Friday, March 13, 2009

Ed Grimley performs Friday night. Franck Eggelhoffer performs Friday night. And Jiminy Glick performs Friday night.

All three characters will be portrayed by comedian Martin Short at the Peppermill Concert Hall in Wendover, Nev. "It's a one-man variety show," said Short in an interview. "A party with Marty." Short, 58, is a Canada native and veteran of Canada's "Second City TV," "Saturday Night Live" and movies such as "The Three Amigos" and "Father of the Bride."

More performance artist than stand-up comedian, Short will perform a variation of his Broadway show, "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me," which includes famous characters from TV and the movies, as well as telling true stories from his life. "Lots of things I'll
be telling you will be true, and some I will be making up, and see if you can tell the difference -- it will give you something to do," Short joked.

Highlights should be his characterizations of Grimley (a hyperactive, "Wheel of Fortune"-obsessed geek with a large frontal cowlick, made famous on "SCTV" and "SNL"), Franck Eggelhoffer (the eccentric wedding planner who stole scenes from Steve Martin in the "Father of the Bride" films) and Glick (an obnoxious, obese and self-important TV personality who asks celebrities inane questions).

These are some of the most popular characters Short has portrayed over the years, though the comic operates on the assumption that the audience needs to be introduced to them as if it has never seen them before. "If you do an obscure character, you can't just assume that everyone in your audience is a Martin Short freak who has a scrapbook of your career in their attic," he said.

The Glick audiences will see will look slightly different from the TV Glick, though. He'll be wearing a mask instead of fat-neck makeup. "If I ask the audience to wait for 2 1/2 hours while I get the makeup, I'm not sure I'll still have them," he said.
Short, while acting as Glick, will reprise his most cringe-worthy yet hilarious bit from "Fame Becomes Me": He will invite an audience member onstage and "ask them the hard-hitting Jiminy questions," he said. (As Glick, he once asked "Juno" star Allison Janney why it was a movie "about people who refuse to be positive about Jews." Glick told her the movie should be called "Jew-Yes!")

Short is developing an HBO series called "Off My Meds" and has signed on to appear in the "Arrested Development" movie, yet he said he prefers live performances.

"Using television as an example, if you commit to a series, you're on that series," he said. "You do it all the time. If you're the head of it, it's endless work. And if you're not, you're the victim of the latest edit. The trick is, when you get to a point in your career when you're no longer worrying about paying rent, what you're really trying to do is keeping yourself interested. For me, I find the freedom of coming in to do a show in Wendover, and doing that show, and leaving, is fun. You work a couple days a week, and you play tennis."

Martin Short
When: Tonight at 8
Where: Peppermill Concert Hall, 1045 Wendover Blvd., West Wendover, Nev.
Tickets: $40 to $75 at wendoverfun.com or calling 800-537-0207

Here's Glick: