Steve Martin Wins Mark Twain Humor Award

Although he wrote for the Smothers Brothers back when they were on TV in the 1960s, most Americans first discovered Steve Martin on the “Tonight Show” or “Saturday Night Live” with a banjo in his hand and a fake arrow-through-the-head novelty prop. The “Wild and Crazy Guy” is gone but not forgotten, and he is now recognized as one of America’s most amusing screenwriters and actors. He has just won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

The ceremony held to honor Mr. Martin will be televised on November 9 on PBS, taped not live. He’s already had his night at the Kennedy Center. Also there were people like Tom Hanks, Lily Tomlin, Diane Keaton, Martin Short, Claire Danes, Paul Simon and Randy Newman. There is, of course, no crowd tougher to please than one’s peers, but Mr. Martin seems to have done that in spades.

Tom Hanks, the Gary Cooper of the late 20th Century and early 21st, said, “He redefined comedy by defining the moment of our ascendancy as a generation. As did Charlie Chaplin, as did the Marx Brothers, as did Laurel and Hardy define their own times, Steve Martin defined ours.” Lily Tomlin agreed, “His artistry soars to heights of sublime silliness and divine absurdity.” And when the Brits agree that a Yank is funny, he must be hilarious. Eric Idle (ex-Python and Tony award winner for “Spamalot”) declared, “I think he’s the most intelligent man I’ve ever met. Honesty, simplicity and truth are the secret to his comedy.”

Mr. Idle’s insight notwithstanding, it is hard to see the honest, simplicity or truth in the zany, hyperactive character that kept people home on certain Saturday nights in the 1970s to watch TV. That brand of comedy got old quickly, and Mr. Martin was smart enough to know that. He re-worked his persona with films like “Roxanne” (an odd version of Cyrano de Bergerac), “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (in which he let the late, great John Candy play the funny bits to his own rather straight-man character), and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” with Michael Caine (long before it was a Broadway smash). The one-dimensional jackass turned out to be a three-dimensional talent.

Previous Mark Twain Prize winners include Richard Pryor, Jonathan Winters, Whoopi Goldberg and Bob Newhart. And although he won an Emmy long ago for this work on the Smothers Brothers, the Twain Prize means more to him. As he explained, “it’s more recent.” Next year, he will tackle the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau in “The Pink Panther,” a prequel to the series of Peter Sellers movies. No other comedian could fill those shoes.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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