Comedians Martin Short and Steve Martin say fans shouldn’t come to their shows expecting any President Trump-bashing.
The comedy duo, who are touring with “An Evening You’ll Forget For the Rest of Your Life,” told IndieWire in an interview this week that they don’t want to give their audience something that they can get on any late-night television talk show.
“Before the election, we did a lot of Trump material, a lot of political material, and it was fine,” Mr. Martin, 73, said. “After the election, you started to hear comments from the audience, whether it was a yay or a boo, and we said, ’We don’t want that. We’re not here to preach.’
“So we started limiting the divisive political material from the act because you get that on late-night TV,” he said. “It’s not something you want to pay [for]. We’re just trying to be funny.”
Mr. Short, 68, said the last thing they want to do is alienate half their audience.
“When it comes to politics, you don’t want to make half the audience feel like they’re inappropriate,” he said. “So even when we’re doing Jiminy Glick, we try to go back and forth.”
Even so, Mr. Martin said political comedy has never been his forte.
“I’m not known as a political comedian for a reason — I actually made a choice a long, long time ago,” he said. “I just feel it takes the audience out of the show a little bit.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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