Let's Get Small - Misplaced Pages

1977 live album by Steve Martin

Let's Get Small

Live album by Steve Martin

Released

1977

Recorded

1977

Venue

The Boarding House, San Francisco, California

Genre

Comedy

Length

38:10

Steve Martin chronology

Let's Get Small
(1977)

A Wild and Crazy Guy
(1978)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Village Voice	B

Let's Get Small (1977) is an album by American comedian Steve Martin. It includes "Excuse Me", a comedy bit whose title went on to become a national catchphrase. The album went platinum and peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart.

It was recorded at The Boarding House in San Francisco, California.

This album won the Grammy Award in 1978 for Best Comedy Album.

Some of Martin's bits were dependent on visual demonstration, such as when he dances as a Vegas pop singer on the track "Las Vegas" (presumably recognizing this in the context of recording the album, Martin's shoes are audible and quite loud as he performs the dance on this track) and also during the "Let's Get Small" track where he discusses getting small while driving — here he mimed driving a car while being so short as to barely reach the bottom of the steering wheel. Martin had debuted this particular bit in a February 26, 1977 appearance on the show Saturday Night Live.

The album cover shows Martin wearing balloon animals, bunny ears, Groucho Marx glasses, and a fake arrow through his head; these were all staples of his live act. He made balloon animals on some of his Saturday Night Live appearances as well as his guest appearance on The Muppet Show, while the fake arrow through the head was spoofed by Dinah Shore for a guest appearance by Martin on her talk show.

Track listing

"Ramblin' Man/Theme from Ramblin' Man" – 2:14
"Vegas" – 5:45
"Let's Get Small" – 13:34
"Smoking" – 2:10
"One Way to Leave Your Lover" – 1:33
"Mad at My Mother" – 1:22
"Excuse Me" – 2:32
"Grandmother's Song" – 3:33
"Funny Comedy Gags" – 3:05
"Closing" – 2:02

"Grandmother's Song" was released as a 7" vinyl single. A very short excerpt of "Let's Get Small" is the single's B-side.

Production

Norman Seeff – photography

Legacy

The phrase "well, excuuuuuuse me" has entered the vernacular due to a bit featured on this album. The bit was cited as an inspiration for The Legend of Zelda character Link, who uses "Well, excuse me, Princess!" as a catchphrase in the 1989 cartoon.

References

Let's Get Small at AllMusic
Christgau, Robert (October 3, 1977). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
Awards Nominations & Winners | GRAMMY.com
SNL Transcripts: Steve Martin: 02/26/77: Steve Martin's Monologue
"Steve Martin (2) - Grandmother's Song / Let's Get Small at Discogs". Discogs.
"45cat - Steve Martin - Grandmother's Song / Let's Get Small - Warner Bros. - USA - WBS 8503".
Kapsis, Robert E., ed. (2014). Conversations with Steve Martin. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781626743229. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
Carpenter, Nicole (11 January 2023). "'Excuuuuse me, Princess!': An oral history of The Legend of Zelda cartoon". Polygon. Retrieved 17 September 2024.

Steve Martin

Albums

Let's Get Small (1977)
A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978)
Comedy Is Not Pretty! (1979)
The Steve Martin Brothers (1981)
The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo (2009)
Rare Bird Alert (2011)
Love Has Come for You (2013)
So Familiar (2015)
The Long-Awaited Album (2017)

Singles	"King Tut" (1978)

Books

Cruel Shoes (1979)
Pure Drivel (1998)
Shopgirl (2000)
The Pleasure of My Company (2003)
Born Standing Up (2007)
The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! (2007)

Screenplays

The Absent-Minded Waiter (short, 1977)
The Jerk (1979)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
The Man with Two Brains (1983)
¡Three Amigos! (1986)
Roxanne (1987)
L.A. Story (1991)
A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)
Bowfinger (1999)
Shopgirl (2005)
The Pink Panther (2006)
Traitor (story only, 2008)
The Pink Panther 2 (2009)

Plays

Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993)
The Underpants (2002)
Bright Star (2014 musical)
Meteor Shower (2016)

Television

The Winds of Whoopee (1983)
Domestic Life (1984)
Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills (1986)
Only Murders in the Building (2021–present)

Other

Aspen Film Society

Category

v t e Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album
1950s	"The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" – Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (1958) The Battle of Kookamonga – Homer and Jethro / Inside Shelley Berman – Shelley Berman (1959)
1960s	Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris – Jo Stafford & Paul Weston / The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! – Bob Newhart (1960) An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May – Elaine May & Mike Nichols (1961) The First Family – Vaughn Meader (1962) "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)" – Allan Sherman (1963) I Started Out as a Child – Bill Cosby (1964) Why Is There Air? – Bill Cosby (1965) Wonderfulness – Bill Cosby (1966) Revenge – Bill Cosby (1967) To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With – Bill Cosby (1968) Sports – Bill Cosby (1969)
1970s	The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress – Flip Wilson (1970) This Is A Recording – Lily Tomlin (1971) FM & AM – George Carlin (1972) Los Cochinos – Cheech & Chong (1973) That Nigger's Crazy – Richard Pryor (1974) ...Is It Something I Said? – Richard Pryor (1975) Bicentennial Nigger – Richard Pryor (1976) Let's Get Small – Steve Martin (1977) A Wild and Crazy Guy – Steve Martin (1978) Reality...What a Concept – Robin Williams (1979)
1980s	No Respect – Rodney Dangerfield (1980) Rev. Du Rite – Richard Pryor (1981) Live on the Sunset Strip – Richard Pryor (1982) Eddie Murphy: Comedian – Eddie Murphy (1983) "Eat It" – "Weird Al" Yankovic (1984) Whoopi Goldberg (Original Broadway Show Recording) – Whoopi Goldberg (1985) Those of You with or Without Children, You'll Understand – Bill Cosby (1986) A Night at the Met – Robin Williams (1987) Good Morning, Vietnam – Robin Williams (1988) P.D.Q. Bach: 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults – Peter Schickele (1989)
1990s	P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities – Peter Schickele (1990) P.D.Q. Bach: WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio – Peter Schickele (1991) P.D.Q. Bach: Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion – Peter Schickele (1992) Jammin' in New York – George Carlin (1993) Live from Hell – Sam Kinison (1994) Crank(y) Calls – Jonathan Winters (1995) Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations – Al Franken (1996) Roll with the New – Chris Rock (1997) The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 – Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner (1998) Bigger & Blacker – Chris Rock (1999)
2000s	Brain Droppings – George Carlin (2000) Napalm & Silly Putty – George Carlin (2001) Robin Williams: Live on Broadway – Robin Williams (2002) Poodle Hat – "Weird Al" Yankovic (2003) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents ... America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction – Jon Stewart and the cast of The Daily Show (2004) Never Scared – Chris Rock (2005) The Carnegie Hall Performance – Lewis Black (2006) The Distant Future – Flight of the Conchords (2007) It's Bad for Ya – George Carlin (2008) A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! – Stephen Colbert (2009)
2010s	Stark Raving Black – Lewis Black (2010) Hilarious – Louis C.K. (2011) Blow Your Pants Off – Jimmy Fallon (2012) Calm Down Gurrl – Kathy Griffin (2013) Mandatory Fun – "Weird Al" Yankovic (2014) Live at Madison Square Garden – Louis C.K. (2015) Talking for Clapping – Patton Oswalt (2016) The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas – Dave Chappelle (2017) Equanimity & The Bird Revelation – Dave Chappelle (2018) Sticks and Stones – Dave Chappelle (2019)
2020s	Black Mitzvah – Tiffany Haddish (2020) Sincerely Louis CK – Louis C.K. (2021) The Closer – Dave Chappelle (2022) What's In a Name? – Dave Chappelle (2023)

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