Search - Steve Martin :: Let's Get Small

Erica F. from GILBERT, AZ
Reviewed on 2/23/2007...

Early Steve Martin comedy, when he was still playing music for a lot of his act. Listened to maybe two times. Case is cracked on front.

Oh Death and Grief and Sorrow and Murder...

Marcus Bailey | Darnestown, MD | 11/09/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had this album on vinyl, but haven't actually listened to it since some time in the 1980s. I realized that my wife had never heard any Steve Martin, and I knew I had to get the cds. It was interesting getting the reaction of a totally new listener and comparing it to my own sepia-toned nostalgia.



The good: My wife laughed quite a bit more than I expected her to, honestly. There is a lot in this album that still holds up. Martin is great at building expectation and then taking a sharp left turn that makes you laugh out loud. The story about his girlfriend is still a classic.



On a personal note it was also great finally being able to share the source of so many of my own sayings, lines, and bits. I'd forgotten just how much of my own comedy comes from Steve Martin's early years, and I think this gave my wife an insight into my formative years.



The bad: I hate to criticize one of the true greats, but listening to this today I can clearly see that it was recorded and edited on the cheap. The sound quality isn't always very good, jokes from multiple shows run together in sometimes confusing ways, there is a little too much "filler" in some places and not quite enough in others, etc. If the original recordings of these shows still exist (fat chance, I know) I'd love to see someone recut them into a new album.



Also, as with almost all comedy albums, there are some bits that are a little hard to follow without the visuals. It's a shame, too, because the audience seems highly amused. But as I said, that's a problem with almost every comedy album ever made, so it's not a criticism. It's just too bad that videos of Steve's early shows aren't more readily available.



In short: this is still a great album, even so many years later. It's certainly dated (he calls himself a semi-professional comedian, the price of tickets is $4, and he complains about $15 ticket prices in Vegas) but the comedy is well-crafted, intelligent, and far less offensive than most of what you'll find today. There is some swearing, but it's all in service of the comedy and not just to be shocking. But best of all, the performance is subtle enough that it rewards close attention and repeated listening. Martin doesn't just spoon-feed the audience, he makes you meet him halfway. And it's definitely worth the effort."

30 years later, still hilarious, often side splittingly so..

Grigory's Girl | NYC | 04/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite being over 30 years old, this album, Steve Martin's debut and arguably his best, is still amazingly funny. It's filled with some of the most memorable comedy bits in Martin's career, and despite hearing this album over and over again, it still sounds fresh and vital. A lot of comedy is topical, but Martin's standup here isn't. There are a few jokes about Carter, but aside from that, the album hasn't dated at all.



There is classic bit after classic bit here, none of which gets old. There's Martin's "exxxxcccuuuussse mmeeeeeeeeeeeee" bit, his great banjo playing, his lines about Vegas, the fact that the show only costs 4.50 to get in (!), his smoking bit "mind if I smoke? No, mind if I fart?", and the hilarious Grandma's Song, with some of the best lines I've ever heard in a comedy song, like "put a live chicken in your underwear". It also has some of the most surreal lines in a song. What the hell does "live in a swamp and be three dimensional" really mean? Or "be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant" mean? Oh, hell, I don't know, and I don't care. The song is brilliant.



Another remarkable thing here is that Martin hardly ever swears in the routine. When he does, it makes it even funnier. When many comedians of the day were swearing and using coarse language, Martin generally kept it clean, and was still hilarious. Most modern comics, who swear a lot thinking it's automatically funny (it isn't, not by a long shot), should take a listen to this album and learn something from a master."