--- title: Steve Martin Sings About Not Wanting to Do The Tonight Show description: On Monday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Steve Martin decided he'd had enough of late night television. canonical: https://time.com/4242814/steve-martin-song-the-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-01T15:50:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:30:36.523Z og:title: Watch Steve Martin Use a Song to Delay His 'Tonight Show' Appearance og:description: "I knew I shouldn't have done Letterman 589 times" og:url: https://time.com/4242814/steve-martin-song-the-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Steve Martin Use a Song to Delay His 'Tonight Show' Appearance twitter:description: "I knew I shouldn't have done Letterman 589 times" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Steve Martin Use a Song to Delay His _Tonight Show_ Appearance > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7244a4f5-bd4a-46d5-a747-ab9118ce53c7&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 1, 2016 3:50 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 1, 2016 3:50 PM UTC [Steve Martin](http://time.com/3910624/steve-martin-afi-jokes/) is no stranger to late night television appearances, but on Monday’s episode of [_The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon_](http://time.com/4217286/peyton-manning-magic-johnson-play-egg-russian-roulette/), he finally decided he’d had enough. The comedian was slotted to talk about _Bright Star_, the Broadway musical he co-created with Edie Brickell, but got cold feet right before he was supposed to go on stage. Instead, he stayed in his dressing room and sang a song about why he was stalling called “I Don’t Want to Do This Show.” “I used up all my stories when I was in my 40s, but now I’m 52 years old and I don’t want to do this show,” Martin, who is actually 70, sang . “I’ve got plenty to promote, but I’ve got no anecdotes. I guess I’ll do the best I can.” **Read More:** [How Steve Martin and Edie Brickell Forged a Partnership Made in Americana Heaven](http://time.com/4089872/steve-martin-edie-brickell-interview/) He went on to lament the fact that he had used up all of his good material during previous late night appearances. “I only agreed to come on this show February 29th because I thought that date didn’t exist,” he said. “I’ve got nothing interesting left to talk about. I knew I shouldn’t have done [Letterman](http://time.com/3954773/david-letterman-top-10-donald-trump/) 589 times.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4242814/steve-martin-song-the-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4242814/steve-martin-song-the-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/"},"headline":"Watch Steve Martin Use a Song to Delay His Tonight Show Appearance","datePublished":"2016-03-01T15:50:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:30:36.523Z","description":"\"I only agreed to come on this show February 29th because I thought that date didn't exist\"","url":"https://time.com/4242814/steve-martin-song-the-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","jimmy fallon","TV","Late Night Television","The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4242814/steve-martin-song-the-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon/","name":"Watch Steve Martin Use a Song to Delay His Tonight Show Appearance"}}]}] ```