Steven

If Harry Shearer's talents were limited to mimicry alone I'd STILL recommend Le Show to fans of satire. His impressions of distinctive voices from across public life are eerily suggestive and musically understood, as perhaps only Peter Sellers has done before. Clinton, Carville, Brokaw, Rather, Bushes 41 and 43, O.J. Simpson (savagely funny), Access Hollywood's Pat O'Brien, Newt (remember him?), Mr. Blackwell, and bygone Shearer star turn, sportscasting legend Curt Gowdy. His Michael Jackson's way off, but by and large the man has GAME. His Jesse Jackson is brutally funny without alienating us from the public figure. His brilliantly scripted ClintonSomething, in another medium, would have earned him a major acting award for his portrayal of Clinton: sly, genial, confident of his long game, reflective, yet no stranger to a good time.

He spins records he likes, sometimes intentionally pertinent, sometimes seemingly not. I seldom enjoy every cut, but it's almost always something good and fresh and occasionally something longed for. He likes Ella and Fountains of Wayne. He always brings in a few pre-recorded dialogue sketches, typically very smart and very funny. It's breathtaking when you first realize he's playing every part, like when you first learned all the instruments were being played by Stevie Wonder.

He takes some fair criticism for filling out the hour with what seems like a straight reading of buried news. Somehow it works for me as a kind of outraged Fiorello LaGuardia on the radio, reading from the back of the newspaper, piling on evidence we may have missed that our world is in the hands of monkeys.

Le Show feels offhand but impetuous, and some hours seem more inspired than others. (As bad news accrues through the week, I begin to anticipate a great show.) It's clearly a labor of, if not love, then of bitter laughter. In so much as Shearer seems every bit the sourpuss LA lifer, Le Show seems an apt expression of graciousness.

If Harry Shearer's talents were limited to mimicry alone I'd STILL recommend Le Show to fans of satire. His impressions of distinctive voices from across public life are eerily suggestive and musically understood, as perhaps only Peter Sellers has done before. Clinton, Carville, Brokaw, Rather, Bushes 41 and 43, O.J. Simpson (savagely funny), Access Hollywood's Pat O'Brien, Newt (remember him?), Mr. Blackwell, and bygone Shearer star turn, sportscasting legend Curt Gowdy. His Michael Jackson's way off, but by and large the man has GAME. His Jesse Jackson is brutally funny without alienating us from the public figure. His brilliantly scripted ClintonSomething, in another medium, would have earned him a major acting award for his portrayal of Clinton: sly, genial, confident of his long game, reflective, yet no stranger to a good time.

He spins records he likes, sometimes intentionally pertinent, sometimes seemingly not. I seldom enjoy every cut, but it's almost always something good and fresh and occasionally something longed for. He likes Ella and Fountains of Wayne. He always brings in a few pre-recorded dialogue sketches, typically very smart and very funny. It's breathtaking when you first realize he's playing every part, like when you first learned all the instruments were being played by Stevie Wonder.

He takes some fair criticism for filling out the hour with what seems like a straight reading of buried news. Somehow it works for me as a kind of outraged Fiorello LaGuardia on the radio, reading from the back of the newspaper, piling on evidence we may have missed that our world is in the hands of monkeys.

Le Show feels offhand but impetuous, and some hours seem more inspired than others. (As bad news accrues through the week, I begin to anticipate a great show.) It's clearly a labor of, if not love, then of bitter laughter. In so much as Shearer seems every bit the sourpuss LA lifer, Le Show seems an apt expression of graciousness.