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Earlier in the week I wrote of my early appreciation of and exposure to Steve Martin through you can still enter to win two tickets to see “A Conversation with Steve Martin” at The Palace Theater. The contest ends tonight at 11:59pm! Get crackin’!

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Image via Wikipedia

Earlier in the week I wrote of my early appreciation of and exposure to Steve Martin through Saturday Night Live. Another early attachment I have to Martin is through the film “Three Amigos.” The film was an early favorite and bonding moment for my father and I, and continued to serve as a barometer for those with whom I would develop the closest friendships (including friends like Eric and my roommate Steve). I find that if someone likes the film “Three Amigos,” I’m more or less guaranteed to like them.

But it’s not just his film or even his comedic roles that is at the root of my admiration. It is his body of work as a whole. It’s his range as an artist, and the fact that his range does not effect the quality of his work. Martin is not a celebrity who dabbles in different projects with middling (or lesser) results. He’s a legendary comedian, a good director, a wildly entertaining playwright, a fascinating playwright, an engaging orator, and so on and so forth.

He didn’t have to extend himself in the ways that he has through his career, and he certainly isn’t one of those that comes across as pushing his work on the basis that he’s a celebrity. Rather, he does it because he is compelled to do so artistically. That’s something I identify with; not in the sense that I think any of the output I have or will generate is at or neat the quality of his work, but that there’s nothing wrong in doing the things that you want to do and not being afraid to branch out past the expectations of those around you.

That’s why I consider him one of the few people that I’d liken to a role model that continues to push me to do different and varied things.

Which is why I plan on being in attendance on March 30th. I want to hear this man talk about his art, and his continued art. I want to get an insight into what his creative process is and what gives him the right to be a wild and crazy guy and a mad scientist and write two very well received novels and tell the story of a chance meeting between Picasso and Einstein at the Lapin Agile. I want to thank him for showing me that one can be both thoughtful at times and silly at others, and embrace both aspects of life.

Then I want to ask him “what the Hell is that?”