Steve Martin shares some showbiz stories from his long career in movies, beautifully illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss, in Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions (gah, Americans and their bloody subtitles!).
Given someone as prolific and famous as Steve Martin, I think most people will like him for any combination of movies - for me it’s Three Amigos, Shopgirl (and the novel he wrote that it’s based upon isn’t bad either), and Bowfinger, which is the best movie Eddie Murphy’s done as well.
Even though Steve doesn’t really touch on those movies here (there’s a couple stories on Three Amigos though), I still enjoyed reading anecdotes about movies like The Jerk, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Roxanne, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Apparently the original cut of Planes was four and a half hours as John Hughes let Steve and John Candy ad lib like crazy! And somehow an extra ended up buying their own house after the movie wrapped because his scene kept being rescheduled. Steve says some very sweet things about John Candy as well.
Unfortunately, these comics only make up about half the book. The rest is comprised of New Yorker-style cartoons and, true to form, they’re an unfunny and forgettable bunch. The only one that stood out to me was University of Psychic Studies - “How much is the intuition to go here?” … yeah. Imagine how bad the rest of them must’ve been!
The anecdotes aren’t that memorable or brilliant either but - like Steve Martin himself - they’re just pleasant. It’s like being in the company of a genial chap telling you somewhat interesting stuff that won’t knock your socks off but won’t put you to sleep either. Stuff like the title, which is derived from movie call sheets where the biggest star is “Number One”, the next biggest star is “Number Two” and so on. Steve used to be Number One - until he wasn’t. He also did a stage version of Waiting for Godot with Robin Williams and directed by Mike Nichols. Huh… ok?
Harry Bliss’ pencils are very skilful, switching from photo-realistic in some panels to appealing cartoonishness in others, complementing Steve Martin’s easygoing, affable narration with playful visuals, like personifying his dog Penny to be their audience stand-in.
I’d have preferred the book without the New Yorker-esque cartoons and more on the movies but the anecdotes we got were decent and reading the book is an enjoyable-enough experience. Number One is Walking is not a great book, nor is it a terrible one - it’s fine, but only really worth checking out if you like Steve Martin.
No comments:
Post a Comment