Vermont Cynic

Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: B Side

Media Credit: Edelman Public Relations Microsoft has asked Demetri Martin to adapt his one-man show into a series of videos for the new Vista operating system

Media Credit: Edelman Public Relations Demetri Martin's special, "Person", recently premiered on Comedy Central Presents

Vermont Cynic: You've worked behind the scenes at both "The Daily Show" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brian." Did it take a while to break into the comedy mainstream?

Demetri Martin: Yeah. Comedy time is strange. It's probably closer to glacial time than anything else. For me, I'm coming on 10 years in standup. It's usually around 10 years when people start to emerge if they're going to. Of course, it can take much longer or much less time, but I still feel safely anonymous.

VC: What do you see as your goal as an artist and comedian?

DM: In simplest terms it would be to make things that I like and get money for it without too many limits on it.

VC: You have a pretty unique stand-up style and persona; do you feel confined by it?

DM: No. Over the years, I've just been trying to be myself up there. It just takes a while to figure out how. If you're funny, you're funny to other people, so I've just been trying to do that. I like jokes so it's mostly jokes and I like playing
instruments and drawing, so I'm putting in things that I like.

VC: How are you able to balance all of those different things (music, jokes, comedy and writing)?

DM: I tend to be a restless person. I think I end up being more entertained when I get
to multitask a bit. I realized I was never going to be a master at any of those things, so I just try to continue to get better on my own little scale. And if I
can survive off of that, that's a great way to go.

VC: What would a better interviewer ask you right now?

DM: Something interesting about making things and trying to present them to people, publicly. One part of your job
is just to make the stuff and when you start doing comedy or whatever, you just dream and hope that you'll get to do it
as a job. But you don't realize that another part of the job is to try and sell it or explain it or dissect it or promote it. Know what I mean? Funny thing is,
they're very different skills.

VC: Do you have any advice for aspiring comedians (who for some reason may read this paper for advice)?

DM: You have to write a lot of stuff. At least I do. And if you record yourself and listen to your shows, or videotape, you
get better faster. If you can endure what you do [on stage], you learn a lot from seeing or listening to it.

VC: Seems like it would be really awkward.

DM: Yeah, like watching my special I just cringe. Oh God, that's what I do? Oh okay,
now I know.

VC: What exactly is "Clearification"?

DM: "Clearification" is a viral marketing tool for Microsoft's new operating system. My role is to adapt the one-man show that I did into these web films. I got a chance to act a little bit and create some music
for those films, which is really fun for me. It helps me in my own development to
learn how to do those kinds of things if I make a movie or a TV show.

VC: After "Person" and "Clearification," what can we expect you in next?

DM: Creatively, I'm trying to just get better at some of the stuff I like doing like playing piano and drawing, and then
use those skills to make new things like videos or a pilot TV series if I get a chance. And rewrite some of the films I'm
working on so that one of them will be good enough to go into production.

"Person," Martin's stand-up special re-airs January 29th at 10pm on Comedy Central. For
more information on Demetri, check out his website http://www.demetrimartin.com or go to http://www.clearification.com to check out his delightful viral videos.

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