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I was surprised when Steve Martin turned out to be funny. His unique sense of humor was evident in films like The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, LA Story, and Bowfinger. He was also the first comedian to achieve double-platinum-record sales and perform sold-out shows in stadiums. His signature white suit on stage was to ensure that even the far-away fans could see him. In All of Me and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, he showcased his impressive physical comedy skills, while also writing witty scripts even in his silliest roles. His performance in Roxanne, a modern take on Cyrano de Bergerac, showed a different side to his comedy, with memorable lines such as “earn more sessions by sleeving”.
However, outside of his role in the crime-comedy show Only Murders in the Building, which he helped create, he is known for his serious demeanor. He is a playwright, musician in the bluegrass genre, and an art enthusiast with vast knowledge on the subject – he once sold an Edward Hopper piece for nearly $27 million. Currently, he is the focus of a two-part, three-hour-long documentary called Steve! (Martin), directed by the award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville. It is unlikely that there will be many funny moments in the documentary.
Surprisingly, the first thing he says is a joke.
I have simply inquired with he and Neville, who are communicating with me through a video call from different places, if they can understand me clearly. “I’m uncertain,” replies Martin. “Your voice sounds like you have a British accent.” And our conversation begins.
The 78-year-old actor is currently situated in his apartment in New York City. Behind him, there is a packed bookcase and a sofa in a calming shade of mint. He is looking at his screen while wearing brown-framed glasses. His hair is a bright, ceramic-white and appears as delicate as fluffy cotton. His colleague and comedic sidekick, Martin Short, once described him as “a blank page in a coloring book.”
What motivated him to create the documentary? Martin states, “It’s impossible to objectively analyze one’s own experiences and creations.” He reflects, “From my perspective, it may seem like a chaotic mess. But what about from an outside perspective?” What was his takeaway from watching the documentary? Martin admits, “I’ve only seen it once. I’ll have a better understanding once others view it. After watching it, I did call Morgan and suggest mentioning the awards.”
Neville is a lifelong fan. “I didn’t totally get what Steve was doing when I was a kid, but there’s an absurdity you respond to,” he says from his home in Pasadena, California. “Once you grow up, you see the sophistication as well.” What did he need from Martin for the documentary to work? “He had to be open. And it became clear from our initial meeting that he was genuinely curious about his own life.”
The initial portion of Steve! (Martin) discusses Martin’s upbringing, his employment as a teenager in the Disneyland magic store, his original stand-up routines, and his transition from performing in stadiums to the big screen with the release of The Jerk in 1979. He then retired from live comedy. In the latter half, we discover the remainder of his journey, which includes failures, anxieties, and disappointments leading up to his current success and happiness in both his professional and personal life. Martin has been married since 2007 to Anne Stringfield, his former fact-checker at the New Yorker, and they share a daughter who is 11 years old.
The name of the movie, with its flashy and attention-grabbing exclamation point, showcases Martin’s comedic persona as a solo entertainer: “I played an entertainer who was pretending to be an entertainer, and not a very good one,” he shared in his memoir about his early career, Born Standing Up. “It’s a false sense of importance that I’ve had my entire life,” Martin now explains. “It also stems from my days performing in Las Vegas in the 1970s when everyone would do the one-word name thing: ‘Cher!’ So I found it amusing to go by just ‘Steve!'”
The film demonstrates that Martin’s performance on stage was an innovative attempt at prolonging jokes without releasing their suspense. He recognized that by not providing traditional cues of comedy (setup, punchline), the audience would have to determine for themselves when to laugh, and the humor might never reach its peak. His fabricated self-confidence, his façade of cockiness as he stood on stage with a fake arrow through his head, made him impervious. According to Martin, the crowd had to perceive that he was indifferent to their laughter, and that the show would go on with or without their participation.
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During the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, Steve Martin showed an ironic appreciation for show business by how he interacted with his fans. He would carry cards that read: “This certifies that you have met me and can attest to my warmth, politeness, intelligence, and humor. -Steve Martin”
Bringing it up elicits a smile from him. He reminisces, “This was during a time when requests for autographs were common. The card already had a printed signature on it. I would distribute them, but people were often confused. Eventually, they would ask me to personally sign it, which defeated the purpose.”
Nowadays, it’s all about taking selfies. The idea of signing autographs was always a hassle, as it involved finding a pen and signing a shoe receipt. Is he more at ease now when it comes to fans? Not really, as there is no real interaction, it’s all about him. He then pauses and adds with a hint of disdain that he wouldn’t even think about asking about them.
Perhaps it was a strange experience for him, back in the 1970s, to be breaking down the norms of show business only to be accepted by the traditional powers. In a clip from The Tonight Show, Steve (Martin) can be seen being embraced by Sammy Davis Jr. “I felt a sense of pride,” he recalls. “But later I learned that Sammy hugged everyone.”
Did it seem like he had been chosen for something special? “I didn’t think of it as a permanent honor, since the same people who praise you one day can criticize you the next.” It was only as he was speaking that I realized the joy of hearing him use the word “anointed” with his prim and proper speaking style, just like he did in The Man With Two Brains while reciting Pointy Birds by the fictional poet John Lillison, also known as England’s greatest one-armed poet: “Oh sharp birds / Oh sharp-sharp / Bless my head / Blessy-sessy.”
Martin is concerned that receiving praise in the present could lead to embarrassment in the future. Jerry Seinfeld mentions Martin in the book “Steve!” as the most beloved comedian of all time. However, Martin admits that Seinfeld’s words make him uncomfortable because he believes that being idolized is temporary. He illustrates this by mentioning a comedian from his childhood, Joe Penner, whose catchphrase was “Wanna buy a duck?” and used to be popular and funny, but now it is seen as cringe-worthy. Martin therefore does not put too much value in being idolized.
Part of his humility must come from the way he was treated by his father, Glenn, a real estate salesman with thwarted showbiz ambitions. In Born Standing Up, Martin recounts instances of physical abuse, as well as Glenn’s peevish behaviour once his son’s career took off. When Martin first appeared as a host on Saturday Night Live – a position he would occupy a further 15 times – his father wrote a negative review of the performance in the newsletter of the Newport Beach Association of Realtors. Immediately after the premiere of The Jerk, Glenn said his son was “no Charlie Chaplin”.
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The statement is incorrect. During his prime, Martin was comparable to Chaplin in modern comedy. Neville concurs, stating that while it may embarrass Steve, he was a cultural sensation.
In dwelling on some of Martin’s perceived failures, Steve! (Martin) provides a surprisingly nuanced portrait. A generous chunk of time is devoted to the magnificent but maligned 1981 film version of Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven, which represented a brave attempt by Martin to extend his range right at the point where he could have sleepwalked into a sequel to The Jerk. I love his performance as a 1930s sheet-music salesman suspected of murder, but he remains unconvinced.
He shrugs and states, “In my opinion, they did not choose the right actor for the role. Although I believe I portrayed the character’s inner pain well, I am not able to accurately evaluate my performance. This applies to all my serious acting, including my impressive portrayal of a deceitful conman in David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner in 1997.” He then adds, “I am not sure how to judge these dramatic performances. If someone compliments me on my performance in The Spanish Prisoner, I am grateful, but I am unsure if I truly did well.”
I complimented him on his performance in The Spanish Prisoner. “Thank you, was it good? I’m glad.”
Neville views Martin as a master at solving puzzles. This is demonstrated in all aspects of his craft, whether it be magic, stand-up comedy, or playing the banjo. Martin is constantly striving for improvement and never settles for mediocrity.
Having committed in Steve! (Martin) to showing low points as well as highlights, it was incumbent on Neville to feature the infamous clip of the British comic Paul Kaye, in the guise of the irksome celebrity-insulting hobgoblin Dennis Pennis, ambushing Martin on the red carpet in 1996. “It was nasty,” says Neville. “And I wanted to show how the world judges you when all you’re trying to do is be creative.”
It’s still painful to watch an evidently weary Martin deciding to oblige after he clocks the BBC logo on Kaye’s microphone. “What’s the question?” he asks good-naturedly, only for Kaye to deliver the killer blow: “How come you’re not funny any more?” Martin then turns back to the throng, fatigued and deflated, and continues his dead-man-walking trudge past photographers.
“It was painful because I was in a particularly delicate stage of my career,” he explained. The incident occurred during the premiere of Sgt. Bilko, which could possibly be considered Martin’s lowest-rated movie. He had declined the lead role in The Birdcage to work on Sgt. Bilko, but sadly the homosexual comedy ended up becoming a blockbuster hit earning $185 million worldwide, while Sgt. Bilko struggled with a lifetime gross of $38 million.
Wikipedia claims that Martin cancelled all his remaining press interviews after the Dennis Pennis insult. “No!” he scoffs. “That’s just Wikipedia.” You just find a way to deal with it, he suggests. “Bad reviews hurt; they really hurt. But if I’m at a screening and I see the critic, I just go: ‘Hey! How you doing?’ Like you don’t know anything.”
Martin hasn’t crossed paths with Kaye since then. Before I go, however, I mention that the line has come back to haunt Kaye: he has said it is now the one thing strangers say to him in the street. Hearing this, Martin tips back his head and lets out an almighty laugh, warm and rich, yet curiously lacking in schadenfreude. “I hold no grudges,” he says. “Things have gone well.”
Source: theguardian.com
