Steve Martin Surprised Everybody By Opening For Jerry Seinfeld And Performing Standup

Thursday night featured a sight that many comedy fans hadn’t seen for quite a while: Steve Martin doing stand up. The legendary comic opened for Jerry Seinfeld for his second show of his Beacon Theater residence in New York, tying in with his appearance on Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.

Jesse David Fox over at Vulture was on hand for the show and shared his surprise in an article that got the attention of Martin on Twitter. Fox also shared a segment from Martin’s book that explained the background of the event and highlighted it’s importance:

“My act was conceptual. Once the concept was stated, and everybody understood it, it was done,” Martin wrote in his classic 2007 memoir Born Standing Up. “It was about coming to the end of the road. There was no way to live on in that persona. I had to take that fabulous luck of not being remembered as that, exclusively. You know, I didn’t announce that I was stopping. I just stopped.”

Fox shared some of the jokes from the set, obviously cut short in hilarious fashion by Seinfeld in the clip above. But the opening moments were likely enough to sell the moment as something special:

“Thank you. Jerry couldn’t make it tonight … Have a safe ride home!” which is a solid enough opener, a thing he cares a lot about. “Actually, I’m here tonight because of that old showbiz saying: Never lose a bet to Jerry,”

It’s a cool moment and you can get a feel for the entire set over at Vulture. It’s well worth it and likely the best you can get for now unless you were there. You can also go ahead and relive some of his classic stand up and just pretend it’s the same thing.

(Via Vulture)

×