Comedy king eyes new role
Performer Short dreams big after being awarded another honour by Governor General
Martin Short is OK if we want to call him “Sir Marty.”
No, the comic actor hasn’t been knighted, but Thursday brought news of a different honour: Short and fellow Canadian star Michael J. Fox are among the 25th anniversary recipients of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, which will be bestowed in June in Ottawa.
Hamilton-born Short, 66, has previously received the Order of Canada from the Governor General, so perhaps two GG laurels are the next best thing to one knighthood?
“I’ll go by Sir Marty any time someone wants to call me,” he jokes from New York.
The night before the announcement, Short was honoured by the Canadian Screen Awards, a.k.a. the Candys, the combo film and TV celebration he helped launch several years ago. He won the Candy for Best Performance in an Animated Program or Series for his TV show The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About Camping!
“I have fortified my mantel,” Short says. “It’s damn loaded. It’s like Ivan- ka Trump’s wrist.” He’s kidding, but not entirely. He’s been showered with kudos over the years, which have included the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, two Emmys, one Tony, his face on a Canadian postage stamp and his cherished Muskoka cottage on a $3 silver coin issued by the Royal Canadian Mint. (Go ahead and Google that one — it’s for real.)
He’s also darned grateful to have enjoyed 45 years (and counting) of a busy and varied career in such popular attractions as television’s SCTV, Saturday Night Live and Primetime Glick (featuring his blowhard character Jiminy Glick), films Three Amigos! and Inherent Vice and Broadway shows The Goodbye Girl and Little Me, the latter of which won him his Tony.
“My career’s been exactly what it always was since I started, which is: you go from job to job — and you love that you go through job to job — and, being a Canadian actor, I’ve been lucky in always being drawn toward a variety of different jobs. Because in the ’70s, as a Canadian actor, nobody had a career plan! You just said, ‘Do I bring a suit?’ to whatever I was doing.”
He humbly acknowledges that Vanity Fair once called him Hollywood’s most beloved comedian.
“That was nice, but what’s the al- ternative? The most despised? That’s not good.”
He’s still got a lot on the go. He’s currently on a 50-city variety show tour with pal Steve Martin.
“We call it the See Them Before They’re Dead Tour,” Short quips.
One thing he’s definitely not going to do, turning serious for a moment, is headline next month’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. The event always features a comedian to help roast the U.S. president, currently one Donald J. Trump, who has said he’s not planning to attend.
Short clearly doesn’t like Trump, although he loves Alec Baldwin’s skewering of the president on SNL.
“Trump is almost beyond satire now,” Short says.
“It’s hard to go beyond what he is . . . I would never do anything in Washington until he leaves. It’s not a Republican or Democratic thing, it’s because I find him appalling and disgusting. If I was given the Kennedy Center Honors (which the president usually attends), I’d decline it.”
Other Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards winners announced Thursday include First Nations writer/director/actor Yves Sioui Durand, Quebec film and TV writer/director Jean Beaudin and Brigitte Haentjens, director of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.