Here’s the most important thing to know about Steve Martin and Martin Short’s new Netflix comedy special: There are about five minutes of straight banjo. This is a petty yet useful detail for most people who have long loved Martin’s comedy while warmly acknowledging his bluegrass—perhaps even turning up to a bluegrass…
If there is one universally accepted truth, it’s that celebrities are not real people and we should stop relying on them for anything resembling insight, compassion, or honesty. When two famous people say they’re friends, it’s best to interpret that not as them being genuine confidants, but rather that they…
Sterling K. Brown stars in two of the most talked-about properties of 2018: NBC’s tearjerker (and Crock Pot enemy) This Is Us and Marvel’s Black Panther. But right now, he’s so pumped about hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time. He even made his own opening credits, complete with Gray’s Papaya stand and…
Most performers like to put on a fancy show even when they’re promoting a fancy show, which seems like it must be very tiring. For their upcoming Netflix special, though, Martin Short and Steve Martin just made a short video of themselves talking about what they’re doing, and while their approach is fairly simple and…
Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases or premieres, or occasionally our own inscrutable whims. This week, we’re looking back on films that feature great comedic performances that the Academy didn’t nominate for Best Actor or Best Actress.
As many are aware, Steve Martin the legendary comedian is also a banjo player, an instrument he used in his earliest stand-up gigs and now appears to be returning to with a genuine flourish. His bluegrass band the Steep Canyon Rangers has recently released its followup album to 2011’s Rare Bird Alert—the appropriately…
Steve Martin has just released a thoroughly charming video for his thoroughly charming new single, “Caroline,” off his latest collaboration with the Steep Canyon Rangers. He’s rounded up fellow Saturday Night Live players Cecily Strong and Bill Hader to act out the break-up at the heart of the song. Directed by Brian…
Following in the footsteps of Werner Herzog, Shonda Rhimes, Deadmaus, and a dozen more celebrities who’ve stepped into the online teaching world, Steve Martin has just announced his own MasterClass in the art of comedy. MasterClass announced the Steve Martin program with the site’s usual promo video, albeit one that…
One week a month, Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. This week: In honor of Kenneth Lonergan’s magnificent Manchester By The Sea, we’re giving a standing ovation to other movies written and/or directed by playwrights.
Rhiannon Giddens, vocalist-banjoist-fiddlist of the old time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, has been awarded the sixth annual Steve Martin Prize For Excellence In Banjo And Bluegrass, as The New York Times reports, making her the first black woman to be honored with the distinction.
There’s only so many times a person can watch Father Of The Bride before that immersive sensation of being there in the chaos of the Banks family household begins to dissipate. After 20 or 30 viewings of 1991 Steve Martin comedy—based on the 1950 version starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor—a fan needs to go…
Garry Shandling’s death at the age of 66 on Thursday caught his fans off guard. And nowhere is the man’s loss more deeply felt than within the world of comedy, where Shandling is revered not only for his decades of innovative and very funny work, but also as a genuinely kind person. As news of the star’s death spread, …
Last night, those attending a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up performance in New York got one of the most unexpected treats a comedy audience could ever hope to receive: an unannounced opening act by Steve Martin. What made the performance so surprising was that it was Martin’s first stand-up show in 35 years, after he walked…
Parody films are ephemeral by nature. Take Fifty Shades Of Black, the Marlon Wayans Fifty Shades Of Grey parody that comes out this weekend: Based on its trailer, it’s practically guaranteed to feature at least one gag involving someone farting during sex. It’s also practically guaranteed to be forgotten before the…
Perhaps anxious to showcase the host’s witty repartee with Will Ferrell, Crackle has moved up the premiere date for season seven of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld (which should be its subtitle). That’s according to The Wrap, which also notes that President Barack Obama will join Seinfeld for a…
“All Of Me/Why not remake All Of Me?”
Like Bill Murray, Steve Martin pretty much made his bones by being both funny and up for anything. Take, for instance, his 1976 appearance on The Carol Burnett Show, which Mental Floss just called to our attention. In the clip, below, Martin does his stand-up not for Burnett’s audience of living human beings, but for…
Steve Martin has been a part of pop culture for so long, and a force in so many mediums, that the best way into his career is to start small. Consider the absolute minimum for entertainment: a performer onstage. Here, the performer speaks calmly— even dully—about an art exhibition touring the country. While his…
In the same weekend that saw Donald Trump’s life reportedly threatened by fugitive drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the entrepreneur and owner of the world’s smallest auburn putting green was the subject of stinging words from another known enemy. Trump’s incendiary and distressingly popular campaign for…
In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week, we’re talking about great songs by non-musicians.
