Let's Get Small

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Performer: Steve Martin
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Solo performer: Steve Martin (spoken vocals). Recorded live at The Boarding House, San Francisco, California. Includes an excerpt from Steve Martin's book CRUEL SHOES. Before becoming a Hollywood A-list actor, Steve Martin first made a name for himself as a writer for a number of successful stateside television variety shows. His r�sum� included credits on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Hour, and -- during a brief stint living in Canada -- the influential Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour. By the mid-'70s Martin had paid his dues opening for rock acts and had begun to develop a highly original alternative to the typical pseudo-hip sex and drug humor of the era. Let's Get Small, Martin's debut long-player released in 1977, would further assert his anti-comedy act with a platter full of smart wordplay and aural jousting, as well as some of the artist's remarkable banjo picking and frailing. In fact, Martin kicks off the festivities with the witty "Ramblin' Man/Theme from Ramblin' Man" number, firmly establishing his multifaceted lightning-quick wit -- like dividing the room into two-sevenths and five-sevenths to participate in a mile-a-minute singalong. He one-ups the typical smarmy "Vegas" lounge act by making comparisons to the $4.50 price of admission (in 1977 dollars) to the $25 price tag of experiencing a show on the Sin City strip. The title performance of "Let's Get Small" is a clever parody of the experimental nature of the perpetually growing drug culture -- which is particularly appropriate as Martin is addressing denizens of the Boarding House nightclub in San Francisco. During "Excuse Me," he goes so far as to direct his satire at any residual hippies who might still be hanging around the venue, blaming them for the lack of functioning "mood lighting." This short bit ultimately launched one of the entertainer's most enduring catch phrases. "Mad at My Mother" is as close to a straight narrative as listeners can expect on Let's Get Small, taking a few surrealistic spins on the typical mother-son relationship. Similarly, the weird and whimsical "Grandmother's Song" reveals Martin's penchant for silly verbal non sequiturs as if they were nothing out of the ordinary. Let's Get Small was one of the rare comedy endeavors to find a mainstream audience during the height of the disco era, climbing all the way to a very respectable number ten on the pop chart and setting the stage for Martin's follow-up, 1978's A Wild and Crazy Guy. ~ Lindsay Planer There is nothing small about this recording. Martin was on the cusp of greatness when he released this first LP, recorded in a small San Francisco comedy club. Listening to LET'S GET SMALL now shows not only how far this wild and crazy guy has come, but also how utterly strange and unique his offbeat monologues and awry images were back in the laconic '80s. Martin skewers some of stand-up comedy's most hoary chestnuts-the arrow through the head and faux Groucho glasses were never the same again. His fast-talking Vegas showman spoof contains the immortal line "It's impossible�to put a Cadillac in your nose�" Martin is one of stand-ups' masters of inflection and nuance; how things are said is always as important as what is said. Martin's trademark "whoa"s and "okay-uh"s defined his style for a decade. The album contains the classic routines "Let's Get Small," "So Mad at My Mother," and "Smoking." In one hilariously rhetorical bit, Martin relates that people often come up to him and ask, "Steve, how can you be so ****ing funny?" LET'S GET SMALL answers that question in a big way.

Alternative Press (12/00, p.128) - Included in AP's "10 Essential Comedy Albums" - "...One of the '70s most inspired stand-up comedians. With a style that was equal parts vaudeville and surrealism. Martin was never funnier than on this set..."

Before he became one of America's top comic actors, Steve Martin was one of the biggest phenoms stand-up has ever seen. During the 1970s, the prematurely grey comedian and longtime television writer scored million-selling records, sold out arenas, and hosted numerous network specials. In 1978, Martin even scored a hit record, cracking the Billboard top 20 with "King Tut," his novelty ode to the mummy fad sweeping the nation. While he played up his zany arrow-through-the-head persona, his wider appeal rested on a subtle, yet ever-present intellectualism. Martin studied philosophy in college, and an existential sense of the absurd ran through his oddball observations. In the `80s, the original wild and crazy guy officially announced his permanent retirement from stand-up.

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