to Steve Martin, with Love

Laughter is like a drug for me. I live for it; I thrive on it. There is no better place- regardless of setting, town, or country- than a room full of laughter. It's one of the many reasons I love my family: on my dad's side, my cousins and I share muttered jokes and suppressed giggles at every gathering; and on my mom's side, my mother and her siblings are the center of attention as they tell the same old stories followed by the same old uncontrollable laughter. It's one of the many reasons I love my friends: our inside jokes can leave me gasping for breath, and no one is safe from a friendly dig. I feel most successful in life when I can make the people around me laugh and most satisfied in life when I'm surrounded by those that make me laugh.

My love affair with laughter has instilled in me a need to seek out laughter. A drive to the beach is the perfect opportunity to listen to a Bill Cosby CD. I will never, ever go see a horror move, not because I'm a ninny but because I don't want to spend money on something that doesn't make me happy (also, because I'm a ninny). When SNL is good (and let's all agree that these days it's hit or miss), there's practically nothing I'd rather watch. Every night before I go to bed I watch Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and I laugh out loud (LOL) every time.

Somewhere along the way, I was introduced to Steve Martin. For years, he was merely the funny, lovable dad on one of my all-time favorite movies, Father of the Bride (Parts I and II). Since then, I've been a fan but only as a young adult did I start getting into "classic" Steve Martin. My dad forced "The Man with Two Brains on Me" not too long ago, and I've recently been reading the comedian's autobiography--which I highly recommend. And I won't even get started on "The Jerk."

There's something perfect about Steve Martin. He's charming and easy on the eyes; he's self-deprecating and incredibly intelligent; he's physical but his punch lines are subtle. It's possible that some of my love for Steve Martin stems out of how I identify him with my own funny man, my dad (Steve doesn't know that Tim's his banjo soulmate).


His book is a really great read. It's light and witty, more like a conversation with him about his struggle and ascent to fame (if you didn't know, he wasn't exactly an overnight success). And his stories about the turbulent change in decades (the drug culture of the 60s to the post-Vietnam atmosphere of the 70s and so on) provide a really entertaining commentary on the changes in our nation. I love how he drops names from time to time-- Sonny and Cher, Ann-Margaret, the Allman Brothers Band-- to emphasize his "nobody" status among the celebrities of the era. His stories are shockingly honest, often delving into his experiments with drugs and his one-night stands on the road, but even at his lowest points, those when all I could think was, "Not you too, Steve..." he is every bit as lovable and magnetic. Oh, and there are pictures!


So this is my tribute to Steve Martin, inspired by my time reading "Born Standing Up" in the lobby of the tanning salon. I'm going to say, off the top of my head, that he's my favorite stand-up comedian and his George Banks is definitely my favorite on-screen dad. And I'll leave you with a little Steve Martin wisdom:

"Were they beautiful? We were all beautiful. We were in our twenties."