Bob Lefsetz recommends some great clips from Howard Stern’s Interview with the amazing Steve Martin. I really loved the one about Johnny Carson, but all are good.  He doesn’t only talk about Steve.  He also has some useful stuff to say about Howard. Here are some highlights from Bob’s blog post about the interview:

. . . You can’t make it if you know no one and you ask for nothing. It’s not pure talent that brings you to the foreground.

. . . I wish I didn’t waste so much time listening to Howard Stern. But the show provides not only entertainment, but a community. I think I know all these people. Furthermore, there’s no artifice, no climbing the ladder . . . Instead, the focus is on revealing insecurities and warts, failings, humanizing everybody, and that makes me feel more comfortable in my own skin.

. . . Now one of the reasons this interview was so good is because Howard is in the same wheelhouse as Steve, he too is a comedian. And when two pros go at it the level is heightened, it’s less of an interview and more of a conversation. You feel like a fly on the wall, you don’t want to speak for fear of being noticed, interrupting the flow.

. . .But what we learn here is about a life. Of someone who caught the performance bug and tried to figure out how to get ahead. There’s no boasting and no reluctance. Success was a lot of hard work. Interwoven with moments of anxiety and extreme loneliness. We think it’s just a straight shot to the top, but it’s not. And despite starting in his teens, Steve didn’t make it until his thirties.

. . .  that’s not what made this interview so good. Rather it was hearing the story of a guy who wasn’t sure where he was going but definitely wanted to get there. One who had moments of self-doubt and was willing to throw over his success because it no longer felt good. Doing arenas allowed him to stockpile some money, but it wasn’t enjoyable, he stopped. He stopped the two wild and crazy guys skit before it was overdone. You’ve got to have a feel for your career, you’ve got to be in charge, something so rare in today’s executive dominated landscape where money comes first and everybody’s replaceable.

. . . Conversation. That’s what we live for. Interaction, knowledge, experience. Steve writes so well from a female point of view because he’s constantly asking women why they got married, what caused the divorce, not for material but because he’s interested. I want to know everybody’s relationship story, because that’s what life is about.

Now you can hear some excerpts via SoundCloud.

And you can live without subscribing to Sirius and listening to Stern.

But your life will be so much richer if you do.

“Steve Martin’s Relationship with His Father”: https://goo.gl/BNuUoU

“Steve Martin on Getting His Comedy Writing Chops with The Smothers Brothers”: https://goo.gl/dqmQTP

“Steve Martin Accidentally Insulted Cher”: https://goo.gl/63hiFX

“Steve Martin’s Friendship With Johnny Carson”: https://goo.gl/IrcbKQ

“Steve Martin on Stand-Up”: https://goo.gl/NBRCtX

“Steve Martin’s Musical ‘Bright Star'”: https://goo.gl/3ohD8J