Episode 01: Steve Martin - "Let's Get Small"

We're starting things off on the right foot here at The Comedy Record Album Podcast as we take our first deep dive with Steve Martin's 1977 classic, "Let's Get Small!" Check it out!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

R4 presents the Comedy Record Album Podcast.

SPEAKER_14 0:10

Featured with Aaron and Lou.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Wait, wait, Comedy Record Album Podcast. These guys know those initials spell out crap, right?

SPEAKER_09 0:35

All right, everybody. Welcome to an R4 Patreon bonus series that we're starting. And by we, I mean myself and uh my co-host here, Mr. Lou Figueroa. What's R4 without Lou Figuero? This is the comedy record album podcast, or as we have affectionately dubbed it, CREP, because we're mature and professionals. Louis, how you doing, my friend? Doing well.

SPEAKER_14 0:59

Living the dream and happy to be here.

SPEAKER_09 1:03

We were just discussing before we jumped on how this was your idea. So, uh, what made you want to do this? What made you want to do this? What made you think this was a good idea? It sounds like something your parents would say to you. Why did you think this was a good idea?

SPEAKER_14 1:18

I've been into comedy record albums for as long as I've been listening to regular record albums. All the way back to the early uh you see, I had uncles. My youngest uncle, actually, my my uh mother's youngest brother, who's only about seven years older than me, had uh George Carl. I always heard him listening to George Carlin and and Steve Martin and stuff in his room, and he had a an album collection too. And I'd sneak into his room and I'd hear, you know, George Carlin say the seven words you can't say on television and all of that, you know, and it was all forbidden to me. So, you know, actually I wanted to listen to it. So I used to go into his room and steal his albums and listen to them, and this was one of them, actually. And uh I can remember borrowing this from him and uh you know, sneaking out of his room and putting my little Panasonic shoebox tape uh recorder next to the speaker and recording this so I could listen to it on cassette and uh and listen and play it for all my 10-year-old friends for their mothers to call my mother about. And uh a lot of jokes went over our heads, but that didn't stop me from like listening and just learning every word on verbatim on this album, and uh it helped shape my communication style to this day, I'd say. So I have Steve Martin to blame. Okay.

SPEAKER_09 2:41

Well, by this, Lou is referring to Steve Martin's first record, Let's Get Small, and joining us for this maiden voyage into this territory, none other than the godfather of the R4 podcast, Mr. Aaron Martel. Aaron, how are you, sir? Hey, thank you.

SPEAKER_11 2:57

I was at the turd museum, and uh, I'm really looking forward to this crap. Now, how about how where'd you come in with Steve Martin, Aaron? I guess as far as comedy albums go, a lot like Lou, I had older uncles who listened to c comedy albums. The one that really sticks out in my mind is uh the Cheech and Chong self-titled album. They played that all the fucking time. They would sit in a room. I had like four uncles. They would sit around in a room, play the record, drink beer, and laugh their asses off. So I would kind of like hover in the doorway listening to what they were doing. And I like Lucy, I hardly knew what they were laughing, they but they were laughing that made me laugh. You know what I mean? And these people were just talking. I didn't even recognize that they were telling jokes, or you know, I mean it's like, oh wow, this is this is weird, this isn't music. So now we cut to a few years later. I know I knew who Steve Martin was because of Saturday Night Live. And again, I'm I'm really young. What was it, 75? Saturday Night Live started. So I was five years old, and he appeared on it quite a bit though. But you know, I remember, you know, the the Czechoslovakian swingers, you know, the wild and crazy guys, and I remember yeah, and I remember you know Steve Martin, he had gray haired, but he didn't look old. I just thought you know, it was he he was different, and I remember King Tut and all that. So, as far as this album goes, uh it's getting Lou, but we got some weird parallels here. My a friend of mine in middle school, so this is a few years later after this thing had come out, he made me a dubbed cassette. On one side, it had this album, and on the other side it had Bill Cosby, the one with Noah we were talking about the one with Noah, yeah, funny fellow. And he went to the and he went to the dentist and all that. Yeah, so I had I had those two albums on each side, and I just listened to them constantly. And like you're saying, I you memorize the routines and the delivery and how he does it, you know what I mean? And I just I I've I've always loved comedy albums, so I I'm I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_09 4:48

Yeah, it was the same for me. I mean, when I was a kid, my father had this album amongst many other comedy albums, and I would just I played the shit out of this album. I I loved it. And the only thing it kind of made me feel weird as a kid because uh anybody I played it for in my age group, and I was about eight or nine years old when I first heard this, so like they just didn't get it. I'm not saying like I'm I'm so smart I got it, it's just it it it struck a chord with me, and I always found it so funny. Just that just the way he says things and and the delivery, but I can never get anybody into it.

SPEAKER_14 5:21

I ran into that too. And you know, the people who I did actually, I I think I'm still friends with today. Yeah, you just needed your people, that's all.

SPEAKER_09 5:30

So yes, look, I finally found them. Look, here I am with them. But you know, I I still have that same copy on on vinyl that you know it's always been with me, even like when vinyl stopped being a thing for a while. I always made sure I had a a player and those records because I I just I listened to them so much, I'd always go back to them.

SPEAKER_11 5:51

This one in particular. I think I have a copy of the second one where he's got the bunny ears on the cover. I can't remember what that one's called. I got that somewhere. Well, crazy guy. Yes, yep, yeah, I think I got that somewhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 6:02

Yeah, I had and that was, of course, you know, my father had that one too, so I immediately ran to that one. But I always loved this one the most. I don't know if it's because it's it's in the small club, it's recorded at the boarding house in San Francisco, which no longer exists. But was a big spot. Like I was reading up about it a little bit, and uh, you know, they not only did they break Steve Martin, but they broke Robin Williams, and you know, also music acts were in there.

SPEAKER_14 6:24

Magic room that the guy was in.

SPEAKER_09 6:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 6:27

Boarding house in San Francisco.

SPEAKER_09 6:30

He was talking about in a in an interview I read too, like, because his stuff is so I hear it was referred to a lot as absurdist. And it is, it's these like non-secular kind of things. And he said that when he would do his act early on, there's no like clear spot. This is the setup, this is the punchline, this is the setup, this is the punchline. So people wouldn't know when to laugh, so it was like building up inside them. So people would just laugh at odd times, just to fucking oh, this is where I should laugh, and so they could release it. So and you hear that on this record. On this record, yep. Yeah, it's just like people just start laughing. Like when he the the one bit later on where he says uh he's talking about his girlfriend, he's like, she's not living anymore, and people just burst out laughing because they don't know when to, you know.

SPEAKER_06 7:14

I'm depressed. Nah, it's just I guess I'm kind of thinking about my old girlfriend, you know what I mean. Uh we were together about three years, and uh sometimes when I get on stage, I kind of think about her because uh, you know, she'd travel with me and then I'd be up here performing and I could hear her laugh, you know. Kind of meant something to me, I guess. I guess I kinda miss her. And uh she's not living anymore, so I you think that's funny?

SPEAKER_11 8:02

That actually is funny. That comes across like a punchline, even yeah, but I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_14 8:06

So let's uh wipe the needle and um try to extend the crooked arm of joy and nobody can memorize that and drop the fucking needle on uh Ramblin' guys. He starts out with this, you know, that bing thing thing thing thing thing and you're like, wow, hey, this guy's good. And then he says, hey, this guy's good.

SPEAKER_11 8:32

He says what you're thinking.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Hey, this guy is good I'm a random guy.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

Well I'm rambling, rambling round, I'm a rambling guy! Ramble and I come back in a girl's in the air apostrophe Okay everybody Come on sing with me What's the matter you people up tired or something? Okay, ladies and lady's rumbling Okay, the seven of the room okay another seven There's two fifths of the room now, there's three five, okay.

SPEAKER_07 9:39

Two sevenths, five sevenths, okay. In the Chinese now, gum.

SPEAKER_09 10:24

The weirdest thing about it is it's a comedy record and it starts with this very serviceable banjo player.

SPEAKER_11 10:30

What the hell's going on here? You know? No, he's actually a world-renowned banjo player. Yeah, he's very good. He's he's good.

SPEAKER_14 10:39

So no and he gives you this foggy mountain fucking breakdown at the end of that thing, and it's it really kind of proves his proves worth on that. Yeah, he's cranking on it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 10:55

And it kind of already in the beginning, it touches on that thing that you had kind of talked about a little bit, Lou, where you just it's just things that enter your vocabulary immediately. Like, yeah, like uh when he's what are you, people up tight or something? Like when he's trying to get him to sing along. Like, I still say that choice though. Yeah, R A M B L I pushed for you. And you could you could feel in the room. I mean, I I'm imagining he was known at this club a little bit by this time, but you could still feel in there some people like what the fuck is happening? What's going on?

SPEAKER_14 11:29

What is this? You know? The thing that gets me about it is now you can see a lot of the clips on YouTube from this era, you know, with the white suit and the balloons on his head and stuff and the arrow through his head and stuff. And uh it's like you can't really picture it's like you were trying to picture it when you were listening to it as a as a kid, but you know, you never got a good picture of like what the room was like, and then to see it on YouTube now is you know, like wow, that place is a lot smaller than I thought.

SPEAKER_11 11:58

Yeah, small place.

SPEAKER_09 12:00

It's basically like a bar, you know what I mean? Like it's that kind of sizing. Just a little dive. And for me, when I first heard this, I was eight or nine, like in the in the mid to late eighties, like around there. So I know Steve Martin as the guy that's in like planes, trains, and automobiles and and shit like that from his movies. So to to hear this, like, what is this? Because I mean, you know, he's good in in movies and uh and stuff, but there's some things he's kind of middle of the road in. You know, he plays it straightforward. It's not weird shit like this, you know.

SPEAKER_14 12:29

Well, you know, his movie debut was basically the you know ripping on this. Yeah, the blueprint was on this album.

SPEAKER_13 12:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 12:38

I was gonna mention that. Yeah, he says I started out as a small black child.

SPEAKER_09 12:41

That's like that's the jerk. We're black.

SPEAKER_06 12:43

I wish you could do our episode on a jerk. You say to me, Steve, how did you get your start? Was it easy for you on the way up? No. I started off at the bottom. I was born a poor black child. And all day long around the house, you know, that sing the blues. And um then I heard my first Monavani record. And I knew that this is where it's at for me. This is the kind of music I enjoy. These are my people. So I decided to become white, and um had my cock shortened.

SPEAKER_11 13:30

I had my cock shortened.

SPEAKER_14 13:34

Now you see, as a 10-year-old, I had no idea what that meant. Yeah, yeah, but it's still saying it in front of relatives and stuff.

SPEAKER_09 13:43

Going up to your auntie. Hey, guess what?

SPEAKER_14 13:45

I'll do the Steve Martin routine, Lois.

SPEAKER_11 13:49

I'll do that one. It's funny it's almost like the same thing. Like when I was little, and I because I heard my parents swear constantly, all the time they did. Right. So I would do it and I would imitate them, and and they would hear me, and they were trying not to laugh while they're telling me, don't say that. That's a bad word. I called my sister a cunt once. Because I didn't know what I didn't know what the word meant.

SPEAKER_10 14:12

My mother looked at me like, uh, why you can't? I'm like, oh, I didn't know I didn't know.

SPEAKER_09 14:19

And it is funny to hear little kids scurts, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But going through this, I it's and listening back to it, you know, because I hadn't listened to it in a little bit until Lou and I started talking about it, and how much stuff is packed into this one record, which is only about what's this about 40 minutes, you know, half hour, 40 minutes. And uh, there's just so much stuff here.

SPEAKER_11 14:40

This is the entire early Steve Martin persona, the the stuff that he took to Saturday Night Live, and I think he had a couple of specials on TV and like that, too. And it this is this is how he was. This is what I knew him as.

SPEAKER_14 14:52

The thing he did in it was a clip, I don't know what variety show it was from, but Keith Moon, uh, he was a TV reporter, and and uh Keith Moon was was wrecking the hotel room around him. It was in The Kids Are Alright, actually. But I I would like I I never saw the actual show that that was always it, it had to be like a laugh-in or something.

SPEAKER_09 15:14

Like I think it was the Smothers Brothers because he wrote for them. I think it was like that. It had to be all right, yeah. Smithers Brothers Variety Hour or whatever that was.

SPEAKER_11 15:21

And the who made that uh infamous appearance where they moon blew up his drum kit, and yeah, that's what blew out pounds. They didn't know he did it.

SPEAKER_09 15:32

But that's the interesting thing about this, too. This is what is the 77 this album came out, I think.

SPEAKER_11 15:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds right.

SPEAKER_09 15:38

He did in the business a bit. This isn't like you know, he was writing for for like the Smothers Brothers and shows.

SPEAKER_14 15:44

Yeah, all of a sudden he yeah, it just seems like he just came out of nowhere. And and it this album was was popular even before the the wild and crazy guy, because that was the one that really kind of rocketed him to ubiquitousness. You know, that was after all the set did the Saturday Night Lives and stuff, or that's actually what got him to Saturday Night Lives.

SPEAKER_11 16:04

And isn't this record where the excuse me came from?

SPEAKER_14 16:07

Right was the the hook of this record. That's actually what what that was his biggest catchphrase.

SPEAKER_11 16:13

That was his first big catchphrase.

SPEAKER_06 16:17

Can I have a little mood lighting on this, please? Um I'd like to do a thing now that's kind of a departure for me. It's kind of been more into these mood lining, like a blue spawn or something like that. Hello? Nobody back there? That's okay. Thought there might be somebody back there. Okay. Um I guess I figure closing night, you know, what the heck doesn't make any fucking difference. Um kind of pissed off about this because uh it's been going on all week, and uh I think by now we'd have it under control. But uh just uh You see, this club has uh been in business about five or six years. It was first actually the Troubadour at first, and then it became the boarding house. And uh you know, they still have a lot of um hippies working here. And um, and I can understand the the drug thing, and so they feel that it's more important to take the drugs than to do a good show for the people. You know, I'm really up to here with this uh uh it's it's it's just a matter that uh you know I am on stage and it's my half-butter, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 17:31

And I come out and I'm giving and I'm giving and I'm giving and I keep giving and I give some more, and I make a simple request. I say, hey, can I possibly have a blue? But I guess the lighting crew feels they know a little bit more about show business than I do. Although I've been in the business a few years, and I think I know what works best. I'm sorry, but I am angry. I come out here and I can't get a little collaboration from the backstage crew.

SPEAKER_09 18:19

That became like a cultural thing.

SPEAKER_11 18:22

Yeah, people had t-shirts on that said, excuse me, and it's uh it's the perfect bit too.

SPEAKER_09 18:27

He because he the way he builds it up, where he's just like, Can I get a little uh blue spot? And he's trying to do something. Yeah, I'm pissed, but it's that's it's a total slow burn. Perfect.

SPEAKER_14 18:39

And then he starts playing banjo again because he was talking about that before, like you can't be pissed off and play banjo.

SPEAKER_09 18:45

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_13 18:47

Oh, death and grief and murder and somehow.

SPEAKER_09 18:52

Yeah, oh man. I think one of my favorites on here, though, is that the it's it's to where it's on the second side, uh, where he's talking about uh how he's mad at his mother, you know.

SPEAKER_06 19:04

I'm so mad at my mother. I don't know. She's 102 years old. She called me up the other day, she wanted to borrow $10 for some food.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

I said, hey, I work for a living.

SPEAKER_06 19:25

So I loan her the money. I have one of my secretaries take it down. And yesterday she called me up and said she can't pay me back for a while. I said, what is this bullshit, huh? So I worked it out whether I'm having her work on my transmission. And if she can't fix that, I'm having her move my barbells up to the attic.

SPEAKER_12 19:54

She said she can't be back. I said, what is this bullshit, babe?

SPEAKER_09 19:59

And you just like so much of the stuff on here, you just don't see it coming. Uh, you know. I mean, now of course, you know that you've committed this whole record to memory, you know. But like the first time I I heard it, or the first, especially being a little kid, like a lot of stuff went by me. It took a long time to fully grasp this whole album, you know. But uh, it's that's one of the things that attracted me to Steve Martin's uh stand-up, is that uh he that he'll take a left, like even even if you think you know where the bit is going, all of a sudden he'll take this weird left.

SPEAKER_14 20:30

Yeah, you don't, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 20:32

Yeah, and it's funnier, yeah. And it's different. I mean, you he's you you think of any other stand-up comedians that you're that you like or probably he nobody does it like the way he does, you know, like you were saying, the non-sequitors, he just slips into something and then just moves on. You know, it's hard to even follow it for a second, then oh shit, he's onto something else. Yeah, so it's impossible.

SPEAKER_13 20:56

Put a Cadillac in your nose, it's just impossible.

SPEAKER_09 21:01

Okay, he even does a bit on this record, though, about how it's almost like uh a reference to how what he does isn't for everybody, it's like geared to a specific kind of audience when he does that joke for the plumbers. You know, he's like, There's supposed to be like some plumbers in town, so I'm gonna do this bit.

SPEAKER_06 21:20

Okay, I don't like to um gear my material to the audience, but um I like to make an exception because I was told uh that there is a convention of plumbers in San Francisco this week, and I understand about 30 of them came down to the show tonight. So before I come out, I worked up a joke especially for the plumbers. And uh now those of you who aren't plumbers probably won't get this and won't think it's funny, but I think those of you who are plumbers will really enjoy this. And uh so if you're not a plumber, please just bear with me for a while and just kind of uh you know hold off on this. But I would like to do this for the plumbers. So here we go. This lawn supervisor was out on a sprinkler maintenance job. And he started working on a Finley sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7-inch gangly wrench. Well, just then a little apprentice leaned over and said, uh, you can't work on a Finley sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7-inch wrench. Well, this infuriated the supervisor, so he went and got volume 14 of the Kinsley manual. And he reads to him and says, The Langstrom 7-inch wrench can be used with a Finley Sprocket. Just then the little apprentice leaned over and says, It says sprocket, not socket. Were those plumbers supposed to be here this show, or was that?

SPEAKER_14 22:36

And I would say shit like that, like to people, you know, like that I was working with, you know, like doing, you know, whatever. I'd look over at my my old man or something. And I'd say, you can't use a Langstrip seven-inch branch with a fanless property.

SPEAKER_12 22:52

He's like, the fuck are you talking about?

SPEAKER_09 22:55

Stop listening to those kind of damn elements, would you?

SPEAKER_11 22:58

And then when he finishes it, though he goes like he thought it was funny, even if you didn't, that was part of the bit too.

SPEAKER_09 23:08

I'm pissed. It's funny to me how he abandoned stand-up after a while. Like as soon as he kind of did the jerk, he didn't do much stand-up after that and was more focused on the film stuff. Which I can do movies, yeah. He's one of those guys, it's like him and Eddie Murphy are the two guys that you you hope would do something stand-up related again, you know?

SPEAKER_14 23:28

Fed him his first child and movies all the way after that.

SPEAKER_11 23:33

Yeah, yeah, because he put out what, like four, I think four, four or five.

SPEAKER_09 23:37

Yeah, the two big ones, obviously, this one and then the one right after. Yeah, I know comedy comedy's not pretty was was fairly big. I don't think the last one did very well. But the last one was kind of one side was comedy, yeah, one side was music, I think.

SPEAKER_14 23:49

Yeah, and then he did a bunch of banjo albums.

SPEAKER_11 23:52

Well, he said he wasn't into the comedy thing anymore, he's more into the music thing now.

SPEAKER_09 23:57

He always was like that's the thing about Steve Martin. Sometimes, like later on, maybe not in the beginning, but later on he kind of became a little you know stuffy, you know, like he would always be a little too serious, and it's like you're Steve Martin, like you know, he was one of the funniest guys to ever live. And you do shitty remakes of the Pink Panther, you know, like Snap, what are you doing? Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_11 24:17

And Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen. He did a movie with Queen Latifa, you know.

SPEAKER_09 24:23

Yeah, it's the guy that did the jerk and dead men don't wear plaid, like all those Carl Reiner movies and shit. Yeah. Man, this is this is I'm a big uh stand-up guy, and you guys had mentioned you were too. This one always is like been in like the top ten of stand-up albums, and it's nothing like the other stuff that I like. I I tend to stake a I don't know about you guys, but I tend to stake a much dirtier territory for like I like my stuff blue, so you know you know, and uh this isn't necessarily uh you know it's edgy, but it's not dirty.

SPEAKER_14 24:54

Yeah, he tells you, he tells you. It's like an onion almost, you know. You can actually I mean you read deeper into almost, you know, to a lot of stuff too, but a lot of stuff just you know it's absurd and you just laugh at it.

SPEAKER_09 25:09

I almost think it's it's more of an effort perhaps to to come up with something like this. Because it's like you said, Lou, there's layers to it, you know. So like you gotta be carefully crafting some of this stuff for it to pan out at the end, you know.

SPEAKER_11 25:23

But yeah, it's not just him sitting down and writing jokes or or or bits. It's almost like it's a concept and he puts it out there and sees how it goes. I mean, I mean they they were I guess I guess they actually were bits because they were things that he would do in his act, but uh it doesn't come across like that. It almost comes across like he's coming up with the stuff on the spot, even though even though he isn't, but it feels like he is, and the way he delivers it and you know the is his whole persona.

SPEAKER_09 25:52

But uh, I mean, even like the uh the grandmother's song bit, like he sets that up in the beginning, like it's really gonna be this genuine song, and that's where the lyrics start kind of like all right, maybe he's kind of doing something a little you know down the line here, and then he hits on the uh you know, be papa's obese and eat cactus, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

You know, folks, um when I was a kid, I was very close to my grandmother. And uh she used to sing a song to me when I was just so high, and it's always meant something to me. And I'd like to do it for you right now because it does have meaning in today's world. Even uh all these years, you know, this even during the hip drug days, you know, when everybody was supposed to be so cool, and everything had double meaning. And this it's a little simple tune would keep coming back to me. I think it kind of guided me through those years. And uh I'd like to do this song for you right now. I think it uh might have a little meaning for you. Be courteous, kind and forgiving, be gentle and peaceful each day, be warm and human and grateful, and have a good thing to say. Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike, be witty and happy and wise, be honest and love all your neighbors, be obsequious, purple and clairvoyant, be pompous, obese, and eat cactus, be dull and boring and omnipresent, criticize things you don't know about, be oblong and have your knees removed, be tasteless, rude, and offensive. Live in a swamp and be three-dimensional. Put a live chicken in your underwear, get all excited and go to a yawning festival. Okay, everybody. Be courteous, kind and forgiving. Be courteous, kind and forgiving. Good, be gentle and peaceful each day. Be gentle and peaceful each day. Be warm and human and grateful, be warm and human and grateful. And have a good thing to say. And be thankful to say. Be thoughtful and trustful and child like everybody on this!

SPEAKER_15 28:17

Be thoughtful and trustful and child like.

SPEAKER_06 28:20

Be witty and happy and wise.

SPEAKER_15 28:22

Be witty and happy and wise.

SPEAKER_06 28:24

Be honest and lovable your neighbors.

unknown 28:27

Be honest and love.

SPEAKER_06 28:29

Be obsequious, purple and clairvoyant. Let them hurry outside. Be obsequious. Be pompous, obese, and be cactus. Everybody's singing me. Be double and boring and omnipresent. Be double and boring and omnipresent. Criticize things you don't know about. Criticize things you don't know about. Ladies and maybe tasteless, rude, and offensive. Now the minute and the livingness will not be a three-dimensional. Everybody put them on chicken in your mind.

SPEAKER_11 29:27

Get all excited and go to a yawning festival and be oblong and have your knees removed. And he's got people singing this shit. But you think but you think that's it. You think that's the bit that it's funny. Then he gets the crowd to do it and he goes through the whole song line by line, including the the funny shit, and the and the crowd's doing it with him. And he just keeps it going and it's still funny as hell.

SPEAKER_09 29:50

The weirdest thing I saw though, that this that grandmother song was shortened, but it was uh like his cock, it was shortened. But uh it was released as a single.

SPEAKER_14 29:57

Like, how could you I have the 45?

SPEAKER_09 29:59

Yes, it was how much different is it?

SPEAKER_14 30:02

I don't know. It's it's that it's it's the regular fades in, fades right out. You know, it's short.

SPEAKER_09 30:07

But uh, I don't know, it's just this this kind of like shaped my sense of humor in a way. I'm I I'm glad for this. I'm glad to find two people that enjoy this as much, too. I because I never really have all these years, I could never really get anybody into this stuff.

SPEAKER_11 30:21

Yeah, and I don't know why. This is my early introduction to stand-up comedy, and I'm glad too, because you know, after later on when I discovered people like Carlin and and and you know, the like this this is so much different, but it you know, it it kind of introduced me to it, like brought me into it. And then, you know, then later on I discovered these other guys who were maybe a little bit more edgier, a little bit more, you know, dirtier, filthy, or more, or whatever, you know. I mean, more maybe more structured, maybe more you know, uh conventional in the way they present their material.

SPEAKER_09 30:51

It was a big time for stand-up comedy, too, I think that in the 70s. It stand-up comedy kind of goes in waves. Yeah, there'll be a dead spot, then all of a sudden you'll get a an influx of you know really good guys, and then it'll it'll die down a bit again.

SPEAKER_11 31:04

Yeah, because even today, I don't know if you guys are into any of the people, but it's kind of on a it's been on a high now for a few years. Now there's like a new wave of comics that have been around for a while, but all of a sudden it's gotten popular again, you know. I mean, they're putting out specials on Netflix and YouTube, and and they're all doing podcasts now, too. Yeah, so well, that's the one. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 31:26

And good ones, funny ones, like really super funny ones.

SPEAKER_11 31:29

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 31:30

There's a there's a there's a a girl out now, she's quite young. Uh her name's Jordan Jensen. I don't know if you guys know she's hysterically funny. She is funny, you know, and that's I'm glad to see it like keep going on, you know. And that she's another one that's kind of like in the vein of Steve Martin, not material-wise, but doesn't do the straightforward thing, yeah. It does something different. And I always like people that that try to do something different.

SPEAKER_11 31:54

You know, she does a lot of crowd work too, and that's that's become a that's become a more popular thing too. But uh that's that's another thing that Steve Martin's doing is he's doing crowd work in interspersed with his regular jokes.

SPEAKER_09 32:05

So and the crowd work is it it seems like uh it's it would be easy, like oh, he doesn't have jokes, so he's just talking to the crowd. But it's hard to do that because you gotta think on the fly, because you're basically basing what you're gonna say off of what they're saying. You know, I always appreciate well. You were absolutely right, he does it quite a bit in this one. He talks a lot to the crowd on this album, especially which uh probably screwed up his act as he got more popular because he was then he was playing stadiums and shit.

SPEAKER_11 32:33

Yeah, no crowd work in a stadium, you know. Yeah, because then they became the you know, so the really popular ones became rock stars, yeah. You know, like Dice Clay playing, you know, Madison Square Garden. What is that's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_09 32:45

Yeah, most don't make it that to that level.

SPEAKER_14 32:48

The crowd in um the boarding house, they're fucking wild in there, dude. You listen to the crowd, like when he was going, oh, I'm depressed. He's thinking of his accent. He said, you know, she's uh please she'd take me home. Didn't want to, so I shot her. Shot her. Shotgun. Cut her right in half, right?

SPEAKER_13 33:08

And you hear somebody in the audience just going, boom!

SPEAKER_06 33:15

We were at a party one night and uh we weren't getting along, we were fighting, and she began to drink. And she ran out to the car, I followed her out, and I guess I didn't realize how much she'd been drinking, she asked me to drive her home, and I refused. We argued a little bit further. She asked me once again, would you please drive me home? I didn't want to, so I shot her.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 33:46

And then when he's doing the uh the excuse me bit, and he's like, I'm sorry, angry, and you're guys like he's touching a nerve somewhere. But yeah, they were a little rowdy, you know. What's a bunch of bunch of drunks in uh San Francisco late at night, you know, at a four dollar that's another thing. Didn't it shock you now listening back to it? You're like four dollars to get in anywhere with well, you know. I mean, I know it was 70, whatever, but really it's insane. What can you do for four dollars?

SPEAKER_14 34:15

I was talking about something on on Facebook, and uh, I had to look up a deep purple ticket that I went to, and it was like 10th row I had of deep purple, and this was back on their perfect strangers tour on the ticket was $13.50. Wow, fees.

SPEAKER_09 34:29

Wow, and I remember thinking it was it had to be the early 90s, the Eagles were the first band to charge over a hundred dollars. Yeah, they made the news for that, yeah, yeah. $100 now it won't even get you in the door. And selling out, and now it's a shitty seats, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 34:44

If you're lucky, so yeah, man, $4.50.

SPEAKER_09 34:47

I mean, we're kind of kind of spoiled in this area, and uh Lou, you probably have the same experience because there's a bunch in your uh neck of the woods, too. But like there's a lot of comedy clubs between Long Island and New York City, you know, a lot of big comedy clubs that get big names, so you know you can still sneak into those places for a reasonable amount of money.

SPEAKER_14 35:03

This show just totally went off the fucking rails. It's fine, it's a bonus.

SPEAKER_09 35:07

Welcome, it's free, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_14 35:11

It's free.

SPEAKER_12 35:12

What do you want for nothing?

SPEAKER_09 35:14

As far as uh like cultural impact goes, I mean, we're just sitting here talking about this album, and it's great, and it's sold big at the time, but like you never see like classic albums get reissues like every so often. You never see like a big reissue of a comedy record, you know, even something like this that was popular at the time.

SPEAKER_11 35:32

Comedy albums are of a time period, though, it's a time capsule, even even more than music, yeah. You know what I mean? Like that like we're talking about this. I don't know any who who you know, any Gen Z person gonna listen to this or even know, barely know who the guy is. You know, no, it's they have their own comedians that they're growing up with and they're laughing at. And you know, I think I think that's it too. I mean, the Steve Martin impacted our childhoods, and you know, the way that we are the way even with music where it impacts you as a child and you grow up with it, and it, you know, it imprints on you. I think that's the thing about comedy in comedy albums. That's that's how it goes.

SPEAKER_14 36:06

I think we we got it at the very end of the comedy album train because I think what happened is what we what we mentioned, I mentioned before with HBO and uh television, just putting stand-up on television constantly. HBO was huge for breaking comedy. Right. So then that's where you started consuming your comedy if you weren't going to see it live at a club. You were seeing it on television, and then and and you could listen to the dirty words on tell television now because you had HBO and you didn't have to have this album that you had to hide from your parents or whatever, you know, these these dirty albums that and that's what you know, all those those party albums that they used to have, you know, that's all just grew from that, you know, the red fox and the bell barths of uh you know the shitty recorded, you know, you can hear all the fucking room reverberation. You gotta really listen to see, you know, hear what they were listening to, you know. But there was dirty shit in there. Yeah, those old guys said, you know, the buddy hack it here. Body hackett, man. He was terrible.

SPEAKER_09 37:12

For a guy that was in some fucking Disney movies, he's got his act is like, holy shit.

SPEAKER_11 37:17

Yeah, the love bug guys going fish fucker.

SPEAKER_13 37:21

Who fags of fucking a dead alligator on a bus?

SPEAKER_09 37:27

That was a that was a great impression of Buddy Hackett.

SPEAKER_13 37:29

Yeah, that was. I love that guy. Yeah, oh, he's he was dirty.

SPEAKER_09 37:34

Yeah, when I was a kid, I watched the love bug, and I'm like, oh, that's uh you know, he's in a love bug, and then I see his acting like Jesus.

SPEAKER_14 37:42

Is that dirty enough for you, lady? Let's try another.

SPEAKER_09 37:48

But you talk about like TV and stuff, now YouTube is. I mean, a lot of comedians just release their shit onto like YouTube and uh sure and make and yeah, they're actually putting their specials out on YouTube.

SPEAKER_11 37:59

That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_09 38:02

But even that, like you know, HBO yeah, was great at the time, but you hear these guys now talk about the reason why they do it independently like that is because no one's telling no one is telling them what they can and cannot include in any capacity, they have complete creative control, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 38:16

Right so that's yeah, you it's yeah, no, society is their sensor because you know it's if they get cancelled, yeah, there's certain things you just can't talk about.

SPEAKER_11 38:25

Is there anything we missed on this album? Did we talk about everything?

SPEAKER_14 38:29

Oh no, we missed a bunch of stuff.

SPEAKER_09 38:30

Yeah, well, I mean, we can go back, you know. We set the rules here, Lewis. Actually, the way they they he ends it. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for coming. Thank you for having me. And really rides it out, you know.

SPEAKER_14 38:45

Yeah, and then he gives us advice from the Maharishi, who we spent uh 15 long and boring years.

SPEAKER_06 38:54

I guess I'll get going now, and I would like to remind you of something the great Maharishi guru taught me over 15 years ago. Maharishi was a close personal friend of mine, and I studied with him for 15 years old, long, boring years. I didn't want to learn that much, but then I was leaving. The Maharishi said something to me I've never forgotten. Whenever there's a crowd of people like this, I always like to pass it on. Result that a day hasn't begun by the I haven't thought of this particular thing.

SPEAKER_04 39:22

The Mahama Rishi said always, wait, it was never always take a litter bag in your car.

SPEAKER_06 39:35

Doesn't take up much room. If it gets full, you can just toss it up.

SPEAKER_04 39:39

Thank you very much. Good night. Thank you.

SPEAKER_09 39:43

And that whole bit too, I like he's off mic doing that too. He's kind of yelling at it's almost as if he's I'm visually like walking.

SPEAKER_14 39:50

Yeah, he's away from the mic and he's yeah, just giving the the audience. Oh yeah, I forgot.

SPEAKER_09 39:55

Uh in a small place, too, you know, not like he's going far, you know.

SPEAKER_14 40:01

And just remember, a day without sunshine is like night. Night.

SPEAKER_13 40:05

Good, everybody. Good night, everybody.

SPEAKER_14 40:08

And again, it's the way he delivers that that makes it so funny. On the next album, too. He's like the secret of comedy is time in, timing, timing, timing, timing.

SPEAKER_09 40:19

Well, that's right. The next one is kind of at least the first half of it is in the same vein. It almost could have been recorded at the same set of shows or whatever.

SPEAKER_14 40:27

Yeah, it sounds bigger. He sounds like he's in a way bigger venue.

SPEAKER_09 40:30

Yeah. Well, I think that I think side two is it's arena or something, yeah. And he's doing like King Tut and shit, you know, like oh man, this has been an interesting uh experiment, a lot of fun. I enjoyed doing this. I don't know about you boys. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_14 40:43

So uh what about your final thoughts on uh Let's Get Small?

SPEAKER_09 40:49

I think this is one of those albums that isn't just as important as any of the Carlin or prior records that you hear about in terms of Steve Martin's comedy, it was different and it it made it okay to do weird shit to me. He was the first guy I know of that did like really outlandish shit that I can like trace it back. I don't think anybody did stuff like this before him, and nobody's really been like him since. He's kind of unique, his stand-up is unique.

SPEAKER_11 41:13

Yeah, it really is. Uh uh for me, it's it's the very for it's the introduction to comedy albums for me, you know, real were that was mine that I was really listening to. It was a huge influence on me. Uh my my sense of humor going forward was shaped by this. You know, later on I got into the other the other comedians and such, but I think I think my love of comedy comes from this, come from comes from this record, comes from Steve Martin. So uh yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm so glad that you guys asked me to be on here. I'm so glad you guys picked this record first because it was such a formative influence on me as far as you know, as far as comedy and and laughing and sense of humor goes. So yeah, no, I'm I'm really glad that I I I really appreciate you guys invited me on.

SPEAKER_09 41:58

What about you, Lou? What's your final thoughts?

SPEAKER_14 42:00

Turned me on to absurd uh absurdist humor. It it was silly even if I didn't understand some of it, and just over the years it just bloomed like an onion, like I said before, as I discovered the different levels of the joke as I got older. I just kind of understood it more, and timing, creativity, the belief that everybody thinks this way has been like an influence since very early on for me. And if I gotta rate it, this is in the top five for me.

SPEAKER_09 42:31

Me too. Me, me as well. Yep. And I couldn't think of a better one to to kind of do first in this uh series here. Well, this has been a good time. What we should probably kind of finish things out by uh dropping in, playing a bit from this record to to to close things out. What what what one should we go with? Which section?

SPEAKER_14 42:49

Actually, give it the uh give it the grandmother song, lead out with the grandmother song. There you go. All right, there we go.

SPEAKER_11 42:55

Yes, that's perfect.

SPEAKER_09 42:56

It is leave leave on a uh on a learning experience and a touching part.

SPEAKER_11 43:02

Well, for the crap podcast, I have been Ian Rice. I was Lou, and I'm still Aaron. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 43:17

You know, folks, um when I was a kid, I was very close to my grandmother. And um she used to sing a song to me when I was just so high, and it's always meant something to me. And I'd like to do it for you right now because it does have meaning in today's world. Even uh all these years, you know, this even during the hip drug days, you know, when everybody was supposed to be so cool, everything had double meaning. And this it's a little simple tune would keep coming back to me. I think it kind of guided me through those years. And uh I'd like to do this song for you right now. I think it uh might have a little meaning for you. Be courteous, kind, and forgiving. Be gentle and peaceful each day. Be warm and human and grateful. And have a good thing to say. Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike. Be witty and happy and wise. Be honest and love all your neighbors. Be obsequious, purple and clairvoyant. Be pompous, obese, and eat cactus. Be dull and boring and omnipresent. Criticize things you don't know about. Be oblong and have your knees removed. Be tasteless, rude, and offensive. Live in a swamp and be three-dimensional. Put a live chicken in your underwear. Get all excited and go to a yawning festival. Okay, everybody. Be courteous, kind and forgiving. Be courteous, kind and forgiving. Good. Be gentle and peaceful each day. Be gentle and peaceful each day. Be warm and human and grateful.

unknown 45:07

Be warm and human and grateful.

SPEAKER_06 45:10

And have a good thing to say. And have a good thing to say. Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike everybody on this. Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike. Be witty and happy and wise.

SPEAKER_15 45:21

Be witty and happy and wise.

SPEAKER_06 45:23

Be honest and love all your neighbors.

SPEAKER_15 45:26

Be honest and love all your neighbors.

SPEAKER_06 45:28

Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant. Let them hear you outside.

SPEAKER_15 45:31

Be obsequious, beautiful.

SPEAKER_06 45:34

Be pompous, obese, and e tactis. Everybody sing, be pompous. Be dull and boring and omnipresent. Be dull and boring and omnipresent. Criticize things you don't know about.

SPEAKER_15 45:46

Criticize things you don't know about.

SPEAKER_06 45:49

Be oblong and have your knees removed. Be oblong and have your knees removed. Ladies only, be tasteless, rude, and offensive. Now the men live in a swamp and be three-dimensional. Everybody, put alive chicken in your underwear. Put a live chicken in your underwear. Go into a closet and suck eggs.