Last night I had the pleasure of attending a sit down conversation with legendary comedian Steve Martin at the Palace Theater in Albany.

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Steve Martin, what can you say about the guy?  One of the greatest entertainers of our time.  Started out as a stand up comic in the 1960's and did it throughout the 70's before hanging it up to pursue other career opportunities.  He is now an award winning author, musician, actor and of course a comedy legend. Last night the Palace Theater in Albany was host to A Conversation with Steve Martin.  Over an hour of Martin telling humorous stories about his over 40 year career.  Martin not only told stories but also gave advise to young writers who may have been in the building about how to attack the business. It was a great experience.

I think the first thing that I saw with Steve Martin was the movie The Three Amigos which starred him, Chevy Chase and Martin Short.  It was and still is one of my favorite movies.  That was of course when I was just a kid.  When I got into high school and really started to watch things I saw old episodes of Saturday Night Live from the 70's when Martin was in his prime and a frequent host.  That was when I really started to become a Steve Martin fan.  He was an outrageous crazy lunatic and I couldn't get enough of it.  So that's when I started to check out more of his movies and that is when I discovered The Jerk.  I don't think I have stopped laughing at it yet.

Listening to him talk about how he evolved his act and transitioned from writer to stand up comic to actor to musician to author was a very cool thing.  It's not often that you get to listen to one of your comedic inspirations explain how exactly they got there.  Hearing about all his interactions with people like Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and Carl Reiner mad me realize that this guy started so humbly but with the help of these show biz legends he became a star.  Carl Reiner is one of the funniest men in Hollywood and directed most of Martin's most famous films.

These days Martin is really focusing on his music career and tours with the Steep Canyon Rangers playing blue grass music as Martin is a phenomenal banjo player.  Every once in a while he'll break out a blue grass version of King Tut, one of his classic bits.  It was such a joy to see him speak and open up about his storied career to total strangers, which he never made us feel like the entire night.  He even took questions from the packed Palace Theater crowd.  I hope that his legendary career continues, and people continue to discover his work.  With the help of the internet I think it opens him up to a whole new generation.

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