Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life

For Dan's birthday, I took him to see Steve Martin and Martin Short perform their variety show: An Evening You Will Forget the for The Rest of Your Life, at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage. 

This was a popular, sold-out show and unfortunately, I didn't buy the tickets when they went on sale. Luckily, the venue is fairly small. Every seat provides a great view. I managed to score seats that were in the middle, which also helped. Here is a panorama shot that shows our actual view. 

With the exception of a ten-year-old boy sitting in our row, we were the youngest people in the audience. I think this is more reflective of the glut of retirees living in the Palm Desert area, than it is of the nature of the show. The show actually started nearly twenty minutes late and I believe it was due to the large number of people requiring extra help to their seats- lots of walkers, canes, and wheel chairs! It wasn't a big deal for us, but perhaps if you plan to see a show in Palm Desert, have patience. 

The show started with a montage of their greatest film and television moments. I had a momentary worry that the show was going to be like when we saw John Cleese in Portland, which was nearly all film clips and a huge disappointment. I'm happy to report that Martin and Short were NOTHING like Cleese. 

I'm a huge fan of Steve Martin, primarily his fiction writing. I wasn't a huge fan of Martin Short, but seeing him on stage has changed my mind. He's hilarious. Short and Martin both have quick wit and excellent timing, which shines when they are improving with audience members. They roast each other throughout the show, but it is clear that they are close, long-time friends who enjoy sharing the stage. I'm guessing that neither of these men need the money, so they tour for the love of performing. 

A majority of the show had both Short and Martin performing together, but there was a small segment where they each show-cased their own talent. Short spent this time talking about his early career and singing. Martin played the banjo, sharing the stage with the Grammy winning bluegrass band, Steep Canyon Rangers. Martin left the stage, to allow the Steep Canyon Rangers to play a song from their latest album. Acclaimed musical, Jeff Babko played the piano throughout the show, even getting in on the comedy act with Martin and Short.

We throughly enjoyed the entire show and left the theatre with sore stomachs from laughing. I would not hesitate to buy tickets the next time Martin and Short are in town. They are both class acts and well-worth the ticket prices.

Book Review- An Object of Beauty

I like Steve Martin as an actor, but I really think that his talent shines as an author. While I must admit that his latest effort, An Object of Beauty, is the weakest of his three novels, it's still a strong novel and worthwhile read.

You must love and have a decent knowledge of Art and Art History to love this book. It's clear from this and Martin's other writings, that he has a deep love of art. This story frequently turns into Martin pontificating and often turning into a diatribe about the politics concerning galleries and art collectors. There is a lot of angry ranting, but it's not entirely bitter or without merit. If you do not understand and have a love for the art world, this story will probably not be of interest. Martin does pepper his novel with photographs of art, but he really doesn't explain much for those who don't already have a knowledge of the arts.

Martin is best at writing dialogue and creating subtle moments between characters. He masters writing subtext and this is why I love his books so much.

The only thing that didn't really work for me in this story was the narration. It is told from the point of view of Daniel Franks. Franks is telling the story of his friend, Lacey, who is the central character of the book. She is a highly mysterious woman for whom Franks has had a long time crush. He fills in the blanks for imagining her life as he is not there for many of the scenes in the story. It is similar to the way the narration works in one of my favorite novels, by Jeffrey Eugenides , The Virgin Suicides, where a group of boys recount the suicides of a family of neighborhood girls.  It worked well in Eugenides' novel, but doesn't quite work here. I kept forgetting that Franks was the narrator. His presence would disappear for many chapters and then he would pop back in to remind me that he was still telling the story. I felt very much like Lacey was telling her own story. This drove me a bit nuts.