EDGE San Diego

Segerstrom Center’s Cabaret Series brings the multi-talented Andrea Martin to town with her new one-woman show, Final Days, Everything Must Go. From her writing and improv work on Second City Television (SCTV) to her roles on Broadway to films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Martin brings with her memorable characters, stories and decades of award-winning performances. The Rage Monthly caught up with Ms. Martin at her New York home just as she was packing-up for the trip to California.

You really are a "Jane of all trades"-writing, acting, singing, voicing animated characters. What inspired you to be a writer on top of all these other talents?

Necessity. I gained experience writing on SCTV, we had an hour and a half of improv time to fill weekly, so the actors wrote a lot of their own material along with the show’s five writers.

As much as I love being handed a script (there is nothing better), for this show I wanted the challenge of putting together an evening of my comic sensibilities. I wanted it to be a "best of show" about the comedy I have done over the years and about my 15 years on Broadway. It’s an old fashioned variety show. A comedy potpourri, a grab bag of comedy.

So what’s in the grab bag?

I talk about dating, as a kid wanting to do theatre. Touching moments, Johnny Carson-the first time I made an appearance with Mr. Carson on The Tonight Show. It’s got some stand-up moments. There are video clips from different things, 20 minutes of Broadway show tunes. I talk about working with Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein.

Come get to know me, my perspective. I am in the business, still loving it, still working. It will be nostalgic for those who know me and for people who are just starting out, they’ll feel empowered. SCTV’s Dr. Cheryl Kinsey, the sexologist, makes an appearance and takes questions from the audience. Aunt Voula from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is there holding dance auditions, So You Think You Can Dance Like Zorba?

That’s great fun! What should we walk away from the show saying?

Well, it isn’t that I want people to say it’s a show about me my life, as much as I want them to say "Damn, that bitch looks good!"

And I owe it all to Jane Fonda. Jane got me through the’70s, my pregnancies, my divorce from Ted Turner, and now she’s helping me through my third stage. My third stage is online dating. E-harmony.com. I started off thinking I’d get an E-mail, meet my soul mate and we’d make out for 18 hours and end up in bath tubs up on a mountainside. You know, like that Cialis ad for erectile dysfunction. You mean to tell me he climbed up a 3,000 foot mountain, carrying two bathtubs for that date and he can’t get it up?

[Laughing] That’s too funny. Thanks for the great sneak peek of the show! How did you get started in the funny business?

I had a need to create and this was the outlet I found. I took an acting class at 9 years old in Portland, Maine. Most of the kids were into sports and ice skating. I was a Girl Scout but my hobby was children’s theatre. That turned into summer stock, which led me to major in drama in college-it just fell into place. I showed-up to everything with great enthusiasm.

Wow, that is very lucky, to find what you love and begin doing it at such a young age.

You are so right Lisa, I do feel very fortunate, 100 percent. This is a gift I don’t take for granted, I don’t take opportunities for granted and I don’t take financial success for granted. This business, it is a tough one, but I have devotion and love for it.

What would you say is the toughest part of the business?

I’d say the long run of eight shows a week on Broadway, keeping it fresh. Any time you are not working, keeping up the enthusiasm. You have to reinvent, prove, show-up and do something differently. In this business you never work constantly, there are stops and starts, moments of self-doubt.

I look at the advent of a show like American Idol. It is instant fame for people who are so young. In reality there is a large amount of rejection that goes on-they’ll soon find out. I try to remember it is not personal, it is business. I have a great network of friends, my family and we help each other. Stay with the winners, good friends who have a long career and support each other.

You bring up a really interesting point; I look at those 15 year olds auditioning for Ameri- can Idol, who say, "This is my dream. "I think how can someone tell them no?

That pressure, that desperate need for fame. Those kids say "It would mean the world to me,"the happiness they believe it can bring to them. How do they even know what would make them happy? Maybe getting married or handing food out to the poor would make them happy. Fame is an unhealthy drive. I want to say to them,"This is one part of your life."

How do you keep balance in your life, between performance, fame and personal?

Well, because I am not a pop culture icon I can go have dinner, work on my book, go for a run, visit my sons. I go between New York and Toronto, I love New York-I’ve been here for 18 years. Balance is an easy thing to do when you are not Angelina Jolie or Scarlett Johansson, I lead a very normal life.

Who are you listening to on your iPod these days?

Ray LaMontagne, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, these are all workout tunes. Feist and indie rock bands from Montreal. One called Of Montreal, another indie favorite of mine is called, Inspired and the Sleep.

Who are some of your muses? Your inspirations?

She may not be immediately familiar, but Giulietta Masina, Film Director Federico Fellini’s wife. In La Strada and Juliet of the Spirits. She was Fellini’s muse and really she was the female Charlie Chaplin-a great tragedian with a very mobile face. The films were silent but you could see it all through her face, like the film The Artist. The silent movie actors make you cry and empathize. Fellini loved characters that were heightened. He wasn’t afraid of idiosyncrasies, these larger than life characters. He peppered his films with colorful clowns, those roles I play.

As a woman, I admire Susan Sarandon. I worked with her for nine months on Broadway, I love how she is living every moment of her life fearlessly-her third chapter, as she calls it. She has a fabulous balance, as an activist, she went to Cambodia to speak against the sex trade problem. She is doing guest television spots, she goes from indie film to indie film. She has three beautiful children. I also admire Margaret Trudeau the wife of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. She is a champion for mental health, putting a face to mental health-I love what she is doing.

What cause is nearest and dear to your heart?

I focus my time and energy on Children of Armenia Fund (COAF). All of the money raised goes directly to building self-sustainable villages. Armenia is now a third world county. There is no running water, no farming, no indoor plumbing, no heating. At COAF we are working to build ten self-sustainable villages with schools and health clinics. You can learn more about it under the COAF heading on my website iamandreamartin.com.

Tickets for Andrea Martin’s Final Days, Everything Must Go Thursday, February 16 through Sunday, February 19, featuring Seth Rudetsky are available online at scfta.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling 714.556.2787.