Steve Martin
"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper."
Steve Martin is a pitch-perfect comedian. For over forty years, through stand-up, screenplays, acting, essays, books, and theatre, Martin's perception of our world is consistently laugh-out-loud funny. Born in Waco, Texas in 1945, Martin's family moved to California when he was young. As a teen, he worked at Disneyland. In the sixties, Martin worked in television as a writer and occasional performer at the height of television variety comedy shows. He moved to Canada to continue television work, and began to hone his skills as a stand-up comic. By the early seventies, he was opening for rock acts, and began to perform in a suit, looking ever-so-refined in front of the audiences of rock ‘n roll youth culture. In 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1981 Martin released four comedy albums which became enormous pop hits, Let's Get Small, A Wild and Crazy Guy, Comedy is Not Pretty, and The Steve Martin Brothers. Playing his banjo, making funny balloon creations, and working in his famous line, "Exxxcuuuuse me!" Martin was at the top of the profession. He regularly appeared on NBC television's Saturday Night Live, where he launched his "wild and crazy guy" act and, in 1978, wrote and performed the classic faux-disco hit, "King Tut." He wrote and starred in the films The Jerk (1979) Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man Who Had Two Brains (1983), Three Amigos! (1986), A Simple Twist of Fate (1994), Bowfinger (1999), as well as Roxanne (1987) and LA Story (1991) which he also directed. His other popular films include Pennies from Heaven (1981), All of Me (1984), The Lonely Guy (1984), Parenthood (1989), Grand Canyon (1991), Father of the Bride (1991 and 1995 sequel), Leap of Faith (1992), Mixed Nuts (1994), Sgt. Bilko (1996), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), My Blue Heaven (1990), The Out-of-Towners (1999), Novacaine (2001), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003, sequel 2005), Bringing Down the House (2003), and The Pink Panther (2006, and sequel 2009). A regular contributor to the New Yorker Magazine, Martin has also written the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and the books Cruel Shoes, Shopgirl (made into a movie in 2005), and Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life.
