Test Flight for Myers’s Guru Pitka
Did Topher laugh?
Will the maddeningly overrepeated frat-boy catchphrases of the future be told in an annoying faux-Indian lilt? Mike Myers has been focus-grouping such a character, named Guru Pitka, at top-secret performances around the city. Presented as a “Dharma-Talk and Sutra on the Four Laws of Happiness,” recent shows in a small Soho theater and on 42nd Street attracted Topher Grace, Kristen Johnston, and Martha Plimpton as test audiences. Myers, with a fake nose, accent, and beard, dispensed fake wisdom (“In a perfect world, you don’t need a Utopia”) and chanted a fake mantra (“Mariska Hargitay”). He fielded questions about crystal energy and the meaning of life. He also donned a pair of assless chaps. Myers wouldn’t comment on the character, but it’s important to note that Austin Powers started out in similar venues. When asked about plans for His Holiness, all Myers’s camp would say was: “How did you hear about the show?!”
—Melena Ryzik