steve martin tour review

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Steve Martin and Martin Short review – a delightfully daft double act

SSE Hydro, Glasgow The Two Amigos deploy mutual mickey-taking and the odd banjo riff in a variety show with comic timing to die for

I t started life as a cosy Q&A at a comedy festival. Then Steve Martin and Martin Short – comedians, movie legends and best friends – expanded the banter into a stage show. Recorded for Netflix , it was Emmy-nominated for outstanding writing for a variety special. And now this late-career double act arrives in the UK for a week-long tour.

Any concerns that the duo, 74 and 69 respectively, might be yesterday’s news are allayed by instant engagement with today’s. “If you do find something funny,” Martin begins by advising the crowd, “please pull your surgical mask away from your face” – the better to let the laughter be heard. Coronavirus is tonight’s ice-breaker: no sooner have Martin and Short greeted one another on stage than they’re cracking open the hand sanitiser. These Audience With … celebrity vehicles often feel complacent; this one is immediately more mischievous and lighter on its feet.

A variety show weaving together standup and conversation, music and song, it’s at its best when the Two Amigos are exchanging affectionate insults. They have a fine line in mutual mickey-taking, whether that’s Short mocking Martin’s pale complexion (“In the 80s, I think I tried to snort you”) or Martin feigning concern for Short’s career slump, which lasted “from 1972 until last week”. The raillery is just as pointed when turned on themselves and their show: Martin has a running gag about the mechanism for audience complaints (“That email again – [email protected]”), and he deploys it, after this or that creaky gag from Short, with comic timing to die for.

His introverted deadpan finds a perfect foil in extrovert, attention-seeking Short. When they operate as a double act (“We’re like Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un without the sexual tension”), you want more.

But the show as often keeps them separate, or creates less fruitful formats for their partnership – like the odd sequence in which they recite other comedians’ well-loved one-liners, or the faux chatshow where they tell rehearsed anecdotes about their life and work.

The latter is a rare brush with celebrity slickness and self-congratulation. The closing paean to Glasgow’s “best audience in the world” rings hollow too, given that the duo were visibly disconcerted earlier when references to their career achievements (engineered to elicit whoops from a US audience) met with indifferent silence. Later, Short’s solo sequence, culminating in the spoof musical number (from his 2006 Broadway show Fame Becomes Me , Stepbrother to Jesus) threatens – without his partner’s restraining influence – to become too much of a showy thing. I prefer Martin’s section with bluegrass outfit the Steep Canyon Rangers , featuring terrific banjo work from Martin and sumptuous harmony-singing from the band.

Seriously though Martin takes his music, even that isn’t immune to mockery, and Short’s interruption in the improbable role of a set of bagpipes (tartan-clad, carried aloft by a burly Scotsman, and caterwauling the tune of Amazing Grace) makes for one of the show’s most indelible WTF moments.

This cheerful silliness, and the blunt incongruity of their rudeness to one another, is the making of the show – because it all reveals how much fun they’re having in one another’s company. As they clamber atop a piano in a tangle of limbs, then deliver a Send in the Clowns that tiptoes between send-up and celebration of this late-career live-comedy fling, it’s a pleasure to share that fun with them.

• Steve Martin

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Challengers Link to Challengers
• Abigail Link to Abigail
• Arcadian Link to Arcadian

New TV Tonight

• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• The Jinx: Season 2
• The Big Door Prize: Season 2
• Knuckles: Season 1
• Them: Season 2
• Velma: Season 2
• Secrets of the Octopus: Season 1
• Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story: Season 1
• We're Here: Season 4

Most Popular TV on RT

• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Under the Bridge: Season 1
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• X-Men '97: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Baby Reindeer Link to Baby Reindeer
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

DC Animated Movies In Order: How to Watch 54 Original and Universe Films

The Best TV Seasons Certified Fresh at 100%

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

Poll: Most Anticipated Movies of May 2024

Poll: Most Anticipated TV and Streaming Shows of May 2024

• Trending on RT
• Challengers
• Play Movie Trivia

Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life

What to know.

Brimming with sidesplitting laughs and off the wall energy, Steve Martin And Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget For the Rest of Your Life is a nostalgic celebration of two comedy legends.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Unknown Director

Steve Martin

Martin Short

More Like This

Critics reviews.

Palo Alto Online

Steve Martin and Martin Short are better than ever on stage and screen

• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

The old showbiz turn of phrase that a performer “needs no introduction” certainly applies to Steve Martin and Martin Short, who play Stanford’s Frost Amphitheater on June 30. It’s daunting even to begin to encapsulate their careers. Separately, each has a hugely successful background on the stage and screen as an actor, each has authored a memoir (Martin’s “Born Standing Up” and Short’s “I Must Say”), and each has collected endless awards and accolades.

Aside from both being 20th-century movie stars, Steve Martin built a career as a legendary stand-up comedian, author of books and plays, and respected banjo player while Martin Short’s celebrated runs in the musical “Godspell,” in Toronto’s Second City improv troupe, and on the sketch shows “SCTV” and “Saturday Night Live,” established him as a preeminent character actor and musical comedy performer.

Together, Martin and Short were two-thirds (with Chevy Chase) of the “Three Amigos” in the 1986 comedy film that brought them together. Subsequently, they starred together in two “Father of the Bride” films and now headline (with Selena Gomez) the Hulu mystery comedy “Only Murders in the Building,” which Martin co-created with John Hoffman and which has earned both lead actor nominations from the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards.

Now a recognized comedy team, the duo chatted with this publication by phone to promote their current live tour together, titled “You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!” The pair have toured in tandem since 2015, their previous touring show “A Very Stupid Conversation” evolving into the Netflix Original special “An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life.”

Presented with their history together, the two immediately go into their double act. Martin quips, “Well, first of all, we have no recollection of any of those facts.” “That was supposed to be a joke,” he adds, Short chiming in, “Boy! If that’s any indication of what we’re going to deliver, we’d better do more PR.”

The duo’s self-deprecating banter provides the spine of their live act as they mock-insult each other, with obvious affection, throughout the evening. The two also tell stories, Short performs a musical-comedy song and dance with Jeff Babko at the piano, and Martin plays banjo with his bluegrass buddies Steep Canyon Rangers.

Asked if he had any hope of one day upstaging the brassy Short, Martin says, “I would say there is absolutely no chance. And I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause he’s a fighter. And if he sensed I was even close to upstaging him, you wouldn’t believe the stuff he would pull.” I gave singer-dancer-actor Short the chance to say whether or not Martin posed any “threat” to a triple threat like Short. “Well, listen, Steve is a brilliant mind, you know. So he is a creative force that I’ve never experienced (elsewhere) in my life. I don’t find him threatening. He exhausts me with his mind sometimes because it’s so prolific, but, no, there’s nothing threatening about Steve.” Short takes a perfectly timed comic beat, then adds, “Particularly if you’re in a fistfight.”

Looking back to their youthful inspirations, both cite Jerry Lewis and the classic comedy teams of Laurel & Hardy and Nichols & May, with Short singling out Jonathan Winters and Lucille Ball, and Martin citing Steve Allen, Lenny Bruce and Bob Newhart. Many of today’s young comedy stars of course idolize Martin and Short, who have memorably appeared on the late-night talk show circuit over the years. Martin explains, “I do live performing with Marty. I don’t do live performing anywhere else, except for the Oscars or introducing somebody on the Emmys or Kennedy Center (Honors), something like that. But otherwise the only reason I’m doing these talk shows is to talk about a project.

“And then you have to have material. So you end up, y’know, performing on the shows. When really I’m not going out there to perform. Marty will go out with nothing to promote, and I don’t. I always like to have at least two minutes to kill with talking about something else (rather) than doing a million jokes or being funny…Is that cynical?” Short replies, “But when you do a talk show, Steve, you must admit, for two minutes, you do kill.” He pauses. “The problem is you’re out there for 18 minutes.”

Regarding how they put together their show, Short says, “We do have an odd ability to share what we think is funny and should go in. I can’t remember a time when Steve said, ‘I don’t find that funny,’ and I go, ‘Are you nuts? It’s hilarious.’ We do share a comedic sensibility that way, so it helps.” Martin agrees: “Sometimes we’ll rewrite something and go, ‘Oh, that makes it better, or I’ll say, or Marty will say, ‘Well, let me try that. I think I can do something with that.’ And we’re fine with that because we know the other person will fly with it.” Keeping it loose, the two allow for the moment when “something happens that you didn’t expect,” as Short puts it, prompting an ad lib that then goes into the show moving forward.

The same week Martin and Short hit town, “Only Murders in the Building” returns for its second season (the first two of 10 episodes drop on June 28). Of their creative input on scripts at this point, Martin said “I’d say we pitch. The scripts are good, and every once in a while, we’ll have a thought about it, like any actor would.” Short recalls that while filming “the first episode of the first season, I was discovering the character through the writer’s writing. And then after a while, you impart enough of your own understanding and character development onto the character (that) … maybe by the fifth script, you’d say, ‘You know what? I don’t think Oliver Putnam would say that.’ And they’ll listen to you. Because now you’re a partner in this creation.”

As we bid our farewells, I tell these international treasures to be careful on the road, that I’m not above wrapping them in bubble wrap to protect them from dangers like monkeypox. “Hey, listen, that’s the way I travel,” Short jokes. “So I just — I’m not gonna unwrap for the show.” Martin: “Yeah, yeah. But I’ve read that monkeypox is sexually transmitted, so neither Marty nor I could possibly catch it.” Short: “Unless you can catch it through batteries.” And with that, they’re off to make their next audience laugh.

Steve Martin and Martin Short perform June 30, 8 p.m. at Frost Amphitheater, Stanford. Tickets start at $49.50. More information is available at live.stanford.edu .

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

We've recently sent you an authentication link. Please, check your inbox!

Sign in with a password below, or sign in using your email .

Get a code sent to your email to sign in, or sign in using a password .

Enter the code you received via email to sign in, or sign in using a password .

Subscribe to our newsletters:

• Weekend Express
• Breaking News Email Alerts
• Peninsula Foodist
• The Six Fifty

Sign in with your email

Lost your password?

Try a different email

Send another code

Sign in with a password

Privacy Policy

• Manage Account

Touring as a Duo, Steve Martin and Martin Short Mix a Little Bluegrass With a Torrent of Roasting

On a terrific tour that's hitting a lot of secondary markets while mysteriously bypassing L.A. and New York, Steve Martin and Martin Short recall some of the best vintage comedy teams, like Martin…

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

The Borscht Belt and bluegrass music were never exactly synonymous, but, in their current tour as a musical-comedy duo, Steve Martin and Martin Short make the distance between the Catskills and the Appalachians seem a lot shorter. “Touring with Steve is a lot like the movie Deliverance : It’s all fun and games till the banjos come out,” said Short, midway through a Sunday night stop at the Santa Barbara Bowl, which gave a good indication of what it might have been like back in the day if Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had occasionally used Flatt or Scruggs as a fill-in.

Peso Pluma y Arcángel ofrecen enigmática actuación de trap en Latin AMAs 2024

See latest videos, charts and news

Martin Short

Steve martin.

The duo’s very intermittent tour — which seems to be touching down in every part of the country except for a proper L.A. or NYC stop, so far — represents the closest thing to pure standup Martin has allowed himself to indulge in since he resumed live performing in 2009 after a 30-year layoff. For the first few years of that resumption, at least, Martin’s shows consisted primarily of crackerjack instrumental performances, with bonus deadpan one-liners about bluegrass between songs. Now, in his outings with Short, the equation is reversed, with only a small portion of the set devoted to Martin fronting some of the greatest acoustic pickers in the world, and the rest devoted unapologetically to shtick instead of steel strings. Imagine seeing a full-length Hope and Crosby mutual-insult act with a few moments of Alison Krauss sublimity weirdly wedged in the middle, and you’ll have the idea.

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s ‘Bright Star’ to Close on Broadway

Trending on Billboard

The Krauss reference isn’t completely random. Martin usually performs with the Steep Canyon Rangers , but for three California dates on this joint tour, for reasons unknown, the billing instead promised “the All Male Bluegrass Boys”… whomever they might be? To the delight of the admittedly small portion of the Santa Barbara Bowl audience that might have clamored for less comedy and more clawhammer, these ad hoc Boys turned out to include Union Station members Ron Block and Barry Bales , along with fellow genre all-stars Stuart Duncan, Jeff White , and Adam Steffey . That’s too great an ensemble to only perform a 20-25-minute slot three times, but maybe Martin will assemble them again, the next time he’s Short-less.

Short did actually participate in part of the bluegrass segment, taking up pistols and putting on cowgirl drag to play the endangered but resourceful heroine of Martin’s murder ballad homage, “Pretty Little One.” (Martin introduced the tune with the same line he’s used in his all-bluegrass shows over the years: “It’s a story song, and I’ll explain what a story song is… in case you’re an idiot .”)

As they took turns commanding the stage, Short had his own solo musical zigs to counter Martin’s zags. Working with pianist Jeff Babko , his longtime musical director (and Jimmy Kimmel’s keyboardist and arranger), Short revived a couple of Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman songs from his oddball Broadway musical of a few years back, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me . One was the declaratory “All I Ask (Is You Love Me),” now amended to “us” for duo purposes. The other, in deference to the time early in his career when both Jesus musicals and nudie musicals were in fashion, was the raunchy/inspirational “Step Brother to Jesus,” with Short parading in a curly wig and nude bodysuit, making things as flappingly anatomically correct as possible with crotch-level hand gestures… Yes, they’re “working blue” in all the possible ways.

Steve Martin Celebrates Bluegrass Broadway Musical ‘Bright Star’ With Banjo Performance 

The one aberration at the Santa Barbara show was a lengthy time-out for surprise guest Billy Crystal to come out on stage and tell a story about opening for Sammy Davis Jr. , which fit right in with the earlier tales Martin told about meeting Elvis (“Son, you have an oblique sense of humor”) and Short’s story of upsetting Frank Sinatra by bungling a drink order. Crystal reappeared at the finale to present Martin with a cake in honor of his 71 st birthday that very night, which led to the recipient feigning a fatal heart attack, then seemingly blowing out all 71 candles and doing a triumphal strut.

The show as it stands has no structure, which is fine. When they first began doing a few gigs together, Martin and Short sat together for a conversation of show-biz reminiscing, followed by an audience Q&A, in what struck some attendees at the time as being more like a book tour than a comedy show. Since then, they’ve jettisoned the Q&A, made the sit-down a minor part of the set, and embellished the whole show with “bits,” like one that has Short’s Jiminy Glick character as a ventriloquist’s puppet in Martin’s hands, commenting on politicians’ photos. Donald Trump, we learned, is “doing a remake of Three Amigos … The No Amigos .”

The best bit, though, may have been the stretch that had Martin and Short trading barbs, the theme of the evening — if any — being mutual assured ego destruction. It recalled a slightly kinder and gentler era of celebrity roast culture, in which the insults could be mild ones about pale skin, age, and bygone career peaks. And there’s curtness to the jokes that allows for about a million of ‘em. When Martin can tell a gag in 15 words or less  — “ If you take one thing away from tonight’s show, I will have you arrested” — is he a product of the Henny Youngman era, or has he really become a master of zen economy from operating a Twitter account, or both?

And while we’re asking questions, why are Martin and Short dodging L.A. and New York, making Angelinos drive up to Santa Barbara to see the pound-for-pound funniest show on the road when it rightfully belongs in Hollywood’s Bowl as well as theirs? Maybe they’re still considering it one long out-of-town tryout.

Drake Answers an Awkward Circumcision Question, Munches Donuts on ‘Maya & Marty’: Watch

It’s ironic, in any case, that it seems like it was Martin’s seriousness about bluegrass that finally led him to feeling relaxed about being funny on stage again. There are no mock arrows through the head in this show (except in a video montage), but during the closing number, while Short did a momentary Ed Grimley dance, Martin did a couple of seconds of “wild and crazy guy” boogying — a sight most fans thought they’d never see again in this lifetime. 

Why so loose? Maybe that’s just the sort of thing getting to be an honorary member of Union Station will do to you.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Honda Music Expand honda-music menu

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Q&A: Steve Martin, Martin Short on friendship and a new tour

• Copy Link copied

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Steve Martin and Martin Short are back on the road again for their new tour “ Now You See Them, Soon You Won’t .”

The two comedy legends spoke to The Associated Press recently about the tour, which kicks off its 2019 leg on Jan. 12 in Atlanta, their friendship and when they knew that roasting each other was OK.

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Is “Now You See Them, Soon You Won’t” mostly new material?

Martin: A lot of it is. It’s very hard for us to judge what is new because a lot of it is new but it’s in the same framework. What we tried to do is salvage or keep what we suspected the audience wanted to see again, but we try to replace lines and do it a little different. But if somebody saw the show, they’d say ‘that’s mostly a new show!’

AP: What is your process for determining what to cut and add?

Martin: It’s really tri...well, I should let Marty talk.

Short: Go ahead, Steve, I’m just doing something else.

Martin: OK. It’s trial and error. We work with writers, we work on our own and we put things in, we take things out, and every night after the show we walk off stage and we go, ‘What should we do, how should we fix that, should we move that line up to the front?’

AP: Do you allow for spontaneous moments?

Short: You absolutely allow. What a set show gives you is the confidence to go out because you know you’re prepared, and you have lots of great material, but then you go out there and you’re so loose that other things happen and sometimes they’re the most delightful.

Martin: You are fantastic. I’m going to let you speak all the time now because you just nailed that beautifully.

Short: I did. And remember that the difference between my voice and yours is that with one voice you have this kind of groan.

AP: I do always worry that somehow the voices will blend when you go to transcribe.

Short: They won’t. One won’t even come out.

Martin: Well, let’s put it this way, you’ll be able to tell which mine is because I speak grammatically.

Short: But, for some odd reason, you’ll find yourself dozing off for no reason and you’ll realize the connection.

AP: Do you use one another as a test audience?

Martin: Well, I think each other is our first test audience. And then I tend to just try out material on my wife and on my dog and on the band. And finally on the audience, who, of course, has the ultimate say. When I first started out people would say, ‘You have a great sense of humor.’ And I would say, really, the audience has the great sense of humor.

AP: When did you figure it was OK to roast each other like this?

Martin: Day one.

Short: It’s very natural for people in comedy to do it. I think it’s very natural for friends, close friends to do it. And we probably started doing it playing scrabble in the trailer while making ‘Three Amigos.’

Martin: The first day we met, Marty zinged me. He came to my house to pick up the script to ‘Three Amigos’ and he saw all of the paintings and he said, ‘How did you get this rich? I’ve seen the work.’

Short: And I was looking for the script for ‘Three Amigos’ and Steve handed it to me and said, ‘Can you give this to Martin Short, please?’

AP: You said the previous tour was not a nostalgia tour. Is that still true and why was that important to specify?

Short: Well, because it wasn’t a nostalgia tour. A nostalgia tour would be if I came out as Ed Grimley and we did the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ sketch and hope that that would get some nostalgia applause. If a singer comes out and sings all old hits, then that is a nostalgia tour and there’s nothing wrong with that and that’s great and that’s what I’d rather see.

Martin: I think a nostalgia tour implies that you’ll come out and say, ‘You know, ladies and gentlemen, when I first started, I did a little movie called “The Jerk.’” And then you stand there and wait for applause.

Short: And I’d love that show.

AP: Will there still be singing and banjo playing in this go-around?

Martin: Absolutely. We describe the show as a lot of comedy and a little bit of music.

AP: It is incredible that singing and the banjo are ‘side talents’ for you two.

Martin: You know, Marty would never do this, but he could make a serious album and I would listen to it all the time. I find his voice so beautiful. Pitch perfect. Beautiful tone. He sings ‘Send in the Clowns’ in the show and it’s just gorgeous.

Short: Well, thank you. And I of course have all Steve’s albums and I one day plan to listen to them.

AP: Was there a moment when you realized this was more than a showbiz friendship?

Martin: Yeah, I would say very early on. We persevered. When you finish doing a movie, mostly everyone drifts away from each other. We just went and had dinners and saw each other.

Short: I think you make that choice. You have to be conscientious and say, you know what? I don’t want to lose that person.

Martin: We also ended up vacationing together with our families. Two weeks on an island, you’ll know if you like that person or not, you know? I’m talking about our wives.

AP: Is there anything else you want people to know about the show?

Martin: Our goal, and sometimes we achieve it, I think, maybe I’m a little arrogant, but we want it to be one of the best shows the audience ever saw. We want to give the audience their money’s worth and really make them laugh and make them really have a good time and leave that theater feeling better than they did when they came in.

Short: Totally agree. And you don’t always achieve it, but it’s awfully fun to have a goal.

Martin: How could I possibly achieve it with you next to me?

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

• Consequence

Steve Martin and Martin Short Announce “The Dukes of Funnytown!” Tour in 2024

Comedy legends will team up for more shows together beginning in June

Comedy legends and Only Murders in the Building co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short have announced a new live show that will launch in May.

“The Dukes of Funnytown!” tour will commence on May 3rd in Syracuse, NY, with further shows scheduled in Buffalo, NY; Bethlehem, PA; and Atlantic City, NJ through the remainder of the month. In June, the duo will headline Red Rocks in Morrison, CO, and the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheatre in Vail, CO. Joining Martin and Short will be special guests Jeff Babko and the Steep Canyon Rangers.

Get Steve Martin and Martin Short Tickets Here

Martin and Short previously hit together last year for their “You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!” tour. You can find tickets to all of their upcoming performances here .

Meanwhile, Hulu recently renewed Only Murders in the Building for a fourth season.

Steve Martin and Martin Short 2024 Tour Dates: 05/03 – Syracuse, NY @ Landmark Theatre 05/04 – Buffalo, NY @ Shea’s Buffalo Theatre 05/17 – Bethlehem, PA @ Wind Creek Event Center 05/18 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena 06/14 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre 06/15 – Vail, CO @ Gerald R. Ford Amphitheatre

Personalized Stories

Around the web, latest stories.

Carin León Announces 2024 "Boca Chueca Tour": How to Get Tickets

April 25, 2024

How to Get Tickets to Pearl Jam’s 2024 Tour

Porter Robinson Announces 2024-2025 Tour

The Get Up Kids to Play Something to Write Home About in Full on Anniversary Tour

The Rolling Stones Reveal Opening Acts for 2024 "Hackney Diamonds" Tour

Kittie Announce Summer 2024 North American Headlining Tour

How to Get Tickets to Dave Matthews Band's 2024 Tour

Howard Jones and ABC Announce 2024 Tour

April 24, 2024

Steve Martin and Martin Short Announce "The Dukes of Funnytown!" Tour in 2024

• Album Streams
• Upcoming Releases
• Film Trailers
• TV Trailers
• Pop Culture
• Album Reviews
• Concert Reviews
• Festival Coverage
• Film Reviews
• Cover Stories
• Hometowns of Consequence
• Song of the Week
• Album of the Month
• Behind the Boards
• Dustin ‘Em Off
• Track by Track
• Top 100 Songs Ever
• Crate Digging
• Best Albums of 2023
• Best Songs of 2023
• Best Films of 2023
• Best TV Shows of 2023
• Top Albums of All Time
• Festival News
• Festival Outlook
• How to Get Tickets
• Photo Galleries
• Consequence Daily
• The Story Behind the Song
• Kyle Meredith
• Stanning BTS
• In Defense of Ska
• Long Time No See
• Good for a Weekend
• Consequence UNCUT
• The Spark Parade
• Beyond the Boys Club
• Going There with Dr. Mike
• The What Podcast
• Consequence Uncut
• Behind the Boys Club
• Two for the Road
• 90 Seconds or Less
• Battle of the Badmate
• Video Essays
• News Roundup
• First Time I Heard
• Mining Metal

Theme Weeks

• Industrial Week
• Marvel Week
• Disney Week
• Foo Fighters Week
• TV Theme Song Week
• Sex in Cinema Week

Follow Consequence

Steve Martin

How good are they live, live rating  , real live certified  , critic consensus, festivals in 2024, latest release, artist info, critic concert reviews, chicago concert reviews (usa).

Full Review

Glide Magazine (USA)

Living out loud los angeles (usa), mlive (usa), shepherd express (usa), omaha world-herald (usa), westword (usa), past critic reviews published in, image credit.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Sign up to our newsletter

Artists on tour.

Brittany Howard

Lorna Shore

Holly Humberstone

Janet Jackson

Avenged Sevenfold

Slightly Stoopid

The Halo Effect

all ArtiSTS

Featured festivals.

MerleFest 2024

Groovin The Moo 2024

Groovin The Moo Wayville 2024

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2024

Pandemonium Rocks Sydney 2024

Stagecoach Country Music Festival 2024

All festivals.

How good are they LIVE?

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR Newsletter

'The Steve-ness of it all': Steve Martin talks tour with Martin Short, new audiobook

Steve Martin has won five Grammys, an Emmy and an honorary Oscar. But the beloved comedy legend is still surprised by his own success.

“I think I've done really, really well, considering I have a really boring name,” Martin deadpans in a recent interview with USA TODAY and New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik.

Over the course of a year, the longtime friends recorded a series of conversations about Martin’s varied talents and interests. The result is a new audiobook, “So Many Steves: Afternoons with Steve Martin” (Pushkin, out now). Divided into six roughly 25-minute chapters, the audiobook dives deep into different facets of Martin’s life and career, including his writing, music and comedy.

“Any interesting career in the arts is sort of like a mountain range: You admire it for the shape of it,” Gopnik says. “Though I have favorite movies and books of Steve’s, what I admire is the Steve-ness of it all. It has so many different peaks and a few valleys but in various heights and shapes. You look back on them and say, ‘Oh, there’s the Martin Rockies.’ “

Purchases you make through our links may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.

Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist

More: "So Many Steves" on Audible Premium Plus for $15

'Why can't you be more like Steven Spielberg?'

The book charts Martin’s progression from absurdist comic to Hollywood star, with films like 1979’s “The Jerk,” 1987’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and 1991’s “Father of the Bride.” Looking back, he estimates that you have to make 40 movies to get five good ones.

“Even with a great director, a great writer and a great actor, it doesn’t mean you’re going to make a great movie,” Martin says. “It’s a little bit of calculation and a lot of luck.”

Gopnik singles out 1987’s “Roxanne” and 1991’s “L.A. Story” as two of Martin’s best films, for their “beautiful marriage” of poetic and comedic sensibilities. Martin recalls getting mixed reactions at a test screening for “L.A. Story,” which went on to become a respectable box-office success.

“I saw it in the afternoon with nobody in the audience and thought, ‘It’s just so unusual. I love it,’ “ Martin recalls. “And then that night, we screened it for people who looked a little puzzled. You’re high at 2 p.m. and depressed at 9 p.m.”

Throughout the book, Martin reflects on the invaluable lessons he learned from working with directors Mike Nichols and Carl Reiner. He also shares an amusing story about a star-studded dinner he attended with Steven Spielberg decades ago. Martin brought along his then-girlfriend, who asked him afterward, "Why can't you be more like Steven Spielberg?"

“He was having a very sophisticated conversation with her about the history of Serbia because she was Serbian and he knew all the history,” Martin says. “Three months later, I said, ‘Were you really that interested in that conversation?’ He said, ‘Nope.’ “

'Time has run out' to write another musical, Steve Martin says

Martin, 77, studied philosophy in college and intended to become a professor. But he still believes he would have found his way into music or comedy eventually.

"I'll bet you somehow I would have gotten a workaround to get on stage," Martin says. "I was interested in comedy from age 10. But when you turn 18, you wonder, 'What am I going to do with my life?' And I did feel a need to get somewhat educated."

The stage has always been where Martin has felt most at home. In one chapter, he says he was “never happier” in his career than when he was making “Bright Star,” the Tony-nominated musical he wrote and composed with singer Edie Brickell. The show closed on Broadway after a short run in 2016, and Martin says it’s unlikely he’ll write another.

“Time has run out,” he says. “A musical takes five years. I’m 77, so 82? I want to be (with) family. It’s hard, it’s heartbreaking, it’s fabulous, it’s fun. But I’d rather do more contained things now.”

If there’s one dream role that got away, Martin says it would’ve been playing con man Harold Hill in “The Music Man.” (“I couldn’t sing it,” he laments.) There’s also been “a lot of talk” about adapting his 1986 comedy “Three Amigos” for the stage, although “it's not for me (to write). I’m not going to do it.”

Meryl Streep is 'a delight' in 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 3

In the book, Martin talks at length about his approach to live comedy, incorporating music and assorted props into some of his most well-known bits, which included “The Great Flydini.”

Recording these interviews, “I discovered that he was genuinely passionate about banjo-playing long before he was a professional standup,” Gopnik says. “The banjo was, in fact, a thread that ran through his life.”

Martin breaks out the instrument on his comedy tour with Martin Short, his co-star in Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building." He has no desire to do solo stand-up anytime soon.

“Sometimes I imagine, ‘What would I even do?’ I can’t come up with anything,” Martin says. “I come up with an idea for a bit and suddenly it feels like every other comedian. I’ve got a great new life working with Martin Short and that’s the stand-up I do now. When you’re with somebody (on stage), you have a story to tell about your relationship and you can riff on it. But when you’re alone, you’re just talking to a wall.”

Martin just wrapped production on “Only Murders” Season 3 for Hulu, featuring his “It’s Complicated” co-star Meryl Streep in a new role. Streep wrote to Martin directly asking if there was another project they could do together.

“She’s a delight,” he says. “She has the same humor as Marty Short and I, so there’s a lot of riffing and laughing and giggling.”

The book ends with a discussion of what Gopnik refers to as "hot ice cream": the seemingly impossible feat you'd still like to check off. For Martin, the bucket list is pretty short.

“I’m just seeing what comes up,” Martin says. “I still incidentally write songs with people. I have a few writing subjects in mind. And I’m in love with doing our show, ‘Only Murders in the Building.’ That’s enough."

‘Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces’ Review: A Sprawling Portrait Splits the Comedian’s Career, Saving the Payoff for the Second Half

Steve Martin has mellowed considerably since his 'wild and crazy guy' days, leading Morgan Neville to divide his study into two distinct parts: early stand-up and I-hope-you're-sitting-down emotional stuff.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

• ‘The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady’ Review: Eva Green Surprises in French Blockbuster’s Less-Than-Faithful Finale 1 week ago
• ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Review: Henry Cavill Leads a Pack of Inglorious Rogues in Guy Ritchie’s Spirited WWII Coup 1 week ago
• ‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya and Company Smash the Sports-Movie Mold in Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Scorcher 2 weeks ago

Why does Steve Martin need a two-part documentary? He doesn’t, of course, although Martin himself divided his career into separate chapters, any one of which could support its own film — stand-up comedian, Hollywood movie star, playwright, novelist, bluegrass musician and most recently, “Only Murders in the Building” co-creator and star — so fans aren’t likely to complain about getting extra time with such a private subject.

Popular on Variety

Cultural tastes change so quickly, especially when it comes to what makes people laugh, that there’s a built-in challenge to recapping any comedian’s early career — which no doubt explains why Neville steers clear of “King Tut” (a song that younger listeners find problematic). Full of happy feet and flailing limbs, the 94-minute “Then” episode seems better suited to audiences old enough to remember Martin’s live shows, since clips and recaps hardly do them justice. Still, the film does a fine job of deconstructing what made his act so revolutionary: While other comics were doing political material, here was a “clean guy in a white suit” being silly.

Instead of shaping his performances around traditionally timed punchlines, Martin poked fun at the codes of comedy. Like the parody of a bad lounge act, he cheated at juggling, made misshapen balloon animals, wore novelty headgear (bunny ears and rubber arrow gags), took banjo breaks and wriggled and danced like the world’s most obnoxious party guest — whom he dubbed “a wild and crazy guy.” Johnny Carson loved him. Hip crowds bought his albums and adopted his catchphrases (“Well, excu-u-use me!”).

Before Martin’s hair went white, he grew it out. And when it did turn, that made the contrast between childish routines and his old-enough-to-know-better appearance that much funnier. Martin’s key innovation came in subverting the indicators other comics used to tell people when to bark their approval. “That’s not real laughter,” he tells Neville. “What if I created tension and never released it? … The audience would have to pick their own place to laugh.” Martin’s approach confounded some, like the patrons of the Playboy Club, but it ultimately proved so popular (especially after hosting early episodes of “Saturday Night Live”) that he was soon selling out arenas.

And then Martin pulled the plug — a decision that “Then” only half explains. There were the anxiety attacks, the way work preempted his private life, the impossibility of impressing his father. As this film/episode comes to a close, Martin still has an immensely popular movie career ahead of him as the screenwriter and star of “The Jerk,” “Roxanne” and more. Instead of picking up there, the “Now” portion skips forward more than four decades to join Martin in the present.

So instead they get something considerably more intimate, as Martin draws back the curtain on his life. At times, in mock reality-TV fashion, he does banal things like poach eggs for breakfast or play cards with Short and second wife Anne Stringfield, teasing the camera crew for filming even when he fails to see the interest. But he’s not the only one here who can work magic. Neville and his team have unearthed revealing moments from the archives, ranging from a tear-filled Charlie Rose interview to a cruel red-carpet stunt in which Paul Kaye’s Dennis Pennis character asks Martin, “How come you’re not funny anymore?”

Where “Then” felt like an exercise in putting comedy under a microscope, “Now” is genuinely amusing, as when Martin and Short workshop jokes for their live show, gently roasting one another in the process. There’s a melancholy to Martin that his more effusive amigo helps to counteract, and it’s touching to see how this dynamic operates behind the scenes, even if both cutups are clearly playing to the cameras. (Former partners, family members and longtime friends, including John McEuen and Adam Gopnik, reveal additional dimensions of the man.)

Nothing in the first episode quite prepares audiences for where Neville plans to take them in the follow-up. Sure, the roots of the unhappy dynamic with his dad are there, paying off Martin’s own late-life parenting efforts, but “Now” would likely move people just as well if screened by itself. It’s so different in form from “Then” that the films feel like separate answers to a single assignment, rather than two halves of a complete project. If anything, they’re disconnected pieces of a far larger puzzle — one that comes into greater focus when considered alongside multiple memoirs, books and plays (like the self-reflexive “Wasp,” which Neville stages with Finn Whitrock in the role of the patriarch), original cartoons and, yes, even Martin’s beloved banjo music.

Reviewed online, March 24, 2024. Running time: 94 MIN. (“Then”), 97 MIN. (“Now”).

• Production: An Apple Original Films release of an A24, Tremolo production. Producers: Morgan Neville, Meghan Walsh, Charlise Holmes. Executive producers: Caitrin Rogers, Ben Cotner, Emily Osborne. Co-executive producer: Nicole Quintero Ochoa. Co-producers: Katie Le Dain, Chris Shellen.
• Crew: Director: Morgan Neville. Camera: Graham Willoughby, Bryan Donnell, Emily Topper, Brandon Somerhalder. Editors: Alan Lowe, Jeff Malmberg, Aaron I. Naar. Music: Darian Sahanaja, Daniel Wohl.
• With: Steve Martin, Martin Short.

More From Our Brands

‘let’s live on’: bts share anti-bullying ‘love myself’ campaign video, one of monet’s haystack paintings could fetch more than $30 million at auction, dumb luck: nba dodges bullet as jontay porter fouls out, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, fbi recap: is the team about to lose maggie, verify it's you, please log in.

• Entertainment

Review: Steve Martin, the serious musician

Concert review: Steve Martin brought graceful bluegrass and trademark humor to Benaroya Hall Tuesday night.

Share story

Steve Martin, serious musician?

Well, sure. How else to describe one of his encores at Benaroya Hall Tuesday night: a bluegrass version of his 1978 novelty hit, “King Tut?”

Or Martin’s original protest song, embracing the great tradition of Pete Seeger and Joan Baez: “Let’s Keep the Minimum Wage Right Where It Is.”

Or his attempt at a little folk outreach with the capacity audience: “The next song is a singalong, but there are no lyrics. So good luck.”

Most Read Entertainment Stories

• Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction is overturned by New York's top court VIEW
• 'The Bachelorette: Season 21,' featuring Jenn Tran, films in Seattle WATCH
• From Salvador Dalí to local artists, must-see Seattle exhibits in May
• Photographer alleges he was forced to watch Megan Thee Stallion have sex and was unfairly fired
• The windmill sails at Paris' iconic Moulin Rouge have collapsed. No injuries are reported VIEW

This is the same Steve Martin who abandoned stage comedy decades ago and broadened his entertainment reach as an actor, novelist and playwright. The same Martin who took his 45-year-old passion for playing banjo into a very public arena, releasing a much-praised bluegrass album (“The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo”) featuring his own compositions and touring behind it with the Steep Canyon Rangers, a remarkable ensemble out of North Carolina.

Martin played in several cities before his Seattle stop. Advance word was that while he is on the road for the sake of the music, old fans could expect a few perfunctory, funny lines out of him.

Was that ever the understatement of the year. When the Benaroya show was over on Tuesday, it was entirely possible to think one had actually seen two performances, the first a showcase for frequently beautiful music, and the other a revival of Martin’s absurdist stage persona from the 1970s. A loudly appreciative crowd was thrilled to have both.

With a few exceptions, such as Ervin T. Rouse’s perennial favorite “Orange Blossom Special,” and a few tunes written and performed by the Rangers, Martin’s own instrumentals and songs — most off “The Crow” — dominated the 90-minute set.

And what a set: stately but loose on “Tin Roof.” Elegant yet playful on “Daddy Played the Banjo.” Sunlit but mysterious on “The Crow.” There is something generous, touchingly graceful and intensely personal in Martin’s music. While honoring the banjo traditions that captivated him so long ago, he has created a sophisticated sound of his own.

Certainly the Rangers were indispensable in providing thrilling cascades of colors and textures to arrangements (plus plenty of wit to complement Martin’s). Martin seems to feel lucky to have them, even if he’s resigned to explaining their collaboration in showbiz terms: “In reality, I met the Rangers at a party in North Carolina. In Hollywood, I have to say we met in rehab.”

Tom Keogh: [email protected] .

Steve Martin & Martin Short

Comedy shows, concerts and tour dates, bandsintown merch.

Fan Reviews

Fans Also Follow

About steve martin & martin short.

Steve Martin Tour

Steve martin goes live on-stage in….

Learn More Buy Tickets

Your independent guide to the best concerts in 2024! This website is operated by a ticket broker. Ticket prices are set by third-party sellers and may be above or below face value. We are not affiliated with nor endorsed by Steve Martin.

Two Comedy Legends, One Incredible Tour!

Icons, collaborators, and dos amigos  Steve Martin and Martin Short have teamed up once again for a tour called  You Won't Believe What They Look Like Today,  and they're bringing it to venues across North America in 2024!  Promising a bit of music, plenty of new sketches, and tons of laughs, the duo's new show is a delight for comedy nerds and casual fans alike — and should absolutely be on your schedule.  After all, how often does a hilarious Steve Martin tour costarring his rubber-faced friend Martin Short come along?

So don't miss your chance to experience the hilarity live at a venue near you.  Check the Steve Martin Tour schedule below to learn more about upcoming shows, and get your tickets right away.  Because if you don't, you'll miss out on an evening you will forget for the rest of your life!

Friday, May 3rd, 2024 8:00 PM

Steve Martin & Martin Short Landmark Theatre - Syracuse Syracuse, NY

Saturday, May 4th, 2024 8:00 PM

Steve Martin & Martin Short Sheas Performing Arts Center Buffalo, NY

Friday, May 17th, 2024 8:00 PM

Steve Martin & Martin Short Wind Creek Event Center Bethlehem, PA

Saturday, May 18th, 2024 8:00 PM

Steve Martin & Martin Short Hard Rock Live At Etess Arena Atlantic City, NJ

Friday, June 14th, 2024 8:00 PM

Steve Martin & Martin Short Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

Saturday, June 15th, 2024 8:00 PM

Steve Martin & Martin Short Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater Vail, CO

Powered by BigStub® - Trusted Everywhere

Your independent guide to the best concerts in 2024 this website is operated by a ticket broker. tickets are listed by third-party sellers and may be above face value..

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, steve (martin): a documentary in 2 pieces.

There’s nothing worse than watching a bio-doc about a revolutionary, unique, creative voice that reduces the life story of its subject to the basic beats, using standard techniques instead of embracing that which made this person's story worth telling in the first place. Director Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”) likely struggled with this potential trap when approaching the life of Steve Martin , a man who has defied easy categorization his entire life. From his breakthrough days on the comedy stage, when he somehow merged an old-fashioned sense of humor with a brave new way of making people laugh, to when he left that behind to become a writer, film star, novelist, playwright, and a current TV star, Martin has been tough to pin down. Neville attempts to capture Steve Martin’s ability to never be put in an easy box in Apple TV+'s “Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces” by telling the two halves of his story in completely different formats. It’s a clever move to make what is essentially two feature-length documentaries about the man, and yet it still somehow feels like some of this story remains untold. That’s just how rich Steve Martin’s career has been.

The first half of “Steve!” is a pretty straightforward piece of archive-driven documentary filmmaking, using old photos and clips of Martin’s childhood and ascendance to superstardom under audio of Martin and people who knew him then. From his days working at Disneyland to his love of magic as a young man, Neville tracks the formation of Martin’s stage persona. There are some fascinating insights into Martin’s process, such as when he explains how a punchline is designed to release tension in an audience, but he sought to keep the tension going, playing with the very form of a comedy show. There’s also the sharp context of Martin’s rise that notes that he was a sort of response to the Vietnam Era in which everything, even comedy, felt like it had to be serious. With an arrow through his head, Martin was defiantly silly.

What I always loved about Martin from a very young age was his willingness to be both goofy and deceptively intellectual at the same time. He could nail a great old-fashioned laugher that would be called a “dad joke” today or jump around on his happy feet, but there was a deep intelligence behind everything Martin did. You could just tell. It was like his brain, heart, and funny bone were all playing together in unison. It was conceptual as much as it was goofy. And when Martin realized that the concept had run out of steam in 1980, he walked away at the top of his game.

The first half of “Steve!,” subtitled “Then,” hints at some of the darker chapters in its subject life, but this is not a standard tell-all. Martin’s father was remarkably cold and even cruel; Martin became obsessed with satisfying entire audiences, talking about being obsessed with the one empty seat in a sold-out show; a sort of pompous persona that he refined on-stage led to him being defined that way off of it—Neville has a habit of feigning to deeper waters like these before going back to the shallower ones, likely out of deference to a man who seems reluctant to open up too much about his life. Consequently, the first half of “Steve!” becomes more about a career than a person, which left me feeling a little distant from the subject at its conclusion.

And that’s what makes the second half, subtitled “Now,” a masterstroke on Neville’s part. After 90 minutes of photos and clips, the second part of “Steve!” opens with Martin himself walking into his kitchen, chit-chatting and telling jokes, almost mocking the very fact that a movie is being made about him. Ending the first half in 1980, Neville employs an entirely different format for the next 40+ years of Steve Martin’s life, a more free-form conversational approach with Martin and friends like Jerry Seinfeld , Martin Short , Tina Fey , Lorne Michaels , Eric Idle , and many more. Martin is working on a cartoon book filled with anecdotes about his career, and that’s the throughline for this half, a film that’s calmer and more observational, sometimes just content to film Martin riding his bike on a nice day. It also focuses heavily on friendship and collaboration with Martin noting that he will probably retire when Short does. They’re a package deal now on stage and on “Only Murders in the Building.”

There are many joys to be found in the second half of “Steve!” too—I could watch Seinfeld interview Martin about comedy for literal hours, and the process scenes of Martin & Short writing jokes are a gem. However, four decades of Martin’s career is a lot to cram into a feature length, and a lot of his work gets dismissed or ignored in a way that might frustrate some fans. After a relatively long chapter on the failure of “ Pennies from Heaven ,” and how Martin responded to it, I was hoping for a similar unpacking of classics like “ Roxanne ,” “ L.A. Story ,” “ Bowfinger ,” and maybe even Martin’s excellent novels. The truth is there’s too much brilliance here. And Neville chooses to spend a great deal of time on WASP , Martin’s 1994 play that clearly includes some of the writer’s biography within it, even staging scenes from it with Finn Wittrock . Using Martin’s work as a key to unpack his life is wise, but I would argue you could do it just as easily with so many of his other projects about outsiders seeking approval too.

How does a deeply empathetic filmmaker like Morgan Neville approach the life of a man who always seemed to keep his true emotions behind a curtain? It’s heartwarming and even moving to see where Steve Martin is today, comfortable with his emotions enough to cry when reading the “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles” script, and obviously enriched by being a father late in life. Comedian, actor, writer, father, husband, friend—Steve Martin is all these things, and more. Of course, Morgan Neville had to make two completely different films to try to tell his story. Honestly, he could probably make three or four and still just scratch the surface.

Premieres on Apple TV+ on March 29 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

State of Consciousness

Simon abrams.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Glenn kenny.

Stress Positions

Peter sobczynski.

Sweet Dreams

Matt zoller seitz.

A Bit of Light

Peyton robinson, film credits.

Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces (2024)

180 minutes

Steve Martin as Himself

Martin Short as Himself

Lorne Michaels as Himself

Tina Fey as Herself

Eric Idle as Himself

Jerry Seinfeld as Himself

Martin Mull as Himself

• Morgan Neville

Latest blog posts

The Movies That Underwent Major Changes After Their Festival Premiere

Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives Is A Spinoff Stuck In Limbo

Preview of Tributes at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Pioneering Actor-Producer Terry Carter Dies

‘Steve! (Martin)’ Revisits the Heyday of a Wild and Crazy Comedian

• By David Fear

There are entire generations that have no idea that Steve Martin was a stand-up comedian. They may recognize him as one-third of the trio that’s turned Only Murders in the Building into a streaming hit, or the long-suffering patriarch of the Father of the Bride movies, or maybe as that guy with the funny mustache who was in that one thing with Beyoncé (i.e. 2006 Pink Panther reboot). Some might have watched Parenthood or Planes, Trains and Automobiles with their parents when they were younger. He’s the celebrity who, whenever he drops by Saturday Night Live for a quick cameo, gets an inordinate amount of applause. “A wild and crazy guy” may as well be a maxim from the Festrunk brothers’ home country of Czechoslovakia.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

Before he was “Steve!”, a comedian fueled by exclamation points and air quotes, he was just Steve, the kid from Orange County, California, who loved Disneyland and magic tricks. Getting a job at the former in which he sold tourists the latter, the teenage Martin learned the art of patter and the joy of smarmy schtick. An entertainer named Wally Boag, who performed at the park’s Golden Horseshoe Revue, would dazzle crowds with goofy balloon animals and his quick wit; Martin claims he saw Boag’s show dozens upon dozens of times and took note. He began doing his own magic act for his parents’ friends and around town as Martin the Magic Marvel. Stage time at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Birdcage Theater further taught him how to work crowds. Influences ranging from Jack Benny to Jerry Lewis to Lenny Bruce began to work their way into his bits.

'Hollywood Con Queen': See First Trailer for Docuseries About Scam That Shocked the Film Industry

'snl': ryan gosling is still haunted by 'avatar' font in 'papyrus 2' sketch, 'snl': watch chris stapleton perform 'white horse,' 'mountains of my mind'.

The breakthrough comes when he realizes he has to drop the bohemian style, put on a square’s suit and tie, and erase the lines between smart and silly altogether. It’s frankly amazing to see the doc’s archival finds from that era, when Martin was hitting the stage wearing a novelty arrow through the head and Groucho glasses, juggling oranges and playing the part of a jaded big shot. The idea that his act could be a parody of the glad-handing, overly sincere entertainer rather than the thing itself fits both his strengths as an absurdist comic and the tongue-in-cheek times themselves. For mid-’70s audiences, it was like seeing your parents’ favorite variety acts — balloon animals! banjo-playing! corny jokes carbon-dated back to vaudeville! — reinterpreted for their quite-possibly-stoned enjoyment. Both potheads and Carson loved him. Famous anecdotes about Martin’s post-show pied-piper antics (like when he took 350 audience members out for fast-food burgers) don’t seem any less awe-inspiring for being recounted for the 200th time. He’s just turned 30, and you can see he’s surfing a wave about to crest. Then a new TV show goes on the air. “Live from New York…”.

Much of this is covered in Martin’s memoir Born Standing Up, yet the chance to see his recollections buffered by the real thing is a treasure trove for aficionados and an eye-opener for those who just know the gray-haired actor as an éminence grise . Steve! also recognizes that this is something that can’t last, even if Martin’s signature lines start showing up in commercials and a club hosts a “find the next Steve Martin” night featuring 150 wannabe comedians painfully imitating his bits. Rather, the over-the-moon success of his touring act simply becomes too overwhelming for the somewhat shy, emotionally reticent guy at the wild and crazy center of it. When his first movie The Jerk becomes a hit, Martin sees salvation and an exit strategy. No more stepping in front of a microphone and being hit with a blast of white noise. After his 1980 tour ends, that’s all, folks. End of Part One.

Martin’s story is far from over, though Steve! ‘s essentially is — Part Two, titled Now, has some very big (cruel) shoes to fill, and doesn’t have the benefit of the laser-like focus of its first half. It’s telling that, having become the single biggest thing in comedy, Martin’s first project of a new decade is …not a comedy at all. On paper, a remake of Dennis Potter’s exquisite TV drama Pennies From Heaven starring Martin as a bruised romantic with a penchant for lip-syncing Depression-era tunes seems intriguing. Onscreen, it’s a two-hour needle scratch. The Potter version benefits from the context of the British writer’s previous work and an established sense of fourth-wall breaking. No amount of charisma, tap-dance lessons or period detail kept audiences from a whiplash sense of “WTF?,” however. History has been kind to it, but the 1980s weren’t. If the idea was to bring the temperature down to something less white-hot, its mission was accomplished.

Billie Eilish Would Like to Reintroduce Herself

Kanye west announces 'yeezy porn' amid reports of adult film company, neil young stuns at 2024 tour launch, unveils lost 'cortez the killer' verse, opioids came for country music. it’s fighting back.

Martin’s graceful aging and ability to appreciate life more may be less of a yowza story than the meteoric rise that preceded it, but Now still has enough raw material to detail a hell of a second and third act. What we get instead, however, feels remarkably superficial. Yes, the chance to be a fly on the wall of Martin and Short’s writing sessions is a gift, but you don’t get the sense of why or how that friendship has yielded such fertile creativity in his autumn years. Martin notes that he became tired of movies around the same time they became tired of him; the doc seems done with them before they even get to that quote. His legacy as a writer is boiled down to just Wasp, a one-act play that doubled as an exorcism of his family trauma. Few friends feel they really know him. He’d rather not talk about a lot of things. His daughter is rendered as a literal stick-figure illustration, out of privacy. The occasional admissions around father issues and some filmmaking whimsy — a cut to Jaws during a bad date peripherally involving Steven Spielberg, a winking animated Picasso — doesn’t keep you from feeling like Neville never fully gets past his subject’s brick wall of defense.

The result is that Now gives those late acts more lip service than love, and feels content to just go straight to the victory lap. Martin himself feels happy to look back at an era he’s been done with for a long time (though reluctant to listen to said era; he gets less than a minute into an old set recording before he turns the tape off). Get into more personal areas, and you can feel the protective measures slide into place. If the uneven balance does tilt in Then ‘s favor, so be it. Time capsules are invaluable, too. So are reminders of previously scaled heights.

'Challengers' Is Sex, Tennis and Zendaya in Full Beast Mode, Not in That Order

• MOVIE REVIEW

What’s Next for Harvey Weinstein After His New York Rape Conviction Was Overturned?

• By Nancy Dillon

'9 to 5' Remake in the Works From Jennifer Aniston

• way to make a living
• By Daniel Kreps

Harvey Weinstein Survivors Saddened by Overturned NY Conviction: ‘Disappointing for All of Us’

• 'Shocked'

'Hollywood Con Queen': See First Trailer for Docuseries About Scam That Shocked the Film Industry

Most popular, anne hathaway says 'gross' chemistry test in the 2000s required her to make out with 10 guys: that's the 'worst way to do it' and 'now we know better', 'the lord of the rings' trilogy returning to theaters, remastered and extended, louvre considers moving mona lisa to underground chamber to end 'public disappointment', sources claim hugh jackman’s worrying behavior may have something to do with his breakup, you might also like, hot docs lineup: ‘luther: never too much’ to open toronto nonfiction fest amid mass programmer exit, paris provisional calendars: dries van noten’s final men’s collection, thom browne back for couture, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, andrew ahn to direct ‘reimagining’ of ‘the wedding banquet’ starring lily gladstone and bowen yang, dumb luck: nba dodges bullet as jontay porter fouls out.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• Entertainment
• Celebrities
• Ticket Sales
• Promoted: What to Watch on Prime Video

trending now

Inside the failed White House coup to oust Biden press secretary...

George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling...

Bill Belichick let it rip at NFL Draft — and fans loved it

Southwest Airlines to end service at 4 airports -- including one...

Falcons' $100M QB blindsided as team drafts quarterback

2024 NFL Draft first-round grades for every selection

Substitute teacher fights student who allegedly said racial slur...

King Charles' funeral plans reportedly being updated regularly...

What do tickets cost to see steve martin and martin short in 2024.

• View Author Archive
• Get author RSS feed

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

In the recently-released “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces,” audiences are given an extended behind-the-scenes look at how Steve Martin and Martin Short develop material for their live show.

Soon, fans can see them deliver the punchlines they workshopped live.

The iconic funnymen have six huge shows lined up as part of their upcoming ‘Dukes Of Funnytown Tour’ all over North America this May and June.

That includes gigs at Syracuse’s Landmark Theatre on Friday, May 3, Buffalo’s Sheas Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 4, and Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Saturday, May 18.

Martin and Short, who have been touring together since 2015, are known for roasting each other onstage and delivering jokes “at a rapid-fire pace with little setup and big punchlines as they mock Hollywood and the fickle nature of celebrity” according to a press release.

At the time of publication, the lowest price we could find on tickets for any one show was $88 before fees on Vivid Seats.

Other dates have seats starting anywhere from $103 to $259 before fees.

Want to catch the iconic “Three Amigos,” “Father of the Bride” and “Only Murders In The Building” co-stars crack-wise live?

We’ve got everything you need to know and more about the ‘Dukes of Funnytown Tour’ below.

All prices listed above are subject to fluctuation.

Steve Martin and Martin Short tickets 2024

A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues, and links to the cheapest tickets available can be found here:

(Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time. All prices are in US dollars, subject to fluctuation and include additional fees at checkout .)

Vivid Seats is a verified secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand. 

They offer a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and your tickets will be delivered prior to the event.

“Only Murders In The Building” season four

“OMITB” is headed to California.

“The Hulu series starring Martin Short (Oliver Putnam), Steve Martin (Charles-Haden Savage) and Selena Gomez (Mabel Mora) is relocating its universe from the fictional Arconia building on the Upper West Side to the City of Angels,” the New York Post shared.

“There are no specifics — including how long the characters will remain in LA.”

As for guest stars, it was recently announced that Molly Shannon, Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy, Kumail Nanjiani, and Zach Galifianakis will join this year’s ensemble.

Steve Martin documentary

On March 29, Apple TV dropped “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces.”

The two-part look at Martin’s life covers his early days as a budding magician and household name comedian before settling into a steady acting career, marrying and touring with Short.

If you want to catch the doc yourself, you can stream “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” on Apple TV here .

Comedians on tour in 2024

It’s very possible your favorite comedian is coming to a city near you in the next few months.

Here are just five of our favorites could be popping into your city in the near future.

•  Jerry Seinfeld

•  Ellen Degeneres

•  Seth Meyers with John Oliver

•  Bill Maher

•  Jay Leno

Don’t see your number one on our list? Try out the  107 biggest comedians on tour in 2024 here . Hopefully, we found someone who makes you laugh there.

Share this article:

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘steve (martin) a documentary in two pieces’ review: morgan neville’s apple tv+ doc portrait of the comedian is half-good.

Stand-up legend and beloved film and TV star Steve Martin sets aside his enigmatic image for a two-part documentary.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

“My whole life is backwards,” muses Steve Martin during the second “episode” of Morgan Neville’s STEVE! (Martin) A Documentary in Two Pieces .

STEVE! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces

Related stories, martin short to be inaugurated as mayor of funner, california, m. emmet walsh, actor in 'blood simple' and 'blade runner,' dies at 88.

Neville’s approach, in the annoyingly titled documentary that I will henceforth only call STEVE! , is to bifurcate Martin’s life.

The 98-minute “Then” looks at the origins of Martin’s comic style — a pastiche of classic vaudevillian traditions with a ’70s-specific deconstructive approach — and traces the circuitous road to unprecedented success onstage. Then, Martin walked away from stand-up.

The 95-minute “Now” looks at Martin’s life, well, now. It follows his post-stand-up career and his personal maturation, examining Martin as a movie star, husband and father, as a humorist and an art collector, plus his return to the stage as part of a beloved comic duo with Martin Short .

Now normally, this is when I go, “They’re called episodes , Morgan, it’s not like you reinvented the wheel.” But “Then” and “Now” are wholly separate, except that they’re also companion pieces. They have different formal approaches, different tones and Neville uses a slate of different collaborators. They’re as distinct as a comedian who does exaggerated wild-and-crazy prop comedy and another comedian who does erudite pieces in The New Yorker .

“Then” takes an archival footage-driven approach. Martin narrates, without any clear distinction as to when he’s reciting from old journals, or memoirs, or when he’s answering questions from Neville. Other key figures are heard exclusively off-camera.

The purpose here, again, is reinforcing separateness: It helps to think of STEVE! as akin to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, on which it wouldn’t make thematic sense to go from “You Belong With Me” straight into “Shake It Off,” even if on a different tour it might be fine. There’s a gulf created by telling Martin’s story in two parts; cutting back and forth from the manic 20-something Martin dancing and gesticulating and tearing up the stage to the 70-something Martin reflecting on it would spoil the distance that Martin clearly sees as existing between the two and that Neville wants to reinforce.

I would say it’s hard to imagine how somebody with a sensibility this goofily esoteric became a global phenomenon, but in the past five years I’ve watched extended documentaries on everybody from Garry Shandling to George Carlin to Andy Kaufman to Albert Brooks . Something was in the cultural water at that moment. Still, it’d be hard for your average Gen Z viewer to really get how huge Steve Martin was in the late 1970s, and “Then” conveys that stardom.

However, it’s astonishing how few of the artistic choices that Neville makes in “Then” work in an immediately satisfying way. Nothing in the rhythms and pacing mirrors anything in Martin’s style or voice. Nothing in the animation that brings some of the pictures to life mirrors anything in Martin’s style or voice. Nothing in Alan Lowe’s editing or Darian Sahanaja’s score or the myriad period soundtrack selections mirror anything in Martin’s style or voice. One could argue that the choices are digressive anti-documentary choices in the way Martin’s comedy was digressive anti-comedy, creating a jumble of ideas and moments that can only come into focus with time and age and the documentary’s second piece. I buy that, except that Martin was hilarious and “Then” is more frequently irritating. It’s comprehensible as an exercise, but less than desirable as a storytelling decision.

Martin has, per the documentary, reached a contemplative phase of his life. “Now” is all about sitting back and watching the fruits of that contemplation, whether it’s an extended conversation with Jerry Seinfeld about the nature of comedy, or several wonderful sequences with Short pitching punchlines for their two-person stage show, or lingering on the fringes of a card game with Short and Martin’s wife, Anne.

Here, most of Neville’s choices work well. The editing mirrors the relaxed looseness of this phase in Martin’s life. The animated sequences, courtesy of frequent collaborator Harry Bliss, are pleasantly attuned to Martin’s current voice. The clips are well-chosen and Martin at least touches on a lot of the film roles you would want acknowledged, his disappointment about the failure of Pennies From Heaven and his sadness about John Candy’s passing both still visceral.

There are times when the two documentaries play well together. In the first, Martin’s father is an unknowable and loveless figure. In the second, as an older and more reflective man, Martin understands his father on a new level — Martin is careful to keep his own daughter out of the documentary, finding a very funny workaround — and even comes to love and miss him.

In “Now,” Neville is able to give a Grand Unified Theory of Steve Martin — lots of loneliness before, lots of togetherness today — and I guess it wouldn’t work as well without “Then,” which I guess I just wish worked better than it does.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Luke grimes on kevin costner’s “unfortunate” ‘yellowstone’ exit: “you gotta do what you gotta do”, ‘shogun’ star hiroyuki sanada delves into finale’s deeper message: “we need the hero who brings about peace” , jerry seinfeld says ‘curb your enthusiasm’ finale cameo elevated ‘seinfeld’ conclusion: “we’re in the conversation now”, streaming ratings: ‘3 body problem’ repeats as overall no. 1, ‘beef,’ ‘the 1619 project’ among 2024 television academy honors winners, dan rather returning to cbs news for first time since bitter exit 18 years ago.