Waiting for Guffman - 7 stars out of 10

Waiting for Guffman - 7 stars out of 10

"Waiting for Guffman" is deliriously funny.  This small town's community celebration is highlighted by their extreme lack of talent, all gathered together by the never-famous runaway from Broadway, Corky St. Claire.  Christopher Guest again shows off his ability to weave together an absurd stereotype of a mediocre group of people.  His script is great, but his acting in the lead role is even better as he pulls together a bunch of nitwits and turns them into acting... nitwits.  The amazing thing is that the music from his shoe "Red, White, and Blaine" is actually incredibly catchy and good!  And Lewis Arquette's acting in the show-within-a-show is really impressive.  Guest's standard cast is intact with Eugene Levy as the cross-eyed dentist, Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard as the married travel agents who have never traveled outside of their small Missouri community and don't have much acting talent, and Bob Balaban as the outcast music director (who ironically/conveniently is the only one with any talent).  Every situation is absolutely absurd and is then exponentially magnified by these clueless characters and their leader.  The cherry on top is the misunderstood arrival of Guffman and subsequent postlude that reveals the theatrical "successes" of the Blaine troupe of actors.  This film will be funny for any viewer but will strike a particular chord with anybody who has ever been involved in a theater production, preferably one that was embarrassingly bad.