A Wild and Crazy Anniversary

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

PRX

Arts

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It was 40 years ago when Steve Martin released the concert album, “A Wild and Crazy Guy.”

These days Martin is known as an actor, a novelist, a playwright, an accomplished banjo player, a major art collector. But before all that, he was best known for wearing a stupid joke arrow on his head – or a pair of rabbit ears.

He wears those rabbit ears, and a white suit, on the cover of “A Wild and Crazy Guy,” his second stand-up comedy album.

That record proved he had command of the full comic spectrum – high-concept surrealism, as well as broad comedy that simultaneously made fun of broad comedy.

Forty years ago this summer, it was the singing voice of Martin that was bellowing out of many car windows He had debuted the novelty song, “King Tut,” in a hilarious performance on Saturday Night Live that spring, and then it was released as a single and peaked at 12 on the Billboard charts in August.

And then that single was released on the comedy album,“A Wild and Crazy Guy.” The album went on to win a Grammy, and hit Number 2 on the Billboard pop album chart.

If you’re a fan of vintage Saturday Night Live, you know the name of the album is the punchline to a sketch he performed there. The Festrunk [FEH-strunk] Brothers – two very 70s Czech immigrants with tight plaid trousers looking to swing with American women.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	from PRX
0:03.4	This is Studio 360.
0:09.1	I'm Kurti Anderson.
0:12.1	On this Studio 360 podcast Extra, we're looking back 40 years when Steve Martin released his concert album A Wild and Crazy Guy.
0:23.4	I think it was the last comedy album I ever bought. These days, Steve Martin is known as an actor,
0:31.0	a playwright, a novelist, a master banjo player, a serious modern art collector. But before all that, when I fell in love with him,
0:39.5	he was best known for wearing a stupid joke arrow on his head. Or a pair of rabbit ears. He wears
0:46.6	those rabbit ears and a white suit on the cover of a wild and crazy guy, which was his second
0:52.1	stand-up comedy album. That record proved that he had command of the full comic spectrum, high concept surrealism,
1:01.5	but also broad comedy that made fun of broad comedy.
1:07.4	Forty years ago this summer, it was the singing voice of Martin that was playing out of car windows all over the country.
1:15.4	Now when I die, now don't think I'm a nut, don't want no fancy funeral, just one like old King Tut.
1:22.7	He had debuted a novelty song, King Tut, in a performance on Saturday Night Live that spring,
1:28.6	and then it was released as a single and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard chart in August.
1:39.0	And then that single came out on the album A Wild and Crazy Guy.
1:46.1	The album hit number two on the pop album charts and went on to win a Grammy.
1:51.5	Of course, if you're a fan of Vintage Saturday Night Live,
1:54.6	you know the name of the album is from a sketch he performed there.
1:58.3	The Festrunk Brothers.
1:59.4	Two very 70s Czech immigrants with tight-plad
2:03.1	trousers looking to swing with American women. To tell the story of the Wild and Crazy
2:08.9	Guy album, we've got an historian. My name is Sheila Motion. I have taught comedy at Northwestern
	...

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