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Steve Martin: Comic, banjo player, and now documentary film subject
You don’t usually associate the sound of a banjo with a view of New York City, but with Steve Martin, it all seems to work. He played for “Sunday Morning” at his apartment last month, and to everyone there, he sounded amazing.
But to him, it wasn’t quite good enough. “Oh, I blew it there!” he said.
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In some ways, it sums up how Martin has lived his whole life. And now, you can see for yourself. A new Apple TV project, “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in two pieces,” traces his path from anxious kid to the superstar we’ve come to know.
At the beginning he states, “I guarantee I had no talent, none.” And he stands by that statement: “Well, meaning I couldn’t sing, dance, or act.”
Smith asked, “So, what do you think; if you had no talent, what did you have?”
“A love of show business,” he replied.
Martin tells his story with the help of filmmaker Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 Fred Rogers documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Neville explained he’d heard through the grapevine that Martin would be interested: “I heard that somebody in an elevator asked Steve if he was interested in doing a documentary – that is true! – and he said, ‘Maybe.’ And that was the crack in the door.”
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It’s more than just a crack: Neville got all of Martin’s early performances, his detailed diaries, and a good chunk of his time.
The director had been a fan of Martin’s since he was a kid: “When I was 12, I convinced my dad to drive me to Las Vegas to see Steve do standup at the Riviera. I actually got to see Steve do standup. I actually went to the early show and the late show, that same night!”
Martin added, “I was at both of those shows, too.”
One thing Neville discover about Martin is his modesty.
“I think you have to be [modest],” Martin said. “I remember Mike Nichols told me once, he said, ‘When I am in New York, I am Mike Nichols. When I go to L.A., I’m thinking, ‘…How am I doing?!?’“
Seems he took that to heart:
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By the late ’70s Martin was wildly successful beyond even his dreams: He was a fixture on “Saturday Night Live”; his comedy tours would sell out coast-to-coast; and his standup record “Let’s Get Small” was the first comedy album to go platinum.
And then, he walked away from the stage. “I was exhausted by it,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Wow. When I do standup, I have to go there. If I do a movie, I stay home, and the movie goes there.’ And also, it had a sense of permanence, like you could get the thing exactly right.”
So, Martin went from standup king to movie star. But he still had his moments of self-doubt.
In the documentary he recalls a journalist asking him, “Why aren’t you funny anymore?”
“It was a bad moment, ’cause I was thinking that myself,” he said. “You go through highs and lows in your career, you know? So, at any moment, you can be thinking, ‘Everything’s working, everything’s feeling great.’ And then, you know, a year later, you’re going, ‘Hmmmm…'”
But there have been plenty of highs, from “The Jerk” and “All of Me,” to “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Three Amigos.” Martin has made more than 40 films, some of which are now considered comedy classics.
“Sometimes, I sort of look around and go, ‘How’d this happen? Where did this come in?'” he said. “And in my most self-congratulatory moment, I go, ‘It all came out of my head!'”
At age 78, he’s on a hit TV show, “Only Murders in the Building”; he’s back doing standup with Martin Short; and he has, by his own admission, mellowed with age.
Smith asked, “One of the things you talk about a lot in the second film is that you’ve changed, and your friends talk about it, too. I think at one point you say, ‘I wasn’t mean, I was just removed.'”
“Yeah,” said Martin. “I remember Tommy Smothers said once, because I was writing on his show, ‘Talking to Steve Martin is like talking to nobody.’ No, I have changed. I don’t know how to quantify it. I’m just nicer, friendlier.
“I have this theory that as you age, you either become your worst self or your best self. And I feel like I’ve become my better self – and I can see other people becoming their worst self. They become more hostile. They become more difficult. And it’s a pretty clear line, for me.”
He says he had no talent, but with his life, Steve Martin’s created a masterpiece.
So, what did he learn about himself while going through the process of being the subject of a documentary? “Well, nothing,” he said.
Nothing? Smith asked, “Then, why do it? What was the point of doing it, for you?”
“Well, it’s part of being in show business, you know?”
“But there’s something more to it for that, because you don’t fall for these trappings of show business, you know what I’m saying? You didn’t have to do this.”
“No, it’s a fantastic outcome, to have a documentary done about you,” he said.
“So, is this kind of what you do? A documentary is just a natural progression?”
“Yeah. I used to watch – I still watch – ‘American Masters,’ thinking, ‘Wow. One day, I’d like to be a subject of a documentary.’ And then suddenly, you are.
“And I’m 78,” he laughed. “When else?”
To watch a trailer for “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces” click on the video player below:
For more info:
Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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A drone was launched toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home on Saturday, the Israeli government said.
Sirens wailed Saturday morning, warning of incoming fire from Lebanon. The drone was launched towards Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, but neither he nor his wife were home, his spokesperson said in a statement. There were no injuries.
There was no information given about where the drone was launched from or who might be responsible for the attempted attack. Israel did not say if the drone was intercepted or landed elsewhere.
It’s the second strike aimed at Netanyahu in recent months. In September, Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport when Netanyahu’s plane was landing. The missile was intercepted.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, more than 50 people have been killed in several Israeli strikes, including children, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and an Associated Press reporter.
Ariel Schalit / AP
Saturday’s strikes into Israel come as its war in Lebanon with Hezbollah — a Hamas ally backed by Iran — has intensified in recent weeks. Hezbollah said Friday that it planned to launch a new phase of fighting by sending more guided missiles and exploding drones into Israel. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon earlier in October.
Israel’s military said some 55 projectiles were fired in two separate barrages at northern Israel from Lebanon on Saturday morning. Some were intercepted, the army said, and there were no immediate reports of any casualties.
Israel also said Saturday it killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander in the southern town of Bint Jbeil. The army said Nasser Rashid supervised attacks against Israel
In Lebanon, the health ministry said an Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a vehicle on a main highway north of Beirut, killing two people. It was unclear who was in the car when it was struck.
A standoff is also ensuing between Israel and Hamas, which it’s fighting in Gaza, with both signaling resistance to ending the war after the death of Hamas’ leader Yahya Sinwar this week. On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sinwar’s death was a painful loss but noted that Hamas carried on despite the killings of other Palestinian militant leaders before him.
“Hamas is alive and will stay alive,” Khamenei said.
Since Israel announced Sinwar’s death Thursday and a top Hamas political official confirmed the death Friday, Hamas has reiterated its stance that the hostages taken from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a cease-fire in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops. The staunch position pushed back against a statement by Netanyahu that his country’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released, and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
Israel says Sinwar was the chief architect of the 2023 Hamas raid on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has caused the deaths of over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians but say more than half the dead are women and children.
More strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and that forces opened fire at the hospital’s building and its courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff. At Al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement.
In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where the casualties were taken. An AP reporter counted the bodies at the hospital. Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were taken. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital.
Overnight Friday, at least three houses were struck in northern Gaza killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. The homes were hit in Jabaliya and at least 80 people were injured.
The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Sinwar’s killing appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday, and it could shift the dynamics of the war in Gaza even as Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and airstrikes in other areas of the country.
Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas politically in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. But Netanyahu said in a Thursday night speech announcing the killing that “our war is not yet ended.”
Still, the governments of Israel’s allies and exhausted residents of Gaza expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.
In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded the Israeli government use Sinwar’s killing as a way to restart negotiations to bring home their loved ones. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.
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