A coworker was talking about Perini Scleroso, one of Andrea Martin's brilliant characters from SCTV, today and I thought to myself, "Hey, Crabbyself, where the shit did Andrea Martin go?!" I mean, I know she does the voice of an Edith Prickley-type character in some lame-ass Sesame Street cartoon on Elmo's World, 'cuz I remember watching it with the spawn, back when they were puny (to borrow Mr. Z's favorite word). But come on. Why isn't the woman who created Edith Prickley, Perini Scleroso, Mojo, Mrs. Falbo, Dutch Leonard, Edna Boil, and Libby Wolfson in every fucking comedy being made?!
Now, I'm a big fan of Catherine O'Hara, but face it, Andrea Martin was way funnier on SCTV. And I just looked her up on the IMDB, and I had to do a double-take 'cuz I thought I was reading the filmography of Ted McFuckingGinley. What the shit?! She's in that crappy xmas horror movie "Black Christmas"?! And she's doing voices on Kim Possible? And she's going to be in some mini-series called "St. Urbain's Horseman"?! St. Urbain's Huh - Whuh?!
I'd heard she was really religious -- like born-again kinda shit. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe the baby jesus didn't want her to make people piss their pants with laughter anymore. I dunno. I do, however, have a brush-with-greatness story involving Andrea Martin. I was working at Modern Videofilm, a video post house in L.A., in the early 90s, when I was called from the shipping department to one of the fancy editing rooms upstairs. When I got to the room, I was standing face to face with none other than Ms. Andrea Martin herself. After torpedoeing a steaming turdburger into my boxer-briefs, I asked how I could help. Ms. Martin, all four foot three or so of her, asked if I knew of any ice-cream establishments nearby. She was working on some comedy special and she had a taste for a frosty confection, apparently. I told her of a place next door and, as she was gathering up her purse, I said that I'd be happy to go pick something up for her. Well, she thought I was just the sweetest thing, dontcha know, and I speedy-deliveried on over there and picked up her fucking dessert. And then she thanked me. End of story.
Okay, so that's not the most riveting story in the world, but shit dude, I met Andrea Martin. That still doesn't explain why her career fell into the dumper after "Club Paradise." Somehow, I feel it has to be all Jim Belushi's fault.
Oh, I also worked with a guy in that shipping department who used to play "Ernie Fields" on "Eight is Enough." This dude:
Nice guy. A wee fellow. He was also about four feet tall. Strange.
What's my point? I have no idea. I'm just shitting out a post so I can go to sleep. But I sure wish Andrea Martin would snap out of it and do something funny, goddammit.
(*If I have to explain it, you're not a true fan.)
9 comments:
Sorry for the puny font. I just switched to the new blogger and, surprise, it fucked shit up, and I'm too tired to fix it.
Dicks.
As a thanks for answering my random tech question in your crazy days... Wikipedia notes that Andrea Martin was in the original Black Christmas (74). Not that it excuses her being in the second. Sort of like the epic Bush/Iraq remake, the sequel sucks way more than the original, even when the original pretty much sucked too.
(Though I don't know anything about the 1974 BC movie....it might have also sucked or not).
Oh...and she is Martin Short's sister-in-law.
I've been watching a shitload of SCTV lately now that it's finally on dvd. It was pretty much my favorite show growin up. Best laugh track ever.
Joe Flaherty should get more work too. Wikipedia says he's teaching comedy writing at Humber College in Toronto. Weird.
I could be totally inventing this, but I recall hearing or reading that she wasn't easy to work with on either "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" or "My Big Fat Greek Life." Perhaps she wanted more of the punch lines?
Oh no. How is the new Blogger? I've been putting off switching over.
Random person who ran across your blog saying: Andrea Martin, and all of SCTV is brilliant. They should all be huge stars, forever. Sigh--that's showbiz.
Martin hasn't done that many films, but she's all over the stage. She's been on Broadway a bunch of times and, if I remember, nominated for Tony's.
Also, I don't think she went through any religious fanaticism, but her one-woman show in 1996 about traveling back to her ancestors' home in Eastern Europe ended with the incredible revelation that she wasn't in fact Jewish -- her ancestors were Catholic.
Hope that answers some questions...
Probably not what you want to hear at this point, but I just watched "Barbie: The Island Princess" with my daughter and saw that Andrea is credited as the evil "Queen Ariana" in that fine picture. Thought I recognized that voice!
Anyway, it's not listed on her IMDB account, probably better that way.
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