LOS ANGELES?Mike Myers will be the first to say that he brings ?silly? characters to the screen, like Austin Powers and now, the Love Guru, so he surprises reporters when he speaks wistfully and tenderly about his late father, Eric Myers. You can sense how much he misses his dad, a former British army cook who emigrated from the Beatles? Liverpool to Canada. Eric, who instilled in his famous son a love for those ?silly British comedies,? died in 1991.

?Everything I do is inspired by my father,? said Mike when we interviewed him for ?The Love Guru? which also stars Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake. ?He was a very silly Liverpudlian. He spoke like the Beatles. If my dad were to write an essay, it would be titled ?In Praise of Silliness.? That piece would blur the lines between philosophy, spirituality, entertainment and all those things. I learned from him that nothing is so painful in life that it ultimately can?t be laughed at. Once you get to that state, that is a state of grace. My father said in his thick Liverpool accent, ?We?ve done our work. Now, let?s go have some fun.? Those are magical words to me.

?When he died, I can?t go terribly deep but I went on a little spiritual quest and Austin Powers came out of it. I wanted to honor all of the British comedies he loved. He made me stay up late on a school night to watch them. If a British comedy came on Buffalo TV at 11 p.m., even though I was asleep, he would wake me up. He would say, ?Now you?ve got to watch this. It?s British and it?s funny.? I?d go, ?Wow, that?s so awesome.? So ?Austin Powers? and ?The Love Guru? are to honor him and the Beatles, Peter Sellers and all of the things that he introduced me to, when he said, ?You should pay attention to this. You will love this for the rest of your life.? And I have loved these things.?

He stressed, ?I just want to say again that ?The Love Guru? is my way of honoring my dad by dealing with his loss, and ?Austin Powers? was my way of honoring him by dealing with his gift.?

Inspired characters

Asked how many more movies inspired by his father are in the works, Mike quipped, ?I have about 20 characters that are circling the airport and I wait for them to land. All of them are in some ways informed by my father.?

He revealed how a ?silly? man like him is friends with authors of books dealing with spirituality and enlightenment: ?When my father died, Deepak Chopra?s books were sources of great philosophy. Deepak is to philosophy as Carl Sagan is to physics. I?ve also read Kurt Vonnegut all my life. His writings informed me on the sort of absurdity of everything. His stuff is fraught with pain and satire. I also started reading Gary Zukav. I thought that ?The Seat of the Soul? was a very beautiful book.

?One time I said that I was reading Deepak Chopra?s latest book. I got a call from a friend of a friend of a friend who said Deepak is curious ?why you are reading his book.? Because a lot of people are shocked?all I do is very silly stuff. That?s who I am. So I met Deepak at one of his lectures. He has been a friend ever since and a tremendous source of inspiration.

?With Gary Zukav, I mentioned that I was reading his books, in a Rolling Stone interview. I got a call from somebody who said, ?Would you like to meet Gary Zukav?? I was like, yeah. We met at a steakhouse (laughter). I thought, I?m going to meet this very spiritual person in one of those big red leather places. So I sit there eating my big steak and asking big, philosophical questions.?

Seeking answers

He clarified, ?After my father died, I began seeking for answers. But I want to say that in my seeking, there was no ascetic quality to it. There were no monastic retreats.? But believe it or not, that?s how Austin Powers and the Love Guru came to be. ?I read a lot about these philosophies. When my friends asked for advice, I would dispense advice based on what I had read. And I said them in this deep, soothing voice. My friends told me, ?Do that voice again.? That?s how my characters were born.?

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On this Father?s Day, please allow this Dad to gloat about his blessings. I have many blessings to thank God for but the ones that I am most grateful for, in addition to the love of Janet, are our two daughters.

I?m a very lucky man to be blessed with Nikki, 19, and Ella, 17, who are loving and responsible. And they have made the stage parents in Janet and me very proud.

Last month, Ella won the Best Animation Award in the first film festival for LA area high school students. She worked on the arduous process of claymation for seven straight hours on the eve of the festival?s deadline.

You can?t imagine my excitement when someone from the festival left a voice mail on my phone and said that Ella?s entry made it from over a hundred submissions as one of the works that will be featured. Earlier, she had the honor of showing this film along with the creations of her classmates in an animation class at the Red Cat Theater of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

At the festival, her entry was shown at the Alex Theater. When her name was called for the top animation prize, I thought about the night when Ella was introduced to Steven Spielberg. ?I like to be a filmmaker like you,? she told the director.

Before Nikki graduated with the highest honors from high school last year, she, Ella and Janet spent a much-deserved spring break in the Philippines. While they were in Boracay, Nikki?s college acceptance letters, some with scholarship offers, started coming. She got accepted to all the 10-plus colleges she applied to.

Nikki opted to go to a top university in the US where she is now a scholar. The thought of these girls keeps me going. Oh, and always, the passion of Janet whom the girls love to tease as the world?s greatest stage mother.

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.