Song of the Day 5/21: Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara, “Midnight at the Oasis”
The late, great Fred Willard couldn’t sing, and you can prove it by the lack of video clips showing him doing it. His brief vocal turn in “Waiting for Guffman,” as travel agent/community theater leading man Ron Albertson (with Catherine O’Hara as his wife/leading lady Shiela), reveals limits to both his range and his ability to carry a tune, but this scene — the couple’s audition, acted to a made-up coffee commercial featuring an exotic, travel-worthy location — displays his willingness to play the supporting doofus in a skit.
“This Bulging River,” the show-stopping tune of the movie’s play-within-a-film, “Red, White and Blaine,” again keeps Willard’s singing to a minimum, but he provides the scene’s payoff with the sidelong look he gives Christopher Guest’s Corky St. Clair at the very end of the scene.
It’s fun just to think about Willard’s performances. He was in lot of stuff I really liked, but I liked it partly because he was in it.
And let’s acknowledge the brilliance of Catherine O’Hara, too. She can do pretty much anything in the comedy line. She’s also a good singer when the part calls for it, as in “A Mighty Wind.”
As for Willard, again, I’ll always remember when he asked “how do the miniaturize those dogs anyway?” when he played a clueless dogs go commentator,
“You’d think they’d want to make them bigger, like watermelons.”
“they” “dog show”
“And to think in some countries these dogs are eaten.”
The movie was “Best in Show,” for those who missed it. Another great one from Christopher Guest. See them all!