STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces

[damien]

This is brilliant, an episode of Scene By Scene a late 90's BBC show. Long interview with him about his movies.

https://youtu.be/y2BGLMVz3kc?si=6fkgORoKwTOitkUK

[neveragain]

Terrific, thanks.

[Maurice Yeatman]

This is brilliant, an episode of Scene By Scene a late 90's BBC show. Long interview with him about his movies.

https://youtu.be/y2BGLMVz3kc?si=6fkgORoKwTOitkUK

I can't find the source now, but I remember reading Mark Cousins saying that Martin took a lot of persuading and flattery to do that interview because he was still hurt by the Dennis Pennis insult and wary of the BBC. Cousins had to assure him that Pennis was rogue and didn't represent the BBC in any way.

[damien]

Makes sense yeah, he's seems.. not entirely comfortable with the process.

[kalowski]

UNINTERESTING FAILURE
The Man With Two Brains

I can only assume there is a second lesser known film with the same title because the one I know is fabulous.

[notjosh]

Just tried to upload Steve Martin's first SNL monologue (from his Best Of DVD) to YouTube cos it's not on there, but NBC won't let me. So here it is:

https://mega.nz/file/8JURSDxa#4jM3eJSnI_ZQBokH0U1osfXhyrUCTfh18tErLtpa-D8

So silly, but such an incredible level of control over his performance. Really recommend his book Born Standing Up to appreciate his approach to stand up.

Also, Pennies from Heaven is great and the soundtrack was a revelation to me as a teenager.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I really liked Pennies as well, and when I put together a Top 50 Cult Movie Musicals article a few years ago I wrote this about it:

Pennies From Heaven (1981) - As you might expect from a screenplay by Dennis Potter this is often darkly bleak stuff, though I imagine quite a few people were caught off guard as it stars Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters. Martin's great when it comes to miming and dancing but I'm not quite sure about his more dramatic moments, and it's an uneven performance compared to the rest of the cast, but fortunately this is only a minor issue and more than made up for by the impressively inventive song and dance sequences, 90% of which are incredibly fun stuff. As well as Peters knocking it out of the park Christopher Walken's also especially fun / sexy, and it really is a feast for the eyes and ears, as lazy critics used to say.

I also finally got around to reading Born Standing Up a couple of years ago after hearing people claim it was one of the greatest books about stand up comedy for decades, and presumed it wouldn't live up to my high expectations, but it did and then some.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, an interesting failure? Just Steve's performance as "Prince Ruprecht" belongs to a museum, which collects interesting stuff that are no failures.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

This is brilliant, an episode of Scene By Scene a late 90's BBC show. Long interview with him about his movies.

https://youtu.be/y2BGLMVz3kc?si=6fkgORoKwTOitkUK

Thanks for sharing that, I've never seen it before. Really interesting and enjoyable.

Martin does seem rather wary at first, but he gradually eases into the whole thing when he realises that Cousins is a genuine fan who's done his homework.

Cousins is nervous (hence the half glass of beer?), which is rather sweet. He's talking to a comic genius whose work he greatly admires, but he asks good questions and procures some good answers.

[Mobbd]

The Man With Two Brains

I haven't seen it but I'm watching the Scene By Scene now and this image really made me laugh.

[Brundle-Fly]

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, an interesting failure? Just Steve's performance as "Prince Ruprecht" belongs to a museum, which collects interesting stuff that are no failures.

This opinion is good.

I think this 1991 Steve Martin South Bank Show touches on the Dennis Pennis moment, IIRC?

[Mobbd]

"How dare you say 'penis' to a dead person." Haha!

[Barry Admin]

Just tried to upload Steve Martin's first SNL monologue (from his Best Of DVD) to YouTube cos it's not on there, but NBC won't let me. So here it is:

https://mega.nz/file/8JURSDxa#4jM3eJSnI_ZQBokH0U1osfXhyrUCTfh18tErLtpa-D8

This is superb, thank you.  I've had to pause it to post as I hadn't heard Ramblin Man in waaaaayy too long, and it was an absolute delight.  Keeping that frailing pattern going while he takes his chording hand away to put the arrow on his head, maaan I haven't seen that since I was a kid, and it's so fucking quietly impressive.  I loooove the banjo too, why couldn't that have taken off in the 90's instead of the pissy old ukulele. 

You mentioned how "silly" the whole thing is too; it fascinates me how Steve Martin (and Rik Mayall, really) were able to harness a type of "wild and crazy" approach to comedy that would be zany and wacky and awful in almost anyone else's hands.  Two incredibly and original talents who - as I've said before on here before - struck me as being literally the funniest people in the entire world when I was growing up.

[Barry Admin]

This opinion is good.

I think this 1991 Steve Martin South Bank Show touches on the Dennis Pennis moment, IIRC?

Not yet, but I'm not far in.

"I make it, I don't define it... it should explain itself."

Gosh, he's such a thoughtful and humble guy.  (Not sarcastic.)

Edit: 15 minutes in, loving his observations about audience participation, I've heard this kind of discussion before, I think mostly when I listened to Jimmy Dore's podcast.  Martin observes here that people are more likely to laugh if a theatre is slightly cold than warm, and id it's dark instead of brightly lit. This last point is huuuge, and I've definitely heard that many times before, with real emphasis on how important lighting actually is.  It commonly seems to come down to people being able to free themselves and enjoy the moment, and give into the laughter, instead of feeling self-conscious and, I dunno, interrrogated or something.

[Magnum Valentino]

Not yet, but I'm not far in.

"I make it, I don't define it... it should explain itself."

Gosh, he's such a thoughtful and humble guy.  (Not sarcastic.)

Edit: 15 minutes in, loving his observations about audience participation, I've heard this kind of discussion before, I think mostly when I listened to Jimmy Dore's podcast.  Martin observes here that people are more likely to laugh if a theatre is slightly cold than warm, and id it's dark instead of brightly lit. This last point is huuuge, and I've definitely heard that many times before, with real emphasis on how important lighting actually is.  It commonly seems to come down to people being able to free themselves and enjoy the moment, and give into the laughter, instead of feeling self-conscious and, I dunno, interrrogated or something.

Yeah Reece Sheersmith and Rob Brydon discussed theater temperature on Rob's podcast and I thought the whole chat was fascinating.

[Barry Admin]

Re: the South Bank Show episode, which is superb: 40 Tonight Show appearances in 2 years is extraordinary, gotta hunt some of those down.  The energy in some of those performances too, jesus.

I noticed he got his Mum's eyes, and how his smile is fundamental to his likeability.   

Anyway, watching The Lonely Guy now, had absolutely forgot it was Neil Simon.  I think I only saw this twice, if that. I do remember loving it, and am enjoying it so far. I'd also forgotten how brilliant Charles Grodin is; capable of provoking absolute hilarity with seemingly almost no effort.

The whole vibe is great too - the way they're all fairly upbeat and accepting about the whole thing.  The cop's excitement at finding where to buy the cut-out figures is very funny. 

[notjosh]

40 Tonight Show appearances in 2 years is extraordinary, gotta hunt some of those down.  The energy in some of those performances too, jesus.

His Vegas bit in front of Sammy Davis Jr is a tour de force:

And this is fantastic; you can see how much Carson enjoys having him on the show:

[extraordinary walnuts]

I was laughing my ass off at this one earlier

This was in my recommendations about a week ago. He doesn't quite have "it" yet, but still pretty funny

[Jack Shaftoe]

Yeah Reece Sheersmith and Rob Brydon discussed theater temperature on Rob's podcast and I thought the whole chat was fascinating.

There's a bit in Rob Long's brilliant Conversations With My Agent where he talks about the exact room temperature to get the best laughs out US sitcom audiences, with the procedure being known as 'KKK': Keep it Cool for Comedy (which I know doesn't quite work).

[Barry Admin]

Loved the camera showing a close-up on the dogs for their reactions in the above clip!

Two hours of Letterman appearances on Don Giller's amazing channel. 

[ERADICATOR!]

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, an interesting failure? Just Steve's performance as "Prince Ruprecht" belongs to a museum, which collects interesting stuff that are no failures.

I swear to gawd, hardly a day goes by that I don't get 'Mather?...Not...mather?' into a sentence.

I would absolutely have 'Into The Mud Scum-Queen!' on my gravestone.

To label The Man With Two Brains as either 'uninteresting' or a failure is just crazy talk.

It's absolutely CRUCIAL Martin!

[Maureen Brontë]

I think this 1991 Steve Martin South Bank Show touches on the Dennis Pennis moment, IIRC?

Pennis was a few years after that.

[Barry Admin]

I'll echo again that it's a superb watch though, and Martin goes through some of his comedy influences in it.

Another thing that really stuck with me is that he said he never had any fear about changing the course of his career.  He did panic at moments and think his career was over (like when he failed to recreate the financial success of The Jerk), but yeah, I was amazed that he was able to take such chances, and was so open to trying different things.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It was such a lovely surprise to see him being properly funny again on Only Murders in the Building.

[Barry Admin]

One film I would recommend that hasn't been mention is The Spanish Prisoner by David Mamet. It's a neo-noir, not a comedy and Martin plays a main supporting role. It's a very good film and Martin is tremendous in it; his reputation had been rather on the wane and this role made people stop and consider him very differently.

This was a great recommendation, thank you.  Very tense and enjoyable film.  Interested to read this back and see what you said about the impact it had on the public perception of him.  He can really play a cold son of a bitch, can't he?  But mixed in with charm and contrition.  Yeah, loved it.

[Barry Admin]

Phenomenal Letterman appearance at 11 minutes, I howled: https://youtu.be/zr3zTKmI__0?t=672 

[Maureen Brontë]

Pretty audacious anti-comedy sketch from SNL. Bill Murray more or less doing his later Caddyshack character.

[Tiggles]

Good interview with him today in The Guardian.

Been stalking this thread with interest; got some long travelling today and v much looking forward to some quality reading and viewing.

[Maureen Brontë]

Good interview with him today in The Guardian.

Spoiler alert

Great Dennis Pennis payoff at the end of that.

[close]

[Ham Bap]

Looking forward to watching this.

Still stings that the very day in March 2020 when the pandemic became serious and the very first lockdown kicked off was the very day I was meant to see Steve Martin and Martin Short's show in Belfast. Once in a lifetime.