Steve Martin: C or D?

"Our finest vintage from Idaho! Would you like to sniff the cap?"

Okay, folks! I, uh, think that about does it. [checks his wristwatch] We've had a good time tonight, uh, considering we're all going to die. And, uh, we gonna go to commercial now or uh ...? We'll go to commercial and we'll come right back. Thanks a lot. [smiles, waves]

I was resisting quoting that -- even though it is, as you say, brilliant.

But I LOVED Steve Martin movies growing up. Man With Two Brains, the Jerk(i still have the Novelization!), Three Amigos!("Oh GREAT! You've just killed the Invisible Swordsman!"), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, etc.

But the last classic thing he did was "L.A. Story," since after that was "Father of the Bride" and a complete descent into some sorta sentimental mediocrity. Hell, i went to see all the early 90's comedies/dramas at the movie theaters, and i still don't know why. So much forgettable shit like "father of the bride," "Housesitter", or "Leap of Faith"(w/ Liam Neeson!)...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000188/

xpost - oh, fuck you. :)

09/24/05

"A Conversation With Music" featuring Steve Martin, Tony Ellis, Earl Scruggs, Pete Wernick and Charles Wood, held at The Director's Guild of America

Goodnight, Ned.

Steve Martin's Comedy is Not Pretty and Let's Get Small are awesome. Actually all 3 comedy albums are funny and as much a part of my youth as Flintstones and Little Rascals.

Have you seen the film version of Little Shop of Horrors? There's a pretty classic scene with both of them there.

An absolutely genius film, full stop.

"Lord loves the working man, don't trust whitey and see a Doctor and get rid of it."

*sigh*
that should be me.

"Would you mind cutting your hair?"
"Well, no, but it's better if somebody else does it. I've had a few . . . accidents."

I winced a little during the opening scene where Martin's doing a voice-over as the camera pans across his house. You see his dog raise his head as Martin stops typing, then lower it once the typing resumes. It was a pretty hackneyed way to start a movie, but it got much better from there.

Some of my favorite Martin bits have been when he's come on "Letterman". There was one time that he appeared before Jane Fonda was to come on to promote her movie, The Morning After. Instead of showing his clip, he showed Fonda's, saying that he was behind the closet door. Then they showed a dramatic moment where Fonda became aware of an intruder in her house.

Fonda seemed a bit pissed when she came out later, but gamely set-up the clip for "The Three Amigos" as her own.

His peak standup is a shining example of 'smart stupid' humor.
"Wheesh way to ze hotel?"

Saw him as Didi in "Waiting for Godot" opp Robin Williams around '87 at Lincoln Center, both acquitted themselves well. The theater was sort of a square 'in the round,' and a woman coming back from intermission was scuttling off the sand-strewn stage as he made his Act 2 entrance. He shot her a wonderfully haughty look, in character.

The stuff he writes in The New Yorker now and then is cute.

"I have a new book coming out...it’s called 'How to Get Along with
Everybody'. I wrote it with this other asshole jerkoff..."

steve martin is without a doubt the definition of classic. if you've ever read/seen picasso at the lapin agile and think otherwise, we need to talk.

Enjoyable, worth it for what he wrote about the Claire Danes character (though I imagined her as more of a Maggie Gyllenahl type, oh god), but so excessively twee that I don't really care to pick up another of his books.

"CLEANING WOMANNNNN!"

X-post

jeepers creepers someone up there is kidding right? 'classic'?????
LA STORY???? one of the worst films imaginable.

"It smelled like the number on the door."

Virgin No. 58: Those are my testicles.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SP6xd0aITFM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=icMTVV5Lwaw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D-octweQ-s8&mode=related&search=

Sorry if any of that has already been posted; I've had much vodka and wine tonight.

Also, If you enter "Steve Martin banjo" into your preferred download app, you might find an MP3 of the skit where he talks about how impossible it is to sing a sad song along with banjo.

"The banjo is so happy. I think people who are out of work... Instead of giving them money, we should give them a banjo!"

http://www.slate.com/id/2179047/pagenum/all/#page_start

i really loved his new book

The excerpt in the New Yorker was pretty great.

i love this man so much. he's always made me laugh.

I promise to be DIFFERENT!

I PROMISE TO BE DIFFERENT!

I promise to be UNIQUE!

I PROMISE TO BE UNIQUE!

I promise not to repeat things other people say!

Between Steve Martin, Monty Python and Looney Tunes, my childhood had such a great foundation in comedy.

So, obviously

Classic.

He's classic, obviously. I was up till 4am last night because The Jerk happened to be on. How can you turn that movie off?

I was dissappointed with the one book of his I got a while back - it was a very slight book I got at the dollar store, all essays. But a friend was raving about this new one, so I may pick it up...

I've always liked the dude, but never really been into his comedy, outside of the Oscars and LA Story, which is pretty slight, and King Tut, which I like as music first.

LA Story is good...

I'm usually not much for his New Yorkerings either, but I'd give the book the benefit of the doubt. I also haven't seen Shoppegirl.

Pure Drivel and Cruel Shoes are fucking tour de forces of absurdist comedic writing. I haven't read any of his novels. Grew up listening to his albums. My wireless network is named King Tut.

tours de force? tour des forces?

tours des force

also, C.

he is probably kind of a dick and he's actually really pretentious but some of his classic shit is so legendary and funny it excuses the rest. Cruel Shoes was a pretty good book. 'let's get small' is still funny!

Kind of surprised to see a copy of "Comedy is Not Pretty" in the CD section at a truck stop the other day -- if it had been either of the first two albums I would have bought it.

shopgirl might have been better than I gave it credit for up there

I only know him from crappy movies (including Bowfinger, will give him a pass on the evangelist one) and annoying SNL characters.

when i met him he was the sweetest man

bowfinger is awes wtf

I just finished reading Born Standing Up, really great. Except for the occassional dry joke, it's a pretty resolutely serious look at the evolution of his stand-up career. It made me go back and revisit the albums and Cruel Shoes again (the latter of which is apparently primarily made up of "bizarre short things I wrote instead of my philosophy essays," and which I love).

take valium. smoke spliff. put on selected ambient works vol2 on left CDJ, put Let's Get Small on right CDJ, lie down, laugh, dream, wake up slightly hung-over but in a damn good moood.

i have done half of this.

i watched roxanne on christmas

if it wasn't for darryl hannah it would be a perfect movie

really want to read this!

also would love to see roxanne again!

bowfinger IS amazing! i mean drop down funny IMHO. heather graham actually cracks me up. a LOT

"your briefcase! you forgot your briefcase!"

not to mention christine baranski in that scene at the thing, at the cafe with eddie murphy. hHAHAHAHA

Well I have a new dance, that you all must learn
You may have seen the Pee-Wee Herman but it's had it's turn
Now this brand new dance, I know you not with it
You might break your neck, to really try to get it
If you seen the clumsy movie it was called The Jerk
You had to check out Steve Martin as he started to work
He was doin freaky moves with his feet and head
With his blue farmer suit and his big Pro-Keds
Now if you wanna learn it, it really takes time
That's why I'm here now tellin you this rhyme
And if you never seen it, then I'll be startin
My brand new funky dance, called the Steve Martin
Like this... get em Steve, get em
Get em Steve, get em Steve, get em
Get em...

classic, love him
totally formative to my sense of humour/self

i thought i didn't like 'shopgirl' but yknow, it has stuck in my mind, and though i probably wouldn't watch it again, i like it, or how i remember it, a lot

reading Born Standing Up now, and loving it. Also scored his novels off Amazon for cheap, and look forward to checking them out.

Bowfinger is awesome.

i liked the book a lot. hes a good writer most of the time. sure, its no couplehood.

funny when he talks about 'flower power' and the squares when he comes off as square himself at times. also noted his disdain of the 'uncool "yummy yummy yummy".

my fav part was when he talked about being a philosophy student and reading wittgenstein!

wau the hair!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mtbWMDRxLLY

...and I guess you might say I learned my lesson: Don't fool with renegade cows.

I have NEVER seen Steve Martin without gray hair. I kinda wish I hadn't just now.

has this been linked before?

http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/festival/2007/MartinMorrison

It's long, but good for iPod viewing.

sometimes i'll be walking along and in my mind, i'll start singing, "well i'm picking out a thermos for you..." and then i start laughing really hard and snot comes out of my nose and it is SO embarassing.

that and the stand-up bit where he talks about how all the kids "like to get small nowadays. yeah, kids are getting a bit too small..." etc. had me in tears the last time i heard it.

The arrival of the new phone book can be a cause for great excitement in my home.

he hates these cans!

new book is mad good

Complaining about a book from the dollar store is one of those single-posts-that-sum-up-ILX.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Steve_Martin_2.jpg/180px-Steve_Martin_2.jpg

it's hard to separate his former greatness from the guy doing Pink Panther 2.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was where he jumped the shark.

you mean after...? cuz that's maybe his best post-Carl Reiner role.

i was watching some old SNLs when he was doing the "well exCUUUSEE MEEE" stuff and the hyperkinetic getting shocked by the mic stuff... and i got the creeping suspicion that he might have been his generation's Dane Cook.

Not really. Dane Cook is just Dane Cook, but Steve Martin was being "Steve Martin."

Why does that "King Tut" thing show up on every 'SNL best of' special? Do not get why it is supposed to be funny.

please don't call steve martin dane cook ever again :(

i might agree but for some reason the "he ate a crocodile" part always makes me lol

xpost

Never laughed at this guy aside from the Jerk, though what he does is enjoyable I guess.

the US was engulfed in the megahyped King Tut museum tour at the time, ya hadda be there. It's a novelty record, that's all.

plz w/ teh Dane Cook thing

(actually it was a novelty rec that went to #1 on the pop chart I think)

(no, #17)

his comedy records are genius and his film stuff with Reiner is all really great. After that... uhhh... Roxanne was his last decent movie, I think

Spanish Prisoner wasn't too bad.

Also, this trio of decent-to-great movies released after Roxanne:

Parenthood (1989)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

dane cook thing is so very not true

My friend does an excellent impression of Dane Cook. I know it's an excellent impression because, when he does it, the urge to punch him in the face is hard to resist.

dane cook thing makes no sense at all

Steve Martin's weird; he's enjoyable and entertaining but not like, ha-ha funny. Whereas Norm McDonald is a rat bastard, but absolutely hilarious. What's up with that?

to me, steve martin has always been more about being endearing, cute and quirky than falldown hilarious. he's like the funny uncle you never had or something. anyway it's no secret i have a crush on him.

also for later movies search: housesitter, father of the bride. maybe i'm a dork but i love both of those movies a LOT.

u r insane

They're masterpieces compared to some of the stuff he's made since then.

housesitter is one of my favorite movies of all time

omg when he sings tura lura lura

Steve Martin was one of my comedy heroes growing up. For me, his last good movie was L.A. Story, and even by that point he was getting quite uneven.

i liked bowfinger, but really, this guy needs to quit with the pink panther n shit

OMG THANK you for reminding me. bowfinger, i've never laughed like that.

christine baranski is gold in that movie

was kinda disappointed to spot Lily Tomlin in the Pink Panther 2 ads

isn't pretty much assumed that any movie he's done in past 15ish years has been done to get more $$$ to buy art? doesn't seem like he cares about acting or movies at all anymore

it's just so weird to me. the guy is obviously very bright and i'm willing to bet his tastes are a little more refined than the bulk of his career decisions would suggest. i also suspect he has PLENTY of dough. why why why does he feel the need to involve himself with such horseshit?

i guess this could be asked of tons of people though.

i really had no idea ppl had such disdain! what is the horseshit in question??

i never saw that Shopgirl

I had a pretty big crush on him when I was little.

He just came out with some all-bluegrass album.

Sur, Martin basically stopped being good to these folks when he stopped being *weird* and started doing Middle-Aged Jack Lemmon Movies, and I concur.

Pink Panther 2 has a killer cast man

just like Wholly Moses!

I think my current Steve Martin rehabilitation fan fic scenario involves being led into another Bowfinger-quality movie by his obvious boner for Tina Fey. He was funny in Baby Mama, not so much that one episode of 30 Rock

like uh...check out the wife
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1549/martinmarries2rh0.jpg

Why does that "King Tut" thing show up on every 'SNL best of' special? Do not get why it is supposed to be funny.

― i'm shy (Abbott), Thursday, February 5, 2009 1:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"He gave his life... for tourism"

OMG you could fit her skull inside of his (says the woman with the weather balloon-sized head).

oh yeah he was pretty funny in baby mama

Dane Cook has cited early Steve Martin as one of his biggest influences numerous times. I love some Steve Martin stuff but the King Tut and "Hai guyz let's put an arrow through our heads and talk in a funny voice," stuff is reminiscent of Dane Cook acting like a jackass on stage.

um tons of comedians cite Steve Martin as an influence cuz the guy was kinda THE BIGGEST STANDUP COMIC EVER up to that point. Martin's standup act was really very cleverly laid out and had a lot of conceptual/meta/pomo philosophizing behind it, which I don't think Dane Cook is even remotely capable of. For example a lot of Martin's routines (such as the arrow through the head or his entire "Vegas" routin on "Wild and Crazy Guy" were essentially lampooning standard showbiz conventions, playing on their inherent phoniness... "don't you hate it when some showbiz phony comes out and says 'hi its really great to be here!' Well, I really mean it when I say 'hi! it's really great to be here!'"... of individually thanking every member of the audience for coming, etc.)

lolz look at me abusing parentheses

"Carlotta was the kind of town where they spell trouble T-R-U-B-I-L, and if you try to correct them, they kill you."

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus)

I only came here to post that quote.

Man, people are really having trouble getting their heads around the idea of Steve Martin playing a really bad stage comic named "Steve Martin."

xxpost anyway what Shakey Mo said.

how much did you pay for this show? Four dollars? (laughs to himself) Well you know lucky for you guys... sometimes I come out here, I might do a $4.25 show.

Hahaha possible difference between you and me, Cunga: my dislike of Dane Cook leads me to avoid whatever interviews or E! biographies include tidbits like his influences

I mean, neither Martin nor his audience really thought that doing a "napkin trick" which consisted of holding a paper napkin up to your face and sticking your tongue through it was actually funny on its own. It's the whole context in which it was presented that made it funny: A well-dressed, kinda smug hotshot superstar comedian whose act consists of shit like sticking his tongue through a napkin.

I mean, Neil Hamburger, FFS.

in a lot of ways Martin's real heir is Neil Hamburger not fucking Dane Cook

x-posts lolz

A well-dressed, kinda smug hotshot superstar comedian whose act consists of shit like sticking his tongue through a napkin.

He's said in a lot of interviews that one of his influences + one of the funniest things he's ever seen was a magician whose hook was that none of his tricks worked.

pre-superstar Martin was a concept comedian like Kaufman, only much more interested in getting laughs

and post-superstar martin... quit doing stand up, because the only place to go from there would be Dane Cook territory.

The "Comedy Isn't Pretty" record is already halfway there, really.

kenan, that reminds me of The Amazing Jonathan. Magic-wise, he does that same kind of thing, except his tricks ultimately work.

Sur, Martin basically stopped being good to these folks when he stopped being *weird* and started doing Middle-Aged Jack Lemmon Movies, and I concur.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 5 February 2009 20:26 (53 minutes ago) Permalink

i kind of see this, but i don't really think the Jack Lemmon reference is entirely accurate.

at all.

I was about to say that, surmounter. "entirely?"

hey, he played Lemmon's role in the remake of The Out-of-Towners!

also some Dean Jones in there w/ the 'family fare'

He's said in a lot of interviews that one of his influences + one of the funniest things he's ever seen was a magician whose hook was that none of his tricks worked.

― mose def (kenan), Thursday, February 5, 2009 9:08 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

this was me btw

So does anyone else think it's perfectly fine that he's making bank off of Clouseau lately? I think he's introducing a whole new generation of 15-year-olds to a Peter Sellers character that was always way better if you're 15, anyway.

raaaaaaaaaaaam

BLIN

i really like this dude's contemporary civilized, gentlemanly, banjo-playing shtick, but he essentially admitted in the make 'em laugh thing that he started out on the forget-about-politics tip in the '70s, and it reminded me that i hate the jerk, and now i basically hold him responsible for reagan

sorry, The Jerk

yahright, socially conscious '60s comedy put Nixon in the White House

gabbneb in making no sense shockah

Underappreciated (specially by highbrow Brits who remember the original): "Pennies From Heaven"

I'm ok with someone hating The Jerk, even though I love it, because it lacks about 100 things you would normally want in a movie, like a plot or a point or any sense of... anything... and instead it gives you Steve Martin. It's the Anchorman of the day. (I like it though.)

The Jerk is one of the very few movies I own on DVD.

My little brother got it for me for Christmas. :)

Underappreciated (specially by highbrow Brits who remember the original): "Pennies From Heaven"

as an American I prefer the original, which just seems so much darker and pathological and weird. Something about the musical numbers in the Martin version falls flat.

great tapdancing spot by Christopher Walken tho

He came out to see Dave Bromberg last night; I kinda wanna hear his bluegrass album

Hahaha possible difference between you and me, Cunga: my dislike of Dane Cook leads me to avoid whatever interviews or E! biographies include tidbits like his influences

I don't know where the bad trivia comes from. It's just there waiting to be called, like someone on death row.

*although I vaguely remember reading this after Cook broke Martin's record for opening week album sales, and they asked Cook to comment.

great tapdancing spot by Christopher Walken tho

http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vlcsnap10152467ax0.png

http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vlcsnap10152467qt7.jpg

You also wrote a book called Cruel Shoes, which I tried to get a copy of. "Don't bother," he says, shaking his head. A friend of mine at Random House told me he tried to publish it 20 years ago but had been outbid and this still irked him because the book was brilliant. "The truth is, it's not. I wrote it when I was very young. I was asked to republish it recently and I said no. You can get it on eBay. I see it every once in a while," he says dismissively.

god that book is the best thing he ever, ever did. parts of it just make no total sense. then at the ending, 30 pages of poetry. coming at the end of that book, that poetry, it just makes it tough to be sure of anything

pointy birds, oh pointy pointy

it is definitely not the best thing ever. its somewhere between John Lennon's books and Woody Allen's (Woody's at least have actual jokes)

I think Pure Drivel is the only book that competes with Cruel Shoes, but yeah: Cruel Shoes is amazing in its absurdism.

THIS ART STINKS!!

NO GOOD

JEW??

see Shakey whenever we disagree your contraries always end up making it sound better than I was capable of, not having actual jokes is the best thing about 'Cruel Shoes'

Shuckin’ the Jive

The crazy bastards were going down to the pool hall to play a little pinball when their car exploded blowing everyone to smithereens. Some of Tubby’s flesh flew off by the side of the road, and in time nourished a sunflower growing there. Soon the sunflower was eaten by a hoss and the hoss was eaten by some hobos out for a wild time. Then one of the hobos met an eastward wandering Canadian guru. But before anything significant happened the hobo died, attacked by a heart-dog in a scientist’s laboratory. The death was listed as a heart attack. Then slavery was abolished.

WINSLOW BONER

the one about the smokers "and then their lips fell off"

"When the Dogs Come" is still my favorite shit ever

like i hope somebody reads that shit at my funeral srsly

he also had a TV special (late '70s?) where he lipsynced "Some Enchanted Evening" to no particular end. Brilliant.

anyone got a link to some good steve martin standup?

I know its my own damn fault for watching in the first place, but he was shockingly bad on SNL last week. Does Lorne just give him free reign to do whatever the fuck he wants when he comes to host?

"shockingly bad" seems to make Lorne $$$$ just fine, along with producing commercials.

Well, yeah, I'm sure tons of people tune in just because his name was listed. More than effing Bradley Cooper, whoever that is. I just hadn't realized how completely unfunny Martin had gotten. And the banjo thing, really?

i didn't see the episode so i don't know exactly what the "banjo thing" is but dude is considered a world-class banjo player and just put out a new album:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/arts/music/02banjo.html

Among country and bluegrass musicians, Mr. Martin is regarded as a master of a difficult five-fingered playing style known as clawhammer or frailing, in which the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails, rather than pulled up with picks.

“I know I can’t play it,” said Mr. Scruggs, for whom the traditional three-fingered Scruggs style is named. “So it’s a challenge for me.”

Yeah I saw a vid of him playing with Earl Scruggs once and Steve seriously pwns the banjo.

whaaaat that's so fuckign cool

I didn't read the whole thread, so this may have been posted already, but totally classic sketch:

I imagine that to critics on this thread, Martin would say, "WELL EXCUSE ME."

The one (two) Martin SNL sketches I always remember are the penis cream sketch and the one where he's reading a letter to his wife on valentine's day which has the line,

'...to make me horny when I am not horny, and to be out of town the rest of the time...'

both of those are v funny when you are, like, 14

along w/ his Czech act w/ Aykroyd?

love the "Dancing in the Dark" interlude w/ Radner

never seen Roxanne. i feel i need to. tonight.

have you seen All of Me and The Man w/ Two Brains?

the latter yes, but not all of me

be pompous, obese and eat cactus

All of Me is probably his best movie, after the Jerk.

His early SNL appearances are comedy gold, but anything after like 1985 or so I don't remember and/or haven't bothered to watch

I don't think he's great at sketch comedy. While watching last week's SNL, it occurred to me that some of the sketches (some which I'm convinced he had a hand in writing) were amusing in a way that might've worked in a Shouts & Murmurs piece but not as live TV. "Droll" doesn't cut it on SNL.

Actually, strike that first sentence, since I haven't seen a lot of the early stuff. And I do remember really liking his "Holiday Wish" on SNL, but that's basically a monologue, so it plays to his strengths.

I would give Martin a pass on his last 10 years the way I pretend Bob Hope's career ended in 1957.

More Cruel Shoes love here - I used "...And then his lips fell off" in at least one ILM thread, hoping at least one person would get the allusion

^

I'd never seen that! Awesome.

The Lonely Guy falls apart after a while, doesn't it?

I dig Roxanne, but that's like 40% just about the scenery.

where is the love for Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid?

probly my least fave of the Reiners; the way he's integrated into the clips sorta gets old after 20-30 mins, I think

I got lotsa love for that one, especially when he interpolates for Cary Grant in Notorious.

Who hates The Jerk? That Freaks & Geeks episode made it sound like a polarizing movie. Was that really what the culture was like?
Also I can't believe Pauline Kael didn't like Airplane.

Is Dead Man Don't Wear Plaid out of print?

I don't think the point of that Freaks & Geeks was that Steve Martin was "polarizing," I think the point was that when you are a pre-teen geek you tend to enjoy things other people find weird and pointless

...and that dream girls are not what they seem...

Ha, yeah, I don't think there's anything more basic at that age than that realization of vastly different interests from opposite-sex crushes, even if you aren't a giant dork

Wait, Steve Martin was mentioned in the F&G episode about the transfer student with the Billy Joel soundtrack?

no, it was the episode where sam breaks up with cindy sanders (the cheerleader), because she didn't laugh at the jerk

She had the same interests! My memory's spotty but I believe we're talking about Cindy Sanders staring in disgust at The Jerk and asking what's supposed to be funny about it, leading Sam to realize that maybe he and Cindy Sanders are well suited for one another

xpost

I thought he was cracking up while she was totally bored or something.

Cindy Sanders is about half right

dr. morbius, more like to agree with a fictional character than anybody on ilx

cruel shoes is awes, I remember reading it in a supermarket book section back in the 70s

HOW TO FOLD SOUP

what's the old SNL martin skit where he's a medieval judge

Where he laughs at the one preposterous diagnosis, demonic possession, and gives the more up-to-date opinion, small gnome in stomach?

"Theodoric of York"

also Medieval Barber

Dat's him.

HOW TO FOLD SOUP

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, February 6, 2009 10:11 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

looool yes

also Medieval Barber

"What you need is a good bleeding."

"But I'm already bleeding!"

"Hey, who's the barber here?"

Ha, I don't remember it verbatim or anything, but for whatever reason, my favorite bit in that sketch is when he gets out the chicken. "If it looks her in the eye, she'll live. If it looks at her feet, she will die." And the chicken just struts about doing neither and wanders off.

chickens = comedy

leading Sam to realize that maybe he and Cindy Sanders are well suited for one another

um I think this sentence is missing some words

some = one = NOT

http://www.hulu.com/watch/3529/saturday-night-live-theodoric-of-york

Steve Martin, patron of the arts:

Of arts and sciences
Written by Steve Martin March 13, 2009 04:07 pm
To the citizens of La Grande:

It has come to my attention that there is a controversy regarding my play, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” which was to be produced at your local high school.

First let me compliment Mr. Kevin Cahill, the teacher who selected the play, on his excellent taste! The play has been performed, without incident, all over the world by professional and amateur companies, including many high schools.

Because I don’t know the standards of your community or the life experience of your students, it is impossible for me to address whether my play is appropriate to be performed on campus, although in the limited web exchanges I have read, the students, and the eloquent Mr. Cahill, seem to understand the play and can discern that the questionable behavior sometimes evident in the play is not endorsed.
I have heard that some in your community have characterized the play as “people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects.” With apologies to William Shakespeare, this is like calling Hamlet a play about a castle. This play is set in an actual bar in Paris that was frequented by Picasso, a historical site that still exists today.

Focusing on Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Picasso’s master painting, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” the play attempts to explain, in a light-hearted way, the similarity of the creative process involved in great leaps of imagination in art and science. Pablo Picasso, as a historical figure, does not come gift-wrapped for the sensitive. He lived as he painted, fully sexual and fully daring, and in the play he is chastised by a sage bartendress for his cavalier behavior toward women.

Because of the controversy, I recently reread the play, and, frankly, I could understand how some parents might object to certain lines if they were to be delivered by a 16- or 17-year-old. Yet I do believe that the spirit of the play and its endorsement of the arts and sciences are appropriate for young eyes and minds.

So while the question of whether students should perform the play at their high school remains something to be determined by the community, I firmly believe that seeing the play will bring no harm to them and might well uplift them — and acting in the play, if they are permitted by their parents, would also bring them no harm, and may help them to understand the potency, power and beauty of the arts and sciences.

I suspect that the signers of the petition against the production read excerpts only, and were not shown the more delicate and inspirational parts of the script.

To prevent the play from acquiring a reputation it does not deserve, I would like to offer this proposal: I will finance a non-profit, off-high school campus production (low-budget, I hope!), supervised and/or directed by Mr. Cahill and cast at his discretion, so that individuals, outside the jurisdiction of the school board but within the guarantees of freedom of expression provided by the Constitution of the United States, can determine whether they will or will not see the play, even if they are under 18.

I predict that the experience will not be damaging, but meaningful.

Steve Martin wrote the play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.’’ He is an actor and comedian.

man i love this guy

"Theodoric of York"

This sketch is from the April 22, 1978 episode, which I now have on DVD. I got Season 3 for Christmas but stupidly left it at home, and after months of insisting there was no hurry, finally got it in the mail the other day. The whole episode is so great. It has the first (and I suppose also second) appearance of The Blues Brothers, a great Czech Brothers sketch, Steve doing King Tut, "Send More Chuck Berry" -- it's all solid. But the absolute best is Steve and Gilda dancing. I can't find video online, but I can't really blame anyone for that, because it's the kind of thing that people buy whole DVD box sets for.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i191/fluxion23/steve-gilda.jpg

oomg I forgot about that.

Me too!

(I also forgot that Laraine Newman is smokin'.)

That SNL skit transcript posted upthread about him shooting his girlfriend has had me laughing uncontrollably for the past five minutes.

I scrolled through this whole thread just to post about Steve and Gilda dancing...

Sorry.

Laraine Newman is still smokin.

I will only use the past tense "WAS smokin'" after she's dead.

I love how Hulu is like "tune in on Saturdays at 9:30!" after the Theodoric of York clip and makes no reference at all to the fact that what you've just watched is over 30 years old.

They are trying not to remind those of us interested in watching it that we are about to leave the key 18-34 demographic.

Ok I speak only for myself. But I'm probably a good median age for anyone who wants to watch that clip.

Taking it to the stage.

from Lorne Michaels' short-lived New Show circa '84:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avjmBiH89M8

gee i wonder why it was short-lived.

cuz the other stuff wasnt ^that^ great

RIP Jeff Goldblum

i love steve martin, i love classic SNL, and i couldn't find the joke in that clip at ALL. it was like something off Little And Large...

Yeah, it wasn't that the jokes weren't funny - there weren't any jokes! It was just Steve Martin doing Billie Jean.

He had trouble turning the floor lights on. That was a joke, if you missed it!

ha! i saw that but could not believe it was the only joke!

he also had to chase down the floor lights, which got a solid lol from me

yeah, sorry if it's not up to Rogataow-level subtlety.

Liking one kind of comedy or another does not make anyone an idiot. Can't we all just laugh (or sit stonefaced) along?

no argument, and you chose your words with exceptional intelligence.

Saw Mr. Martin with Abigail Washburn, Bela Fleck, and the Steep Canyon Rangers last night. While not on the level of Bela, Steve can actually play the banjo really well. I was impressed.

He was pretty funny, too.

yeah... I remember when I had my first beer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOT7heJgVcc

THE BORING LEADING THE BORED

(Reprinted from 'Boredom' Magazine)

"WELL, I NEVER!" said Mrs. Watkins. The meeting of the College Council on Metaphysics then applauded her and stood up cheering. Of course, some of the old-school existentialists humbugged it, but nevertheless, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Then Mrs. Jenkins shouted over the crowd, "That woman never ceases to amaze me." The logicians and semanticists gloated and looked anxiously over to the metaphysicians to see their reaction to the carefully planted "never ceases" insertion. Mrs. Jenkins obviously had been working for the logicians to arouse insurrection among the three or four Zeno partisans. But suddenly Dr. Walker, who had been a recluse professor for almost twenty years, stood up. With the crowd instantly silenced by his commanding and unexpected rising, he uttered something so incredibly unutterable, so impossible, so unsolvable, that this mass of philosophy started heaving right and left and dying on the spot, blood bursting from their ears in an astounding death agony.

I think I've read Cruel Shoes 3 times this year.

"oh look there's a little baby? how old is that baby? Two? Got a joke for him."

http://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo !

I would like to cancel my previous apology. What am I if not a man? about 6 hours ago via web

http://media.whosay.com/15611/15611_la.jpg

good lord i love this guy
shopgirl was...disappointing, but it was long enough ago that i've forgiven him

this birdwatching movie... it's not even TRYING to be funny

I saw the trailer for it twice and didn't even know it was about birdwatching until I read a review today.

studios cautious after that Van Damme birdwatching epic that tanked

I just re-watched Parenthood the other night. It's really quite good in spite of its ultimately overly sentimental and just slightly conservative take.

"my retainer! my retainer!"

They're bad dudes. That's why they call the game "Bad Dudes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afh3sjdlCEI

Pardon me, sir. Could you tell me where the ice tennis courts are.

Oh sure. Do you know where the swimming field is?

That's over by the golf rink?

I don't know why I haven't heard anything about this (I just accidentally stumbled over it on Amazon) but there's a new box set out collecting all of his TV specials and a bunch of other early appearances.

oh shit! i forgot about the tv specials! some of his best work! i once made my nana cry by reciting steve martin's thanksgiving speech at our family t-day.

"and also, i'm thankful that my private parts are in my pants, and not on display at the museum of modern art."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12f7PdLJKtE

want the tv stuff dvd so bad

Oscarecipient

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=381aYexNTuc

"It's said that the art of filmmaking is collaborative, so for me to be singled out and honored tonight means that that is not true."

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Good stuff.

So, there's this:

http://www.avclub.com/article/father-bride-sequel-about-gay-marriage-reportedly--205875

https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/478647002994327552

I guess that's already in there.

He's back!

http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/steve-martin-performed-stand-up-last-night.html

holy zimolians

daaaaaaamn i woulda lost my mind

Amazing one-two from Martin himself:

https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/700775059770765313

https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/700775348997332992

Super exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2qeZcHcSGQ

that's part one of a two-part 50-minute show from Let's Get Small era. it's includes most of that record's setlist (incl my favorites "cat handcuffs" and "king tut") but has some cool extra stuff too. some incredible banjo playing in there too!

I rewatched The Jerk for the first time since '79/80. Maybe the most uneven of the Reiner films, bcz it's basically a version of his standup act onscreen + a Jerry Lewis movie that went to college.

The really dumb stuff works best, like "The Thermos Song."

and I'm guessing the only film ever to feature Jackie Mason and Maurice Evans

Dave Kehr:

Some of the physical comedy seems to rely on Jerry Lewis, and it's worth noting that when Lewis's Hardly Working was subsequently released, Lewis was pointedly billed as “the original jerk.”

Somehow I missed My Blue Heaven at the time in spite of it being exactly the kind of thing that I would have watched on cable in the early 90s. It's wildly uneven, to the extent that it took me quite a while in to figure out the tone that they were going for, but I quite liked the relationship between Martin and Rick Moranis--kind of a grown-up Ferris Bueller's Year in the Witness Relocation Program, I guess. It kind of blows my mind that this comes from the same source that produced Goodfellas and that the same studio released both films a month or so apart from each other. I wonder if Warner Bros thought they had a hit on their hands with MBH (Martin's films consistently did well around this time, iirc) and that maybe this film would generate interest in Scorsese's, a tactic they dropped when this movie bombed.

My Blue Heaven was written by Nora Ephron, who was married to Wiseguy/Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi, apparently she used his contact with Henry Hill to do research of her own:

There was a funny sideline to my work with Nick. At night, I’d get half-gassed and call Nick in New York just to bullshit. It was like therapy for me. Sometimes Nick’s wife, Nora, would answer the phone and tell me, “Hey, Nick is sleeping. What’s the matter, Henry? This is Aunt Nora.” Meanwhile, she was picking my brain for a script she was writing. I had no idea. She was on the other end taking notes. She was a piece of work… In 1990, the same year my movie Goodfellas came out, she had a little movie released called My Blue Heaven, starring Steve Martin, about a New Yorker in Witness Protection out west — just like I had been in Omaha. When I saw it I flipped because she used some of the stuff I had told her on the phone for her movie scenes. She took a combination of me and Michael Franceze, another rat she had read about in the papers. I never got a penny for it, but Nick had been so generous with me that I just let it slide. Had it been anyone else’s wife…

I never watched this bcz as we know, Nora Ephron went on to a prominent role in the murder of American film comedy. If Henry Hill sorta ghostwrote it, I might give it a shot.

Stick with your original instincts

It sucks

Arising from his comedians in cars having coffee with seinfeld- who is better than tolerable in it, surprisingly- Steve Martin comes across as a thoughtful and intelligent guy but not any funnier than let's say you had a shy uncle who wasn't funny but was pleasant he's that funny.

But, as part of the show they show clips from his live comedy shows in the seventies.

And that

That is genuinely the least funny shit that has ever claimed to be funny

Let alone "thousands of people came to see this and paid money to see this, *knowing what it was*" funny

The fuck, now i mean what the fuck is wrong with americans

In a letter: D

I have never remotely understood what's supposed to be funny about him. I like him because he's thoughtful and intelligent and musical.

Charming, affable, sharp, quick wit. Goes a ways.

I don’t think he’s ever killed me comedically (outside of seeing The Jerk as a kid) but always enjoyed/was amused by his presence.

I like him. B+.

the seventies.

― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac),

this is basically the issue

he is charming

i saw this recently and he comes off as a very nice normal person

but the song where he sings kind of threw me off, his whole singing style and his jokes just seem way too disconnected from everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyHipL45pwM

LA Story forever!

His clown has changed from an overconfident asshole (he said admiringly...) to a doddering old man and I appreciate that

I don't think his comedy makes any sense at all extracted in little fragments like those Comedians in Cars clips. And the audiences there are going wild mainly because they've heard a catchphrase they recognize. In context, his act involved various levels of intentional stupidity and artlessness. His white-suited persona was essentially that of a clueless simpleton with a perverse amount of self-confidence and swagger, with elements of hipsterism mixed in to add to the weird contradiction of it.

That said even at his peak he was divisive, and there was always a segment of the population who found him totally alienating and unfunny. He did represent a break of sorts with traditional standup comedy in the US. Don't know how well he crossed the Generation Gap either - probably the bulk of his fans were Baby Boomers in their 20s/early 30s (plus some kids).

A spirited defence of then man but what is on trial here is his comedy which btw is shit

life is a tragedy for those who feel

but a comedy for those who think

something to consider

xp Random five second snippets from some show =/= his comedy is what I'm saying.

Seinfeld inserted those only to jog Americans' memories.

a) '70s Martin was less 'here's a joke that I legit believe to be hilarious' than it was proto-anti-comedy, b) comedy ages about as poorly as sliced avocado

a long time ago i picked up one of his comedy LPs for $1, and before i listened to found this insert:

https://i.imgur.com/XZvFvH8.jpg

i listened to it anyway, but kind of knew it was a lost cause

b) comedy ages about as poorly as sliced avocado

otm

b) comedy ages about as poorly as sliced avocado

otm

read some 17th c funny stuff and understand it's not that those people had poor senses of humor, it's that comedy is generally audience-specific

This discussion all belongs on the controp thread tho I agree most humour doesn't keep and maybe when we laugh at old stuff we're laughing differently than the original audience

But his first 4 or 5 movies are golden and gtfo with opinions to the contrary

The same lads here now would have me listening to 17th century symphonies as if it wasn't all a sham

not even rising to that obvious nonsense

Yeah, it's weird that my reaction to his standup is 'yeah, I can see why people might've found this funny' while The Man With Two Brains still kills me.

a little lime on that avocado does wonders for it

not even rising to that obvious nonsense

― Under the influence of the Ranters (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 4 March 2018 21:46 (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is what the internet is for

for years I had been putting avocado in a small bowl and stretching plastic wrap across the top, I only recently learned from my sister to take the plastic wrap and push it down flush to the avocado, works nicely

very few people remain funny over the course of a long career, there's nothing at all wrong w/ Steve Martin

Attaboy

I found a cheap vinyl copy of Let's Get Small a few years back and thought it was hilarious. Definitely (proto-) anti-comedy, though, so if that's already not your thing, you're not going to like this any more than any of the current variants.

i have a record of his, "A Wild and Crazy Guy", and totally love it. i may be biased cos as a kid i was in a summer art school performance of King Tut and that song has always ruled. my favorite bit on the record is "Cat Handcuffs"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gw58NYktVY