Who knew Steve Martin used to be so funny?<\/p>\n
I was not familiar with the man’s work before
\nBowfinger<\/i>, and I’ve only seen him in a few bit parts (
\nLooney Tunes: Back in Action<\/i>,
\nNovocaine<\/i> and
\nCheaper By The Dozen<\/i>. Or maybe it was
\nBringing Down The House<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
On a chance, I came across the novelty ’70s Martin single “King
\nTut” and borrowed a copy of
\nA Wild And Crazy Guy<\/i> from a friend. What greeted my ears was
\na wry, ironic, postmodern comedian who was intellectual, goofy and
\nentertaining, all while mocking the conventions of show
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
That was his second relase;
\nLet’s Get Small<\/i> is his debut and best release. I’m a fan of
\nmusical comedy, and Martin doesn’t disappoint here, throwing in the
\noccasional banjo song and solo and creating some of the album’s
\nfunniest parts in the process. The musical highlight, aside from
\nthe ludicrous singalong “Grandmother’s Song,” is a snippet in the
\n15-minute title track where Martin plays an upbeat tune and tells
\nthe crowd it’s impossible to be in a bad mood when you’re playing
\nthe banjo.<\/p>\n
“I always thought the banjo was the one thing that could have
\nsaved Nixon,” he says.<\/p>\n
The non-musical bits are equally as funny, drawing on wry
\nobservations, drug humor and some jokes. Martin doesn’t have a
\nshtick, which makes everything unpredictable; the first minute,
\nhe’s parodying the Vegas lounge acts where an entire hour-long act
\nis condensed into ten minutes, and then the next minute he’s naming
\noff the things he’s bought with money from the show. (Sample items:
\na fur sink, a $300 pair of socks and a gasoline-powered turtleneck
\nsweater. And some dumb stuff, too.)<\/p>\n
Some bits from the movie
\nThe Jerk<\/i> make their debut here, such as Martin’s assertion
\nthat he was born a small black child but, after hearing his first
\nMantovani record, has his cock shortened and becomes white. There
\nis also a bit about “getting small,” a drug reference, and the
\nabsurdities of San Francisco life (a couple asked Martin before the
\nshow if he was bi; “I studied a little Spanish in high school,” he
\nreplied.)<\/p>\n
Other bits include how to evade a mugger (throw up on your
\nmoney), what to say to someone who asks “Mind if I smoke?” (answer:
\n“Mind if I fart?”), and one of his most famous bits, a rant at the
\nineptitude of the spotlight operator that ends with an exaggerated
\n“Excuuuuuse Me!”<\/p>\n
Overall,
\nLet’s Get Small<\/i> is an overlooked comedy gem. At times Martin
\nis too insular for his own good, and his constant “Ok, let’s get
\nstarted” asides get old, but fans of intellectual and absurd comedy
\na la Dennis Miller will get a big kick out of this. Banjo fans will
\nas well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":27234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7216],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38586","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-steve-martin","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38586"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}