Mike Myers

Actually, the first place I think of Mike Myers, despite having seen Wayne’s World and two Austin Powers movies in the theatre, is an old Mothers’ Day special from Saturday Night Live. The gimmick, in those days, was that they’d do a regular special. The performers’ mothers would appear on the show, and you’d get a little bit of the various performers interacting with their mothers. I remember a bit where his mother, Alice “Bunny” Myers late of the Women’s Royal Air Force, was drilling him on accents one after another with the implication that she had raised him from childhood for this.

Now, it is true that he first appeared in a commercial at age two. At age ten, he did a commercial where the great Gilda Radner played his mother. At sixteen, an episode of the reboot of The Littlest Hobo. And his childhood neighbour and friend was Maurice LaMarche, who only does one voice but does it very very well indeed. After graduating from high school, he joined the Canadian touring company of Second City, then moved to London and was a founding member of the Comedy Store Players. He returned to Toronto’s Second City and then to Chicago’s Second City.

He joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1989 and stayed there for six years. He brought Wayne Campbell and Dieter with him, but while there he added Simon and Linda Richman. Pat Arnold of Bill Swerski’s Superfans and Lothar of the Hill People. He was one of the most popular actors on the show during his run, playing more than just recurring characters. His performance as the Man From Another Place in the Twin Peaks parody is a pure delight. It frankly didn’t hurt that he was better-looking than a lot of the other recurring actors on the show.

One of the proudest moments of my freshman year in high school, it’s worth noting, was watching Wayne’s World in the theatre with my older sister and her friends. It was very grown-up feeling. And of course Myers was absolutely right to fight to have “Bohemian Rhapsody” in it. It still holds up. The second one is iffy. And I burned out on Austin Powers fairly early. But we’ll always have Wayne. It’s probably for the best the Sprockets movie never panned out.

Of course, I’m also a staunch defender of So I Married an Axe Murderer. Which I own on DVD. It’s an underrated gem with a delightful cast. And, yes, there are a few moments that are just Mike Myers doing a silly bit that’s not particularly in the best interests of the movie, but Gods know it’s not the worst example of that even from the mid-’90s. He’s just one of those people who needs someone telling him to knock it off now and again, and as long as he has that, he’s one of the funniest men alive.