A Chat with Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me's Comedy All Stars

To kick things off, how and when did you each become involved with the show?

Capathia – Well Marc Shaiman called me last year around March, and said "I've been writing this show with Martin Short, and we've written this role for you. I know that you have a sense of humor, but I've written this song for you and I want to send it over and see what you think. And that song was "Stop the Show." I heard that song, and was like "Sign me up, I want to do it!" So I've been a part of this show since last March.

Nicole - I came in a little bit later, last fall at one of the workshops, which was in September.

Mary – Me too

Brooks – And I did the first reading…

Nicole - in 1993…

Brooks – in 1946

<laughter>

Capatahia – But who called you?

Brooks – Well, I got the call from Martin Short, which was interesting…

Capathia – I got Marc Shaiman, one of the writers – he got the big guy!

Brooks – And I heard that Capathia was doing the show, so I tried to get out of it, but I couldn't say no to Marty! We did that first reading together a year ago March

Nicole - Yeah, so it was after that that Mary and I came aboard… I Googled "Martin Short," and said – "oh, he's that guy, ok, I'll go ahead with it."

And you of course had worked with him before, Brooks?

Brooks – We had done Little Me together 8, 9 years ago – but I said yes anyway for this.

What has the experience of working with Martin Short been like?

Nicole - Well, is he going to hear this?

Brooks – Yeah, is this being published?

Yes…

Mary – Oh good, cause he's the greatest..

Nicole - He's amazing…

Mary – Ok, ok, he's a consummate professional.

Nicole - I feel like working with Marty is like being on recess with a couple of 10 minute breaks for playtime in between. He loves for everyone to jump in and give their own ideas, and I think that every one of us has our own stamp on our characters, and our own voice in the show and he champions us, which I think is great.

Brooks – that's a good answer, it's not at all true, but it's publishable!

Nicole - I think that it's safe to say that he has more energy than all of us. Like literally, I can't imagine it -- it's boundless.

The show had two out of town tryouts, one in Toronto and then the second in Chicago – how has the show evolved?

Brooks – It's stayed the same since the first day… I'm kidding, it's actually evolved quite a bit.

Mary – We were actually just backstage yesterday talking about this. Someone was shouting out random lines from the first reading that only we remember, ranging from "tube steaaaaaak" to "I Love You Nurse Hennesey" that only we remember, but it still cracks us up. It means nothing to anyone but us, but we peed in our pants!

Brooks – It really has changed, and I don't think till we got to New York that we ever really did the same show twice. And the only other time that things didn't change between shows was the one where we couldn't rehearse. But, things were changing constantly.

Nicole - Things changed all the time and sometimes before we went right on stage.

Mary – and sometimes between the matinee and evening show too!

Capathia – Marty would come over 5 minutes before we went on, and say "ok, I'm changing things – I'm going to say this, and then you're going to say this..." and all that you're thinking is: what, in 5 minutes? How?

Nicole - And many times in those 5 minutes before going on, you'd get totally new lyrics that you never had a chance to learn or a chance to rehearse.

Capathia – Sometimes, mine would come out during the song as "blah, blah, blah"

Nicole - I remember that! I told her that she sang the hell out of "blah, blah, blah" – very committed!

Capathia – <singing> blah, blah, blaaah-- and Marc Shaiman did try to take credit for those "blah, blah, blah"! lyrics after the show…

Mary – Seriously, it has changed a lot…

Nicole - We used to be two acts, and we took out the intermission and smashed it all together into one act. It's changed a lot.

Mary – There was a juggler that we once tried…

Brooks – It's certainly changed more than anything else I've ever been involved with and even more than that, it's changed more than anything I've ever even heard about. The most changes ever!

How much input did you have during that process on the show itself, and your characters?

Mary – There was a suggestion box – and we filled out a customer comment card after every rehearsal.

Brooks – One of the great things about Marty, that Nicole was talking about earlier, is that we basically had a lot of input. We had a say about the things that we did, and that the show as a whole was doing.

Nicole – Whether it was sitting in his room one night after the show talking or a discussion in rehearsal, or after rehearsal – there was always time to talk about the show.

Brooks – And to talk about other people behind their backs!

Nicole – Yeah

Capathia – That's part of the process…

Brooks – You know, we'd say things like "Why can't we get rid of that Nicole?"

Nicole – I didn't know about that, that's good to know, thanks…

Capathia – That's why it's helpful to just be around all the time, because they can't talk about you.

Brooks – Yeah, some of us never left, that way we knew no one could be alone to talk about us.

Nicole – Exactly, I slept at the theatre…

Mary – To ensure that no one said anything…

Nicole – I didn't go home, I didn't wash my hair…

Brooks – She still hasn't, it's disgusting!

In the show, you each get to do a number of hilarious impersonations – were those ones that you had developed before hand, or just for this show?

Mary – Sort of a mixture. I'd say that most of us came with in our bag of tricks, fully loaded, but then other things sort of popped in. Like Brooks Ashmanskas', earth shatteringly accurate Martin Sheen…

Brooks – Yup

Nicole – I've done some of mine for a while, like on MAD TV… I saw a couple of episodes a few weeks ago, on Comedy Central, and I was doing Renee (Zellweger) and it was so bad! It was horrible! It was nothing like what I do now, which I'm happy with, but it's terrible because those episodes are still out there, it's like oh my god, that really wasn't good, but it's out there!

Brooks – Running on a loop on Comedy Central!

Nicole – It was just very underdeveloped, me just making a bunch of faces and it just didn't have a voice, it didn't have anything. I've hopefully been able to improve them!

Mary – Now all that we hope is that those people don't show up!

Is there a plan if they do show up?

Nicole – Yes, we do Guys & Dolls!

Capathia – Well, nobody will tell you guys (that they're at the show) until after anyway…

Brooks - …and then we all start crying!

Mary – Then you would see a notice backstage, and probably a subpoena!

Do each of you have a favorite part of the show?

Brooks – I like to watch other people...

Mary – Change! He likes to watch us change.

Brooks – I admit it, I like to watch women change.

Mary – He makes us uncomfortable…

Nicole – I have favorite moments for everyone in the show. I love Capathia coming in and singing her song, I love Brooks on the stilts as Tommy Tune, trying to cross his legs, but it taking 5 minutes, and I love watching Mary play the mother in the Christmas scene from offstage. I really also think that the Golden Globe scene is a blast. I think it's fun playing Renee and Jody…

Brooks – I love that scene too, because it's the one time that I'm out in the house getting ready to make my entrance so I just get to see them do Renee Zellweger and Jodie Foster and it's just gross it's so funny.

Capathia – And I love Marty in the attic…

Nicole – Yeah, I love that too… because it's never the same twice and you really get to see his comic genius.

Mary – And Jiminy (Glick) because we're offstage, and just get to change and relax and watch him do what he does. It's fun, especially if the guest is kind of bad, that sweetens the deal because then we know that he's out there…

Brooks – Suffering!

Mary – Trying to wring 'em out

Nicole – And we laugh offstage!

Capathia – And I laugh on stage – so does Marc (Shaiman)…

Nicole – I know!

Capathia – It's so damn unprofessional!

How do the guests get chosen for that segment?

Brooks – It gets set up… If there's a celebrity, they get asked, but not told what specifically it is, they'll just say yeah, I'll get up on stage. They might be told that it's for an interview with Jiminy Glick. That's about it, and they tell us before we do that number, that gets them up on stage.

And who arranges that?

Brooks – The stage manager does, or sometimes the press office if it's a celebrity. If we don't have someone famous, the stage manager will just go out and ask someone who's sitting on an aisle somewhere!

Mary – Basically anyone that seems willing and reasonably sane…

Nicole – Which really narrows it down.

Brooks – To about 2 people per audience.

Any favorite guests so far?

Brooks – There was that older guy, who was…

Nicole – Yeah, the Scottish guy, he was hilarious.

Brooks – Do you remember him? He was brilliant

Capathia – He was great!

Mary – He was just quintessentially this older Scottish guy, who might have been a little crazy, and he'd say things like "this is a 16^th century pub song, and then he'd sing.."

Nicole – And he'd match or top Jiminy in everything that he said which was great…

Capathia – For example, Jiminy says he has a border collie that he's trained to hump his leg, and this guy said that he had 2 border collies.

Brooks – He actually topped Marty, which doesn't happen very often.

Capathia – He was really, really great.

Nicole – I thought that David Schwimmer was very good too…

Brooks – Yeah, he was very funny..

Nicole – We had Rulan Gardner, the Olympic Wrestler from a few years back and he talked about carrying the flag into the stadium during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies

Brooks – And you couldn't say anything, it was so moving!

Nicole – Everyone was crying and going oh my God, this is amazing.

Brooks – We couldn't tell jokes…

Nicole – That's because we were up there thinking – who are we? Up here doing our fan kicks?

Have there been bad guests?

Brooks – Well sure, but it's not even about them. Especially with anyone getting up there on stage, it's uncomfortable, and they're up there being interviewed by this idiot Jiminy Glick and if they're not able to react to him fast enough, then he just has to keep talking, and I like to watch that too sometimes, because we love to watch him suffer.

Mary – It's very interesting, how many regular folks, not celebrities are so comfortable up there on stage. I think that speaks to the time that we're in these days. There was a day when people would be freaked out by that and by being up on stage, but now people are so accustomed to there being cameras around, and to all that reality stuff, so it's just different.

Brooks – Sometimes it's better when you have a "normal person" rather than a celebrity, because when it's a celebrity, the audience is waiting for them to deliver lines of their own and the poor guy has just been dragged up on stage.

Nicole – Yeah, they feel pressure to perform. I think that it's not if it's a good or a bad guest, it's that you're getting up there, so my hat's off to them.

<takes hat off>

Brooks – My God, look at that bald spot!

Nicole – I think the trick is that if you're with Jiminy then it's not supposed to be about you, it's about him.

Mary – You're supposed to answer the questions, but also to let him do his thing and to take over and that's when it really works…

Any quick final parting thoughts?

Nicole - Everyone should come see the show…

Mary – And it's a different show every night, that's the special thing about this show. Les Mis it is not.

Nicole – Every night is a different revolution.

Capathia – Tell them that if you want to come, you have to be ready and willing to laugh a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!

Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, a new musical starring the Tony Award-winning funnyman, opened on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street) on Thursday, August 17, 2006. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.martinshortthemusical.com.

Photo Credit: Opening night curtain call by Walter McBride, all other photos by Paul Kolnik