Los Angeles – Harry Shearer is Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and more on
“The Simpsons.” He’s also, at will, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Mike Wallace.
Whoever he plays, he’s relentlessly funny. The evidence is neatly packaged in the actor-
satirist’s new CD, “Dropping Anchors,” a send-up of TV news anchors, and the DVD “Now You See It,” showcasing his work on “Saturday Night Live” and HBO.
After a fallow period for Shearer’s albums and a frustrating experience for his wife, singer-
songwriter Judith Owen, with a record company, the pair formed their own label.
He helpfully explains that the label’s name, Courgette Records, is “British usage for zucchini. It’s a tip of the cap to Derek Smalls’ favorite vegetable.” That’s the fictional rock musician Shearer played in “This Is Spinal Tap.” He also shone in “A Mighty Wind” and is part of an upcoming Hollywood spoof, “For Your Consideration,” all as a member of filmmaker Christopher Guest’s merry band of performers.
For now, fans of the man with a thousand voices, more or less, will have to content themselves with his work on “The Simpsons,” in its 17th season (a long-awaited big-screen version is set for 2007), and the Courgette releases featuring Shearer’s delicious humor.
“Now You See It” includes “Astounding Innovations” with Shearer playing Richard Nixon as an infomercial co-host, and “Mike Wallace Investigates Minkman Novelties,” a “60 Minutes” expose of novelty toys. The humor is more cutting on “Anchors Away” but Shearer calls it a “nervy” project for other reasons.
“I realize I’m going against the grain, doing a fully produced CD of comedy sketches and music at a time when the only comedy recordings are basically stand-up,” Shearer said. “But it’s the kind of comedy records I grew up on.”
Among his fondest memories are the works of Bob and Ray, Firesign Theatre and “Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America.” “Anchors Away” is billed as “An almost heartfelt farewell to the TV news icons of the last two decades.” Anchors who have retired or shifted gears are fodder, as is the general state of network news.
Only Peter Jennings escapes mockery; Shearer says it’s because he never mastered Jennings’ Canadian lilt. (The CD includes a gentle acknowledgment of the late newsman.) He nails the other voices, including Wallace’s booming tones and Brokaw’s rolling Midwestern cadence.
Brokaw is zinged in “If JFK Had Lived” (“A major investidrama by NBC News and the editors of US Weekly”) and “Songs in the Key of L.” The latter lampoons the ex-
anchor’s strangled pronunciation of the letter; Shearer/Brokaw sings “Layla” and “Lay Lady Lay.”
So why do news anchors provide such a mother lode of humor? “I think it’s the distance between what we’re supposed to think their job entails and what their job really entails,” Shearer said. The assumption is anchors distill the day’s major events and present them with their special imprimatur.
“Basically, what they are are glorified teleprompter readers who spend half their day doing promos for local stations,” he said.
And providing glorious material for Shearer.
