NUMBER ONE IS WALKING

Martin and Bliss breeze down a yellow brick road of memories.

In this lighthearted follow-up to their charming 2020 collaboration, A Wealth of Pigeons, Martin and Bliss offer an illustrated look at the former’s career, the latter’s musings, and their shared muse, Bliss’ dog, Penny. The narrative is both disarming and brief. Through his cartoon persona, Martin recounts his progression from stand-up comedy to a celebrated movie career, reminiscing to anyone who will listen, bystanders as well as Bliss and Penny. Penny, a one-canine Greek chorus, adds asides and clarification (though not always on the films). Martin recalls the hit he made with his first starring vehicle, The Jerk, and his four-film partnership with Carl Reiner that produced a certified gem, All of Me, which, along with Martin’s Cyrano de Bergerac adaptation, Roxanne, would be among his most adventurous outings. Martin is amiably self-deprecating throughout, though he sees fit to praise the two critically panned Cheaper by the Dozen films, which found success at the box office. If, because of all of his years performing in front of live audiences, he thought he’d segue easily into film acting, his first movie disabused him of that notion. On his discomfort at watching his own performances, he notes, “If you think I’m being too sensitive, try watching a film of yourself for two hours in close-up and come out unscathed.” Martin remembers encounters and/or co-starring gigs with a bevy of famous performers and wryly suggests why his film career ran out of gas: “I lost interest in movies at exactly the same time the movies lost interest in me.” For his part, Bliss gets to ad lib in the section “And Other Diversions,” a collection of New Yorker–style cartoons that are characteristically witty but don’t connect to the rest of the text.

A diverting interlude with two exceptionally clever souls.