Steve Martin plays banjo at the Festival Hall
Updated on 08 November 2009
The comedian Steve Martin has arrived in London to play banjo with the Steep Canyon Rangers at the Royal Festival Hall.
He may be best known for his stand-up routines and comedy roles at the cinema but the banjo has always played a part in his act.
He told Channel 4 News: "When I did movies, I finally got to a point when they said 'action' there was no change in my mental state and I thought that was the ultimate place to be.
"I'm hoping for that to happen in live performing but its a little bit different. It hasn't quite happened yet.
"I said 'I don't know if I'm an amateur-professional or a professional-amateur' and after I played on stage for a while I realised I'm an amateur-professional because there are musicians who play constantly their whole lives and they're faultless on stage. But I have to think about it.
"What I think I'm best at is following through with an impulse. I consider it all creative, whether it's writing, stand-up or writing music.
"Playing music and performing is creative in a different sense, it's sort of the fun side of it.
"Doing movies is a very social enterprise, writing is very private and doing music is somewhere in between.
"You're with the band and you're trusting them and they're trusting you and yet the music came from a very solitary place."
