Episode 231: WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996)

WAITING FOR GUFFMAN does something The Office and Parks and Recreation could not: It walks a line between mocking life in Blaine, Missouri, and memorializing it without getting all sentimental. In this episode, we cut away for a few talking head segments that dive into the mockumentary’s pacing, focus, and empathy for the weirdos whose talent is outweighed by their desire to be somebody. “For The Love of Small-Town Community Theater” by Lucas Vonasek for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/06/09/for-the-love-of-small-town-community-theater/ “Sisyphus, Make Way for Corky’s New Philosophy of Failure” by Veda Lawrence for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/06/09/sisyphus-make-way-for-corkys-new-philosophy-of-failure/ Parker Posey’s deleted audition scene from WAITING FOR GUFFMAN: https://youtu.be/7jQ0SbWYdgQ “Waiting for Guffman movie review” by Roger Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/waiting-for-guffman-1997 Get tickets to ALL HAIL PARKER POSEY (June 2023 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/all-hail-parker-posey/ Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music composed by Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean and performed by Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, and the Blaine Community Orchestra (Jean Fuller, Paul Robertson, Richard Macowell, Johnny Reno, Tracy Rosenkrans, Jeffery C.J. Vanston, and Tony Edwards) from the WAITING FOR GUFFMAN soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 231: WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996) 2:56 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 3:59 - Our experiences in community theater 5:31 - The pointlessness-cum-pride of Blaine 15:27 - Poking fun without delving into the hateful 21:45 - How GUFFMAN skirts the cloying sentimentality of mockumentary TV series 33:34 - The dumbest, purest version of Waiting for Godot 44:51 - The inverse relationship of desire and talent 45:56 - The Junk Drawer 58:09 - Good Grief, Give Me a GIF! 1:04:33 - Cody’s Noteys: Waiting for Prop-man (movie memorabilia trivia)