Those Martin Guys

Steve Martin & Martin Short

Pacific Amphitheatre

Costa Mesa, CA

Friday, July 20, 2018

I left work a little early so that I could take the Gold Line a little bit farther from home, to a station by Linda's work.  She drove us down to Costa Mesa to the Orange County fairgrounds, and we were able to park fairly close to the entrance to the amphitheatre.  We were hoping to get some "fair food" because our tickets included entrance to the fair, but couldn't find a way to get into the fair from the amphitheatre area.  We did get fair food by default anyway.  Linda was very irritated about people who cut in line.  Very.  I wanted to get a regular-sized corn dog, but they only had the foot-long available.  They also didn't have any normal-sized french fries, so we decided to order a brick of curly fries.  I did not finish any of my food.  Neither did Linda.  Not surprising.

So nutritious

I wanted an alcoholic beverage since I wouldn't be driving until I got back to my car at my station, so I got a Captain Morgan Island Punch, which they served from their tap.  Does that always come like that?  Or just at the fair?  Anyway, it was yummy and refreshing.   While we waited, I goofed around with Snapchat, so I could show y'all my drink.

The Snapchat shades
match my nails!

We ordered our tickets separately, and somebody must have gotten their tickets immediately after I bought mine, because Linda and I ended up not sitting together as we had tried to plan.  But the nice folks that had the seats offered to move, so Linda and I were able to sit together.  Yay!

We couldn't see the big screens very well from our vantage point, but at least we could see something.  I kind of looked at the screen that was downstage to see some stuff.  The amphitheatre folks need to fix that.

• The show opened with clips of each of them and the different characters they played.  I liked hearing people finish the sentences we all knew, like "two wild and crazy guys" and laughing.
• Martin and Short are hilarious together, especially when they're trying to one-up each other in their insults toward one another.
• They had 3 guys come up on stage and they taught them the Three Amigos salute.  After they taught them, they sang the Three Amigos song and pointed at the guys whenever they wanted them to salute.  They even had them sing "amigos" during the last verse.
• They met on the set of Three Amigos.  I thought they must have met some time before that, like on Saturday Night Live, but no.  Short was the only Amigo that hadn't done a feature film yet.
• They each had some time alone on stage with their own performances.  Martin Short told stories and sat on the piano and did fun stuff with the pianist.  He talked about performing when he was really young and was in an off off Broadway show in the 70s when Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar were the hit shows.  Let's just say that he ended up in a bodysuit and a big 'fro.  
• Steve Martin's part was playing the banjo, then he had the Steep Canyon Rangers join him on stage.  They are excellent!  I might need to see them in their own show.
• My favorite part of the Steep Canyon Rangers portion was their finale, "Auden's Train", wherein the fiddler, Nicky Sanders, was just incredible!  He was jumping around on stage as he played, and I said to Linda, "Now THAT'S a man that loves his job!"  Here is a video of a performance from 2014.  I don't know why the title graphic says "Orange Blossom Special" because it's not.  It borrows from it, though.  Because it's a train!   I like how he sticks in tunes from other songs.
• Steve also showed us his ventriloquist skills, by bringing out a little Jiminy Glick, whom had comments about celebrities as they ran a slide show.  Oh, Jiminy, still so funny!
• Their last piece was "Send In The Clowns", which, of course, they did not do straight-laced. I was wondering if I'd get to hear it done live by my favorite drum corps again soon.   :)
• Oh, that's right, they also had an encore, which was a song about having 5 minutes to play, according to their contract.
• At curtain call, a clown appeared on stage.  Don't bother, they're here.

That was enjoyable. We tried to see if we could go into the fair afterward, but we still couldn't find an entrance nearby, so we sat in Linda's car for awhile as we waited for some of the other cars to leave the lot.  As we left, we saw the Steep Canyon Rangers' bus, and I wondered if they were in there, talking about the show, like they said that they do.

Thanks for the great show, y'all!