Review: The Great Buck Howard–A Show Biz Valentine

The Great Buck Howard is a funny, knowing gift for anyone who loves old-fashioned show business: It celebrates the entertainer who is in it for the fun of putting on a good show, and for bringing a little pleasure to anyone who cares enough to come out and watch.

Buck Howard the man is an old-fashioned show-business type: He is a mentalist–a magician who does mind-reading tricks. But he is preternaturally good at what he does (in contrast to his complete lack of self-awareness), and he was once a pop-culture fixture, a regular on The Tonight Show. (“The real one–with Johnny Carson,” he constantly reminds–this will have its intended melancholy effect only on those over 40 or so.) Now he plays half-empty halls in third-tier markets. Not that this tempers his enthusiasm, or that of his fans. Which is exactly the point.

In service to this show-biz valentine, the movie deploys a raft of actors and personalities in situations similar to that of Buck: George Takei, Tom Arnold, Gary Coleman, Jack Carter, and Michael Winslow appear as themselves (and in an especially sweet touch, Happy Days‘ Donnie Most plays not himself but a minor character in the story–how appropriate!). Each of these cameos fits the grain of the picture: these, well, faded celebrities appear without introduction or frame. They just show up to be in a piece of entertainment because they are entertainers and that is what entertainers do.

Ricky Jay is cast as Buck’s manager-agent. It’s a wink to the audience, because Jay has devoted much of his own career to rescuing guys like Buck from obscurity. Besides being an astounding magician and performer (and an occasional actor with a fascinating resume), Jay is a historian of magic, magicians, and performers like Buck. He is a walking encyclopedia and archivist for the kinds of shows that used to define show business: largely unknown entertainers traveling from town to town, putting on shows because that’s how they make a living. Jay’s presence here fairly writes in neon the affection that producer Tom Hanks and writer/director Sean McGinly must feel for the Buck Howards of the world.

What’s more, the picture features a Who’s Who of A-List actors who often take quirky roles in so-called “small” projects, and by doing so show us the pleasure they take in practicing their craft, just like Buck. John Malkovich plays Buck, plus we get Steve Zahn, Emily Blunt, Griffin Dunne, Adam Scott–and Tom Hanks playing the father to his real-life son, Colin Hanks.

The last great wave of anonymous-and-getting-by performers washed over America in the late 1980s and early 1990s as stand-up comedians. Some of them are still around. You haven’t heard of them–not because they’re not funny, but because the Big Time is not what they do. They’re working comedy clubs, grabbing the occasional corporate gig, swapping stories in the green room with other performers, finding ways to make a little extra by selling t-shirts or a self-published book. It’s an honorable and noble profession that’s largely unknown outside of its participants: the traveling, professional entertainer. The Great Buck Howard is a document of that kind of life, and a gentle, personal tribute to those who live it.

I liked this picture when I came out of it and, in the days since, I have come to love it. Does it show much? Here’s a sweet, smart picture without a bit of post-modern cynicism. Wow.

Note: Director Sean McGinly lost a brother in the World Trade Center attack. He made a documentary, Brothers Lost, about 31 men who also lost brothers that day. I have not seen it, but I will. The Great Buck Howard is a respectful and affectionate picture about a character easy to ridicule. I can’t put my finger on it just yet, but what does it say about a man who can suffer great sorrow and injustice and still find nobility in those most ripe for parody? That’s an artist I intend to keep watching.