Steve Martin looks back on his wild and crazy life
It’s been a wild and crazy life. Steve Martin stays busy at age 80, but not too busy to reminisce a little.
“I shot a little one-day scene at Disneyland on my birthday, Aug. 14, and it was in the magic shop where I worked when I was 15,” he says of an early promo for “Only Murders in the Building.” “I’m standing on the exact same spot that I stood on when I was 15! And I said, ‘It’s like going to work when you’re 15 and then coming home from work and you’re 80!”
The wildly popular series “Only Murders in the Building,” which Martin stars in and produces, returns for its fifth season Sept. 9 on Hulu.
The new season revolves around the latest case for the core trio of Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez: the murder of Lester, the Arconia’s doorman. Guest stars include Christoph Waltz, Renee Zellweger and Logan Lerman.
Martin isn’t resting on his many accolades in a career that includes screen classics such as “The Jerk,” “The Man with Two Brains,” “Roxanne,” “Father of the Bride” and “L.A. Story.” Not to mention his recent two-part documentary, “Steve!,” double-platinum selling records and comedy tours. He will be joined by Short on Oct. 10 and 11 at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.
He likes his balance of work and life these days. “I work with friends on ‘Only Murders in the Building.’ We shoot for about four months out of the year, and then Marty and I do live shows when we feel like it. Plus, I have time for my family. It’s all really good,” he says.
Martin lives in New York with his wife, Anne Stringfield, and daughter.
His good life advice:
Work with friends
Martin says working with longtime friend Short has been one of the best parts of “Only Murders.” “We met on ‘Three Amigos,’ and I didn’t know much about him,” Martin says, referencing their 1986 comedy. “He came to my house to get the script, looked around at the paintings and said, ‘How did you get this rich … because I’ve seen your work?’ No kidding. That’s what he said.”
Joy and humor
“I’m feel very comfortable with being in my 80s,” Martin says. “To be honest, you have a choice. I’ve decided to embrace it.” … Vanity? He puts a comic spin on that, too. “I know one day my hair will turn gray. Wait … that happened long ago,” he jokes. “Honestly, I’m not under pressure at this age. I’m not out to prove anything. I’m kinder, nicer and more open.”
He does practice a skill that keeps your mind active. “I check my vocabulary,” he jokes. “For instance, I said the word ‘wafer’ the other day. I hadn’t used that word in 30 years, which was great because my brain had full access to it. I was so impressed.”
‘A dream come true’
It all started with that stint at Disney. “That changed my life, to perform tricks all day, a dream come true,” he recalls. The next stop was his edgy stand-up comedy, which fueled a leap to the big screen with “The Jerk” in 1979.
Martin didn’t plan on showbiz stardom. “I just grew up loving comedy,” he says. “As a kid, I watched one comedian live and didn’t see another until I was probably 19. I just wanted to make people laugh. In fact, I did a joke recently and said, ‘I love to do stand-up because it’s the one place I can go and just enjoy the silence.’ ”
A life in focus
He says his recent documentary was quite cathartic. But why the one-name title with the exclamation point? “It goes back to my time in Vegas in the 1970s,” Martin shares. “Everyone wanted to go with the one-name thing like Cher!”
He adds the joy of doing the doc was watching his past unfold on old tapes and videos. “Seeing old footage is fantastic,” he says. “I just hope that people laughed while they were watching it, too.”
Check your ego
Martin says a certain incident back in the day taught him what it was like to be truly famous and handle it well. “In the late ’70s, I was flying to London for the first time on the Concorde. Robert Redford gets on the plane. We say hello,” he recalls. “We landed in London and I come out of the plane. There were women there with autograph books saying, ‘Please, please, please sign this.’ And then they looked at me and said, ‘You’re not him.’ ”
Bad advice
“We tell young people to just be yourself. It’s the worst advice, because when you’re young you don’t know what yourself is. You don’t even know what that means,” Martin says. “You think it means to be authentic or something. Well authentic at that age can be lying on the sofa and watching television.”
Meaning of success
Martin says it has changed over the years. “Certainly in my old notebook there is proof of early success. One night, I made $4,000. I owed $5,000 at the time, but still said, ‘Wow, I’m on my way.’ ”
Times change
Even signing autographs is different now versus when he started, Martin says, “It’s all about the selfies,” he says. “But some people want you to sign something like in the old days. You end up signing a store receipt.”
