Comedian brings his take on Paul Revere and other musical tales to Snoqualmie Casino
For a guy once known for his wild-and-crazy ways, he sure seems mellow now.
And Steve Martin, the legendary comic and actor, credits an old friend for the change: his banjo.
Martin, who is coming to the Snoqualmie Casino on July 21 to present his second CD of bluegrass music, said he is so much more comfortable playing music in front of audiences than he was doing stand-up comedy “150 years ago, when I started.”
“Most of the times, the songs are funny, but even when they are funny, they are serious. It’s serious music,” he said in a teleconference call from New York. “This is something to which I give 100 percent, the same way I gave 100 percent to movies and to writing.”
The Snoqualmie stop is the only one in the Puget Sound area for Martin’s tour, said Matt Gallagher, the casino’s vice president of marketing.
“We’re very honored,” Gallagher said. “His show is enormously entertaining and seamlessly translates his combination of banjo playing, comedy and movie-star status. This will certainly be a highlight on our 2011 Summer Concert Season.”
Martin said audiences adapted quickly to his music career, after years of watching him do stand-up.
“They have no problem at all,” he said. “They seem to be aware that they are in for some music, and seem extremely comfortable.”
Martin performs with the Steep Canyon Rangers, a band from North Carolina. He said the show still packs a comedic punch.
“They play what they are, modest guys from North Carolina,” Martin said, “and I play the arrogant Hollywood idiot.”
The second CD is titled “Rare Bird Alert,” a title Martin said came to him while he was filming a movie about competitive bird watching that comes out in October.
“There’s something in that called Rare Bird Alert, and my wife said that might make a good title for a bluegrass song,” Martin said. “The title continues the theme from our first title, called ‘The Crow.’”
“The Crow” was released in 2009. The BBC called it imaginative and intelligent.
“Martin really can play,” the review by the BBC’s Nick Barraclough read.
If the songs on “Rare Bird Alert,” whose titles include “Atheists Don’t Have No Songs,” seem a little zanier, Martin said there’s a reason.
“The songs in ‘The Crow’ were the songs I had,” Martin said. “Once ‘The Crow’ came out and it was received well, I felt a little more relaxed.’”
Relaxing did not used to come easy for Martin, who said he grew to detest the loneliness of the road as a stand-up comic.
“Doing stand-up comedy is about being a loner,” he said. “Doing this is about being with people, so I like it much better.”
The road trips now happen in the company of a band, and that helps. But that’s just part of it, Martin said.
“This is so much more sincere,” he said. “I was playing such a character in my early days as a standup. This is still a character, but more tempered, so much more relaxed, so much more fun for me.
“I can take a pause and not have a fear that someone’s going to yell out something in the middle of that pause.”
Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.
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