Steve Martin in Jacksonville

Long before the movies, Steve Martin was a kid in Southern California selling guidebooks at Disneyland, later working in a magic shop and performing with a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm. By 1967 he was writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and he shared an Emmy for that work in 1969.

Stand-up made him a star in the late 1970s. His absurd, silly act filled big rooms, and the albums Let's Get Small (1977) and A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978) both won the Grammy for best comedy recording. Film took over from there, with The Jerk (1979), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Parenthood (1989), Father of the Bride (1991) and Bowfinger (1999).

He has never stayed in one lane. His bluegrass album The Crow won a Grammy in 2010, his memoir Born Standing Up came out in 2007, and in 2021 he co-created and began starring in Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. Honors include the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2005), the Kennedy Center Honors (2007) and an honorary Academy Award (2013).

Since 2015 he has toured theaters with Martin Short in a two man show of jokes, songs and banjo, often with the bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers and pianist Jeff Babko. Their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life came out in 2018, the same year the pair brought that show to downtown Jacksonville's performing arts center.