Harry Shearer makes people laugh their asses off. Creeping into your system like some kind of narcotic substance, Shearer’s work slowly unravels your composure, eventually reducing you to a hysterical, laughing shadow of your former sane-self. For over 30 years, from his role as Derek Smalls in This is Spinal Tap, to his tenure as a voice on The Simpsons (Shearer plays Mr. Burns, Flanders, and Smithers, among others), Shearer has been entertaining the masses with his excruciatingly funny blend of humor.
Last month I was able to speak with Shearer about college, comedy, and cross-dressing. The conversation that follows is typical Harry Shearer: comedic, intelligent and witty in a manner that only a man who has performed as a cross-dressing, folk singin’, crotch-stuffing, bottom-loving, ambiguously homosexual man can muster.

The Wake: What have you been up to lately? Aside from The Simpsons and A Mighty Wind stuff?
Harry Shearer: Getting “J. Edgar!” the musical comedy ready for production, working on a comic novel about Native Americans and gambling, and doing my radio broadcast, Le Show.

W: The cross-dressing in A Mighty Wind, did you lose a bet? Can we expect any major lifestyle changes from Harry Shearer in the near future?
HS: It was Chris (Christopher Guest) and Gene’s (Eugene Levy) idea, and it means that, on tour, I get out of the makeup chair half an hour before Chris (those bald caps are a bitch).

W: Many people know you as the voice of Mr. Burns, Flanders, and other Simpsons characters. Which character most closely resembles you?
HS: None of them.

W: A pressing issue for many; will there be a reunited Spinal Tap on tour any time soon?
HS: Doubtful.

W: I find it interesting that you write many of the songs you perform in movies like Spinal Tap, and A Mighty Wind, why haven’t you considered a professional music career, especially seeing as the songs are amazingly well-crafted.
HS: Thank you, but my wife pursues a professional music career, and one of us having our innards at the mercy of that merciless business is quite enough.

W: What is it about the improvisational / spoof comedic genre that holds such appeal for you?
HS: It’s not the genre that holds an appeal for me; it’s working with performers of a certain talent and taste level. That’s the whole deal.

W: What is it like being a voice on The Simpsons? Any behind-the-scenes secrets?
HS: It’s a great job. No behind the scenes secrets, it’s all out in the open.

W: Have you ever considered making a career out of leaving Simpson-character personalized messages on answering machines? Think about it.
HS: Okay. I’ve thought about it. No.

W: Lastly, how has the college experience changed your comedic life and outlook?
HS: College was the first time I wrote humorously with any degree of diligence and persistence. It was also the first time I encountered absurd personalities and situations, to which the only sane response, after a fit of cursing and crying, was laughter.