The Absent-Minded Waiter

I saw this as a kid and it remains one of my favorite shorts of all-time. The script by Buck Henry is the best kind of smart/stupid comedy, the set-up of the main gag is patient and well-constructed, and the performances by Steve Martin, Buck Henry, and Terry Gar are pitch perfect. I believe it was nominated, and may have won, the Oscar for best live action short film. If you are a fan of either Steve Martin or Buck Henry, you should go out of your way to find this semi obscure gem.

Silly, irreverent, entertainment. It's sole purpose is to make people laugh. There's nothing profound here. It's simply funny. That's all.

This was previewed for audiences on PBS' recent Mark Twain award to Steve Martin. (Which was a very entertaining presentation in itself.) It stars Martin (he also wrote the script) as a forgetful waiter serving Bernie (Buck Henry) and his wife/girlfriend. Steven the Waiter can't remember anything and continually asks the same questions - "Would you like anything to drink?" "Anything to drink?" "Anything to drink?" Then he brings six martinis and a lard omelet - which they didn't even order to begin with.

He brings out the desserts before the main courses, and so on and so forth.

This was presented at the awards show as the Oscar winner of 1977 for Best Short Feature. I'm not sure if it's Oscar-worthy but Martin IS very funny in it and his physical and intellectual humor is already beginning to take form in film at an early age. His stand-up shows were already hilarious and this was just another transition for him to the big screen.

If you're a fan of Martin, I highly recommend this. Also worth noting is that it was directed by Carl Gottlieb, who had a role in the movie "JAWS" and - if I'm not mistaken - helped write various forms of the screenplay.

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.

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