Editing Steve Martin (section)

===Stand-up comedy ===
==== Late night ====
In 1967, his former girlfriend Nina Goldblatt, a dancer on ''[[The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]]'', helped Martin land a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer [[Mason Williams]].{{sfnp|Martin|2007|p=76}} Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an [[Emmy Award]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emmys.com/celebrities/steve-martin|title=Steve Martin|work=Television Academy}}</ref> in 1969 at the age of twenty-three.<ref name="Mild"/> He wrote for ''[[The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour]]'' and ''[[The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour]].'' Martin's first national television appearance was on ''[[The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]]'' in 1968. He says: {{cquote|[I] appeared on ''The [[Virginia Graham]] Show,'' circa 1970. I looked grotesque. I had a hairdo like a helmet, which I blow-dried to a puffy bouffant, for reasons I no longer understand. I wore a frock coat and a silk shirt, and my delivery was mannered, slow and self-aware. I had absolutely no authority. After reviewing the show, I was depressed for a week.<ref name="Smithsonian" />}} During these years his roommates included [[Gary Mule Deer]] and [[Michael Johnson (singer)|Michael Johnson]].{{sfnp|Martin|2007|p=77}} Gary Mule Deer supplied the first joke Martin submitted to Tommy Smothers for use on the ''Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' show.<ref>Freeman, Marc – [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/smothers-brothers-comedy-hour-oral-history-1060153/ 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' at 50: The Rise and Fall of a Groundbreaking Variety Show]. Hollywood Reporter. November 25, 2017 ("It has been shown that more people watch TV than any other appliance.")</ref> Martin opened for groups such as [[The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band]] (who returned the favor by appearing in his 1980 television special ''All Commercials''), [[The Carpenters]], and [[Toto (band)|Toto]]. He appeared at [[The Boarding House (nightclub)|The Boarding House]], among other venues. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on ''[[Van Dyke and Company]]'' in 1976.
In the mid-1970s, Martin made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'',<ref name="Smithsonian" /> and on ''[[The Gong Show]]'', [[HBO]]'s ''[[On Location (TV series)|On Location]]'', ''[[The Muppet Show]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Garlen |first1=Jennifer C. |last2=Graham |first2=Anissa M.  |title=Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets |year=2009 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0786442591|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Rac9xis0BIgC&q=%22Steve%20Martin%22 16]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rac9xis0BIgC&q=%22Steve%20Martin%22}}</ref> and [[NBC]]'s ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' (''SNL''). ''SNL''{{'s}} audience jumped by a million viewers when he made guest appearances, and he was one of the show's most successful hosts.<ref name="Mild"/> Martin has appeared on twenty-seven ''Saturday Night Live'' shows and guest-hosted sixteen times, second only to [[Alec Baldwin]], who has hosted seventeen times {{as of|2017|February|lc=y}}. On the show, Martin popularized the [[air quotes]] gesture.<ref name="Frum">{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link=David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York City |isbn=0-465-04195-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/36 36–37] |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/36 |url-access=registration }}</ref> While on the show, Martin grew close to several cast members, including [[Gilda Radner]]. On the night she died of [[ovarian cancer]], a tearful Martin hosted ''SNL'' and featured footage of himself and Radner together in a 1978 sketch.

==== Comedy albums ====
[[File:Steve Martin 2.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Steve Martin, 1976]]
In the 1970s, his television appearances led to the release of comedy albums that went [[Music recording sales certification|platinum]].<ref name="Mild"/> The track "Excuse Me" on his first album, ''[[Let's Get Small]]'' (1977), helped establish a national [[catch phrase]].<ref name="Mild"/> His next album, ''[[A Wild and Crazy Guy]]'' (1978), was an even bigger success, reaching the No. 2 spot on the U.S. sales chart, selling over a million copies. "Just a wild and crazy guy" became another of Martin's known catchphrases.<ref name="Mild"/> The album featured a character based on a series of ''Saturday Night Live'' sketches in which Martin and [[Dan Aykroyd]] played the Festrunk Brothers; Yortuk and Georgi were bumbling [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak]] would-be playboys. The album ends with the song "[[King Tut (song)|King Tut]]", written and sung by Martin and backed by the "Toot Uncommons", members of the [[Nitty Gritty Dirt Band]]. It was later released as a single, reaching No. 17 on the U.S. charts in 1978 and selling over a million copies.<ref name="Mild">{{cite magazine |last1=Corliss |first1=Richard |title=Steve Martin, a Mild and Crazy Guy |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1684540-1,00.html |access-date=December 31, 2022 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 15, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071220021910/http://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1684540,00.html |archive-date=December 20, 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{YouTube|wgTPH5y1-ZI|"King Tut" Video}}. Retrieved August 14, 2010.</ref> The song came out during the [[Tutankhamun|King Tut]] craze that accompanied the popular traveling exhibit of the Egyptian king's tomb artifacts. Both albums won [[Grammy]]s for [[Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album|Best Comedy Recording]] in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Martin performed "King Tut" on the April 22, 1978, ''SNL'' program.

Decades later, in 2012, ''[[The A.V. Club]]'' described Martin's unique style and its effect on audiences:
{{cquote|[Martin was] both a consummate entertainer and a glib, knowing parody of a consummate entertainer. He was at once a hammy populist with an uncanny, unprecedented feel for the tastes of a mass audience and a sly intellectual whose goofy shtick cunningly deconstructed stand-up comedy.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rabin |first=Nathan |author-link=Nathan Rabin |title=Steve Martin: The Television Stuff |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=November 7, 2012 |url=https://www.avclub.com/steve-martin-the-television-stuff-1798174880|access-date=December 30, 2022}}</ref>}}

On his comedy albums, Martin's stand-up is self-referential and sometimes [[self-deprecation|self-mocking]]. It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of "happy feet", [[banjo]] playing with balloon depictions of concepts like [[venereal disease]], and the "controversial" kitten juggling (he is a master juggler; the "kittens" were [[stuffed toy|stuffed animal toys]]). His style is off-kilter and ironic and sometimes pokes fun at stand-up comedy traditions, such as Martin opening his act (from ''A Wild and Crazy Guy'') by saying: {{cquote|I think there's nothing better for a person to come up and do the same thing over and over for two weeks. This is what I enjoy, so I'm going to do the same thing over and over and over [...] I'm going to do the same joke over and over in the same show, it'll be like a new thing.}} Or: "Hello, I'm Steve Martin, and I'll be out here in a minute."<ref name="Frum"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Anderson|first=Sam|author-link=Sam Anderson (writer)|date=November 18, 2007|url=https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/40968/|title=Rationalist of the Absurd: Steve Martin's extraordinarily calculated comedy |magazine=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |access-date=August 12, 2010 |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818095622/http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/40968/ |archive-date=August 18, 2010}}</ref> In one comedy routine, used on the ''[[Comedy Is Not Pretty!]]'' album, Martin claimed that his real name was "Gern Blanston". The riff took on a life of its own. There is a Gern Blanston website, and for a time a rock band took the moniker as its name.{{sfnp|Martin|2007|pp=176–177}}

Martin's show soon required full-sized stadiums for the audiences he was drawing. Concerned about his visibility in venues on such a scale, Martin began to wear a distinctive [[three piece suit|three-piece]] white suit that became a trademark for his act.<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Reilly |first1=Terry |author1-link=Terry O'Reilly (broadcaster) |title=How A Wardrobe Change Transformed Steve Martin's Career |url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/how-a-wardrobe-change-transformed-steve-martin-s-career-1.4525782 |access-date=February 18, 2018 |work=Under the Influence |agency=Pirate Radio |publisher=CBC Radio One |date=February 8, 2018}}</ref> Martin stopped doing stand-up comedy in 1981 to concentrate on movies and did not return for thirty-five years.<ref name="Mild"/> About the decision, he said, "My act was conceptual. Once the concept was stated, and everybody understood it, it was done... It was about coming to the end of the road. There was no way to live on in that persona. I had to take that fabulous luck of not being remembered as that, exclusively. You know, I didn't announce that I was stopping. I just stopped."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=Alex |title=After losing a bet to Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Martin performs his first stand-up comedy set in 35 years. |url=https://consequence.net/2016/02/steve-martin-performs-his-first-stand-up-comedy-set-in-36-years/ |website=Consequence |date=February 19, 2016 |access-date=December 30, 2022}}</ref>

==== Return to standup ====
In 2016, Martin made a low-key comeback to live comedy, opening for [[Jerry Seinfeld]]. He performed a ten-minute stand-up routine before turning the stage over to Seinfeld.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/feb/19/jerry-seinfeld-steve-martin-review-standup-comedy-new-york |title=Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Martin standup comedy review – superbly honed |first=Elise |last=Czajkowski |date=February 19, 2016 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> Also in 2016 he staged a national tour with [[Martin Short]] and the [[Steep Canyon Rangers]], which yielded a 2018 Netflix comedy special, ''Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Husband |first=Andrew |date=May 25, 2018 |title=Steve Martin And Martin Short Embrace The Past Even When They Shun It |magazine=[[Forbes]] |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewhusband/2018/05/25/steve-martin-martin-short-netflix-special-review/ |access-date=May 27, 2018}}</ref> The special received four [[Primetime Emmy Award]] nominations with Martin receiving two nominations for [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special|Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special]] and [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics|Outstanding Music and Lyrics]] for "The Buddy Song".