—From “Steve Martin: Wild and Serious Guy” by Cork Millner, from the November/December 1989 issue of The Saturday Evening Post
How did Steve Martin, a basically shy, almost introverted “nice guy,” become the goofball who paraded before thousands of people with bunny ears on his head? “You’re not going to get into my past, are you?” Martin responds when told it is time to talk about his background. “Nobody cares where I grew up. Even I don’t care. When I read an interview and it gets to the part where a person grew up I turn the page.”
He was signed with the William Morris Agency as a writer. “I went in and told them I was leaving television writing to be a performer,” Martin says. “They said, ‘Don’t do it, you’ll never make it.’ Well, I’ve heard that line in a dozen movies, so I knew I could make it. Rejection is one of my accomplishments.”
After The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was axed by CBS, Martin wrote for Sonny and Cher, then Glen Campbell. He still wanted to perform, and he finally began to get on the talk shows, including, of course, The Tonight Show.
“I guess I’ve been on television a lot,” Martin says. “Probably 500 times; The Tonight Show 35 or 40 times. I did a lot of crazy things on that show. One was reading a phone book to make people laugh. I’d pick up a phone book and read: ‘Aaron Adams, 717 South Remington.’ Of course, there wouldn’t be a laugh, but I’d go on — ‘Bill Black, 982 Montrose Avenue.’ Still no laugh, then I’d take out my arrow and put it on my head and read a sillier name, like ‘Mary Ann Pinball …’ By the time it was over, I’d end up waving a rubber chicken, and then finally say: ‘Don’t look at me, I didn’t write this junk.’”
Martin admits it was a marvelous feeling to play to audiences of hysterically laughing people. “Yeah, that was a thrill,” he says. “But there is still the thrill of looking back and saying — ‘I was the biggest comedian in the world.’” He pauses and reflects, “I will be very happy if, when I’m 60, I can look back and say, ‘I was a very funny person in this world.’”
This article is featured in the March/April 2024 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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