All language subtitles for Masterclass Steve Martin Teaches Comedy - 3. Gathering Material

become informed,

become intelligent,

uh learn about things.

Every time you learn about something,

it's a new subject and

you get a greater vocabulary.

by learning learning about things. When

I was in high school, I was a okay

student, you know. See,

when I went to co college, I upped it

because I got suddenly interested. But I

went to this uh high school uh you know,

guidance counselor and he it was the

first person who ever said to me, he

said,

"You have interest in performing." And I

went, "Oh, you mean you're actually

taking it seriously?" You know, he said,

"You should learn about history." He

said, "Because" and I went, "Yeah, that

that makes sense, you know, to learn the

facts about the past and I'd have more

subject matter."

And um so the more you learn about

things uh the greater intellectual

vocabulary and hence comedic vocabulary

I think you're going to have in today's

world

uh because you never know what's going

to inspire you.

I had a friend and I I I learned so much

from this. It's Charles Groden

and you know I've always been like you

go to a cocktail party and or on a movie

set and two people get into a fight and

I would always be the one like how do we

stop this? How do we stop this? And

Charles Groden says, "Oh, when two

people get in a fight, I just sit back

and watch." I thought, "What a what a

great idea." you know, instead of trying

to fix it, watch it because that's real

human interaction. Why abort it? Don't

abort your ideas when you're on to

something or if there's trouble, let it

happen. See what happens. You'd be

surprised if you witness an argument

and now you know the shape of an

argument in your head. Sometimes it's

going to come back out when you're doing

your twoerson bit on stage where you're

playing two characters. You've seen the

shape of that argument and the

volatility of it or the subtlety of it

and you're just constantly gathering

information whether you like it or not.

You have to think what's it good for?

What circumstance is it good for? Is it

good for standup or is it good for

saying at a party or at a dinner table?

Uh, and it also works backwards. If you

say something funny at a dinner table,

as a working comedian, you have to go h

usable.

Uh Norah Efron uh had a a saying that

was uh told to her by her mother who was

a journalist and Nor Efron was a more

than a journalist but also a journalist

and her mother said everything is copy

which means everything you see, hear,

experience is usable. Remember, you are

a thought machine. You have a thousand

a million thoughts a day.

Ju just learn to observe them a little

bit and say, "Oh, is that an idea I

could I could use?"

A million things happen to you every

day.

And that every one of those things that

that could is a possibility is extremely

valuable to lose something because you

didn't make a note or didn't write it

down. Uh it's tragedy for a performer.

I have a friend in Texas, my friend

Tony,

and um he hired me when I was very

young. He had seen me on HBO. wasn't

really established. He hired me to go

down and do a private show for his

friends, which if you're a comedian,

that's kind of the worst gig you can get

is a a private show with, you know,

15 people in the audience and you're

you're not really on a stage. You're in

a a you know, some kind of convention

room or a hotel room.

And so I did the show and it it went

fine. and he asked me to he says you can

stay at my place. So I stayed at his

place and he was down and he was he was

a a millionaire. He was a oil

millionaire and he was standing cleaning

a glass with a with a cloth. He's

cleaning the glass and he looks at me

and he says, "Steve,

this is a side of the oil business a lot

of people never see."

And uh it was so funny to me. And and

another time he actually uh said

something that I used in a movie. He um

he said uh he went to an amusement park

and there was one of those big signs. I

think it was Six Flags over Texas. One

of those big signs that's a map and it

says you are here. Had a little arrow

and he said, "Steve, I was at the

amusement park and there was a sign and

it said you are here." And I thought,

"How does it know?"

And I actually use that in with his

permission. Uh but there's so many funny

people who aren't professionals that you

pick up things from little attitudes. Uh

you can really gather uh comedic style

by just being aware of the people around

you. Listen, absorb from the people you

love and uh in a sense regurgitate it in

a new way.

Another way to approach your comedy when

you're first starting out or even when

you're a little bit along

is to think what does society need right

now? What's the vacuum?

What needs to be discussed that's not

being discussed? When I was performing

in the late 60s and early 70s, the the

climate

was

very political. There was the Vietnam

War and if I played a college, all I had

to do was mention Richard Nixon and the

place up uproar, you know, with funny

and

um and I had really long hair and I had

a you know, turquoise jewelry and a you

know, kind of a 60s hippie look.

And

one day I thought

I think the nation is getting tired of

this.

That the nation needs

just some release, some laughter that's

not political,

that's

just kind of fun to see.

And that was probably the most important

moment of my professional life, that

understanding. And I cut my hair and I

shaved my beard and I put on a suit. And

suddenly

by doing nothing to the act, rather than

being at the tail end of an old

movement,

I was at the front end of a new

movement.

And so one thing I think young

performers, young comedians can do is

say, "What is the state of the nation?

What could I do that would be unique and

unusual? It doesn't even have to be that

unique. Just a slightly different

statement. Maybe you're finding a hole

in the the

climate of the nation that is not being

met. We don't meet a hole, but say you

need be finding a need uh that the

nation might want or even just your

community.

The truth is a great way to look for

material and just saying what is on the

audience's mind. I I became very close

with Carl Reiner in the 80s, a great

director, great comedy mind and he would

host events like the director's guild

would have an event and he would host

and I'd say, "Uh,

what do you what are you going to do out

there?" And he said, "I don't know." I

said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I

never think about it. I said, "How could

you go out there never think about it?"

He says, "Oh, I just say the truth."

I went, "Oh." And he would go out and

say, "Uh, yeah, I I I this is not what

he said, but it's like, let's hope it

doesn't go on too long. I You're all

going to be worried if you're going to

lose." You know, just just said what was

on everybody's mind. If you're going

into a club, there must be something

that's truthful about that club. this

place is sleazy, you know, and I'm I'm I

fit right in. I'm sleazy, too. You know,

there's so many ways to go. Uh, you

could invert that. You could say, "I'm

going to lie about this place." Which

would be irony. Oh, isn't this place

glory? Isn't this the most beautiful,

most beautiful club I've ever worked?

I'm so so honored to be here. Uh, back I

was talking to the rats in the dressing

room. This is terrible material, but

just say, you know, the way to go with

things. I was introducing someone who

was going to win an award, and I said, I

know what you're thinking. You're

thinking, will so- and so's speech be

the warm and comfortable 5 minutes or

will it be the dreaded and awful 45

minutes? And it's exactly what people

are thinking.

Boy, those are good seats up there.

The show has started.

I can see him selling those seats. Oh,

yeah. They're real good. Yeah.

Our ticket would have tickets 975 during

the week.

That's not bad really to see a big show

like this. Um,

well with all the uh props and

everything.