Demetri Martin

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Friday 5th April 2019

Ladies and gents, be upstanding: it's only one of America's best stand-ups, coming to Britain in mid-April for three big-city gigs and gracing British Comedy Guide with a good trawl through the highlights and lowlights - and a few lowlifes - of his on-stage history.

Right up there with Aston, Remy and Dean in the World Series of classy Martins, Demetri's shows sometimes feature an acoustic guitar, often include splendid drawings, and are always awash with big thoughts on small subjects, and small thoughts on big subjects. So how does the new one work?

"I'm touring with about 75 minutes of new material," says Martin, of Wandering Mind. "I tend to write a lot when I'm touring, so each night I sprinkle in some brand-new jokes to see if they might stay in the show going forward. I'm doing lots of one-liners along with some longer bits and a story here and there. I've got some new drawings and a little bit of music in the show."

Classic Martin. Or is it?

"If there are any notable departures from my previous work it would be in the improvisation each night (which, of course, varies from show to show) and in the staging of some of the bits I do. I like how the show is coming together and the crowd responses have been great. So far, so good."

Sofas are always good. Now let's head back, a surprisingly long way in fact, to the mid-1990s.

First gig?

My first gig was on Bastille Day in July of 1997. I didn't plan it that way to commemorate the holiday or anything, it just happened to be that day. There were probably about 80 people in the crowd in a small comedy club in Greenwich Village, New York City. I did 12 jokes. Six of them got laughs.

After the show I was thrilled. My second gig was the very next night in a different room - a bar in Midtown Manhattan. I did the same 12 jokes. None of them got laughs. After the show I was not thrilled. I was confused.

Favourite show, ever?

I don't know if I have a single favourite. There have been many that I've enjoyed and many that I have not. I will say that for me, after so many gigs, I have found that the highs are not as high and the lows are not as low.

These days the shows I have the most fun doing are the ones where I improvise a lot and feel a genuine, spontaneous connection with the crowd. That happens more and more, so maybe that will lead me to the single favourite gig of my career. Maybe.

Worst gig?

One that does stand out, at least as an emotional memory, is the gig I mentioned earlier - my second gig ever. It was the first time I really bombed and it was quite a surprise, because foolishly I thought the jokes that had worked once were officially 'funny' jokes. Of course, I learned quickly that second night that it is all so relative and subjective.

That was my first lesson in just how uncertain this career that I was about to pursue would be. I don't know if it was the most horrendous gig, but the feeling I had while I was bombing and the feeling I had after the show are still quite vivid. I was on such a high the night before and I had such a boost of confidence from that first show that the fall felt that much greater the second night.

It was, for me, an unprecedented mix of surprise, rejection, failure and confusion. It took me a couple weeks to get back up and do another gig. But after that I started to understand the process and it never quite stung like that again.

Which one person influenced your comedy life most significantly?

The one person who influenced my comedy most significantly was my father. He was not a comedian, but he was a performer, in a sense. He was a Greek Orthodox Priest.

He was born in America, in Brooklyn, NY. He and my mother were both Greek-American. My dad loved comedy and had a wonderful sense of humor. He was silly and clever. He was sharp and quick-witted but at the same time he wasn't ever mean or derisive. He had a warmth to him that was unique and authentic. And I think he had great taste in comedy, which he shared with me from an early age.

He introduced me to the comedy of people like Peter Sellers and George Carlin. He often did 'bits' of his own, joking around with friends, with us, with everyone. I don't think I knew what 'bits' were at the time, but looking back I can understand how he related to people in those terms.

Even as a child, I knew how funny he was, whether I understood what people were laughing at or not. But he always made people laugh, and people always seemed drawn to him. I feel lucky to have had a father like that.

And who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?

There have been some real beauties in that category. So far, there is no clear winner, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to crown a winner before it's all said and done. So far, some of the contenders include pricks such as Steven, Rich, Peter and Arnold.

None of them are performers. None of them are famous, but each of them has taught me in their own special way just how shitty people can be to each other in this business. Thanks, assholes.

Is there one routine/gag you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?

So many. Because I write lots of jokes and most of them are quite short, it often feels like there are many casualties when I'm trying out new material. Often I have a joke that I'm excited to tell, and then when I tell it I discover that it is only funny to me.

Sometimes I can tweak the joke (make it clearer, make it longer, make it shorter) and then it works. But often there is nothing I can do. I have a running list of jokes and bits that fall into this category. Every now and then I pull one from the pile and try it out again. Sometimes the joke will suddenly work, but usually the joke gets nothing and I have to throw it pack into the pile in the back of my head.

I used to feel bad about it, but now I've come to enjoy the mystery of the whole process. It's humbling and puzzling. It's one of the things I like about telling jokes to live audiences. I can never really figure it out. It keeps me coming back.

You did some talk-show writing; do you have any good tips for how to thrive in a writers' room?

I wasn't there for too long, but I did enjoy it while I was there. I don't know if this is the sort of tip that works for everyone, but I tried to listen as much as I could.

I tend to be a little more introverted anyway, but in the writers' room I found it helpful to allow myself to listen and learn as much as I could. I always sought input that could better inform my output. I think the input you gather to work with is at least as important as the output you generate. Sometimes it's harder to be quiet and study, but I never regret it.

The most memorable review, heckle or post-gig reaction?

Thankfully I stopped reading any reviews of my work in 2009. It was after the premiere of my TV comedy series on Comedy Central in the States called Important Things With Demetri Martin. I was excited about the show and its debut, and started to read reviews of the show.

Most were positive, but a few were not. And there was some pretty mean shit in a couple of them. I realised then that reading people's opinions about my work wasn't helping me, so I decided to avoid reading any reviews, positive or negative, in the future. So far, so good.

How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?

Right now I feel about my career the way I usually do: frustrated and restless. I'm happy I have a career in comedy but there is so much I am behind on. There are lots of ideas I've started to work on but haven't finished. I wish I could be more productive and finish things faster.

At the same time I have to remind myself to lighten up, because none of it really matters.