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Steve Martin, the well-known comedian, has opened up about his personal life and inner thoughts in a two-part documentary directed by Morgan Neville for Apple. The first part focuses on his life story, using old videos and photos as well as Martin’s own narration. He shares about his difficult upbringing, trying to please his strict father, and his 15-year journey to success as a stand-up comedian. Despite initial struggles, he eventually achieved massive success in his thirties through popular TV appearances on shows like David Letterman and Johnny Carson. Martin’s whimsical and nonsensical routines, with an almost childlike innocence, appealed to American audiences, setting him apart from the edgier humor of other comedians like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.
The second part transitions from using first-person to third-person narrative. Instead of a voiceover, interviews take place with Martin at his home, either alone or with his wife Anne Stringfield or his friend and performing partner Martin Short. This documentary-like approach is similar to celebrity-on-celebrity podcasts or Jerry Seinfeld’s show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”. This half focuses on his career in movies, which began in 1979 and proved to be both successful and eventful, although not without its challenges. This marked a shift away from his character in stand-up comedy, the “wild-and-crazy-guy”. It was during this time that viewers saw his unsmiling expression and a sense of detachment and loneliness, accentuated by his grey hair. According to Short, he appears to have not aged, as he looked 70 when he was only 30.
The initial portion of the text demonstrates how Martin’s childhood experience working at Disneyland greatly influenced him, surpassing the impact of his formal education. His tasks of selling theme park paraphernalia and then working in the magic shop left little time for him to explore the enchanted kingdom, but he found joy in the performances of Wally Boag, a Disneyland comedian, particularly in the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Much of Martin’s act, including the arrow-through-the-head gag, bunny ears, and balloon animals, were inspired by Boag and the magic tricks he learned and performed as a child. (Learning to play the banjo seems to have come later, but there is no specific mention of when he picked it up.) The second part of the text covers a period in Martin’s life where he has developed into a dry, slightly pretentious humorist in New York and has returned to live performances with Short (who he shares a successful TV show, Only Murders in the Building, with).
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Sadly, Martin is feeling down when reflecting on the film industry. He has a large collection of printed copies of all the movies he has been a part of, but he only considers five of them to be good. He doesn’t reveal which ones those are. The failure of his 1981 movie, “Pennies From Heaven,” which was based on a beloved TV show but didn’t receive any recognition, was a tragic experience for him. It was his first encounter with the unkind and arbitrary nature of Hollywood. This was different from the struggles he faced while performing in unpleasant venues as a young comedian, where he felt like he was learning and progressing. Martin realizes that his film career lacks a cohesive narrative and is just a collection of stories. He also reflects on how he may have outgrown his stand-up career, but his transition into acting may not have been as mature or fulfilling as he had hoped.
Although Martin can be evasive about his family, this film is still a compelling and insightful look into his life. However, his daughter is not featured and he only reveals bits and pieces about his father Glenn, who was unsupportive of Steve’s dreams of becoming a performer when he was young. Towards the end of the documentary, we learn indirectly that Glenn also had acting aspirations before turning to real estate, as evidenced by old photographs of him on stage. Unfortunately, the film does not delve further into this aspect.
As for the legendary standup set on which Martin’s legend rests … perhaps you really did just have to be there to watch him capture lightning in a bottle. His live show reached its nirvana when he would lead the audience out of the theatre into the street, improvising wacky alfresco events, taking the crowd into fast-food joints and ordering hundreds of burgers, and on one occasion getting everyone to climb into an empty swimming pool and let him crowd-surf overhead. It was surely one of the great moments in comedy history.
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Source: theguardian.com
