Steve Martin and Martin Short will soon be entertaining crowds together across Florida. You can catch them getting into shenanigans with Selena Gomez on the fifth season of their hit Hulu show “Only Murders in the Building.”
But they do spend time apart, sometimes. Like on a Zoom interview with the Tampa Bay Times on a recent August afternoon, when Martin called in from Santa Barbara and Short joined from Los Angeles.
“We don’t actually live together, you know,” Short said with a laugh.
The comedic legends will be in Clearwater on Oct. 5, for two shows during their “The Dukes of Funnytown!” tour, bringing jokes, music and loving jabs at one another. The pair have been friends and collaborators for over four decades, starting with their 1986 film “Three Amigos.”
Ahead of their performance, they chatted about manatees, their long friendship, famous Florida friends and more. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
It’s exciting to have you both back at Ruth Eckerd Hall.
Martin: It’s just nice to go down there. It’s so open and the streets are wide and the sun is shining. It counteracts my time with Mr. Gloomy.
You’ve both been to Clearwater before. What inspired you to come back?
Short: Money.
Martin: No, that’s not true. I’ll tell you why, because we really like doing our shows. And so when we come to Florida, you try to do like two or three shows together. So it’s economical, and Clearwater is a great stop for us. The water is so clear!
Short: Also, it’s because the audiences are so great. But I’ve played Ruth Eckerd Hall many, many times by myself.
Martin: It’s interesting to note that when Marty played there by himself and not with me, the house was half full.
Short: That is so not true. Three quarters.
Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez speak onstage during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on Sept. 15, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
There’s a lot of silliness in Florida. Is there anything about the time you’ve spent in the state previously that has inspired your jokes?
Martin: Well, we do a joke sometimes when we’ve just come from Florida. We say, “We did a show yesterday in Florida at 3 p.m., or as they call it, the dinner show.”
Short: I’ll say I love Florida because I love to visit the manatees. And by the way, the manatees are delicious.
What’s on your Florida bucket list while you’re here?
Martin: I have a lot of friends in Florida. Dave Barry, the great comedy writer, lives in Florida. I love him. He wrote on when I was an Oscar host once. I called him out of the blue because I thought he was so funny, and so I spent some time with him — even put him up in my house.
Short: I saw him with Bill Maher, where he said that 77, which he is, is the new 75.
Martin: He also had a joke, which you probably shouldn’t quote. He said, “Florida gets a bad reputation. But why should 23 million people get a bad reputation because of the behavior of 21 million?”
Any other famous Floridians you’re a fan of?
Martin: Well, I don’t know everybody’s locale. I’ll name some people. You tell me if they’re from Florida.
Short: Okay.
Martin: Oscar Wilde?
Short: I was gonna say Mussolini.
Martin: It’s just a stab in the dark.
Short: Listen, Florida’s a beautiful state, and God bless it. We’re excited.
Comedians Martin Short and Steve Martin arrive for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, 2025. (Patrick T. Fallon /AFP via Getty Images)
What’s it like to tour together after working together and being friends for so long?
Short: The reality is we’ve got the rent covered. The reason we do these shows is that we have so much fun, not only with Steve and myself, but with [musician] Jeff Babko and [bluegrass band] the Steep Canyon Rangers.
Martin: I’ll have to amend that. YOU have the rent covered.
Short: The reason we do this is because we love doing the show, and we love the people we work with, and so it’s fun dinners and fun rehearsals.
Martin: Another little reason is that it keeps us in shape. We don’t want to not work for a year and then say, ‘What was our show?’ You know, we like to keep it fresh.
Being on stage live, working on your comedic timing, and having the sound of the audience sort of in your head, even when they’re not there, it helps our acting when we’re doing “Only Murders [in the Building].” It all feeds into one thing. It’s just staying active, I think.
It’s been ten years since your first tour together. Have things changed since then?
Martin: The structure of the show has not really changed, but the content of the show has changed. I mean, I come out, I introduce Marty, we have some banter, we do some bits. Then Marty has a solo spot. I have a solo spot.
Short: We sit and chat together at one point.
Martin: We have different anecdotes, but within that shape, there’s a lot of new material. Obviously, we don’t do political material, but we do some contemporary jokes on celebrities, etc. and so those things are constantly updated.
Where are you, Marty?
Short: I’m at the Peninsula Hotel.
Martin: That’s right, because it looks nice, not like your house.
Short: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Martin: So, you had asked something?
Selena Gomez, Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Martin Short and John Hoffman attend the Season 4 premiere of Hulu’s “Only Murders In The Building” at Paramount Studios on Aug. 22, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Has it been a while since you guys hung out? Do you miss each other?
Short: Steve was just at my cottage two weeks ago.
Martin: We were a week early, but we celebrated as though it were my birthday. We just finished working together in June. So we’re sort of reluctantly, always in each other’s faces somehow.
Short: Five films, endless concerts, a TV series for five years. You know, we spend a lot of time working with each other, so there’s a natural rhythm. And the reason we do it is because I think we are very good with each other professionally, and also, we have fun.
Any other projects you’re excited about that you want people to know about?
Short: I have a music album coming out in October of bluegrass music I’ve done with Alison Brown, who is a major American banjo player. She and her husband have a record company, and we just started writing some songs together. We’re very grateful because we’ve had a couple of hit records off it already.
There’s a joke that was written for us, Marty, which I really like. You say, “What did you spend your summer doing? I say, ”Oh, I was working on my nonprofit.“ And you say, ”Oh, your music career.”
Short: [laughs] Put that in.
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If you go
“The Dukes of Funnytown!” comes to Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen Booth Road in Clearwater, for two performances, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Oct. 5. Tickets range from $128.25 to $305.25 and can be purchased at rutheckerdhall.com. Call the Raymond James Central Ticket Office at Ruth Eckerd Hall at 727-791-7400.
