Steve Martin – Be so good they can't ignore you [video]

But, he is funny. Maybe not your brand of humor, but one thing Steve Martin did bring to the table was his own unique brand of humor. And this is what he brought to his movies, too. You watched a movie with Steve Martin? You knew what you were getting, and you wanted it.

I think Steve forgot to add that you need to be so good, they can't ignore you and you also need to have a brand that they can't ignore nowadays.

Just look at The Rock. He has a brand, and a particular style - and he doesn't deviate. And he's wildly successful because of it.

So, here's a really, really good somebody. How does it matter? He at least has to deliver his greatness to somebody else - and that's already a question, since that somebody else could be subjective, not competent, not interested etc. So our somebody, let's call him A, has to deliver to somebody special, let's call her B. Then what? Suppose that B is impressed - does it matter for other people? It might - but then again that requires certain conditions, which further constrain B and also put some constraints to those other people, C. Or A should be specifically great so that there are enough of B's who can, each independently, realize A's greatness. In addition to constraints on C, there are additional constraints on A - for example, A's abilities should be (e.g.) public.

I'd assume there are cases when there are truly great people - more than we usually think - which are almost completely ignored by others as a whole, because to be great enough at something public enough is a rather tall order. In addition there are less-great A's, who, even if well known, aren't considered good enough to often enough be not ignored.

So, it's like an advice from a billionaire about how to become a millionaire, from his perspective. In practice, the advice is both rather trivial and rather useless. I wonder if Steve Martin had a deeper thought at the moment.

This is one of Martin's breakout performances on the Tonight Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN0G0hP7n-s

Compare that to the eloquent and socially poignant hilarity that is Richard Pryor's comedy album from the same year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjv7oEqv92U