Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guy (1978)

As a follow-up to Let's Get Small, I listened to Wild and Crazy Guy. Side One of this album (I still have a turntable) is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. It's smart, clever, "in," likeable, and mostly not dated.  The material about the French language is priceless, and an all-time favorite of mine.

Side two is interesting, because it's after he hit mega-stardom and audiences screamed at every word he said, even the non-punchlines. I saw him during a show like this, and it was closer to mass hysteria than anything else -- not far from the Beatles in '63 or '64, I imagine. This material is funniest when he's playing with the idea of having several thousand fans who basically do anything he says (the "crimestoppers" and "non-conformist oath" material is my favorite; the wild-and-crazy-guy stuff holds up the worst, though I loved it the most back in the day).

This is a great album to get a sense of life in 1978, and it's also really funny.

Steve Martin's Let's Get Small

Listened to it again recently, and laughed an awful lot. It's definitely showing its age, but there is some really funny stuff on this album. I'm laughing now just thinking about the joke for the plumbers. Plus, it's probably available on vinyl in every used record store in America.

Let's Get Small @ARTISTdirect

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