Pop Quiz: Rick Moranis

Pop Quiz: Rick Moranis

Aidin Vaziri | Rick Moranis, 52, had the kind of film career that Ashton Kutcher would kill for: cult hits such as "Strange Brew" and "Spaceballs," blockbusters like "Ghostbusters," even a musical, "Little Shop of Horrors." And who can forget his enduring role as the father in the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" series (it's best to forget him as Barney Rubble in "The Flintstones"). Yet the comic actor gave it all up nearly a decade ago, moved to New York to become a full-time single parent, and unintentionally started a second career as a deadpan country singer. His new independently released disc, "The Agoraphobic Cowboy," features sly tunes like "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "S.O.S.," and is getting rave reviews.


Rick Moranis
Q: Even though you meant to make a comedy album, does it bother you that Toby Keith's music is still funnier than yours?
A: I guess for some people that's true. I was watching the (Country Music Awards) and I don't know who the artist was, but there was some song where the last two lines had to do with, "And now on those paper plates you're eatin'/ You should have thought of that when you were cheatin'." I can't help it. I love that stuff.
Q: It's a little cruel putting a word most country station DJs can't pronounce in the title.
A: Yeah, that's true. The funny thing is, totally by accident, I called it a country album because that's what it is. I guess the proper thing to do with a career like mine would have been to call it a comedy album. But I wasn't thinking like that, and the result was it attracted attention because it just didn't make sense.
Q: Did you consciously scale back the acting so you could do things like this, or did the phone just stop ringing after "The Flintstones"?
A: Oh yeah, I'm a single parent and I just couldn't handle the travel. I didn't want to raise my kids in hotel rooms and airports, so I just decided to take a break, and the break got longer and longer as I decided I wasn't missing what I was doing. So I stopped. I don't know if I'll go back to it or not. I've got one kid in college and another leaving next year, so I may go back to it. I don't really miss it.
Q: I'm sure there are plenty more things that can be shrunk.
A: Yeah, not from this guy.