Steve Martin - Comedy Is Not Pretty

For 1979 Steve Martin returned to The Boardinghouse nightclub in San Francisco for his third comedy LP. Comedy Is Not Pretty is rather crude, particularly in Steve's somewhat embarassing sketch on Jackie Onassis. It nonetheless does hold up well, from his accident with a drinking glass onward. His Sound Effects gag is quite funny, and he brings out his Wild & Crazy trademark when he growls that the audience thinks he's A Rubberhead. Googlephonics, dealing with a subject one usually doesn't think about for comedy (stereo systems), is the most interesting track, in large part because it is almost a botch. Steve blows his lines repeatedly during the sketch, and it is here that the laughs come. Steve's banjo gets work in two tracks. Cruel Shoes is the title story from the contemporaneous book he authored, while his deft deployment of the banjo shines brightest in the delightful Drop Thumb Medley. From the taking of histages (the Iran hostage crisis gave the album an eerie topicality at the time of its 1979 release) through Steve's tips on becoming a millionaire, Comedy may not be Pretty, but it is still funny.