Back in the day of records and record stores and people buying albums, artists would make little promotional tapes to send to retailers to drum up support. Not surprisingly, Steve Martin was better at this than anyone else was at anything else. Shot in 1978, this shows Martin at the height of his powers. He is so locked into that persona that he can make this stupid little video completely hilarious. Seriously, him mouthing the words to his "pussy" joke is the funniest thing I have ever seen and hyperbolized.
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
This might be heresy to some of you, but I just can’t get into the early seasons of SNL. I can appreciate their importance [...]
In the 1970s and 1980s, Warner Bros. did not take great care with its animation legacy. The studio spit out a new, clumsily assembled “special” for every remotely notable occasion, with a lack of care and inventiveness that would have shamed Bob Hope. The programs were comprised of 75 percent recycled old cartoons, strung together with unfunny, ugly looking new animation that contained none of the craft and anarchic humor of the source material.
Not so with the The Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary Special. Produced in 1986 to mark the titular occasion (and loosely tied to a Museum of Modern Art retrospective), it too made heavy use of classic [...]
One of my favorite Not the Nine O'Clock News skits of all-time begins with the Not Team relaxing at home, reading their newspapers. One after another, they read something amazing in the paper — "El Salvador Is Going to Be a Second Vietnam," something about goats and artificial limbs and flamingos — but show little to no emotion. Finally one of them sees something in the paper that excites everyone: "Good Lord…there's someone I've heard of guesting on The Muppet Show."
The Muppet Show premiered in 1976, and 35 years later, many of its celebrity guest hosts have, like so many other millions from pop culture, been [...]
In 1978, America had King Tut fever. The Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit, which had previously visited Washington DC, Chicago, and Seattle, among other major American cities, made its way to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over 1.3 million people paid to see artifacts from the Boy King, and over 30 years later, it’s still the Met’s most popular exhibition in its 141-year history. Elsewhere, “King Tut,” a song written by Steve Martin (“Buried with a donkey, he’s my favorite honky”) and first performed on Saturday Night Live, hit #17 on the Billboard charts, a rather remarkable feat for a novelty song. But “King Tut” wasn’t the first [...]
Shout! Factory and SOFA Entertainment have announced they are releasing a Steve Martin box set, featuring his acclaimed specials, including: On Location: Steve Martin, Steve Martin: A Wild And Crazy Guy, Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty, All Commercials…A Steve Martin Special and Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever. On the box set Steve Martin said in a very Steve Martin way, "I am thrilled that so much of my rarely seen shows will be offered to the public. I am told that these television appearances, concerts and bonus material, are among the best work of my career. I am told this by people I pay.” In all seriousness, [...]
Steve Martin revealed on Conan last night that not only is he hugely popular on Twitter, he's also been effectively tweeting @ himself for decades. In this clip, he shares some of his older impressions of doing Conan's show. And by Conan, he obviously means the slug on his driveway. For a slug, that thing has amazing hair. More Martin below.
This week marks the 25th anniversary of Three Amigos, one of the best-regarded comedies of the 1980's and one that brought together a half-dozen of the greatest comedic minds going at the time. Three Amigos starred Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, was written by Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, and Randy Newman (who also composed the music and did the voice of the Singing Bush), and was directed by John Landis, who even hired a pre-SNL Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz for supporting roles. Few comedies can boast a team that is so remarkable and that made such a significant mark on comedy, both separately and together. The [...]
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
Last Wednesday, the Paley Center celebrated its 35th birthday. To help celebrate, we’re going to spotlight an item from their archives that aired on [...]
This is how your comedy sausage gets made: after Steve Martin made a cameo during Alec Baldwin's SNL monologue two Saturdays ago, Adam Shankman, who directed the duo when they hosted the Oscars together, thought "hey, those two should make a movie together and I should be involved." And now, that is something that seems like it might happen, with Shankman directing and New Line interested. What would the movie be about? As specific as anyone can get at this point is that it'll be "a bit of Trading Places meets Grumpy Old Men." Haha, OK! Sure, that's almost a movie idea.
Ed Helms is part of a long line of banjo playing comedians. Of course, there was Steve Martin. And before him was Banjo Willy Chuckles, the Appalachian banjo playing clown/cattle doctor. Helms told The Hollywood Reporter at The L.A. Bluegrass Situation, the two-year old music festival he co-founded, that he is working on an official album with his band, the Lonesome Trio. The group met in college and has been together for 20 years – that's a lot of hootenannies (Did I say that right, hoo-tin-nan-nees?). They might sell the album direct to the people they might not, but either way, expect the sweet sounds of washboard thimblin' soon. [...]
Steve Martin's second book is being made into a movie starring Amy Adams. Object of Beauty is about an entrepreneur who "flies from New York to Russia to Washington D.C. to scout and buy art, steals a cherished family painting, and sleeps with and disposes of several men, including one who becomes a famous artist." Ooh la la, sounds stylish. No Muppets in this one.
Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub have joined Greg Daniels' remake of the British Friday Night Dinner. Presumably they will play C.J. Cregg and Adrian Monk, who have married in the years since their respective shows have ended and share a very tidy [...]
Successful people get that way because they're talented. Very talented, in a lot of different ways. So talented that they make you question why you even bother doing anything, because quite frankly, you'll probably never do one thing as well as they do everything.
On November 15th, Donald Glover released Camp, his first studio as a rapper under his pseudonym Childish Gambino, making him look like an impossibly talented comedy wunderkind. But in reality, Glover is just one in a long line of crazy talented comedy people who have also seen success as serious musicians. I've collected here a list of people so talented, they make you question why [...]
Hallie: I am so sick of famous people and their books.
Adam: Are you saying you wont rush out to pay $19 for a book of Steve Martin's tweets?? IT INCLUDES SOME RESPONSES FROM HIS FOLLOWERS!!!
Hallie: I mean, of course I will. Maybe someday when we live in a futuristic society where I can magically read them for free anytime i want from anywhere, things would be different.
Adam: Get your head out of the clouds, Cantor. We live in the real world, where that is a laughable impossibility.
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