'spinal tap': the comics behind the funniest rock movie ever

For the creators of _This Is Spinal Tap_, the satiric mock documentary detailing the exploits of a fictitious heavy-metal band, the line between life and art has been getting blurry of late.

The other night, for example, this band that doesn’t really exist was playing at a Los Angeles club called the Music Machine. The place was packed, jammed with the black-leather-and-spikes

crowd. “I walked in the club and people started yelling, ‘Nigel.’ They had these weird, crazed looks on their faces. ‘Nigel! Nigel’s here!”‘ The preppie-looking, short-haired speaker is not,

in fact, named Nigel. He’s not really in a rock band, either. He is thirty-six-year-old Christopher Guest, and like his costars in _This Is Spinal Tap_ — thirty-six-year-old Michael McKean,

forty-year-old Harry Shearer and thirty-seven-year-old Rob Reiner — he’s an actor, scriptwriter and comedian. All the same, when he picks up his guitar and dons his stringy shag wig and

tight silver spandex pants to become the flaky Jeff Beck lookalike known as Nigel Tufnel, the heavy-metal kids flip out. Like the time they were shooting some concert footage for the movie:

“While we were playing, several girls latched onto Harry’s leg in the dog-in-heat manner,” said Guest, who’s been parodying rock & roll since his days with the _National Lampoon_ comedy

troupe in the early Seventies. “And on two occasions, girls ripped open their shirts — bare breasts — and were looking up going, ‘I love you, I love you.’ It was very bizarre.” “It’s life

imitating art,” said _Spinal Tap_ director Rob Reiner, who played Meathead in TV’s _All in the Family_. “The closer we dared to get to the real thing, the closer the real thing dared to get

to us,” added Shearer, a former _Saturday Night Live_ cast member who plays Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls. “It’s like reality is calling our bluff at every stop along the way.” EDITOR’S

PICKS There’s no reason why Spinal Tap couldn’t be a real heavy-metal band. Shearer, Guest and McKean have perfected the look, sound and attitude of heavy metal. And as they sat in the

Beverly Hills home of their publicist, they showed they’ve even mastered the heavy-metal way of talking. “We had this Iron Maiden interview from _NME_ [the British music paper],” said

McKean, whose best-known role was as Lenny in _Laverne & Shirley_ and whose _Spinal Tap_ character is the blond, curly-haired guitarist and lead vocalist, David St. Hubbins. “It was

incredible. The guy is saying things like” — McKean slipped into his English-rock-star voice — “‘Well, we like to view ourselves like we’re troubadours, you know. From the ancient days of

song. Wandering around the countryside. . . .'” “It was an interview,” added Shearer, “that asked all the questions that you’d want to ask one of those people. ‘Isn’t this the most

stupid music known to man?'” “‘Well, it’s not as easy as that, is it?'” said Guest, in character. “‘It’s not a yes-and-no question, is it?'” _This Is Spinal Tap_ takes the

rock & roll world in all its pompous glory and manages to poke fun at almost every aspect of it. Record-company presidents, publicists, promo men, managers and even critics are all

affectionately skewered. The movie — a collaboration between Reiner, Guest, Shearer and McKean — was made for less than $3 million. Shot with hand-held cameras in 16 millimeter (and later

blown up to 35 millimeter), _This Is Spinal Tap_ was improvised as the film rolled. As a result, the movie has the look, feel and spontaneity of a real rock documentary. “The documentary

form lent itself to the exposure of the self-important,” said McKean.