When Steve Martin was developing his comedy act in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, he started by ignoring the rules. Step one: get rid of punchlines.
Near the beginning of “Steve! (martin),” a documentary series newly available on the Apple TV+ platform, Martin says, “I asked myself, what if I created tension and then never released it?”
Minus that release, it’s not really a joke as much as it is, well, just some guy in a white suit — a wild and crazy guy, perhaps — with a microphone, maybe a banjo, maybe an arrow through his head, who still, somehow, had arenas full of people howling with laughter.
Disregarding norms about the relationship between a comedian and his audience, Martin crafted a persona that married vaudevillian schmaltz — props, juggling, cornball catchphrases — with an absurdist self-awareness that elevated stand-up comedy to unseen heights of both popularity and conceptual ambition.
“Steve!,” directed by Morgan Neville, consists of two 90-minute halves, each exploring a different phase of Martin’s six-decade creative life. Part one, subtitled “Then,” uses archival material, narrated by Martin and several of his contemporaries, to retrace his path from Disneyland magic-shop employee to struggling writer to, eventually, a paradigm-shifting comic.
As “Then” explains, Martin’s competition in the late ‘70s was not other comedians; it was Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin. But after a string of platinum albums, beloved “Saturday Night Live” performances and a continuous years-long stadium tour, Martin abruptly quit in the early ‘80s, right before he had the chance to grow stale. It would be 35 years before he ever did stand-up again.
It is probably safe to say most people who are Gen-X and younger grew up knowing Martin less as a comedian than as a regular (if hit-or-miss) Hollywood presence. In act two, “Now,” present-day Martin, at 78, looks wistfully at the bound screenplays for all of his films and quips that he made 40 movies in order to get five good ones.
He doesn’t specify which ones he means, but by any tally he’s being modest. Everyone can agree on “The Jerk,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Three Amigos,” “Parenthood” and “Father of the Bride,” right? There are also strong cases for “All of Me,” “LA Story,” “Roxanne,” “Bowfinger” and (I would argue) “Shopgirl.”
“Now” has to cover so much ground that there is little time to litigate the peaks and valleys of his filmography. Along with the movies, there’s his work as a playwright and novelist, a fruitful side hustle as a touring bluegrass musician and his improbable third act as a TV star thanks to the Hulu hit “Only Murders in the Building.”
Compared to “Then,” it is admittedly a less electrifying hour-and-a-half. Present-day Martin edits a graphic memoir, rides bikes and writes jokes with his BFF Martin Short, talks shop with Jerry Seinfeld, plays cards with his wife and dotes on his young daughter (who, for privacy, appears adorably as an animated stick-figure).
“Now” seems to mimic the rhythm of Martin’s current phase as a peerlessly revered cultural figure with nothing to prove and a serene old guy who found in his 70s a contentment he thought would never be available to him. There is less meat here for students of comedy, but plenty more for people interested in living better lives as they age.
Introducing unresolved tension might have made Martin a wildly successful comedian, but it created an unhappy person. In old interview clips, clearly burned out, he has no idea how to respond to questions about his private life, because he doesn’t really have one. He gets personal only when discussing his art collection.
Later-day Martin, however, is an aspirational example of how to release tension and ease peacefully into midlife and old age once the rocket fuel of youth burns out.
Here, he actually follows a rulebook closely: surrounding himself with people who matter, finding meaningful work that keeps him busy without consuming him, being generous with his energy, his attention and his love. There really isn’t room for a punchline, but this feels worthy of a standing ovation.