Comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short, who are currently on a comedy tour together, said they intentionally keep jokes about politics and President Trump out of their shows.
“Before the election, we did a lot of Trump material, a lot of political material, and it was fine,” Martin told IndieWire in a joint interview with Short. “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.’”
He said they started “limiting” the political content in their shows after that “because you get that on late-night TV,” Martin said. “It’s not something you want to pay [for]. We’re just trying to be funny.”
Martin and Short are touring with their show, “An Evening You’ll Forget For the Rest of Your Life,” a version of which has also been released on Netflix. Short said they try not to express a political bias, even when portraying Jiminy Glick, a fictional interviewer Short portrays on the show.
“When it comes to politics, you don’t want to make half the audience feel like they’re inappropriate,” Short said. “So even when we’re doing Jiminy Glick, we try to go back and forth.”
Martin said he decided not to incorporate politics into his jokes a long time ago.
“For me, it’s not my forte,” Martin said. “I’m not known as a political comedian for a reason — I actually made a choice a long, long time ago. I just feel it takes the audience out of the show a little bit.”
