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Volume 70, Issue 102,
Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Life & Arts Martin offers humor for the thinking fan By Dusti Rhodes
Every generation has a certain kind of comedy it adopts and calls its own. Although comic stylings of the past are still relevant and humorous today, movies like Rushmore and Napoleon Dynamite point toward an audience that tends to have been born in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The humor tends to be derived out of cynical views, witty ponderings and is oddly a little more academic. Every era has its way of pointing out life's little foibles, and rising comedian Demetri Martin has found his niche in Generation Y. Martin stopped in Houston this weekend at the Laff Stop, 1952 W. Gray St., to give audiences a taste of his own comedy.
Yale graduate Demetri Martin stopped in Houston to share his guitar-accompanied one-liners and on-the-spot comedy. The comedian has a talent for making witty observations about the world around him and creating improvisational jokes about the world in front of him. Photo courtesy of Demetri Martin "It's just nerdy or simple, but people can connect with it," Martin said. He said that one of the first comedians he saw had a large influence over his style. "I saw Steven Wright when I was in high school, and I thought he was so smart, and he stood out to me as different kind of comedian," Martin said. Although Martin's comedy is not exactly like Wright's, his approach sometimes mimics the one-liner delivery of Wright's. The use of a guitar helps Martin string his jokes together and come off a witty minstrel as he weaves each joke into the finger-picked chords. During his show at the Laff Stop his strumming suggested creating a video game where players took care of all the people who got shot in other video games. "You could call it ‘Super Busy Hospital," Martin said. Martin mixed his performance between material he had written for the show as well as improvising with the Laff Stop's stage. "You can use the stage as a laboratory, and the audience becomes guinea pigs," Martin said and added that writing on stage offers fans a unique show and helps acts from becoming too repetitious. Martin said he develops many of his jokes by walking around with a notebook and recording his observations. Later he finds out if he has something to add to his act. "When I report it and it's funny I think, ‘OK, 20 more seconds, I've got 20 more seconds,'" Martin said. Martin has been doing stand up for seven years after dropping out of law school. A graduate from Yale, Martin also spent some time writing for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. "(Conan) is a really smart guy and great editor ... He's got a great comedy head," Martin said. He said the time he spent on the show also helped him to increase his outputting skills and after leaving the show he was able to write more than before. Martin has also written his own one-man show titled If I and is currently working on two screenplays, one with James Bobin a director for Da Ali G Show. Martin will take part in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this March in Australia where he hopes to hone his comedy skills in order to record a live album in the United States this summer when he returns. Send comments to dcshobiz@mail.uh.edu |
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