Comedians tell jokes, and when Demetri Martin is about to tell some, he admits to it ("Let's go with...jokes.") But he also invents formats. He begins with a kernel of funny and decides later whether this comedic stem cell will become a skit or a slam poem or a pie chart.
Demetri's ability to draw mountains over time.
His new series, "Important Things with Demetri Martin," which premiered on Comedy Central on February 11th, allows him to sprawl across his many pet formats. When the catchy but understated song comes on that goes, "This is a sketch/This is a sketch/It's a sketch," it does not signal a sketch comedy bit, but rather that Demetri is about to bust out Pictionary-style, drawing and writing with both hands at once.
He loves using hand-drawn graphics, especially data charts. He flips the page on his big sketchpad to show a line graph and says, "This is the cuteness of a girl versus how interested I am in hearing about how her intuitive her cat is...You'll notice, at a certain point, I don't care how cute you are, I don't want to hear about your fucking cat anymore."And when he does plain old stand-up, it has maximum density, no filler. The ratio of setup is miniscule; it's a payoff and then another and another. He always seems to have too many notions and nuggets kicking around his brain, such that when he plays guitar and harmonica and bells while flipping through jokes on the big sketchpad, it seems to mirror his mindstate.
Martin is a comedic philosopher, lifting the stones of our cultural foundation and examining the underneath bits. He specializes in small observations: "What distinguishes man from animals is his ability to reason. Another way is last names. What's his name? Patches? Patches what? No last name? That's a dog, don't waste my time."*
*Joke estimated from memory.
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