Waiting for Guffman

I want to love "Waiting For Guffman".

I laughed -- a lot -- while identifying with the characters and with their (spectacularly misplaced) passion for their quest. In order to honor the 150th birthday of their home town of Blaine, Missouri, they're staging an amateur musical-theatre production ("Red, White, and Blaine"). The performers (ordinary(?) townfolk all) have an enduring (and endearing) belief in the depth and breadth of their own talent, and in the potential of "Red, White, and Blaine" to become Broadways' next smash. All they need is a break...and that break comes, deus ex machinally, in the rumored appearance of Guffman, the famed broadway agent, at their show.


I wanted to love this film. When I watched it, though, I wasn't sure that I did. Having worked (lo, these many years) in amateur theatre, these actor's conviction that they are actually good strikes a little to close to the bone for me. I've never done a show about which we weren't convinced of it's professional quality (all evidence to the contrary being conveniently ignored). We went out there -- every time -- believing we were the best actors, singers, tech geeks this audience had ever seen.

Seeing our amateur self-importance and baseless pomposity skewered -- albeit in such true and humorous ways -- could hurt a little. I mean, even if, on some level, we know we're not Broadway bound, aren't we supposed to act as if we are? Aren't we supposed to take the work seriously, to give it our best, to be all that we can be (militarily cliched as that may be)?

So, I was inclined not to like this movie, even while laughing in recognition.

But here's the thing: while this movie knows us for the silly egoists we may be, it also likes its characters. These are not buffoons. These are not people to be pitied or mocked - -they're just people striving to exceed their own limitation -- hilariously so.

So. I have to admit -- while I (hugely!) recognized myself and many of my peers in this movie, and while I recognized the humor in our quixotic ways, I liked this movie. I liked this movie a lot. It's amiable, and witty, and genuinely human while still being soup-spittingly funny. I'm not sure how much more one can ask of a movie.

And, in the end, when Guffman/Godot does not arrive, the people of Blaine's lives (like those of Estragon and Vladimir) go on (although maybe, possibly, having been gently changed by the waiting). With or without Guffman, they put on their show. That's not really a bad thing at all.