Mirth and music from movie mates
STEVE MARTIN AND MARTIN SHORT: The Funniest Show in Town at the Moment (SSE Hydro, Glasgow) Life, and laughs, in the old dogs yet ★★★★✩
Veteran comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short met while filming hit 1986 movie the three amigos alongside Chevy Chase. the pair struck up a firm friendship and rapport that has endured ever since.
now the two amigos (or rather, the two Martins) are on a short, musical comedy tour of the UK, with Glasgow their first port of call on Monday night – a precursor to the opening of the Glasgow Comedy Festival this week. talk about a hard act to follow.
their Funniest Show in town at the Moment pulls off the rare feat of being as slick as a Las Vegas residency while seeming as easy-going and warmly intimate as a small club date.
the mix of old-school, vaudevillian variety and stand-up – with chatty reminisces, parody songs, banjos, passive-aggressive banter and punchy one-liners – provides a perfect framework for the duo to mockingly roast one another: ‘that’s what I like about touring with Marty – no paparazzi.’
If you want performers who look like they are having fun on stage, then this is the show for you.
Short, 69, is a bundle of mischievous, twitchy energy, while Martin, 74, is more the deadpan elder statesman who can still pull a funny facial expression at the drop of a hat. they may not be the duo of their cutting-edge, Saturday night Live peak but this twilight years collaboration proves there is life in the old dogs yet – even if Short refers to working with ‘a potential organ donor’. Ouch.
this show follows their previous tour, an evening You Will Forget For the rest Of Your Life, which was filmed as a netflix special and nominated for an emmy.
Large chunks of material from that set remain, including Short’s musical spoof Stepbrother to Jesus, complete with full-frontal nudity (it’s not as graphic as it sounds) and the hilarious moment when he becomes a human set of bagpipes. But there’s also up-todate topicality among the quirky goofiness and mickey-taking.
Coronavirus gets a look in – ‘If you do find something funny, please hold your surgical mask away from your face,’ quips Martin. a picture of Harry and Meghan is accompanied by Short declaring: ‘Look, the Canadians.’
elsewhere, Martin plays banjo with Grammy-winning bluegrass band the Steep Canyon rangers, while Send In the Clowns, the send-up finale, is pure comedy gold. a comic creation of Short, the odious talk show host Jiminy Glick, also gets an airing as a ventriloquist dummy.
the show opens with a film montage of the comedy duo’s careers. to their credit, they could add clips from this evening to it and they would not look out of place.
‘What have I done to deserve this sort of ovation other than provide decades of quality entertainment?’ asks Short. It is a sentiment that applies to both comics.
Forget this being the funniest show in town on the night. For fans, this will rank as the comedy highlight of the year.