Comedian Martin Short had no party plans when we caught up with him on Halloween.
But if he did get a last-minute invite, he had a couple of costume ideas: plop on a headset and go as a CIA agent, or slip on a little white sailor’s cap and go as Gilligan.
“You can score points by doing next to nothing I have found,” he said, calling from home in Los Angeles.
He might long for next to nothing at the end of the night Sunday, when he headlines Fox Tucson Theatre’s Fourth Annual Chasing Rainbows Gala. The show will stretch his multitasking skills with singing, dancing and, well, just being Martin Short.
The appearance comes a week after Short released his memoir, “I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend,” and embarked on a whirlwind of daytime and nighttime talk show appearances including back-to-back spots Nov. 4 on “The View” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” followed by a visit to “Late Show With David Letterman” Nov. 5.
In addition to promoting the book, he’s also plugging a new movie and his Fox sitcom, all of which he happily discussed during our Halloween conversation.
What can we expect when we see you here?
“My show is a very loose, funny show. It’s like if I was hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ and I was the host and the entire cast. There’s music. I’m singing. I’m dancing. There’s monologues. All the characters I’ve ever done show up. There’s improvising. I’ll go into the audience and take three guys and turn them into ‘Three Amigos,’ which we shot in Tucson, by the way. Jiminy Glick will interview someone. Franck will come out and discuss the styles of the latest celebrity. Jackie Rogers is there. It’s packed; it moves. It’s a party with Marty.”
Do you still have a lot of fun with these characters?
“Yes. Jiminy Glick is always fun because it’s all improvised. As long as you’re not doing something by rote it’s fun.”
Do you feel the urge to create new characters?
“I create new characters based on what I’m doing. They come out of the work I’m doing. I’m on ‘Mulaney,’ which is a new Fox show, and I’m playing this character Lou Cannon. I’ve never played this kind of character before. In ‘Inherent Vice,’ I play a cocaine-sniffing guy who has sex with barely legal women dentists. Even on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ you would write a sketch, create a character for that sketch and if the character works you would bring him back again. So it’s really developing it through necessity.”
How do you like being back on weekly TV?
“It’s totally fun. I love it.”
Was it hard putting a mirror up to your life to write your memoirs?
“No, not really. You just start writing and then before you know it, it’s written. I have always had an amazing memory. I used to think everyone had it. ... I’ve always been a storyteller anyway and then you realize you’ve had a pretty cool life.”
Your dentist character in “Inherent Vice” sounds a bit funny and a lot twisted.
“I think it’s kind of both. It’s funny in its oddness. It’s not like making ‘Clifford’ or something. But it’s pretty interesting. ... It’s a brilliant director, Paul Thomas Anderson, and it’s pretty cool just to be in this company — Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon and a lot of great people.”
You’ve written books, done TV, live theater, standup and movies. What’s left on your bucket list?
“I’ve been doing this over 40 years now. I’ve had opportunities to direct theater, direct movies, direct television, and that would be the obvious thing I haven’t done. But you kind of go ‘If you wanted to do it, you would have done it.’ I think I just enjoy acting. I enjoy the variety of my career. In this year, for example, I will have done a television series, written a book, done a movie and done concerts on my own and with Steve Martin.”
And is all of that still fun for you?
“I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. I’ve got the rent covered. ... You get to do fascinating things, you get to work with unbelievably fascinating people and this is what I do for a living — I’m an actor.”
