The actual name of this special is Steve Martin & Martin Short: an evening you will forget for the rest of your life and while i know they meant that to be ironic I think the title is fitting.
If you look online the reviews just rave about how hilarious this thing is but I don't know where they are getting their opinions from. I watched this thing intently for the full run of its just over an hour runtime and I don't think I laughed at all.
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Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not some mumble rap fan who has never heard of these two. Three Amigos is still one of my favorite movies of all time and both of these guys (well, ok, just Steve) hold a special place in my heart as far as growing up is concerned but the jokes they tell are extremely dated and Martin Short just appears to be trying waaaay too hard throughout the entire production.
Martin does impressions where he doesn't sound like the person he is impersonating at all or if his impersonations are accurate we would never know because it is someone like the "head of makeup on Saturday Night Live" - Who TF is that? It's just horrible.
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For me, the biggest problem with this duo performing is that Martin Short is always so over the top and seems to be trying to upstage his friend and co-comedian Steve Martin the entire time. At one point Steve actually leaves the stage in order to allow Martin to have the entire spotlight.
I realize that Martin made his career on being "over the top" but since both of these guys have kind of disappeared from the spotlight in the past 10 years or so, it would have been nice if he had just had some good stand-up material, but no, he doesn't. He is just trying the entire time to be flamboyant and nuts. While the crowd (who paid to be there on purpose) laugh at his stuff, I honestly can't understand what it is that they find amusing.
This special would not have existed if Steve Martin hadn't been 50% of it and as mean as it is to say, I think we can kind of state the same about Martin Short's entire career. Was 3 Amigos funny because of Martin Short or in spite of him? Go ahead and replace him with someone equally as high profile at the time such as Dana Carvey and put him next to Steve Martin and Chevy Chase and what is the end result? It's the same movie.
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When Steve puts on Martin as a puppet pretending to be a ventriloquist... well, that might be the part where the special reached its most cringe. The crowd was laughing but the jokes.... and the bit itself, simply weren't funny. They relied on a slide show at one point, reminiscing about their past and childhood in order to mask the fact that they didn't actually have any comedy material to entertain the crowd with.
from the official Netflix Channel
I hold Steve Martin in high regard because of many things including the time he spent playing banjo with Kermit the Frog on The Muppet Show and a great many legendary films such as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and Roxanne. Martin Short on the other hand, other than Ed Grimley, what is he other than someone riding the coattails of his more famous and more-talented friends?
It probably sounds like I am being mean here but before this special i was rather indifferent to Martin Short. After this special I feel bad for the man and hope he saved enough money to not need any more because I really can't imagine him being a very big draw for anything. He's so unfunny that he drags a legend like Steve Martin down with him in a comedy special.
My overall rating = Awful
Stuff I rate as "Excellent"
Dave Chappelle: Sticks and Stones
Ricky Gervais- Humanity
Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh
Joe Rogan: Strange Times
Dave Chappelle: Equanimity, The Age of Spin, and Deep in the Heart of Texas
The "Really Good" stuff I have seen includes
Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid
Kevin Hart: Irresponsible
Bill Burr: Paper Tiger
The "Decent" stuff I have seen includes
Zach Galifianakis live at the purple onion
Ellen Degeneres: Relatable
Ken Jeong: You Complete me, Ho
Tom Segura: Disgraceful
Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby
And the really not so good to awful stand up is
Amy Schumer: Growing
Amy Schumer: The Leather Special (quite possibly the most unfunny thing I have ever seen)
Donald Glover: Weirdo
Hannibal Buress: Comedy Camisado
Simon Amstell: Set Free
Bert Kreischer - Secret Time
Mo Gilligan: Momentum
Steve Martin and Martin Short: An evening you will forget for the rest of your life