WAITING FOR GUFFMAN—eight years after the immortal This Is Spinal Tap, which he wrote and appeared in (as ‘Nigel Tufnel’), prodigiously talented, luck-blessed Christopher Guest co-wrote, directed & starred in this very funny 1996 peach affectionately sending up amateur theatricals and small-town Americana. Co-wrote (with Eugene Levy) is more correctly co-conceived, with Guest, Levy and their ace cast of cut-ups then improvising their dialogue and movements. Three weeks of shooting produced 60 hours of material that Guest spent 18 months paring down to 84 minutes of running time. The deadpan mirth set up cued-in fans for the river of joys that flow through Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Mascots and Spinal Tap II.

“He’s teaching me to change my instincts… or at least ignore them.”

‘Blaine’, Missouri. The burg celebrates its 150th anniversary with Red, White and Blaine, a musical play staged by wispy ‘Corky St. Clair’ (Guest), formerly of off-off-off-Broadway. Corky and his musical director (Bob Balaban) clash over how to motivate the cast, which includes married travel agents ‘Ron & Sheila’ (Fred Willard & Catherine O’Hara), dentist-with-a-talent-ache ‘Allan Pearl’ (Levy) and ‘Libby Mae Brown’ (Parker Posey), a chipper if vacuous Dairy Queen veteran.

Only the most wretchedly wimpus woke wringer could take offense from Guest’s precisely priss Corky, whose Judy-genial gayness is coding by skywriting: Corky’s loafers couldn’t be lighter if they were made out of Frosted Flakes. Balaban has patient seething mastered, Willard is full-on Fred, Levy bumbles to a tee. O’Hara’s drunk scene at a restaurant is a miniature master class and Posey is priceless, a model of character observation made manifest. The impersonations aren’t put-downs: while hilarious they’re sympathetic. Everyone needs something they can feel proud of, themselves, their work, their place. Guest & friends make us guests & friends.

Critics clapped but the $4,000,000 gem only earned $2,900,000 in the States, 170th place in 1996. None of the Guest & Co. ‘mockumentaries’ (he doesn’t care for the designation because the characters aren’t mocked—that’s more the Coen Zone) have been big moneymakers: unsurprising since they’re too smart for the country they take place in.

“We consider ourselves bi-coastal if you consider the Mississippi River one of the coasts.”

Shot in Lockhart, the “Barbecue Capital of Texas”. With Lewis Arquette, Larry Miller, Michael Hitchcock, Don Lake, Matt Keesler (‘Johnny Savage’), Linda Kash, Paul Dooley (“probed” by aliens), David Cross, Brian Doyle-Murray, Paul Benedict, Jean Fuller (piano lady). Lou Christie (“Lightning Strikes”) and Bob Odenkirk can be glimpsed if you don’t blink.