SHORT TAKES : Martin Says Billing Is Everything

Comedian Steve Martin says he learned early in his career that an audience pays more attention to the billing than the performance.

“If you’re the opening act and you’re better than the headliner, it doesn’t matter,” Martin said in an interview in the July issue of Gentlemen’s Quarterly. “They’re there to see the headliner. You just don’t exist.”

Relying on billing “relieves the audience of the necessity of having to make a decision about you,” he said.

Martin said he adopted his trademark white suit when he was doing stand-up comedy to get noticed so he could climb to the top of the marquee.

“I knew my physical stuff was important and white would just make it stand out,” he said.