A Mighty Wind

Guest co-stars and reunites many of his company of actors from This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show for this film, including Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch and Parker Posey.

Plot[edit]

After fictional folk music producer Irving Steinbloom dies, his children Jonathan, Naomi, and Elliott organize a memorial concert, which they hope to feature his three most famous acts: The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey.


The Folksmen trio — Mark Shubb, Alan Barrows, and Jerry Palter — were once the most popular of the acts but have not appeared together in decades. They had several minor hits, and their most famous song was "Old Joe's Place." Despite not playing or seeing each other for many years, their reunion is very positive and full of good memories, so they diligently begin rehearsing for the concert. Although some tension arises over whether to include "Skeletons of Quinto", a convoluted, somber song about the Spanish Civil War, in their otherwise upbeat set list, they clearly enjoy working together again.


The New Main Street Singers are the second generation of the original Main Street Singers, formed by George Menschell, the only living member of the original group, who sings and holds a guitar he cannot play. Performers include Terry Bohner and his wife Laurie, a former adult film star, now founders of Witches in Nature's Colors (WINC), a coven of modern-day witches that worships the power of color, and former juvenile delinquent Sissy Knox, the daughter of Fred Knox, one of the original Main Street Singers. Their manager, Mike LaFontaine, most famously appeared in a short-lived and mostly forgotten 1970 sitcom, Wha' Happened?, but is constantly puzzling others by quoting his character Li'l Eddie Dees' catchphrases, including the show's title, which was its tagline. The group is known for their complex harmonies, forming what Menschell terms a "neuftet".


Mitch Cohen and Mickey Crabbe appeared as Mitch & Mickey, a former couple that released seven albums and ended performances of their most famous song, "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," by kissing each other. After a dramatic break-up years before the events of the film, Mickey seemingly moved on and has married a medical supply salesman, but Mitch broke down emotionally and has never fully recovered. As the pair reunite and rehearse, romantic tension and personal regrets repeatedly imperil their participation in the concert.


The three groups, all of whom have sunk to various levels of musical irrelevance since their respective heyday, agree to the reunion performance, to be held at The Town Hall in New York and televised live on the PBS-like station PBN. The acts rehearse for the show and participate in interviews discussing their activities over the previous years and their feelings about performing again.


The show itself proceeds with only two hitches: the intended opening song for The Folksmen's set is played first by the New Main Street Singers (a song called "Never Did No Wanderin'", which the Folksmen sing in a rugged, emotional manner consistent with the spirit of the song, while the New Main Street Singers perform it in their usual peppy, carefree way), and Mitch temporarily disappears minutes before he and Mickey are to perform, forcing the Folksmen to extend their set. It turns out that Mitch had gone to buy a rose for Mickey, which she gratefully accepts as they go on stage. They perform "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow", and after a suspenseful pause, they do the much-anticipated kiss at the end. In the finale, all three acts sing "A Mighty Wind" together.


Six months after the concert, many of the performers detail subsequent events via interviews. Mickey is performing "The Sure-Flo Song" (about a medical device used for bladder control) at her husband Leonard's trade show booth, while Mitch is writing poetry again, claiming to be in a "prolific phase". Mickey claims that Mitch overreacted to their onstage kiss, while Mitch insists that he no longer has feelings for Mickey, but had worried that Mickey's feelings for him might have returned. LaFontaine is trying to drum up interest for a sitcom called "Supreme Folk", in which the New Main Street Singers star as characters who are Supreme Court judges by day and folk singers sharing a house by night. The Folksmen have reunited, but Mark Shubb, now a transgender woman named Marta, has revamped her wardrobe and continues to sing in her deep bass voice, followed now by a girlish giggle.