The Absent-Minded Waiter

This 7 minute short reminded me of Pixar's Oscar winning Ratatouille, which too had a clumsy waiter named Linguini who turned out to be the only heir of the restaurant's dead owner. Well, Steve Martin is no one's heir in this skit and therefore I really wondered how a restaurant managed to retain his services in spite of his maladroitness. Would it not have been much funnier had his character been the restaurant owner's son or relative? I think I would have.

The Absent Minded Waiter is not hard to follow: it is a pretty simply sketch displaying an absent minded waiter's complete idiosyncrasy in dealing with the restaurant patrons. If Steven (played by Martin) were your waiter, you would be really unlucky till he gets your bill. The catch is that if you are able to endure him till he gets your bill, you may get really lucky.

There are some funny moments here, such as Steven missing to light Susan Cates' cigar each time he passes her. But it would have been funnier to add some more situations: such as Steven being the boss' relative or Steven realizing his own mistakes yet repeating them or having the other waiters keep an eye on Steven. The sketch could have had some shining double entendre gags between Steven and bombshell Susan's character. Sadly, there are no such situations and we only get a few chuckles throughout.

The Absent Minded Waiter is a bit of a miss; replace Steve Martin with Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean fame and this would have been a gem of a comedy.

Verdict: Predictable situations and Underutilized situations Make The Absent Minded Waiter An Average Comedy

With the combination of Steve Martin, Buck Henry and Teri Garr, you know that you're in for something good. And the Academy Award-nominated short "The Absent-Minded Waiter" is just that. Martin stars as the inept title character who messes up Henry's and Garr's dinner experience every step of the way. If one wanted to take a serious look at this short, I might compare it to a scene in "The Graduate", for which Henry wrote the screenplay (you may recall the scene where Ben does everything possible to make Elaine feel uncomfortable during the date).

This is apparently available on a box set of Steve Martin's TV appearances, but I saw it on YouTube. With any luck, all Oscar-nominated shorts will eventually be available there.

Good one.

While I had previously seen this short on a VHS tape called "Steve Martin Live" which also had his concert show on it, that was 20 years ago and it's only now that I got to watch this again on YouTube. Martin wrote this and stars as the title character who is oblivious to his short-term memory and the people who he serves. Teri Garr and Buck Henry are a couple who order his table, actually it's Henry who specifically orders to be where Steven serves as he knows him. We don't find out why till the end. I'll stop there and just say this is very funny when these three are on screen together and this was very worthy of the Oscar it was nominated for. And kudos for Carl Gottlieb for the direction as well. So on that note, I highly recommend The Absent-Minded Waiter.

Early on in his fame, Steve Martin gave massive credit to Jerry Lewis' style of zaniness. The Absent-Minded Waiter is an obvious homage to Lewis' wacko style, and a superb one at that.

Pundits will say it's little more than an extended early-"Saturday Night Live" sketch--"SNL" vet Buck Henry even has a major role--but for sheerly silly laughs, it can't be beat. Martin plays the most moronic waiter ever hired for a restaurant. Henry plays a war-veteran of AMW's shenanigans who brings his wife (Garr) to the restaurant for a crash course. It's no-hold-barred craziness, and since it lasts only seven minutes, it's just long enough to be hilarious and not unbearable.

Martin and fellow writer Carl Gottlieb obviously hit pay dirt a couple of years later with The Jerk, but this is an extremely funny warm-up for that feature. (In fact, Martin used it as a prologue for his live stand-up act for years.) It's been released on video, so search hard for it--it's worth the while.

This is the kind of genius timing that Steve Martin is known for. The scene, however small, is a great example of the perfection of Martin's early stuff. Elements: Timing, extenuating circumstances, through line, immediacy, wonderful tactics, very clear obstacles and a perfect sense of doing it for the first time.