Dana Carvey is funniest when he has someone to react to: a slight hesitation can do more than a speech. Wayne's World gives his awkwardness room to work; his starring vehicles have been less dependable.
Fi1m perspective
In Wayne's World (1992), Dana Carvey makes Garth Algar's hesitation funny before the character has much to say. Mike Myers's Wayne Campbell expects agreement, while Carvey seems to need a moment to decide what to say. We laughed at Garth's small, uncertain responses, because they make Wayne's confidence look faintly unreasonable without stopping the pair being good company. Carvey does not need to take over the scene to keep it funny.
His Saturday Night Live work, from 1986 to 1993, established him through impressions and characters such as the prudish Church Lady. The link with Garth is his attention to how people sound and behave, rather than an endless supply of punchlines. A voice or a nervous manner can give him enough to build a character around. Opportunity Knocks (1990) drew criticism for a comparatively bland leading performance, an early warning against assuming that a successful sketch performer would be equally effective carrying a feature.
In Wayne's World, director Penelope Spheeris understands the value of having something else happen before a routine wears out its welcome. The changes of pace and sight gags help, but it is the difference between Myers's insistence and Carvey's hesitancy that makes the thin story tolerable. The screenplay, by Myers, Terry Turner and Bonnie Turner, does not always provide enough to connect the jokes, and some of the material about women is tiresome. Still, we recommend it for the pleasure of their company: Carvey makes the passages between the louder jokes worth watching.
His return to sketches in the short-lived The Dana Carvey Show (1996) made sense for those skills. The poor reception of The Master of Disguise (2002) points to the continuing difficulty of turning those skills into a feature. Later work included voicing Pops in The Secret Life of Pets (2016), alongside a renewed emphasis on stand-up and impressions. For a first encounter, though, start with Garth, and pay attention to him while Myers talks.
Biography
Dana Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1993, where he was known for impressions and original characters including the Church Lady.
Carvey played Garth Algar opposite Mike Myers in the 1992 film Wayne's World and its 1993 sequel. His other film credits include Opportunity Knocks (1990), Trapped in Paradise (1994) and The Master of Disguise (2002), as well as voice roles in The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). He was born on 2 June 1955 in Missoula, Montana, and graduated from San Francisco State University.
