As the story famously goes, Martin Short showed up at Steve Martin's house before filming "The Three Amigos," released in 1986, and while admiring Martin's art collection asked, "How did you afford this? I've seen your work."
Three decades later, the two are still very close friends and in 2015 decided to hit the road together, performing in theaters across the country. Martin told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in a Zoom call last month that the original idea was to simply interview each other, but that the show, which stops at Chattanooga's Memorial Auditorium on Oct. 15, has grown and improved to the point of being an actual theatrical show.
"When we started, we didn't have a show," he said. We just interviewed each other. But slowly it started to develop into a real show, and we've been perfecting it ever since. We are constantly finding humor and doing bits. It takes eight years to develop something like this."
The performers, too, have gotten better, Martin said.
"I have to say I've improved. I've gotten better. In my career, I never really delivered jokes."
"You're telling me," Short quickly added.
Martin was on Zoom from his home office in New York, and Short was on his back porch in Canada. The conversation was a stark contrast to their last interview with the TFP when they were constantly riffing on each other's comments. The quip above is the only jab attempted. For this interview, the two were on point and businesslike.
Whether discussing their friendship, the comedy tour or their work together on "Only Murders in the Building," the one word that kept coming up was "fun."
"We have so much fun doing it," Short said of the tour. "It's tied to the Steep Canyon Rangers and (musician) Jeff (Babko). The hang is great, and the after-show hang is great."
Martin conceived the idea for the hit Hulu show, which also stars Selena Gomez, about three people living in a New York apartment building who create a podcast to discuss and solve a murder that happened in their building. He said he wasn't originally hoping to star in it and wasn't even planning to pitch it at first.
"Very simply, I came up with the idea and at a casual lunch with a couple of producers, I wasn't even going to pitch it because I don't want to do a television show, but they said, 'Would you be in it?'
"My immediate reaction was, 'No,' but I said I'd do it if Marty would be in it, because I knew it would be fun."
Short said he immediately said yes to doing the project because "Everyone involved was impressive, and I thought the idea was great. Every element seemed ideal, and I knew it would be fun."
Martin said his original idea did not include the podcast element, but that John Hoffman, who is credited as co-creator for the show, conceived the idea. For Martin, the show has the added bonus of being a mystery.
"I've always wanted to do a mystery," he said. "You always want to know who did it. Even if you are watching and it's a lousy one, you gotta see who did it."
He said they are often asked how long they would be willing to do the show and how long it can last, given that theoretically there can only be so many murders in a building.
"That's the joke," he said. "'With 'Murder She Wrote,' everywhere she (Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher character) went, there was a murder."
Both said they would keep doing the show forever, "As long as it's fun."
While the show is a relative hit for Hulu, they said it has not changed their lives in any way.
"The business has changed so much," Martin said. "Before, there were three networks and if you were in a hit show, everybody saw it. Now you can be in a hit show that everybody doesn't see."
"It's a nice compliment, though, to hear from people," Short said.
IF YOU GO
— What: Steve Martin & Martin Short: You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today, with music by Jeff Babko & Steep Canyon Rangers
— When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15
— Where: Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave.
— Admission: $65-$250
— Phone: 423-757-5580
— Online: tivolichattanooga.com
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Follow him on Twitter @BarryJC.