I Must Say: Martin Short's Showbiz Tales

I am a fan of the celebrity memoir. And often, the less I know a person's work, the more I am entertained by their autobiography, because it reveals so many surprising insights into their life. Therefore, as someone with only a passing acquaintance with Martin Short, I was thoroughly delighted by his memoir, I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend.

As the title suggests, this book is chock-full of entertaining showbiz stories and name-dropping galore. But throughout it all, Short is a grounded, sensible Canadian, never letting success get to his head and always reinventing himself so he can continue to perform and do what he loves. He begins at the beginning, the youngest of five kids, living a comfortable life in Toronto. However, as is so often the case with the early lives of comedians, tragedy struck when Short was a teenager, making him independent much too early. Thankfully he had the support of his rowdy siblings, and he was well provided for, enabling him to complete college and begin his foray into that business which we call show.

Short's early career was positively charmed, kicking off with an acclaimed production of Godspell in Toronto that starred a who's who of hitherto unknown but soon to be famous actors like Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, and Eugene Levy. When a bunch of his friends made the leap to Saturday Night Live, he passed, and instead took his improv chops to the weird and equally acclaimed SCTV. Here he honed his personal comedic style and developed a lot of the bizarre characters who would become his regulars when he finally did make the leap to SNL in 1984. The book is sprinkled with little sketches featuring his better known characters and offers a fabulous insight into his creativity and deep understanding of just what makes these characters tick. And I've heard the audiobook is fantastic. because it is read by Short so these sections feel more like you're listening to a stand-up album than a memoir.

While the celebrity tales are fun, the true joy of this memoir lies in Short's ability to reflect candidly on his life and discuss all the moments of self-doubt, burnout, and insecurity that plagued him alongside his personal and professional successes. His philosophy to keeping his life balanced is quite valuable (his agent even wanted him to publish it and get in on the self-help craze) and his stories about his wife Nancy, who he was married to for 30 years, illustrate what this man prioritizes in life. Fame and fortune are grand, but he really understands that the people around him are what make his life so great. So pick up a copy of I Must Say, and delve into the wise comedic words of  a man who seems to have got it all pretty well figured out.