On The 'Psychological Safety Valve' Of Satire & Song

Harry Shearer can barely contain his pride. The acclaimed comedian, voice actor, activist and musician is preparing for an Australian visit alongside his wife, Judith Owen, to perform their joint cabaret show, This Infernal Racket, and, although Shearer has worn many faces in his storied career — many of them as part of his decades of work as one of the core cast members of The Simpsons — the fact that “candid family man” is one of them comes as something of a surprise.

“I have to tell you, you know, I think this is Judith’s best record ever, and I am in awe of her continuing growth as an artist,” Shearer says of Owen’s newly released full-length, Somebody’s Child. “And I’m looking forward not only to doing the shows together in Adelaide and Brissy, but having a little part to play in her shows in Melbourne and Sydney — I get to play bass in one song. I’m a huge fan of hers, and I’m so proud of her.”

It’s a face he wears well, and openly. In hearing him talk about Owen, it’s clear that the pair are genuine supporters of each other’s work in addition to their rich personal relationship, and Shearer says this is a key factor in their ability to work so well together.

“I think the thing that is a common thread for both our work is that we’re both sort of ridiculously honest,” Shearer muses on the phone from the United States. “She does it in a very straightforward way, and I do it in a comedic way, but I think the thing I value about comedy is that it allows me to be as honest as I feel constrained to be, and yet still get away with it, you know? And she just does an amazing job of being totally emotionally honest in her work, so I think that, you know, neither of us is doing confected work in terms of our particular fields. We’re coming from that same place.”

As it happens, This Infernal Racket — which essentially addresses themes and ideas from both “radically different perspectives” from which its creators are coming — is not the first time Shearer and Owen have worked together; in fact, the current show itself is the result of an earlier exercise in blending their professional and personal lives. Despite their long history and previous experience, however, Shearer says that working in such a capacity with his wife remains a surprising, massively rewarding experience.

“We are always surprised by each other,” he laughs. “It’s true! Judith has grown enormously in the time that I’ve known her — I hope that I’ve moved a few paces along myself — so I think the question about a long-term relationship is, can you accept the changes in the other person, and can they accept the change in you, and can you continue to change together and surprise each other? I think that’s one way that these things kind of work.”

“We did a show in Edinburgh several years ago at the Fringe Festival, so we have been this position of crafting a show together before,” he continues. “So, yeah, that left us interested in doing it again, and now, here we are again … We tend to work together a lot; it’s quite remarkable. And yet we both have these very driving individual careers, so we don’t do it full-time, but we do find reasons to do it, because we enjoy it and because, since we do travel a lot in our work, this is a way to make sure that we see each other.”

That’s not to say that This Infernal Racket is so sentimental as to be toothless; quite the contrary, in fact. Shearer has been renowned for decades as a vocal activist, having (as a citizen of New Orleans) endured governmental ineptitude and indifference in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — and that’s just for starters. In fact, from the sounds of things, the world’s doing a great job of ensuring Shearer never has to worry about running out of material.

“I think we’re living in a time where the word ‘accountability’ is a sad joke,” he explains. “It’s always been true of certain kinds of organisations that, when things go wrong, you punish the little guy and the big guys walk, but I think now we’re being treated to such an endless parade of this same spectacle over and over and over again, whether it’s the economic meltdown of 2007-2008 or Fukushima or the New Orleans flood – I mean, it just keeps happening again, and yet we don’t seem to be able to do anything to make it stop. If anything, I think it’s getting more entrenched as a way of running our little operation here. But, you know, it’s a lot cheaper to make long-distance phone calls than it used to be. There’s the bright side!"

"As long as I’ve been alive and paying attention, this is a fairly consistent pattern," he continues. "The famous massacre during the Vietnam War — the My Lai Massacre — there was a lieutenant punished, but nobody above him. But, as I say, I think it’s happening on a bigger scale. That was one incident in a hideous war, but I think when the entire world economy is rocked to its foundations and not a single — not one — and we know, even the government has said, massive fraud was happening at the base of this disaster — and fraud was committed by… nobody. No human committed fraud. Massive fraud, but not one single person has been brought to justice.

"It’s a lack of accountability; it’s a pretty dramatic example of that. The New Orleans situation, the people who were responsible for the deaths of 2000 people and the billions of dollars in damage — nobody lost so much as a parking space. It’s good times."

Although Shearer's comedic focus is drawn from the bountiful well of absurdity that is contemporary Western civilisation, he's under no illusions about the likelihood of being an instigator for significant change; rather, he says, his satirical observations serve a slightly more cathartic purpose.

"I think it’s been a long time — if ever — since I indulged the fantasy that doing satire has anything to do with what actually happens in public life," he reflects. "It’s a psychological safety valve for me, and hopefully for my listeners, and hopefully it doesn’t get them so desperately depressed that they decide, ‘Ah, screw it,’ and don’t still engage in efforts to make things better for whoever they care to make things better for. But, I mean, Jonathan Swift didn’t get anything done, didn’t get anything changed, so why should I think I can? There are people who, I guess, may entertain that fantasy; I’m not one of them."

Fortunately, comedy is not the only outlet that Shearer has for his creative tendencies, having been an avid musician for much of his life. Given his core role as one of the members of mock-rock outfit Spinal Tap, this is not a surprising statement, though his musical leanings run much deeper — like, six full-length albums deep — than one may suspect. He's cryptic about his current pursuits ("I'm working on a musical project; I can say that, but I can't tell you much about it," he teases), but his evident passion is unmissable; he recently took the stage as his Spinal Tap character, bassist Derek Smalls, for the first time in New Orleans alongside celebrated ensemble Snarky Puppy — an "incredibly adrenalising" experience, he says — and is positively effusive recalling a special collaboration on his most recent LP, Can't Take A Hint.

"I had a lot of really great guest artists on it," Shearer enthuses. "Jamie Cullum was on it, Rob Brydon, this wonderful British soul singer, Alice Russell... probably the last recorded performance by one of my favourite bands from the ‘90s, Fountains Of Wayne, was on it. We actually did the song — check this out, you’ll find it on YouTube — Fountains Of Wayne are playing as my backing band; I did this song that I wrote — it’s a song in the show I’m performing with Judith, but it was originally written for Fountains Of Wayne to perform with me — it’s called Celebrity Booze Endorser, and we did it on Conan O’Brien’s show, and it’s up on YouTube. [Ed: The video appears to have been taken down.] So in the last little while I’ve performed both with Fountains Of Wayne and Snarky Puppy, so that’s pretty good, you know? It’s pretty thrilling."

When he's not working on The Simpsons, performing with Owen, writing his own music or engaging in any of the other myriad pursuits at which Shearer has refined his talents, he still serves as the host of his long-running radio broadcast, Le Show, which remains as important a facet of his oeuvre as any, especially from a personal standpoint.

"I can’t stop doing it, because it’s my one sort of way to always keep coming up with characters and making comedy no matter what else I’m doing," he says. "I was doing a very serious play in London for two years, so my full-time job was not comedy at all at that point, so having the radio show kept me in touch. And, you know, I don’t do stand-up, so this is my way of keeping the comedy muscle always exercised."

Now, if only we could convince him of the merits of a(nother) Spinal Tap reunion, then we'd really be talking. We wouldn't hold our breath just yet, though.

"I don’t think that’s gonna happen," he admits. "Something on a related level may happen, but it won’t be that — and I cannot be any less mysterious than that at the moment. It won’t be [mock-folk trio The Folksmen] either. It’ll be something closer to what you were talking about earlier, but it won’t be that. Keep tuned."

Same Coin, Different Side: Read our full interview with Judith Owen here.

Judith Owen & Harry Shearer — This Infernal Racket

Sunday 12 June — Queensland Cabaret Festival

Thursday 16 & Friday 17 June — Adelaide Cabaret Festival