Steve Martin and Martin Short didn't intend to become today's hottest comedy duo, but if they continue with their sidesplitting tour, which stops Friday at Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Red Wing, they may become synonymous with Martin and Lewis or Abbott and Costello. The pair, who first crossed barbs in 1986's "Three Amigos," have taken what started as an onstage conversation and elevated it into a tour de force of song, dance and lightly sauteed insults. The two legends spoke by phone recently.
Martin: Hi, Neal. I'm so glad that your first name has only one syllable, because I'm so tired.
Q: You two were just in the Twin Cities last May. Is there something special about this market?
Martin: The truth is, I don't know why we're coming back. Some kind of demand seems the likely reason.
Short: You don't want to come back to a city too soon, but this is a very creative time for us. After taping the show for Netflix, we went back and came up with fresh material and sketches. About 50 percent of the show will be new.
Q: I get the impression you two didn't intend for this tour to go on as long as it has. What has kept you going?
Short: If we had kept it as just an onstage interview, it would have gotten tiring pretty soon, but we realized that our chemistry and the fun we were having with the pianist Jeff Babko and the Steep Canyon Rangers [Martin's Grammy-winning bluegrass band] were as much fun as we could have anywhere else. It became this creative thing to do.
Martin: The short answer to that question is just: We realized it was really fun to do. Having a really good time is important, especially for me since I'm in my early 70s. It's great to have a place to go with someone I really like: Jeff Babko. I have no interest in doing anything else. I lost interest in movies and television at exactly the same time they lost interest in me.