Mike Myers as Guru Pitka, from Magnet Theater to movie screens

Remember a couple of years ago when everyone in the New York downtown comedy scene got all not-verklempt and oh-my-goodnesses because Mike Myers was showing up to do improv at the Magnet Theater and sometimes in character as a guy named Guru Pitka? Neither do I. But I heard all about it when I moved to NYC. And I kept that in mind this week as Myers started showing up everywhere on the media circuit to promote his new movie, The Love Guru, which looks as juvenile and silly as his Austin Powers movies. Which could be good, or bad, or even both. I recently saw Goldmember again and, wow, the jokes even seem childish to children. But then again, there are plenty of ha-has that anyone can enjoy, as well. And then again again, some of these interviews, and by some I mean pretty much all of them, make Mike Myers out to be oh-so-serious. Which means his humor is childish as a reaction to that? Hmmm. The Entertainment Weekly article makes him sound like not fun. Even Terry Gross asks him to lighten up in yesterday’s edition of Fresh Air on NPR. Listen! And below, watch Myers with buddy-buddy Deepak Chopra in front of a live audience last year at the Magnet for Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel.

After the jump, Myers tells Inside the Actors Studio about how he came up with Guru Pitka…

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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