Steve Martin and Martin Short would like everyone to know that An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, their new comedy special on Netflix, is not a throwback vying for the way things were. "People say they want to see it, but I know they really don't," Martin told The New York Times when asked about audiences preferring his greatest hits. "One thing we love about our show is that it's not a nostalgia tour." Or as Short put it, "I don't think you'd want to see Charlie Chaplin at 68 come out with his cane." Perhaps they're right.
Then again, an 82-year-old Chaplin graced the Oscars stage with his presence in 1972, when the Academy gave him an honorary award for his previous contributions. The famous writer, director and actor had hardly done any filmmaking since Sen. Joseph McCarthy branded him a communist in 1952. Nor did Chaplin perform for the Oscar voters that night, but that didn't negate the scope of his impact. Even now, historical figures like him are celebrated, and Martin and Short can surely include themselves in such company.
So why are they so reticent to embrace nostalgia?
After all, An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life is quite literally a celebration of bygone forms of entertainment. From title cards reminiscent of those used during the silent film era, to vaudevillian acts not unlike those that petered out in the 1930s, Martin and Short's new comedy special is quite literally a nostalgia tour by design. Even if they rarely reference or perform their earlier, more popular work, much of what they do together onstage is nostalgic, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Unless, of course, you want Martin to wear a fake arrow through his head, or Short to perform one of his Ed Grimley routines. If that's all viewers are interested in, then perhaps it's best they rewatch footage from the former's stadium concert days or scour the internet for classic SCTV and Saturday Night Live clips featuring the latter. It's all online (and then some), so in a manner of speaking, Martin was right to insist this isn't a nostalgia tour. But it is, and that's perfectly alright. Throwbacks to vaudeville, the heyday of the comedy roasts and musical interludes abound in today's popular culture, albeit in altered, less ubiquitous forms.
The late night talk show format in the United States, for example, is littered with the remnants of these art forms. And interestingly enough, these are the very places where Martin and Short have thrived in the past few decades. Short recently told Vulture about the great lengths he would go to prepare for a David Letterman interview, and The New Yorker declared he was one of the "greatest" guests of all time. The article also names Martin as one of the late night greats, both for the amount of work he put into every appearance and his dedication to making each one a unique experience.
Considering the sheer variety of what both men did for each guest appearance over the years, it's no surprise that their Netflix special (and the tour it's based on) is comprised of some playful roasts, numerous musical numbers and what looks an awful lot like a talk show-esque conversation. (They even employ chairs, a table and requisite water glasses for this bit.) And frankly, all of this can easily be tied to nostalgia. The show format, the style, many of the premises and punchlines for the jokes they tell -- all of it is nostalgic. Martin and Short might as well embrace it, because their audience has.
Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life is now available to stream on Netflix.
