A conversation with Harry Shearer
The actor/director/radio personality/voiceover specialist/etc./etc. brings his film “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” to the St. Louis International Film Festival.
STLtoday.com, November 14, 2001
Here’s my favorite memory of the multi-talented Harry Shearer. Some years ago, when he was promoting a concert tour by his mock-heavy metal band Spinal Tap (Shearer plays bassist Derek Smalls, of cucumber-enhanced trousers fame), he called me on the phone in character, and proceeded to give me one of the funniest interviews I’ve ever conducted.
It may be true that I was just lobbing him softballs, but Smalls—er, Shearer—didn’t fail to systematically knock each one of them out of the park. For example, in the movie “This Is Spinal Tap” the group distinguishes itself by becoming “England’s loudest band.” So I asked him, “Aren’t you worried about the music’s effects on your internal organs?”
“Oh no,” he replied in a faux English accent. “The bass, if played very loud, will make you eliminate and evacuate on sudden notice, but aside from that it can do no lasting damage. And actually, most people these days don’t get enough fiber anyway, so loud bass really compensates. It sort of returns you to nature’s balance.”
And so it went for 45 minutes or an hour, with me getting a private performance by one of the sharpest comedic minds of our time. But the real fun – for me, anyway – actually occurred when I finished my interview with Smalls, and asked him if I could talk to Harry. Shearer is known for disappearing very deeply into the characters that he plays, so I thought it best to handle the transition that way.
“I’ll see if I can find him,” Smalls replied, and then proceeded to put me on hold for THREE SOLID MINUTES. The next voice I heard was a winded Harry Shearer, sounding like he’d just bounded it after being called off the tennis court. Don’t ask me why, but I found that absolutely hilarious.
That’s the thing about Shearer, though. His comedy can be outrageous, but he always makes sure to pay attention to the details. When he writes a joke, all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed.
Shearer’s new film, “Teddy Bears' Picnic” is full of such nuances. It’s about an ultra-exclusive men’s retreat, based on an actual rich men’s enclave called Bohemian Grove, where Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, William F. Buckley, and Malcolm Forbes have frolicked over the years.
While taking on such a topic might be seem like shooting fish in a barrel—imagine what Michael Moore might do with it, for example—Shearer relies less on the situation and more on the characters he creates—in this case, a hapless university official, a father and son who own a basketball team, a Senator who wants to "just deregulate the hell out of" the nuclear power industry, and various entertainers, bureaucrats and high-ranking executives of American commerce—and the way they interact when it all hits the fan.
“Teddy Bears' Picnic” is an independent film, and was shot quickly and on a shoestring budget. Still, the quality of the film is of a standard we’ve come to expect from Shearer, who may indeed be the hardest working man in show business. In addition to the film, he is the voice of numerous characters on “The Simpsons,” host of his own weekly radio show, called “Le Show,” and producer of a number of comedic CDs and books.
He “spoke” with STLtoday.com via email earlier this week.
STLtoday.com: The funny disclaimer at the film's opening says that “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” has nothing to do with the real such retreat, Bohemian Grove, but obviously it does. How did you get interested in that as a topic for a film?
Shearer: I was approached quite a while ago by two indie film producers from San Francisco who wanted to do some kind of movie, probably a drama, about the Grove. I said it sounded like a comedy to me, and they had the connections to make some fairly exhaustive research possible. I wrote the script for them, after which they fairly promptly went out of business.
STLtoday.com: Do you know of anyone who's actually been to Bohemian Grove?
Shearer: I talked to ex-members, sons of members, hookers who serviced members, and I actually got to look at the posters and memorabilia of the shows they do. After having finished the script, I even (coincidentally) got invited to, and spent a weekend at, the Grove.
STLtoday.com: Was the film shot completely as written, or was there room for some improv?
Shearer: I explained to everybody, since so many of the cast are great improv artists, that we didn't have the time or budget for that luxury. So I asked that any ideas they had about dialogue they present to me in advance, and if I liked 'em, we'd shoot em. Several of the performers did so, and their contributions are reflected in the final film. But, those additions and changes aside, we shot as scripted.
STLtoday.com: You have such a great ensemble cast—Michael McKean, Fred Willard, George Wendt, Henry Gibson, Bob Einstein (a.k.a. Super Dave Osborne), Howard Hesseman, etc. Talk about working with some of them—a good-behind-the-scenes story, if you please.
Shearer: Everybody approached this little project with a great attitude and spirit. But I could never quite figure out if Bob Einstein and Kenny Mars (playing son and father) were just kidding around in the spirit of their parts or if they really were getting on each other's nerves. Bob kept asking me if I intended to use all of Kenny's spitting, and Kenny behaved as if he was waiting for Bob to start acting. It was funny, and a little unnerving, but what ended up on the screen was great.
STLtoday.com: I thought a couple of the actors were really good sports, especially Alan Thicke and the others who play themselves.
Shearer: Alan is a major good sport, since I've been making fun of him, even playing him, on radio and TV for years. [Dick] Butkus and Pete Marshall came in at the absolute last minute and were totally wonderful.
STLtoday.com: Even though there are plot elements in the film--the fire, the news expose, etc., character really drives this piece forward. Is that your preferred way of working?
Shearer: My preferred form for the stuff I do is a very simple story, which this is, giving fullest room for a number of characters to reveal their funny aspects. It's very hard for me to write a small-cast piece—my next script in line is similarly spacious, and the book I'm writing is the same. I think audiences get plenty of stories, and not nearly enough characters—or laughs.
STLtoday.com: Is this your directorial debut? How did the experience stack up against your expectations?
Shearer: I directed a lot for HBO in the ‘80s, before they could attract "names"—a series called "The History of White People in America" and two feature-length pieces. All of them were low budget and quick schedule, so I was used to that aspect of this. My big surprise was, in the intervening time, a lot of my old crew had moved on, so I had to work with a crew of strangers. That made for some good surprises: my director of photography was great, my sound man was a genius, my editor was a gift from the gods; and some of the other kind.
STLtoday.com: Is the St. Louis Film Festival the film's debut?
Shearer: The film debuted at the USA Festival in April. We've also played the Wine Country festival in Sonoma, the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Aspen Comedy Festival (in digital form, before the transfer to film).
STLtoday.com: Was it difficult taking on so many different aspects of making this film, or was it ultimately worth it in order to have that much control over it?
Shearer: I know it looks as if I had a lot of control, and I did, but even in an independent environment, you're collaborating with an awful lot of people. The difference is that, in this kind of situation, you know that everybody who offers input has the best interest of the film in mind. But, yes, it was worth it. The minute we finished shooting, I wanted to start up the next one.
STLtoday.com: Why did you choose the role of head of the kitchen staff for yourself? Were you tempted to give yourself a bigger role?
Shearer: No, I wasn't, I didn't want to do a Jerry Lewis, and I really wanted to concentrate on the issues involved in directing. After all, trying to depict the world of the rich while having a minuscule budget involved an awful lot of trickery.
STLtoday.com: How long did shooting take? Not long, I'm guessing, since most indie films are done fairly quickly. If that's the case, what was it like to shoot in such a short span of time?
Shearer: Eighteen days. ITWASLIKETHISEVERYMINUTEOFTHEDAYANDNIGHT.
STLtoday.com: Tell me about the technical aspects of making this film. I understand that some new technology helped make it all happen—the camera you used, for instance.
Shearer: We used a Panasonic 480p camera, Panasonic's high-def format, 60fps, progressive scan. Money saving aspects: tape is cheaper than film stock, plus we never had to cut a "take" for camera reloads, so actor time on the set was used more efficiently. We were able to do a lot of things in post that you can't do in film—for instance, we actually re-lit the Jim Lampley scene, getting more light on his face without disturbing the basic color balance of the shot, using advanced digital color-correction technology.
STLtoday.com: A couple of question outside the topic of the movie: In an era where people seem to specialize in one area of endeavor or another, you do so many things—radio, voiceovers, books, CDs, film...Reflect for a minute on the advantages and disadvantages of doing what you do and doing it your way.
Shearer: My theory has always been to be a moving target, so that enmities, technological change, whatever, in one field can't bring everything to a screeching halt. And, since circumstances (i.e., the ability to work in an atmosphere of max freedom) so quickly change, it's a pretty necessary strategy to avoid killing people.
STLtoday.com: How do you divide your time between so many different endeavors?
Shearer: I'm pretty disciplined in time management, a legacy perhaps of starting out in live broadcasting, where you can't work any other way.
STLtoday.com: We don't get "Le Show" in St. Louis. That's to say, we understand it, but no one broadcasts it. What are we missing?
Shearer: This from the Washington Post: "He plays his own records that he brings from home in a ratty canvas tote. But he has an ear for music. The tunes are hopping (he lives part time in New Orleans; his wife is the singer Judith Owen; and he saved all his vinyl). He spends several hours—and sometimes much more—writing the skits as little mini-plays at home and recording all the voices and sounds there.
“What voices? A slurry Tom Brokaw chewing on his dry tongue. A Texas-homily-babbling Dan Rather. A schoolmarmish Janet Reno. Plus: Hillary. Gore. James Carville. Charlton Heston. Johnnie Cochran. Rush Limbaugh.
“Shearer does Larry King so well that after a few weekends of hearing his version, Shearer has ruined—or vastly improved—the real Larry King for you.
“A recent sample: Shearer as King has presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley on the show. But instead of hardball, the ersatz King asks the contenders to respond to the inane pabulum of his USA Today column, asking things like, ‘Doesn't a pecan or two in the afternoon just hit the spot?’”
STLtoday.com: Is this a tough time to be a political satirist? It seems that in the post 9/11 world, everyone is being encouraged to jump on the bandwagon and support the government no matter what. Have you felt constrained in any way to do what you do? Also, it must be killing comedians to not be able to satirize Dubya to their hearts content.
Shearer: I'm doing what I've always done. I'll bring down a CD of the material I've been doing post 9/11. I'm still doing GW, as well as the other characters I do on the show. I've been cancelled in D.C. since 9/11, and a lot of stations "pre-empted" me frequently during October, so I called them on it on the air, pretty much calling them gutless, and most of them are back. And this is public radio we're talking about.
STLtoday.com: Other than the film, do you have anything else in the works? Plug away.
Shearer: I'm trying to get "J. Edgar!" a musical comedy about the life of the late FBI director, staged in the theatrical realm, it's already been produced for NPR with Kelsey Grammer as J. Edgar and John Goodman as his "lifetime assistant."
“Teddy Bears’ Picnic" shows Friday, November 17, 7 p.m. at the Hi Pointe Theatre, 1001 McCausland Ave. and on Sunday, November 18, 1 p.m. at the Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Blvd.
Shearer will take part in a public question and answer session, hosted by STLtoday.com’s Daniel Durchholz on Sunday, November 18, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, 6504 Delmar. Admission is free.
The actor/director/radio personality/voiceover specialist/etc./etc. brings his film “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” to the St. Louis International Film Festival.
STLtoday.com, November 14, 2001
Here’s my favorite memory of the multi-talented Harry Shearer. Some years ago, when he was promoting a concert tour by his mock-heavy metal band Spinal Tap (Shearer plays bassist Derek Smalls, of cucumber-enhanced trousers fame), he called me on the phone in character, and proceeded to give me one of the funniest interviews I’ve ever conducted.
It may be true that I was just lobbing him softballs, but Smalls—er, Shearer—didn’t fail to systematically knock each one of them out of the park. For example, in the movie “This Is Spinal Tap” the group distinguishes itself by becoming “England’s loudest band.” So I asked him, “Aren’t you worried about the music’s effects on your internal organs?”
“Oh no,” he replied in a faux English accent. “The bass, if played very loud, will make you eliminate and evacuate on sudden notice, but aside from that it can do no lasting damage. And actually, most people these days don’t get enough fiber anyway, so loud bass really compensates. It sort of returns you to nature’s balance.”
And so it went for 45 minutes or an hour, with me getting a private performance by one of the sharpest comedic minds of our time. But the real fun – for me, anyway – actually occurred when I finished my interview with Smalls, and asked him if I could talk to Harry. Shearer is known for disappearing very deeply into the characters that he plays, so I thought it best to handle the transition that way.
“I’ll see if I can find him,” Smalls replied, and then proceeded to put me on hold for THREE SOLID MINUTES. The next voice I heard was a winded Harry Shearer, sounding like he’d just bounded it after being called off the tennis court. Don’t ask me why, but I found that absolutely hilarious.
That’s the thing about Shearer, though. His comedy can be outrageous, but he always makes sure to pay attention to the details. When he writes a joke, all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed.
Shearer’s new film, “Teddy Bears' Picnic” is full of such nuances. It’s about an ultra-exclusive men’s retreat, based on an actual rich men’s enclave called Bohemian Grove, where Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, William F. Buckley, and Malcolm Forbes have frolicked over the years.
While taking on such a topic might be seem like shooting fish in a barrel—imagine what Michael Moore might do with it, for example—Shearer relies less on the situation and more on the characters he creates—in this case, a hapless university official, a father and son who own a basketball team, a Senator who wants to "just deregulate the hell out of" the nuclear power industry, and various entertainers, bureaucrats and high-ranking executives of American commerce—and the way they interact when it all hits the fan.
“Teddy Bears' Picnic” is an independent film, and was shot quickly and on a shoestring budget. Still, the quality of the film is of a standard we’ve come to expect from Shearer, who may indeed be the hardest working man in show business. In addition to the film, he is the voice of numerous characters on “The Simpsons,” host of his own weekly radio show, called “Le Show,” and producer of a number of comedic CDs and books.
He “spoke” with STLtoday.com via email earlier this week.
STLtoday.com: The funny disclaimer at the film's opening says that “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” has nothing to do with the real such retreat, Bohemian Grove, but obviously it does. How did you get interested in that as a topic for a film?
Shearer: I was approached quite a while ago by two indie film producers from San Francisco who wanted to do some kind of movie, probably a drama, about the Grove. I said it sounded like a comedy to me, and they had the connections to make some fairly exhaustive research possible. I wrote the script for them, after which they fairly promptly went out of business.
STLtoday.com: Do you know of anyone who's actually been to Bohemian Grove?
Shearer: I talked to ex-members, sons of members, hookers who serviced members, and I actually got to look at the posters and memorabilia of the shows they do. After having finished the script, I even (coincidentally) got invited to, and spent a weekend at, the Grove.
STLtoday.com: Was the film shot completely as written, or was there room for some improv?
Shearer: I explained to everybody, since so many of the cast are great improv artists, that we didn't have the time or budget for that luxury. So I asked that any ideas they had about dialogue they present to me in advance, and if I liked 'em, we'd shoot em. Several of the performers did so, and their contributions are reflected in the final film. But, those additions and changes aside, we shot as scripted.
STLtoday.com: You have such a great ensemble cast—Michael McKean, Fred Willard, George Wendt, Henry Gibson, Bob Einstein (a.k.a. Super Dave Osborne), Howard Hesseman, etc. Talk about working with some of them—a good-behind-the-scenes story, if you please.
Shearer: Everybody approached this little project with a great attitude and spirit. But I could never quite figure out if Bob Einstein and Kenny Mars (playing son and father) were just kidding around in the spirit of their parts or if they really were getting on each other's nerves. Bob kept asking me if I intended to use all of Kenny's spitting, and Kenny behaved as if he was waiting for Bob to start acting. It was funny, and a little unnerving, but what ended up on the screen was great.
STLtoday.com: I thought a couple of the actors were really good sports, especially Alan Thicke and the others who play themselves.
Shearer: Alan is a major good sport, since I've been making fun of him, even playing him, on radio and TV for years. [Dick] Butkus and Pete Marshall came in at the absolute last minute and were totally wonderful.
STLtoday.com: Even though there are plot elements in the film--the fire, the news expose, etc., character really drives this piece forward. Is that your preferred way of working?
Shearer: My preferred form for the stuff I do is a very simple story, which this is, giving fullest room for a number of characters to reveal their funny aspects. It's very hard for me to write a small-cast piece—my next script in line is similarly spacious, and the book I'm writing is the same. I think audiences get plenty of stories, and not nearly enough characters—or laughs.
STLtoday.com: Is this your directorial debut? How did the experience stack up against your expectations?
Shearer: I directed a lot for HBO in the ‘80s, before they could attract "names"—a series called "The History of White People in America" and two feature-length pieces. All of them were low budget and quick schedule, so I was used to that aspect of this. My big surprise was, in the intervening time, a lot of my old crew had moved on, so I had to work with a crew of strangers. That made for some good surprises: my director of photography was great, my sound man was a genius, my editor was a gift from the gods; and some of the other kind.
STLtoday.com: Is the St. Louis Film Festival the film's debut?
Shearer: The film debuted at the USA Festival in April. We've also played the Wine Country festival in Sonoma, the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Aspen Comedy Festival (in digital form, before the transfer to film).
STLtoday.com: Was it difficult taking on so many different aspects of making this film, or was it ultimately worth it in order to have that much control over it?
Shearer: I know it looks as if I had a lot of control, and I did, but even in an independent environment, you're collaborating with an awful lot of people. The difference is that, in this kind of situation, you know that everybody who offers input has the best interest of the film in mind. But, yes, it was worth it. The minute we finished shooting, I wanted to start up the next one.
STLtoday.com: Why did you choose the role of head of the kitchen staff for yourself? Were you tempted to give yourself a bigger role?
Shearer: No, I wasn't, I didn't want to do a Jerry Lewis, and I really wanted to concentrate on the issues involved in directing. After all, trying to depict the world of the rich while having a minuscule budget involved an awful lot of trickery.
STLtoday.com: How long did shooting take? Not long, I'm guessing, since most indie films are done fairly quickly. If that's the case, what was it like to shoot in such a short span of time?
Shearer: Eighteen days. ITWASLIKETHISEVERYMINUTEOFTHEDAYANDNIGHT.
STLtoday.com: Tell me about the technical aspects of making this film. I understand that some new technology helped make it all happen—the camera you used, for instance.
Shearer: We used a Panasonic 480p camera, Panasonic's high-def format, 60fps, progressive scan. Money saving aspects: tape is cheaper than film stock, plus we never had to cut a "take" for camera reloads, so actor time on the set was used more efficiently. We were able to do a lot of things in post that you can't do in film—for instance, we actually re-lit the Jim Lampley scene, getting more light on his face without disturbing the basic color balance of the shot, using advanced digital color-correction technology.
STLtoday.com: A couple of question outside the topic of the movie: In an era where people seem to specialize in one area of endeavor or another, you do so many things—radio, voiceovers, books, CDs, film...Reflect for a minute on the advantages and disadvantages of doing what you do and doing it your way.
Shearer: My theory has always been to be a moving target, so that enmities, technological change, whatever, in one field can't bring everything to a screeching halt. And, since circumstances (i.e., the ability to work in an atmosphere of max freedom) so quickly change, it's a pretty necessary strategy to avoid killing people.
STLtoday.com: How do you divide your time between so many different endeavors?
Shearer: I'm pretty disciplined in time management, a legacy perhaps of starting out in live broadcasting, where you can't work any other way.
STLtoday.com: We don't get "Le Show" in St. Louis. That's to say, we understand it, but no one broadcasts it. What are we missing?
Shearer: This from the Washington Post: "He plays his own records that he brings from home in a ratty canvas tote. But he has an ear for music. The tunes are hopping (he lives part time in New Orleans; his wife is the singer Judith Owen; and he saved all his vinyl). He spends several hours—and sometimes much more—writing the skits as little mini-plays at home and recording all the voices and sounds there.
“What voices? A slurry Tom Brokaw chewing on his dry tongue. A Texas-homily-babbling Dan Rather. A schoolmarmish Janet Reno. Plus: Hillary. Gore. James Carville. Charlton Heston. Johnnie Cochran. Rush Limbaugh.
“Shearer does Larry King so well that after a few weekends of hearing his version, Shearer has ruined—or vastly improved—the real Larry King for you.
“A recent sample: Shearer as King has presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley on the show. But instead of hardball, the ersatz King asks the contenders to respond to the inane pabulum of his USA Today column, asking things like, ‘Doesn't a pecan or two in the afternoon just hit the spot?’”
STLtoday.com: Is this a tough time to be a political satirist? It seems that in the post 9/11 world, everyone is being encouraged to jump on the bandwagon and support the government no matter what. Have you felt constrained in any way to do what you do? Also, it must be killing comedians to not be able to satirize Dubya to their hearts content.
Shearer: I'm doing what I've always done. I'll bring down a CD of the material I've been doing post 9/11. I'm still doing GW, as well as the other characters I do on the show. I've been cancelled in D.C. since 9/11, and a lot of stations "pre-empted" me frequently during October, so I called them on it on the air, pretty much calling them gutless, and most of them are back. And this is public radio we're talking about.
STLtoday.com: Other than the film, do you have anything else in the works? Plug away.
Shearer: I'm trying to get "J. Edgar!" a musical comedy about the life of the late FBI director, staged in the theatrical realm, it's already been produced for NPR with Kelsey Grammer as J. Edgar and John Goodman as his "lifetime assistant."
“Teddy Bears’ Picnic" shows Friday, November 17, 7 p.m. at the Hi Pointe Theatre, 1001 McCausland Ave. and on Sunday, November 18, 1 p.m. at the Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Blvd.
Shearer will take part in a public question and answer session, hosted by STLtoday.com’s Daniel Durchholz on Sunday, November 18, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, 6504 Delmar. Admission is free.