Angling for laughs

Fishing With John, Segment 4: Maine, with Willem Dafoe

Directed by John Lurie

DVD, $26.96

The thought of Willem Dafoe offering his parka-padded armpit in a selfless gesture while fishing on a frozen lake in northern Maine may seem scary. But it’s a matter of survival in this hilarious ice fishing saga, a cross between “Waiting for Godot” and “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy.”

The action, or nonaction, is part of John Lurie’s six-part short-film series, “Fishing With John,” which aired in the late 1990s on the Independent Film Channel.

Lurie takes the viewer into a frozen world where man meets nature and the fish don’t bite.

As conceived, directed and hosted by actor and “fake-jazz” guy Lurie, of Lounge Lizards fame, the sport of angling becomes secondary to, well, many things, in this amusing documentary about “real men doing real things.”

Ever the philosopher and deliberately creepy camp mate, Dafoe shares his pit with Lurie, whose hand was in danger of frostbite -- and even proffers his cheese crackers.

Anyone who enjoys wry whack-job humor with a smidgen of existentialism will dig Dafoe’s and Lurie’s folly on ice.

-- Shermakaye Bass