Demetri Martin

When Demetri Martin gets recognized on the street, it must be hard for him to divine what exactly he’s getting recognized for. His lead role in Ang Lee’s 2009 film, Taking Woodstock? His time as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? One of his stand-up specials on the same channel? Or perhaps it’s for his cameo as a keytar-slinging replacement for Bret and Jemaine on Flight of the Conchords.

The point is, Demetri Martin is a busy guy.

Martin’s brand of wry observation has been a staple of the stand-up circuit since 2001, when he first appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. Martin blends music, visuals—usually his own drawings, charts and Venn diagrams (they are far funnier than they sound)—and a love of language that makes for a slightly slanted perspective on life’s minutia. (A sampling: “The easiest time to add insult to injury is when you’re signing somebody’s cast,” or “Saying ‘I’m sorry’ is the same as saying ‘I apologize.’ Except at a funeral.”)

Martin has expanded his comedy across genres. His recent book, This is a Book, garnered strong reviews and co-signs from Malcolm Gladwell, Will Ferrell and Conan O’Brien, whose TV show he wrote for from 2003–04. Since his recent move to Santa Monica, Martin has become more active in Hollywood, successfully pitching two upcoming movie projects and starring in Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 blockbuster, Contagion.

Martin’s current stand-up tour, “Telling Jokes In Cold Places,” comes to Portland tomorrow night. He will perform two shows, 7 and 9:30 p.m., at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts’ Newmark Theatre.

He found time between tour stops to talk to the Vanguard via telephone. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Vanguard: First off, I just thought you should know that it’s 37 degrees, raining, and I haven’t seen the sun for three days, so the title of the tour feels pretty apt.

Demetri Martin: That’ll work.

VG: Have you spent much time in Portland?

DM: Not in a row. I like Portland a lot, so I’m excited.

VG: I was reading over your bio and getting ready, and realizing you’ve done probably ten thousand interviews. I wanted to ask, is there something you don’t get asked about as much as you’d like, or something you’re sick of talking about?

DM: I don’t like talking about comedy that much. I guess at the same time, though, it’s good when people want to do press with me because it gets people to come see my shows. If things we’re a little different, I could list my shows, tell my jokes and then I could go home. I think it would be worse if I couldn’t get press and nobody wanted to talk to me. It definitely goes both ways, and it’s part of the job. It’s hard to recap your life a lot. It’s not like a surprise that it’s different, but talking about comedy is just a lot different than actually doing comedy.

VG: I was looking at your Twitter page and realizing that your comedy is really conducive to Twitter: Your stand-up has a lot of shorter observations and non sequiturs. Do you ever have an idea and wonder if it’s a joke worth holding onto, or if you just throw it on Twitter, and how that relationship between writing bits and tweeting is?

DM: I still like writing jokes to tell them. Twitter’s just another medium. I do Twitter because somebody impersonated me, and I had a lot of trouble taking the page down. Then I had to go get a Twitter account, so I felt kind of coerced into it. I think stand-up works better. I don’t enjoy looking at Twitter. I do it enough so people will know I still exist. I’d rather write a movie than a tweet. I’d rather work on a drawing than a tweet.

VG: How was the process of writing [This is a Book]? Do you enjoy working on a longer project like that?

DM: It was nice. I got to spend time at home. I wrote two summers ago for most of the summer. I found it really enjoyable, more fun than I thought it was going to be. I also got a deal to do two more books, and I’m halfway through my second book. This one [the second one] is mostly drawings, and the next one will be mostly short stories. I try to balance it and do a lot of different stuff. Once a deadline appears, I have to focus energy on that thing. So right now [with the tour coming up] I’ve been writing a lot more jokes and doing a lot more shows.

VG: Do you go in phases, like ‘I’m into drawing now,’ or ‘I feel like writing stories,’ or do you just wake up and that’s what you feel like doing? Do you find it invigorating to wear so many hats creatively?

DM: I find it pretty challenging to get things done, to know what to prioritize when. But I like having options; that’s pretty enticing. I always try to find the point of diminishing returns, and then get out around there or right before there if I can, which is hard to do. It’s hard to know when you’ve reached that point. The older I get, the better sense I get of that. I really like to enjoy the thing I’m spending my time doing. You have to ask, “Is this just hard? Or, this is hard, but it’s for a good reason?” You have to know if it’s the right kind of difficult.

VG: With how much you’ve been writing and acting, that Seinfeld documentary [Comedian (2002)] comes to mind, where he talks about the pull of stand-up, and it seems like a common thing that comedians talk about, feeling like you can’t really get it out of your system. Do you feel like it’s always what you’ll go back to?

DM: Yeah, I think so. If I could just do stand-up in my own town each week in a nice theater, that’d be nice. But as long as I do comedy, I’ll be able to travel. It’d be nice to have a family and a house and a yard and not have to travel too much. It is really fun to fly into a city and tell jokes to people I don’t know, and if I have time, go to a record store or check out a cool restaurant. I definitely travel more than I thought I would. I can make predictions of what I thought it’d be like, but it’s usually something that I wouldn’t expect. For me, stand-up is the reason I’m in showbiz and the thing I want to do the longest.

VG: Now living in California and being in these bigger movies, do you feel like you’re in showbiz? Or do you think you’ll always feel a bit removed?

DM: If I make a living from performing, I think I’m in showbiz. If I was a street performer and did well enough to make a living, I would think I was in show business. It’s not like I’ve made enough things to feel like I’m satisfied or I’ve done what I think I can do. I’d like to write and direct films, and I’d like to write more stories. I think of it more in terms of creative output: How many ideas you have and are able to execute successfully.

VG: You mentioned wanting to write and direct more. Can you tell us anything about the animated series you’re working on for FOX?

DM:I wrote a script, and I just got notes [from the network]. I have to rewrite it and am working with an animation company. I did some drawings; they took them and made better versions of them. From there, we make a 10-minute short pilot. On the heels of that, you write a longer script, you hand it in, animate it, hire voice actors, get notes and then find out if you get to make a show.

VG:Looking at your career, I thought a lot about that Mitch Hedberg joke about as soon as you’re a stand-up comedian you’re expected to write. Do you identify yourself first and foremost as a stand-up comedian, or is it just a matter of, as you mentioned, finding what you want to do creatively?

DM: I’ve always been trying to make different things. I want to write other things, and I want to make movies. It’s never been about people asking, “So can you do this? Can you do that?” It’s about me asking, “Can I show you this? Can I solve this? Can I do that?” But I love stand-up. You have a lot of freedom, and it’s a really great place to figure out your voice, what people respond to, what kind of jokes you like telling. If you tell a joke and it gets laughs, but you don’t really like it, then maybe it’s not worth telling.

VG:I really enjoyed “Important Things” [Martin’s show on Comedy Central]. You mentioned earlier you try to avoid the law of diminishing returns. Is that what happened with your show? Did you feel like two seasons was enough?

DM:After the first season, I just made it too hard for myself: getting everything written, edited, done. I made it too hard. I tried to squeeze too much in. After the first season, I felt like, “That was interesting, but I’m not too into sketch comedy.” I was glad I got to write some scenes and do some scenes and figure that out. But then my agent called and said I got picked up for another season. I figured I’d do it in California, so I could learn more of how things work out there. Halfway through the second season, it felt like, again, we had started and there was no time. We were out of money, and it was super stressful, and I thought, “I’m right back where I was a year ago. I want to do stand-up again. I want my life back. But then we didn’t get picked up anyway, so it worked out.

VG:I’m writing for a college newspaper, so it feels like I should ask the obligatory “Any advice for college students trying to make their way in the world” question. Is there any wisdom you can impart to college kids?

DM:For me, it seems like your best chance at being fulfilled is focusing more on how you spend each day: You go to sleep every night and wake up every morning and hit reset. It’s a good segment to look at. You have to ask, what’s a good day for you? The job doesn’t matter so much if it works well in that equation. For some people, maybe it’s taking care of sick people, or maybe for some people they love problem-solving, so it’s research. There are two very different ways of ending up in the same place. If you focus too much on the goals and the achievements, that will steer you too far away from what you enjoy. I think it’s about asking yourself what you enjoy, even if no one is impressed by what you do.