Search - Steve Martin :: Comedy Is Not Pretty!

It May Not Be Pretty, But It's Still Funny

Michael Daly | Wakefield, MA USA | 02/23/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For 1979 Steve Martin returned to The Boardinghouse nightclub in San Francisco for his third comedy LP, even though according to Steve when they got the tape they took to to the studio and erased it.Comedy Is Not Pretty, and admittedly this third LP isn't quite as good as Let's Get Small and Wild & Crazy Guy, in part because at points it is cruder, particularly in Steve's somewhat embarassing sketch on Jackie Onassis. It nonetheless does hold up well, from his accident with a drinking glass onward. His Sound Effects gag is quite funny, and he brings out his Wild & Crazy trademark when he growls that the audience thinks he's A Rubberhead.Googlephonics, dealing with a subject one usually doesn't think about for comedy (stereo systems), is the most interesting track, in large part because it is almost a botch. Steve blows his lines repeatedly during the sketch, and it is here that the laughs come.Steve's banjo gets work in two tracks. Cruel Shoes is the title story from the contemporaneous book he authored, while his deft deployment of the banjo shines brightest in the delightful Drop Thumb Medley.From the taking of histages (the Iran hostage crisis gave the album an eerie topicality at the time of its 1979 release) through Steve's tips on becoming a millionaire, Comedy may not be Pretty, but it is still funny."

Sort of funny but.......

Padre Pete | Alexandria, VA | 06/08/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Steve Martin was marketed/managed VERY well in the mid 1970's. His first album "Let's Get Small" came out of nowhere and inspired many. His follow up "Wild and Crazy Guy" went a step down...some outtakes from the original album, and some more recent live stuff (see my reviews of those if you wish).



Then came this cd...which appears to be everything left on the cutting room floor...that should have remained there perhaps. If you are a fan, this is worth having as a collector...so we can hear when his comedy did NOT work.



So, if you want to have everything of Martin's...get this. If you only want something funny...then stay away...far away...from this cd, which could have been titled "Comedy is not Here"

"

Steve's been Prettier and Funnier

Mark Sacher | Roswell, GA USA | 08/09/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"All of Steve Martin's comedy albums are funny. It's just a question of which of the four are the funniest. If you're looking for his best, they are "Let's Get Small" and "A Wild and Crazy Guy" (in that order). On his final comedy album, "The Steve Martin Brothers", a full side of the album is just Steve's banjo playing (the other half obviously comedy). You'll only get half the comedy you expected on that one."