Comedian Demetri Martin plays the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, Saturday.
Although his parents may well disagree, dropping out of a law school was probably the best thing Demetri Martin ever did.
Since bailing out after second year of New York University's prestigious School of Law, the comedian, writer and actor has become one of America's hottest comics, and went on to write for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, appear as a reporter on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and star in his aptly named TV show, Important Things with Demetri Martin. He also starred in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, which premiered at Cannes.
And while many comedians tell tales from their personal lives, Martin is reviving the Stephen Wright-style one-liner, sharing his wry observations about the mundanities of everyday life, from birthday cakes to bumper stickers to violent video games – often while strumming a guitar or doodling.
"I want to design a video game in which you have to take care of all the people who have been shot in the other games. 'Hey man, what are you playing?' 'Uh, Super Busy Hospital. If you could leave me alone I'm performing surgery on a patient right now and it's pretty serious," quipped the mop-topped comic on Conan. "He was shot in the head 57 times."
"Wet floor?" he asks in another of his routines. "I thought that was a command."
Demetri Martin is at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Saturday. Tickets at ticketmaster.ca.