by Qing Li
Steve Martin (born August 14, 1945, Waco, Texas, U.S.), a beloved American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician, performed a comedy routine in Wadsworth Auditorium on April 18, 1976. In the 1960s, Martin was known as a writer and has continued his writing throughout his career. He has written for countless shows, books, songs, plays, musical lyrics, and productions. In 1973, three years before he came to SUNY Geneseo, Martin performed a stand up routine for an audience of dogs.
Steve Martin moved from Texas to Southern California back in the early 1950s. The area that Martin moved to was only two miles away from Disneyland. He then worked as a musician and magician at Disneyland from 1955-1958. This is also where he started getting more interested in the field of performing. At first, he was a philosophy major at California State University, Long Beach, from 1964 to 1967. During his senior year, he transferred to the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) as a theatre major.
While Martin was a student at UCLA he was contracted to write for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, an American comedy show that was broadcast on CBS television from 1968 to 1969. The show was very successful and won an Emmy Award in 1969. Martin also performed on stage while he was one of the writers for the show. Martin’s name came to public notice with his writing for the Smothers Brothers. He was on the Saturday Night Live 22 times, both as a host and also as a guest. Saturday Night Live was a variety show on NBC in 1976, with Sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. Martin was one of the most successful hosts, and one of the beloved performances he had done was the “King Tut” Skit where he sang and danced on the show in 1978. This performance can be found on Youtube along with many other of his performances.
Throughout his career, he had many accomplishments. He earned five Grammy Awards and many other awards from his writings and performance as an actor, comedian, musician, and film producer. Similarly, his ranking achievements were high, Steve Martin was ranked at sixth place in a list of the greatest stand-up comedians in the year 2004. Martin returned to perform at SUNY Geneseo in 1977, and this time his tickets sold out in just 20 minutes. In the 1980s, Steve Martin branched away from comedy and became a successful actor and writer for books and lyrics for musicals. That was for the reason that Martin wanted to explore his interests and hobbies. In addition to all sorts of things he has done, he plays the banjo and went on to do many performances. Although he had branched out from doing standup after the 1970s, he did come back to comedy in 2016. He performed a ten minute stand-up routine during the opening for Jerry Seinfeld. He also has a Netflix comedy special with Martin Short that got nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Recently, Martin has created an American mystery comedy streaming television series with John Hoffman called Only Murders in the Building.