You know, I saw a lot of crazy stuff this weekend: a man making a 100 yard touchdown run, Liam Neeson beating the crap out of a bunch of Albanians and Arabs, but the most surprising of all as seeing Steve Martin playing the banjo on Saturday Night Live. When they came back from commercial break, I really thought I was watching the beginning of some kind of sketch, but when I realized those were really Martin’s fingers plucking those 4 strings it became clear that this was no put on.
Now, I don’t pretend to be the resident Steve Martin biographer, but I had no idea that was in his repertoire. Maybe it’s common knowledge that it’s in his skill set, but that’s a really rare ability to have, as the modern age is slowly driving the banjo to extinction.
I remember watching and thinking of him as some kind of immortal: “Well if I had as much time to spend on Earth, I’d take the time out to indulge my exotic tastes in musical instruments” then got my brain back on track and I equated Superstardom to immortality in that the time you don’t have to spend cleaning your house/ironing your pants/putting up the storm windows is all gravy and can be invested into pet projects like learning the banjo or teaching penguins to fly.
Of course, that presumes that Steve Martin didn’t know how to play the banjo before he started his prolific career as an SNL host. People’s avenues to fame can take many different forms.
Anybody out there able to fill me in on the banjo’s place in Steve Martin’s career?
Big thanks go out to Becky for bringing this video to my attention.
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I saw him play banjo on Letterman at one time…not sure if this is the performance I saw…but it’s one.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=icMTVV5Lwaw
Wow! That was freakin’ incredible! Although based on all the other talent on the stage I’m wondering if what got Steve up there was the fact that he’s Steve Martin and not that he an awesome banjo player.
Of all people, how could you not know that Steve Martin played the banjo?! Even I knew that! ha! I’m pretty sure he was playing it in his stand-up days while wearing his white suit.
If I knew about it on some subconscious level, I must have thought it was just schtick. With all due respect to the banjo enthusiasts out there, it’s kind of a silly instrument. Not as silly as the accordion – but getting there.