{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Comedian Steve Martin shows off banjo skills on tour' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c1afd8eafeecae154083' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c1afd8eafeecae154083' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nComedian Steve Martin shows off banjo skills on tour\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003emusic/video/performance rights must be clearedAP TelevisionLos Angeles, 19 March 20101. Wide exterior of Congo2. Wide of Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band on stage3. Medium of Steve Martin posing with a banjo for...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003emusic/video/performance rights must be cleared\u003cbr/\u003eAP Television\u003cbr/\u003eLos Angeles, 19 March 2010\u003cbr/\u003e1. Wide exterior of Congo\u003cbr/\u003e2. Wide of Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band on stage\u003cbr/\u003e3. Medium of Steve Martin posing with a banjo for photo shoot\u003cbr/\u003e4. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Martin/Actor-Musician, on preferring music over stand up comedy:\u003cbr/\u003e\"Well I much prefer playing music. Because comedy, when you''re on stage it never stops. It never stops being worrying. But a song lasts three minutes. It was the first time I''ve ever looked out into the audience and instead of them either laughing or not laughing, people are going hmm, hmm, hmm (he says with a blissful expression) and it''s like, Oh, that''s comforting.\"\u003cbr/\u003e5. Wide of Steve Martin with band on stage, telling a joke\u003cbr/\u003e6. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Martin/Actor-Musician, on his first interest with the banjo:\u003cbr/\u003e\"I heard some records with the banjo on it, first through the Kingston Trio, and it was like my ears were trying to part away the other instruments and focus on what is that instrument, and I''ve always loved it. And I think that''s the first time I heard it, was on the Kingston Trio folk music records. And then I heard Earl Scruggs and that changed everything.\"\u003cbr/\u003e7. Wide of the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band performing on stage\u003cbr/\u003e8. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Martin/Actor-Musician, on learning the banjo:\u003cbr/\u003e\"Well you can''t be really self-taught. I had a friend John McEwan who helped me. I learned from records, I learned from Earl Scruggs'' book, I learned from Pete Seeger''s book. I was also a comedian on stage and I just took it on stage with me. When you''re playing on stage, you learn really quick.\"\u003cbr/\u003e9. Wide of the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band performing on stage\u003cbr/\u003e10. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Martin/Actor-Musician, on different banjo tunes:\u003cbr/\u003e\"I find it very exciting. I find it very melancholy sometimes. I mean you play this on the banjo (strums) and it''s upbeat and you play this (strums)and it''s melancholy, I mean it goes without saying with all music, but it''s especially true on the banjo.\"\u003cbr/\u003e11. Close up of Steve Martin playing the banjo\u003cbr/\u003e12. SOUNDBITE (English) Steve Martin/Actor-Musician, on making music and making movies:\u003cbr/\u003e\"I like it all, but I''m finding that certainly music introduces me to a whole new group of people that I really, really like. And that it uses another part of my brain and it''s just another experience for me, another discipline, that''s really fun and unusual.\"\u003cbr/\u003e13. Wide of the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band performing on stage\u003cbr/\u003eWith no introduction or celebrity fanfare, Steve Martin steps onstage with the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band, a banjo strapped to his chest.\u003cbr/\u003eHe''s not there to tell jokes, though he manages to squeeze in a few. He''s there to play music - songs from his Grammy-winning bluegrass album, \"The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.\"\u003cbr/\u003eMartin tells the crowd he met the band at a party in North Carolina, \"but when we''re in California, I tell people we met in rehab.\"\u003cbr/\u003eWith that, he begins to play, with such conviction and skill that he''s clearly not joking. \u003cbr/\u003eA banjo player for 45 years, Martin says he wrote every song in the hour-long set, just as he did all 15 tracks on his album, which spent a year at the top of Billboard''s bluegrass charts. \u003cbr/\u003eHe toured the country playing banjo last year and is embarking on a second nationwide tour on April 19. The Steep Canyon Rangers serve as his backup band.\u003cbr/\u003eThe 64-year-old actor-writer-musician says he fell in love with the banjo the first time he heard it during the 1960s folk-music craze.\u003cbr/\u003e\"It was just the sound of it,\" Martin said in an interview before taking the stage. \"It was like my ears were trying to part away the other instruments and focus on what is that instrument, and I''ve always loved it.\"\u003cbr/\u003eHe told the audience inside the 250-seat Largo theater that he appreciates the banjo''s \"elements of sadness and melancholy - like the expression on my agent''s face when I told him I wanted to do a banjo tour.\"\u003cbr/\u003eWhen Martin talks about music with a reporter, though, there are no jokes. He approaches the subject with the same earnestness and focus that he does his writing and acting projects, pausing intermittently to pick away on the banjo in his lap.\u003cbr/\u003eAfter spending two months on the road with the Steep Canyon Rangers last year and winning a Grammy in January, Martin has become an accidental ambassador for the banjo and bluegrass music.\u003cbr/\u003eHe speculates that only half the crowd at any of his concerts are there for the bluegrass and banjo music, but says they all go away very happy.\u003cbr/\u003eWhile Martin plans to keep up with writing (he has a novel coming out in November) and acting (his next film is \"The Big Year\" with Jack Black and Owen Wilson), it seems his heart is in his music.\u003cbr/\u003e\"I like it all, but I''m finding that certainly music introduces me to a whole new group of people that I really, really like,\" he says. \"It uses another part of my brain and it''s just another experience for me, another discipline, that''s really fun and unusual.\"\u003cbr/\u003eTouring is nothing new for Martin, who used to play the stand up circuit. But playing music on the road is different from telling jokes.\u003cbr/\u003e\"Well I much prefer playing music. Because comedy, when you''re on stage it never stops. It never stops being worrying. But a song lasts three minutes. It was the first time I''ve ever looked out into the audience and instead of them either laughing or not laughing, people are going hmm, hmm, hmm  and it''s like, Oh, that''s comforting.\"\u003cbr/\u003eHis latest tour begins in Detroit and includes stops at the New Orleans Jazz Fest and the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. He''s also planning to write a second banjo album. Just as he can''t keep comedy out of his concerts, a laugh or two might also sneak onto the new album.\u003cbr/\u003eMartin says his next song is going to be called ''Women Like to Slow Dance,'' - a song he says that they will make really fast. \u003cbr/\u003eBack on stage at Largo, Martin keeps the crowd smiling with his special mix of finger-picked five-string comedy.\u003cbr/\u003e\"I try to write songs based on personal experience,\" he says. \"This next one is called ''I Think My Masseuse is Too Chatty.''\"\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv 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