Barbs fly furiously in comical 'Fame'
If Short can lose the 'nice,' softened edges, the already hysterical but uneven show will be wittier and sharper
By Pat Craig
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Martin Short is a wickedly funny man, particularly when he aims his slightly poisonous barbs at fellow entertainers, especially those who have taken to the stage to exorcise personal demons.

Short is also a really nice, ordinary guy, happily married to the same woman for nearly 25 years, with three swell kids and a house on a hill.

Short's steely comic eye for deflating puffed-up show-biz egos, including his own, dissolves audiences into breathless laughter.

But Short himself isn't really like those other entertainers. He's a nice guy.

Big laughs abound in 'Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me'
By Chad Jones, STAFF WRITER

MARTIN Short's new Broadway-bound musical is goofy, silly, crass and crude. In other words, it's comedy heaven.

"Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me" had its world premiere Tuesday at San Francisco's Curran Theatre, and aside from all the laughs, one thing became perfectly clear: Life is just that little bit better when Short is onstage doing his thing.

And his thing is entertaining the way they did it back in the day. This is old-school, work-your-butt-off show business, and Short is one of its last great practitioners.

He sings, he dances, he flies across the stage on wires and he clowns around like Sid Caesar, the Three Stooges and Jerry Lewis all rolled up into one compact little Canadian body.