Martin Short is not your average movie star or comedian. He doesn’t have the same baggage or feuds and is well-liked by seemingly everyone. Marty, as he’s known to friends and family, is the life of the party—as his friend and longtime collaborator Steve Martin puts it: “Let’s say you’re going to host a dinner party. And you invite Marty. And then it turns out Marty can’t come. You cancel the party.”
In the new Netflix documentary, “Marty, Life is Short,” the star sits down with director Lawrence Kasdan (another one of his longtime friends) to talk about his past and how he got to the place he is. The documentary doesn’t uncover any skeletons in Short’s closet; instead, it does something more powerful. It gives an honest look at Short’s past, one that is scattered with tragedy, as he lost many loved ones, friends and collaborators throughout his life. Despite all of this, he has never become cynical, never stopped laughing or making others laugh.
The film opens by unpacking Short’s childhood. He speaks about the losses of both his parents and his older brother before he turned 20. The film does not speak much of the grieving, but instead showcases the remaining Short siblings laughing and joking about their family. They all emphasize the positive impact each of their family members had on them. In a comedic moment, some home footage is shown of the four siblings making a song about their deceased relatives.
There is some sadness to this, but each of the Shorts express that their family would want them to keep moving forward and would want them to joke about the bleakness rather than letting it consume them. As Marty puts it: “Do I become defeated forever? Or learn that life is short and have a glass of wine and laugh and appreciate these people and never let them go.”
The use of home video footage is integral to the storytelling. Almost all of the key moments of the film have some camera footage to back them up. One moment that doesn’t have any footage serves as the crux for Short’s career as a performer: the legendary 1972 Toronto production of “Godspell” that served as a springboard for the careers of Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin and Paul Shaffer. Short and the rest of the surviving cast discuss the production, but the focus quickly turns from “Godspell” to Short meeting his wife, Nancy Dolman.
Dolman could be seen as the heart of the film just as much as Short himself. He speaks of her with high regard throughout, and much of the home footage features the couple living what can only be described as an idyllic life. Another one of Short’s longtime friends, Catherine O’Hara, posthumously appears in the documentary and expresses that during counseling for her own relationship, she used Short and Dolman’s relationship as an example of a marriage she idealized, to which the counselor replied, “I can’t tell you how many people have named them when I’ve asked this question.” The couple made it through difficult times by leaning on each other the whole way. When they couldn’t have children, they adopted. They laughed through it and they surrounded themselves with people who would laugh and help them through it.
Home footage shows the Short family vacationing with Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, with the couples bonding over their small children. A particularly humorous piece of home footage has Short and Hanks being directed by Spielberg to recreate the famous cliff scene from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
Like Marty himself, Short’s career isn’t the most usual. After “Godspell,” he moved on to SCTV with many of his stage co-stars, debuting the incredibly popular Ed Grimley before the show was canceled. Short was then cast in Season 9 of “Saturday Night Live.” He shared the screen in a plethora of comedies in the 1980s and ’90s such as “The Three Amigos” and “Father of the Bride.” He never had many hits of his own in this period, with a string of strange comedic projects—such as 1994’s critically panned “Clifford” in which Short portrays a 10-year-old boy— which rarely gained much box office footing. But Short is self-aware enough to know that his brand of humor isn’t for everyone.
Short moved on in the late 90s winning a Tony for his performance in “Little Me” and creating Jiminy Glick on the short-lived “Martin Short Show.” In the 21st century, his success has only grown, collaborating with Steve Martin on a sold-out tour of comedy shows and the Emmy-winning “Only Murders in the Building.”
Tom Hanks remarks in an interview that “Marty operates at the speed of joy.” This is undoubtedly true. Even in his failures, he continues to push forward.
Unfortunately, Short hasn’t evaded tragedy in this latest chapter of his life either. In 2010, Dolman passed away after a battle with ovarian cancer. Dolman’s optimism through her illness and Short’s support of her is evident. As Steve Martin puts it, “she just wanted to keep going until she couldn’t. And he was a perfect partner because he let her. It was extraordinary to watch.” The same is true for an audience member observing the couple’s relationship.
The film explains that when Short was on the road, it was normal for him to be away from Dolman, so in the wake of her passing he tried to stay on the road as much as possible. He tries to honor her legacy and by continuing to perform and make those around him laugh in the wake of tragedy.
In the last year, Short has lost a number of other close friends and collaborators: Diane Keaton died in October; his daughter, Katharine passed away in February; Catherine O’Hara died in January. However, it is clear that these losses will not stop Marty. O’Hara, speaking about Dolman’s death, says “[he] handled it with a sense of humor, looked for the laughs. I hope you’re telling everyone how important laughter is.”
Indeed, laughter follows Martin Short everywhere. The documentary’s title is without a doubt true of Short’s life. Life is short, and he intends to make it count.
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