Martin Short
David Lynch and I almost made a movie together in the late '80s. We had lots of dinners and lunches. He's a very cool, hip guy. This film, let's face it, is like an homage to him, I would imagine he'd find it funny.Collection: Cool
My natural state is to be happy. I'm naturally buoyant. I wake up feeling, 'What a great morning!' I've had some tragedy in my life, absolutely, but I don't know one human being who hasn't. You either learn from it and become empowered by it, or you become a victim to it. It's life, after all.Collection: Morning
People do think I'm Jewish. But we're Irish Catholic. My father had a brogue.
The mark of the man is how he responds to situations. You're not going to avoid tough times. We're all over the barrel some of the time. What are you going to do about it?
No one is any one thing.
I think loss can fuel how you lead your whole life.
I've chosen to treat my life more like a party than something to stress about.
Eugene Levy is my closest friend.
My mother was the concert master of the symphony. Absurdity and eccentricity were not criticized.
I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears.
I've never done an improvised movie as a fictitious character. I think that's the challenge.
Comedy is so subjective. If you trip and fall down, some people will laugh, and some people will say, 'Oh, physical comedy is so pedestrian.' Some people look at Three Stooges as lowbrow; some people consider them artists. No one is wrong. It's just a personal take.
I remember, as a kid, nothing struck me funnier than seeing Richard Nixon look into the camera and sincerely tell everyone he didn't know where the 18 minutes had gone from his tapes. But there was all this sweat on his upper lip. We knew he was lying. He knew we knew he was lying. But he was determined to tell the lie.
You go through publicists because it's easy for a publicist to say to another publicist, 'No'.
I know if I were to drop dead now, people would probably write nice things in the obit.
Trump is Trump. Some people find him hilarious. I don't find it hilarious, but you can't say it's dull. There's nothing credible about Donald Trump.
Anytime there's originality and comedy combined, it's very potent for people who love comedy.
What I learned, a little too late, was that the 'traditional' Martin Short target viewer weighs under 300 pounds. Unfortunately, I was on during daytime.
What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.
One of my great influences was Don Knotts as Barney Fife.
You try to figure out things to keep yourself interested. It's very easy to get lulled.
Sometimes people get passionate about the obscure jokes.
Someone once asked me what was the weirdest question I was ever asked. And I was stymied.
I think I'm funny because my family, my siblings were funny.
I pretend I'm one of the royal family when I'm in a hotel and that the hotel belongs to me - it is a palace.
I have a kind of objective luxury about my career.
I hate to lull the audience into letting them think that something is something. It's always fun to defy expectations.
I've done lots of improv things but not a whole movie.
Being the youngest of five, you're adored, you're fueled with confidence.
All you're trying to do in an improvisation is get as much material as possible for the editing room.
All these things that enter your head are assignments. You write them up and then throw them out there and if someone wants to do it, your assignment is done.
Often audiences vary... but I've always found Milwaukee to be a fabulous place to play with great audiences and very hip.
Why does 'I Love Lucy' still make people laugh? Because she's a specific character who has real reactions.
I think that even though the characters were heightened, the 'SCTV' cast were all such strong actors they found a certain truth in playing them. I think that's why the show stays fresh and timeless.
No one doesn't have loss. No one doesn't have pain.
Any time you're honoured by your home, it's a bigger deal than most.
I think Canadians are great satirists because we sit in the middle of these two giants: Great Britain and the U.S.
Everything alters and changes with time. Some things that are considered triumphs, and 10 years later, they're considered minor.
My job is not to analyze my career. But I am proud of the amount of work I've done and the amount of commitment I've given to it. That makes me proud.
Some people you work on a film with, and then they disappear.
I was a huge fan of Steve Martin, as everyone I knew in comedy was.
There's a lot of insecure, sad people in any profession.
I've always thought one of the tricks of being an actor for a long time is keeping yourself interested once you've figured out how to pay the rent.
When you get to a point where you're successful enough that you can say, 'I don't have to take any job anymore,' and you're still good at what you do, how do you decide what work to take on? I think the answer is that you pursue what you enjoy. In my case, it's variety.
'Nice' is not a common label for comedians, but it is for Canadians. I like it.
You can do 12 great takes, but if the director is no good, he'll end up picking the wrong one.
When kids like Steven Spielberg were eight and nine and 10, they had little cameras, and that's all they wanted to do. When I was 10, I was in my attic pretending to host my own variety show. Spielberg wasn't. That's why he's a film director, and I'm doing what I'm doing.
I'm just drawn to the odd guy, the man who is full of it, the guy who has limited talent but is pretending he's a genius.
Comedy is a weird thing.
If you have wonderful moments, don't second-guess them, just enjoy them.Collection: Wonderful