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LIFE
Funny man Martin Short brings one-man variety show to the Keith-Albee
Martin Short performs live at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15.
HUNTINGTON -- Take a look and listen to Martin Short and you forget what decade you're in.
Not that you care during snorts of laughter.
The 57-year-old Canadian-native actor, singer and comedian looks like he hasn't aged a minute since he rolled into New York and onto Saturday Night Live in 1985.
He attributes his fountain of youth to Pilates, good genes and keeping his weight within the safe confines of "the color-coded John Ashcroft alert system."
That sparkle and smile followed by bursts of creative, youthful energy has been the trademark of his career. The award-winning comedic star has played it his way -- popping up on TV, movies and on stage in a career now in its fourth decade.
Armed with a seven-piece band, some special guests such as Jiminy Glick hidden away in the makeup room, and more than a few funny stories and songs to share, Short performs live at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15.
Tickets for the Marshall Artists Series show are $60, $55, and $50. Youth tickets (17 & under) are $30, 27.50, and $25.
Interestingly in true Short style, it's not really a tour, just a show he puts together and brings out from time to time.
"I guess it's like a one-man variety show with the feel of a party," said Short this week in a phone interview. "We have a band and I sing and dance and tell jokes. I'm not a stand-up per se, because a stand-up is using his audience as his shrink, for me it's pure entertainment."
That pure entertainment means Short, who rose to stardom with his performances starting in the early '80s on Second City, then SCTV and Saturday Night Live, is not traveling alone.
Along for the wild stage ride is Short's bevy of quirky characters that have found their way into his acting life and taken up residence.
"Ed Grimley will show up ... and we'll bring a few guys up on stage for the 'Three Amigos' salute," Short said. "The feel of it -- that you strive for anyway -- is not for it to be like a concert hall but like you're having a party in your living room and there's a piano player and you jump up on top of the piano and entertain the best you can with a sense that people know you."
Short, who perfected his chops on those sketch comedy shows with his outrageous characters, said it's bizarre how characters like Ed Grimley and Glick have taken on a life of their own.
Glick had his own Comedy Central Show, "Primetime Glick," on Comedy Central from 2001 to 2003, and a movie as well, "Glick in Lalawood."
"It's odd because sometimes you create a character and you've said all there was to say with them and it was of a time and that was great and good and it's over," Short said. "Then sometimes you find one that you can get into their minds and improvise with them and you know what they will say because they represent a human being that is out there."
Inspiration for Glick was found by immersing in the idiotic glow of day-time TV talk shows with the horrific interviews and mindless babble.
"There are so many strange day-time talk shows," Short said laughing. "It's amazing how many people have some kind of power and how this syndrome of morons with power is pervasive whether it's the school principal or the congressman or the president or it can be anyone. It's that person who has to scream at secretaries and that have opinions that have to be listened to. That makes me laugh."
North American audiences have reaped the rewards of Short's sketches and characters for a while now.
The youngest of five children, growing up in Hamilton, Ontario, Short got a degree from McMaster University in social work but got smitten by theater.
He was in a production of "Godspell" in 1972 with a host of fellow Canadians who haven't done so bad either. The cast included Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Paul Shaffer, Andrea Martin and Short's future wife, Nancy Dolman, who he has been married to since 1980.
He first appeared on TV in the 1970s and has been working steady ever since.
Short, whose latest film, "Spiderwick Chronicles," comes out Feb. 14, in theaters nationwide, has stacked up more than 60 movie and TV credits, including such hits as "Three Amigos," "Innerspace," "The Father of the Bride" and a slew of voices from "The Prince of Egypt," to "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius."
He's also had several successful runs on Broadway. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor (Musical) for "The Goodbye Girl," in 1993 and then won the Tony Award in 1999 for Best Actor (Musical) for a revival of "Little Me."
Last year, he had a nine-month Broadway run with his show, "Fame Becomes Me."
Short, who the New York Times called "a wandering star in search of a galaxy," in reviewing the show, said he can't help himself but bounce around in the mediums he loves.
"I think that my way is way more Canadian and British than an American actor, although I am American as well," Short said. "But here it's more tradition to say I am a television actor but to me bopping between the three mediums is what keeps me interested. When I'm doing a long run of a play, I'm like, 'oh, I would love to do a movie right now,' and I will be like doing a movie and be like, 'gee wouldn't it be fun to be back on television where it's more forgiving and they don't take themselves so seriously.' "
After the Broadway run of "Fame Becomes Me," last year, Short said these shows like the one coming up at the Keith are a wonderful way to connect with a live audience without the grind of daily theater.
"When you're no longer working just to pay the rent you keep yourself interested by getting out and performing in front of a crowd," Short said. "Preferably not eight shows a week is kind of ideal."
As the years and layers have unfolded, Short has gotten not only a laugh, but even that elusive intangible for a comedian -- respect.
Vanity Fair called him "one of the great comic geniuses of our age ... and a complete entertainment package."
His native Canada awarded him as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1994 for his services to entertainment.
And Short gets great joy in making people laugh, even if many folks still think there's nothing to it.
"People tend to think they are funny so I think comedy is something that gets less regard," Short said. "They appreciate it, but I don't think they look at it as a hard craft. They're like, 'that guy is funny but you should have heard me at the party after a few beers I was sooooo funny.' They tend to be a little more critical, too, but I think still that people are still moved and soothed by comedy."
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