From a Toronto Globe & Mail interview with Mike Myers, on the release of his third Shrek movie:
Also on the horizon is a rare dramatic project about a guy who couldn’t take the pressures of showbiz success: Keith Moon, the hard-living Who drummer and master of hotel-room demolition. Why the mild-mannered, maybe-a-little-too-shy Myers would be drawn to such a flamboyant, demon-haunted person raises the age-old maxim about comedians being unhappy people when they’re not making us laugh.
“Oh, I’d say that’s 100-per-cent accurate,” Myers says without a pause. “Most comedians want to be the architect of their own embarrassment. They have horrendous self-esteem issues. They’re like, ‘I myself will fall into the mud; I don’t want to be pushed into the mud.’ So that’s probably true. But I think most people struggle with self-acceptance, that’s pretty universal. Comedians just get an outlet to externalize it.”
Blame Myers? Or blame the TG&M’s Bob Strauss for bringing up the hackneyed stereotype in the first place due to limitless sloth? It’s a tossup.
The architect of our own embarassment? What the hell does that even mean?
Does this comedian look like he’s “unhappy” when he’s not making people laugh? Suffering from self-esteem issues? (Although, it might be said that he could be the “architect of his own embarassment.” But, damn, he does look relaxed.)
Thanks to FOS Robert Hawkes!