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50 free Steve Martin trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Steve Martin trivia quiz covers a career that started selling guidebooks at Disneyland and now spans stand-up, film, novels, plays, Broadway musicals and bluegrass. There are questions on the 1970s arena years — the white suit, the arrow through the head, 'Excuse me', King Tut, the Festrunk Brothers with Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live — and on the films that followed: The Jerk, Pennies from Heaven, All of Me, Three Amigos, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Roxanne, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Parenthood, L.A. Story, Father of the Bride, Bowfinger and The Pink Panther. You will also be asked about the writer and musician: Cruel Shoes, Shopgirl, Born Standing Up, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the Bright Star musical with Edie Brickell, the Grammy-winning banjo albums with the Steep Canyon Rangers, and the late-career reinvention with Martin Short and Selena Gomez in Only Murders in the Building. Some questions are easy for anyone who has seen his films; others will test lifelong fans. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and each question carries a citation to the page it came from.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Texas city was Steve Martin born in 1945?
Waco
He grew up in Inglewood and then Garden Grove in Orange County, California.
Q 02Where was Steve Martin's first job, selling guidebooks and later working in a magic shop?
Disneyland
By 1960 he was working in the Fantasyland magic shop, learning tricks, juggling and balloon animals.
Q 03What did Martin major in at California State University, Long Beach, before switching to theatre at UCLA?
Philosophy
He said studying logic taught him there was no cause and effect, which made writing absurdist jokes easy.
Q 04Martin won his first Emmy in 1969, aged 23, as a writer on which show?
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
His ex-girlfriend Nina Goldblatt, a dancer on the show, got his writing to head writer Mason Williams.
Q 05As a student, Martin won a Dating Game date with the daughter of which Rat Pack crooner?
Dean
He dropped out of college at 21 to work the clubs.
Q 06How many times had Steve Martin hosted Saturday Night Live by the end of 2022?
Sixteen
His 16th hosting stint came in December 2022 alongside Martin Short; SNL's audience jumped by a million viewers when he appeared.
Q 07Which hand gesture did Martin popularise on Saturday Night Live?
Air quotes
He hosted the show, in tears, on the night his friend Gilda Radner died.
Q 08Martin and Aykroyd's 'wild and crazy' Festrunk Brothers came from which country?
Czechoslovakia
'Just a wild and crazy guy' became one of his catchphrases.
Q 09Martin's 1977 album Let's Get Small launched which national catchphrase?
Excuse me!
Both Let's Get Small and A Wild and Crazy Guy won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording.
Q 10Martin's 1978 novelty hit 'King Tut' was backed by which group, credited as the 'Toot Uncommons'?
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The single reached number 17 and sold over a million copies during the touring Tutankhamun exhibition craze.
Q 11In one routine Martin claimed his real name was what, later the name of a website and a rock band?
Gern Blanston
His 'kitten juggling' bit used stuffed toys; he is a genuine master juggler.
Q 12Why did Martin start wearing his trademark three-piece white suit on stage?
So he could be seen in huge stadium venues
His then-girlfriend, writer Eve Babitz, is credited with suggesting the white suit.
Q 13In which year did Martin quit stand-up comedy, not returning for 35 years?
1981
He came back in 2016 with a ten-minute set opening for Jerry Seinfeld.
Q 21In the 1986 film of Little Shop of Horrors, Martin played a sadistic what?
Dentist
It was the first of three films pairing him with Rick Moranis.
Q 22In Planes, Trains and Automobiles, John Candy's character Del Griffith sells what?
Shower curtain rings
Martin's Neal Page is an uptight advertising executive trying to get home for Thanksgiving.
Q 23Roxanne (1987), which Martin wrote and starred in, is a modern version of which play?
Cyrano de Bergerac
He plays C.D. Bales, a small-town fire chief with an enormous nose.
Q 14Martin's 1977 short The Absent-Minded Waiter was nominated for what?
An Academy Award
The next year he sang 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' in the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film.
Q 15Who directed The Jerk (1979), Martin's first starring role?
Carl Reiner
Reiner then directed him in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Man with Two Brains and All of Me.
Q 16The Jerk cost about $4m to make. Roughly how much did it gross?
Over $100m
Martin's character, Navin Johnson, is the white adopted son of Black sharecroppers.
Q 17In The Jerk, Martin plays Navin Johnson, who was raised by whom?
A family of Black sharecroppers in Mississippi
Bernadette Peters, Martin's girlfriend at the time, co-starred.
Q 18Martin took tap-dancing lessons for months for which 1981 musical drama, his first serious role?
Pennies from Heaven
It flopped; Martin said, 'I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy.'
Q 19Which director met Martin about a screwball-comedy take on the novella that became Eyes Wide Shut?
Stanley Kubrick
The meeting emboldened Martin to attempt Pennies from Heaven.
Q 20In Three Amigos (1986), Martin starred alongside Chevy Chase and which fellow SNL veteran?
Short
It was originally called The Three Caballeros and meant to pair Martin with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
Q 24In Roxanne, what is C.D. Bales's job?
Fire chief
Daryl Hannah plays the astronomer Roxanne.
Q 25Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) paired Martin with which British actor?
Michael Caine
The same year he played Vladimir in a Lincoln Center Waiting for Godot with Robin Williams as Estragon.
Q 26Who played Estragon opposite Martin's Vladimir in Mike Nichols's 1988 Waiting for Godot?
Robin Williams
It ran at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center.
Q 27Who directed Parenthood (1989), in which Martin played the anxious father Gil Buckman?
Ron Howard
It began his run of family-patriarch roles that continued with Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen.
Q 28Martin wrote and starred in L.A. Story (1991) opposite which actress, his wife at the time?
Victoria Tennant
They had also co-starred in All of Me; the marriage lasted from 1986 to 1994.
Q 29In Bowfinger (1999), which Martin wrote, he starred opposite which comedian?
Eddie Murphy
The same year he remade The Out-of-Towners with Goldie Hawn.
Q 30In the 2006 remake of The Pink Panther, Martin played which character?
Inspector Clouseau
The two Pink Panther films together grossed over $230 million.