In honor of Steve Martin's birthday, I thought I would post about him. I used to really love him, before he started just remaking (and sometimes ruining) old movies. The man is brilliant, you'd think he'd have no end of material for movie scripts!

Anyway, he did give us Navin R. Johnson, CD Bales, Orin Scrivello, DDS, Gil Buckman, Vincent Antonelli, Jonas Nightengale, and lest we forget King Tut and Yortuk Festrunk! And if you don't know who those characters are *sigh* you're Steve Martin education is sorely lacking. Go to www.imdb.com and look it up.

I had (well, still have) friends who had older siblings that had his first comedy albums and we'd listen to them and laugh our asses off! "Well, Ex-CUUUUUUUSE Meeeeee!". The bunny ears. The banjo. The balloon animals. All those great guest appearances on SNL (back when SNL was good).

"The Jerk" is classic. Yeah, it's often really dumb, but you're got to love it (♫'I'm picking out a thermos for you!'♫). Gil Buckman pretending to be Cowboy Gil for his son in "Parenthood" is hysterical and moving. His portrayal of the psycho, pain-loving dentist in "Little Shop of Horrors" is scene-stealing. Ok, I admit I have no idea what Darryl Hannah is doing in "Roxanne", but I still think the movie is funny and love his "20 something better" segment. His role as a shady evangelist in "Leap of Faith" proves Martin has the chops to do more than just comedy. And IMO his stint as FBI informant Vincent Antonelli is one of the best things he has ever done. (don't talk to me about the Father of the Bride movies - sacrilege! Nothing can touch the original and should never have been tried. I'm steadfast on this.)

But out of everything I have ever seen Steve Martin do, the funniest thing I have ever seen is his comedy/magic skit The Great Flydini. It was one of Johnny Carson's favorite's as well. For those who haven't seen it, or would like to see it again, I'm posting it below.

Happy birthday, Steve!