Above: Christopher Moynihan is Brian Chubb, Harry Shearer as Victor Allan Miller, Catherine O'Hara

as Marilyn Hack and Parker Posey as Collie Webb in director Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration

Below: Eugene Levy as Morley Ortkin in For Your Consideration

Once In A Purim

Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy's latest laugh fest
spotlights a festive Jewish holiday.

Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News

ugene Levy didn't see Jewish
roots in his comedy — at least
not at first.
"I honestly don't think so," he says
when the subject is raised. "I would like
to think that my comedy comes from
general influences on me as I grew up. I
kind of borrowed .a lot from Jack Benny.
In terms of a style of comedy, he had a
lot of influence on me."
Then, Levy unexpectedly changes
direction, adding, "But I do think that in
some of the stuff we wrote, there is a lot
of Jewishness that comes through in the
writing."
The "we:' of course, is Levy and

Christopher Guest, his writing part-
ner in comedies such as Waiting For
Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty
Wind. Their latest collaboration, For
Your Consideration, opens Wednesday,
Nov. 22, in Detroit-area.theaters.
In these four films, the two created
numerous and memorable Jewish char-
acters, including the folk singer Mitch
Cohen in Mighty Wind and Dr. Allan
Pearl in Guffman, both played by Levy.
"I feel comfortable playing those
roles:' says Levy, "because there's no hid-
ing the fact that I look Jewish. It's silly
to think you could play someone who is
blatantly different!'
But this reporter takes issue with him,

Once In A Purim on page 40

November 16 2006

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