harry Shearer: Doing the next 5 episodes of “Nixon’s the One”, a comedy series about a former US President for Sky TV in UK, and just about to release my 4th album of (mainly) comedy music, with amazing and famous guest stars, “Can’t Take a Hint”.
88 Project: Do you have a particular character you like to do best on The Simpsons?
Harry Shearer: C Montgomery Burns. He has the guts to be pure evil, never trying to dilute it with fake TV goodness.
88 project:Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. Thank you also for great performances and memorable pop culture.
Harry Shearer: Thanks for asking, my pleasure