Steve Martin :: Wild and Crazy Magician

Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945, in Waco, Texas but raised in Inglewood and Garden Grove in California. In 1960, he got a job at Merlins Magic Shop in Disney's Fantasyland. While there, he learned magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals. At Santa Ana College, he took classes in drama and English poetry. He also took part in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre and joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm. He attended California State University as a philosophy major but in 1967 transferred to UCLA as a theatre major.

His writing career began on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), winning an Emmy Award. Between 1967 and 1973, he also wrote for many other shows, including The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969) and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1971). He also appeared on talk shows and comedy shows in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1972, he first appeared on The Tonight Show, Starring Johnny Carson (1962), doing stand-up several times each year and even guest hosting a few years later. In 1976, he served for the first time as guest-host on Saturday Night Live (1975). By 2016, he had guest-hosted 15 times, which is one less than Alec Baldwin's record, and also appeared 12 other times on SNL.

In 1977, he released his first comedy album, a platinum-selling "Let's Get Small." He followed it with "A Wild and Crazy Guy" (1978), selling more than a million copies.