Lets Get Small

Throughout his stellar debut, Steve Martin hams it up as a hokey gagman and banjo player hopelessly out of step with modern times. He’s Roy Rogers stranded in a world of disco-cool. At the same time, his shtick reveals a wealth of deliciously nonsensical layers. He routinely melts into animated gibberish bordering on the psychedelic (“Vegas”), or jump-cuts to self-referential commentary that draws attention to his own ridiculousness (“Funny Comedy Gags”). Never has comedy been at once so cerebral and so foolish.