tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with comedy legend steve martin. year is a favorite of the twitter world. his latest project is a new book featuring some of his tweets. we are glad you joined us. our conversation with steve martin is coming up now. luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your

pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: please welcome steve martin back to this program. he is an accomplished musician whose latest compilation of bluegrass music is called "and ."verrare bird he is an avid tweeter. is not a word? >> it is now. tavis: 9 habits of very

organized people. and make 510. >> is very good to read. you have to look at it, rather than say it. >> i love this book. if it's in your pocket. good >> there is no reason to put it in your pocket. i think it is a perfect reading for a train, although nobody goes on a train any more. may be a plain but certainly not well you are driving. tavis: was this written by popular demand? >> nothing i do is done by popular demand. i wrote this over the last year and 1/2. this is the first interview i have ever done, so i do not know what words are coming out of my

mouth. i went on switcher -- twitter, and i thought it was going to be a commercial venture to promote things, and it did not work out that way. i started writing funny things. it kept changing all the time, then it became stories, and it was always moving, and then i started realizing -- i did not even realize i was getting responses for a while, and i started reading them, and they were quite funny, and after a year and a half, i thought, and this is like a new form of comedy for me, and i collected them, and i am donating the proceeds to my charitable fund, and it makes me laugh, so i thought that is good enough. good >> i am glad you told that story curiosa -- that story.

it is interesting enough to lead to another question, which is why at this point in your career, what artistically do you get out of this? >> i actually get laughs. and i get laughs thinking of things, and at first i thought i will be writing a lot of things, and i will probably come across i can use on the venture show or the letterman show, and none of that worked out. it is really just its own thing, but i have been getting a lot of laughs from myself and some followers. i found myself running into my wife and saying, listen to this, and it is amusing.

good >> you are up to 1.7 million followers. >> i am at 2.3. it is all on the internet. it is the one thing you can research on the internet that is actually of fact. i am coffin because you send the word fact. not' and the internet do mix. >> what you make about how fast it has grown? >> i feel good about it. it keeps going ouup. tavis: and were their managers who told you not to do this? >> no. good >> one of my earliest tweets, i only had a few

followers of the time, and i will probably get in trouble for saying this, but my publicist is nervous about my being a twitter. "he is such a typical whop." do we have an eraser? tavis: there was someone who told you we might not want to do this? >> no. if it is done in a lighthearted way, you can get away with murder. tavis: the you find yourself transfixed? you find yourself sitting on the

toilet tweakieting? >> no, at first i could panic if i felt like i made a lousy s joke. and i would give heart complications. in the early days when i was a writer for television, i always thought, there is always next week, and here, there is always the next second. >> anything you tweeted and thought twice about before you post the send button? >> i have, but nothing really significant. usually it is in terms of grammar. sometimes i realize i misspelled something and made a grammatical error, and you can delete it,

and i would read two eighths -- i would redo it. i made a rule early on there is going to be no abbreviations and no --i do not know what you call them. collector -- the letter b for the word be. now and why would spell february, and i would put a parentheses -- i would spell february, and i would put of parentheses, or if i put an abbreviation, i would point that ibbvited the word february to save space. tavis: lunch with gaddafi canceled. >> that is when he was killed.

i also tweeted but i canceled my vander tora of libya -- that i canceled my banjo tour of libya. tavis: let me stop being silly and as a serious question, which is what you make of the fact that this instrument really has and led totator's were the political uprisings review use it for a tumor, -- political werorthy uprisings. you use it for a tumor, and that is a good thing. >> it can topple a legitimate

political people, because you have to be careful when it comes to nations. you cannot get everybody excited for a second, so i love that it toppled dictator's, but i would not want it to topple legitimate people with the same kind of fervor. good >> technology offers a lot of advances, but it is fraught with as much potential danger has with the good stuff. >> so is the hammer a. everything is a prop of danger. i love technology and science. it is all in the way you use it. you cannot blame anything on technology. it is the way people use it and always has been. tavis: the you consciously

recall when you started to see the world through the lens you see it through i can say something serious, and you can turn it into something funny. you consciously recall when you started to see the world in that unique way? >> it is a period of growth. when i was in high school, i loved comedians, and i grew up watching laurel and hardy, and i loved jerry lewis, and i loved comedians. i never thought about becoming one, and i love to make people laugh, and then i found i love being on stage in front of people. that is an ego trip or a way to overcome shyness, so there is a way to be onstage performing and

balance your life out, and then there comes a point where if you are going to keep doing that have to get good, so i got a few lucky breaks, and i am still refining the ability to be funny, and i credit twitter with fine-tuning some joke-writing skills, and i still feel like i am working on it. i go on tour with the vendor show, -- the banjo show, and i did not want in who to seem like it would be a guy who plays with his back to the audience and then walks off. i wanted to incorporate comedy. i feel like i am onstage entertaining people like i did

in the 70's of with the new attitude, and this helps. i am always talking to people who were shy of find refuge in on stage in front of thousands of people. i've never connect with me -- that never connects with me. >> it is not personal when you are on stage. it does not overcome shyness, but it is a way to be a hero, and being a hero makes it easy to walk into a room. did you have a way to meet girls because you have overcome. you have something to talk about, and i am not sure if it really works or not. now i am married, so i am not

into that anymore. everybody has their own problems. this is one of mine. tavis: i was saying to a friend of mine the other day that i to go on stage, and i did a tight three minutes, and i will remember for as long as i live for two reasons. one, i will never do it again. i have never gone on stage to take a dare to do a comedy it, so i go up and do three minutes, got some laughs, but i remember what it felt like to make people laugh, and i was just doing it on a dare. how would you describe being able to write material to take on stage and bring people to his area -- to hysteria?

>> in my early days, it was wortk. and say you did three solid minutes. my mind immediately went to, do four. that is the way i always thought. i always thought, what is next? you stretch it into an hour, and your mind is ticking. i wrote that it is hard to enjoy it because you are always thinking ahead. you are never in the moment, but now i actually relished when i have a good joke coming up, because i am much more relaxed, and i have this music thing that takes time between jokes, and i ive having a new good joke

cannot wait to get to, and i have other band members on stage to have interplay with. i have camaraderie. are the ceiling similar when you pick it up and start playing, are the feelings comparable? >> it is a different thing. when i first started playing again, i never really played with a band before except one or two songs throughout my career. i always played alone. i was not used to having people expressed enjoyment that way. to me they always have to be vocal or something, and i did it, and ihow to handle exi

thought, i am supposed to play something that is a musical. i am not supposed to work hard at it, and just relax and enjoy it. >> is it just me, or is vanithe banjo ndergoing a renaissance? >> i think so. it is such an american when instruments and a vote so many of motions -- and evokes so many emotions. tavis: for an instrument that is such a part of american history and american culture, what happens in the culture when an instrument get things started for a while -- gets discarded

for a while? what allows that to happen? but i think it is as simple as times changing, something of a takeover. gone elvis presley took over the old crooners became old fashioned. this instrument has always been very mighty in a certain cultural part of america and never really went away, but someeen the 1960's and now, great players have been developed, and now they are making their voices known. tavis: this is the latest project. >> our tour does not start until the summer time. this was nominated for a grammy.

we won a grammy for "the crow." we were nominated for this one. but that must be nice. there are folks who spend their whole careers trying to get a grammy. you pick it up and get two. how is this different? >> we put different songs on it. that was my idea, and on this one it was recorded with the rangers. i do not know how to describe it. it is a completely different record. tavis: there are so many artists who feel they have to do a constant record to find their

space in the market because there are so many people in that john ros genre. you do not feel the pressure? >> innocence -- in a sense, the first record was a conference record and that it was a celebrity playing the banjo with songs he wrote, and this is the same idea, but now i am playing with an existing dams, and it is unified in that way, and this is much less produce, because it is the band and me, and the third album would have to be more conceptual. tavis: are you thinking about already, the third one? >> i have some ideas, but it is so far down the line. >> this name?

>> that is a long story, but i was doing the movie and "the big year,"and there was a moment when there was a rare bird alert. tavis: i want to ask you a couple questions and put you on the spot. on the high end, what do one of these cost? >> the high and could cost $200,000. that is for a collectible rare gibson five-string from the 30's, but you can buy one to learn to play for $300 or $400. tavis: this says steve martin on

it. >> but was a coincidence. tavis: if one wants to learn how to play the banjo, where does one go? >> you can get some online. you can buy videos. you can hire an instructor. you can get fobooks. pete seeger had a book. i have friends who got me -- who taught me things. i never had a lesson. tavis: i am always impressed with people like you who can teach themselves to regard tracks are was so motivated. i love the instrument so much -- who can teach themselves.

>> i was so motivated. you do not have to do much. tavis: divided that it would sound horrible. -- if i did that it would sound horrible. >> you are right. >> we have a couple minutes. >> this is off 5 record. weatherltocalled "more bad on the way." it implies you are snowed in with that other and the fact more snow is on the way it is not such a bad thing. i have not played this in a long time pierre goad -- in such a long time. ♪

♪ ♪ [applause] tavis: very nice. >> there are people from chicago who do not want to your diet -- to hear that.

for steve martin, the latest cd alert," lled "rare bird and the new tax is called -- text is called 9 habits of organized people, make that ten. >> what if i drive? not really reserve what if fire -- what if i don try > not really. tavis: but is it. until next term, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org.

tavis: for information about our women, children in poverty and presentation visit fiveus aus at pbs.org. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. thank you.