Writer/director/actor/musician, Christopher Guest has appeared in a variety of roles on stage and screen, everything from Count Rugen in The Princess Bride and Dr. Stone in A Few Good Men to a memorable year on Saturday Night Live (1984-85) with Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Harry Shearer.

The performance style he finds most exhilarating is the kind of improvised tour-de-force he displayed as the lead guitarist of the heavy-metal band Spinal Tap, in the film This is Spinal Tap. He honed this approach in his films Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, which he directed and co-wrote.

Guest feels the improvisational process he uses in his films is similar to what jazz musicians do when playing a tune. We recorded at the NPR studios in Los Angeles when Guest was in the midst of shooting his film, A Mighty Wind. This is one of my favorite Jazz Inspired conversations!