Martin Short‘s the type of performer who is never too far away from the spotlight, and with good reason: it’s clear that the guy just loves to work. He talks about his recent voiceover roles, guest appearances, theater work, and hosting gigs to the Denver Post and explains how he manages to do it all.
Though he’s lent his distinct voice for voiceover work throughout his career, including last year’s Frankenweenie and Madagascar 3, Short won’t just do any animated project. He admits, “Voice roles are always easy but, they have to be interesting.”
Recently, Short has done a number of guest appearances and guest arcs on established television series. On why he chooses to do this, he says, “It’s fun to do unusual stuff that people wouldn’t think of you doing, like Damages, or in the last few years I did arcs on How I Met Your Mother and Weeds.”
But if Short loves television roles so much, why jump from small role to small role instead of getting his own series? He says he loves the variety and explains, “I’d rather do a four-episode arc of something like that than a whole series. Keeping it eclectic and varied is important. I was just looking at my schedule for March, and I go to Toronto next week to host the Canadian Screen Awards, which is their combination of the Emmys and Oscars, and then to New York to do The View and probably some (Jimmy) Fallon or something like that to promote my concert dates there. Then I have a three-day workshop with Edward Albee on a new play.”
Seems like Short is very busy these days even if he doesn’t have a regular gig. So how does he maintain the energy level he needs to? He reveals it’s a combination of exercise and excitement of live audiences, and says, “I do Pilates. I do the elliptical. But I haven’t felt or been aware of the aging process yet. It’d odd. I don’t go, ‘Oh, my knee!’ You know what I mean? I remember six years ago I was doing a one-man show on Broadway called Fame Becomes Me, and my late manager Bernie Brillstein read the script before committing and said, ‘Can I ask you, dear boy: can you do this?’ because there’s a lot of leaving the stage in a fat suit and costumes changes and running and singing. And it had never even occurred to me, that question. And in fact, yes, I did do it. So I think some of that is never really stopping doing it. If you’re always in front of audiences, you realize they’re your friends.”
