Martin Short Says Jiminy Glick Has Always Been 100% Improvised — Except for When He Interviewed Steven Spielberg

Yahoo

18-03-2025

Martin Short said his popular character Jiminy Glick, the entertainment journalist blowhard known for syaing whatever is on his mind and derailinghis interviews with Hollywood A-listers, was always completely improvised — except for the time he made exception for a segment with Stephen Spielberg.
'They didn't have a clue,' Short said of his improvisational nature with his roster of celebrity guests. Speaking with Amy Poehler on the second episode of her 'Good Hang' podcast, which premiered Tuesday,' the comedian revealed the only thing he ever scripted was with the director of 'Schindler's List' and 'The Fabelmans.'
'I said to Steven, 'At one point, I'm going to ask you to describe how you view the role of a director and kind of look off,'' Short said of his instructions to the filmmaker prior to their shoot. 'And so what we planned, and it was the only time we ever planned anything like this, he was talking, the cameras stayed with me and I slowly got down in the chair and crawled to craft services and took all the candies — put three donuts, put them in my pocket, crawled back up in the chair, I said, 'Oh, isn't that wonderful? Now …''
Watch Short's full 'Good Hang' appearance with Poehler below. He discusses Jiminy Glick around the 42-minute mark.
Jiminy Glick is an entertainment reporter Short crafted for NBC sitcom 'The Martin Short Show' in 1999. The character went on to nab a spinoff on Comedy Central titled 'Primetime Glick,' which aired on the network from 2001 to 2003. The talk show parody featured celebrity guests as Glick's interviews, whom he typically knew nothing about or had no interest in.
'We love morons with power. We love people who — I mean, to me, the idea that Jiminy Glick was a guy who had a staff working for him and someone was afraid of screwing up the lunch order,' Short said as he broke into character. ''I said tuna when I say dijon mustard does not mean French's,' and they're quivering. It's kind of like, can you imagine the staff when they leave after delivering Trump his 48th thing of Kentucky Fried Chicken, what they're privately saying.'
Short again breaks into character, this time a Trump impression: ''I don't call this hot.''
'The thing that was weird for me doing Jiminy Glick was that, because it was improvised, I would say things that even shocked me afterwards,' Short said. 'Like, I remember interviewing Edie Falco and she was in the middle of an answer and I went, 'Shh, just 'cause I asked you a question does not mean that I need an answer, thank you.' And she said afterward she was really thrown because being shushed was her Achilles heel as a kid, so you can see it. And it was all so insane, so insane.'
When Poehler told Short that she and Tina Fey exchange funny Jiminy Glick videos to this day, Short said he believes the interest in the character is rooted in how he is allowed to display the most unhinged and untamed behavior without any consequences.
'I think it is that ability to say the worst things and have no fingerprints on it,' Short explained, giving another example of his big Hollywood attendees. 'Like I said to Mel Brooks, 'What's your big beef for the Nazis?' And he just kind of goes, 'My big beef? My big beef?' I said, 'You're always knocking the Nazis. Ohh, it's time for Mel Brooks to knock the Nazis.' And he goes, 'I don't know, they're rude!''
Check out Short's original interview with Spielberg below.
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