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.

Selfie: A Splendid, Silly Delight

Just the fact that it was called Selfie was enough to make most of America turn the TV off when this show premiered last September. I, however, stuck with it, because I was a fan of the lead actors and was keen to see where exactly they planned to go with this show. It got cancelled after seven episodes, but we live in the Internet age, and Hulu aired the remainder of the first season online, where I happily gobbled it up. If you are looking for a sweet, fun show that only requires a 13-episode commitment from your ADD-ravaged mind, I heartily encourage you to check out Selfie.

Karen Gillan (aka Amy Pond from Doctor Who) stars as Eliza Dooley, a narcissistic social media maven who has thousands of friends online but not a single one in real life. She works as a pharmaceutical sales rep alongside Henry Higgs (the impossibly charming John Cho), a straitlaced marketing rep who considers himself an etiquette expert, and is therefore appalled by Eliza's general gracelessness and obsession with her Instagram account. Circumstances conspire (as they always do in sitcoms) to throw these two together in Odd Couple-fashion. Henry becomes Eliza's social mentor, tasked with teaching her how to be polite and charm people in real life instead of on Twitter. Hilarity, naturally, ensues.

It's a slight premise, but in the hands of these two actors, it works marvelously. They have oodles of chemistry and they take this My Fair Lady concept and run with it wholeheartedly. Gillan is happy to put herself in all sorts of embarrassing and awkward situations, while Cho is weirdly likable as an uptight technophobic prig. Like all comedies, the show is slow to warm up, but I really believe it hit its stride in mid season, sadly after it had already been cancelled. If you don't thoroughly enjoy episode 10, something must be wrong with you.

I won't argue that Selfie is in the realm of other cancelled one-season shows that deserve a cult level of acclaim. This is not a televisual masterpiece like Firefly or Wonderfalls. However, Selfie is exactly what it set out to be: a silly sitcom that regularly delivered inanity and laughs and featured two stunningly talented actors that you would happily spend 22 minutes watching every week. I do hope Cho and Gillan get together for a one-off rom com because I do miss their ridiculous chemistry. However, until that happens, you can watch them do their thing for thirteen wacky episodes. If nothing else, it's a perfectly fun way to spend an evening alone because the only friends you have are on Facebook.

The Last Man on Earth: Bizarre & Brilliant

The first season of The Last Man on Earth comprised thirteen episodes, but Fox doubled up on some Sundays so the season already had its triumphant finale a few weeks ago. It will be back next year for Season 2: here's why you should get caught up on this ridiculous show before it returns.

The show is set in 2020 and Will Forte stars as Phil Miller, the eponymous last man on earth after the human race has been wiped out by a virus. He has driven around the United States spray painting billboards with the message, "Alive in Tucson," hoping that anyone else who is alive will see it and find him in Arizona. In the pilot, we see the pathetic life he leads, talking to inanimate objects, decorating his large house with artwork stolen from museums across the country, and lounging in a kiddie pool filled with alcohol. He is sad and lonely, and the pilot is both hilarious and dark at the same time. 

The joy of The Last Man on Earth comes at the very end of the first episode, when it becomes clear that the show's title may no longer be appropriate. And as the season progresses, that title becomes even more irrelevant. I shan't spoil a single detail more because you have to watch the surprises and plot twists unfold for yourself. The show's premise seems to paint it into a corner and yet it has found a simply fantastic way to stretch things out and introduce new complications that leave you with a cliffhanger after every single episode. It's marvelous.

The writing is sharp and clever, the tone is bizarre and hysterical, and the acting is absolutely spot-on. Forte has no reservations about making Phil a thoroughly unlikable character, and that's what allows for hijinx to ensue. It's a great show for binge watching because you can immediately see what the next crazy turn is instead of waiting a whole week for the next installment like I did. The Last Man on Earth is a genre-bending post-apocalyptic sitcom unlike anything else on TV, so give it a try and prepare to get hooked.