JACKET COPY

“I’m very sorry for the late start,” Steve Martin said as he took a seat onstage Monday night at Club Nokia at L.A. Live. “If I were you, I’d hate me by now.”

Judging by the burst of laughter, all was forgiven -- even though the proceedings were a bit bumpy at the L.A. Public Library’s first fundraiser in the downtown entertainment center. VIPs got stuck on the sidewalk, all but missing a pre-party; crowds bottlenecked at entryways; and the show was delayed 30 minutes.

But people had paid $25 to $250 to see Martin talk and play banjo, and they weren’t going to let a few snafus ruin the evening.

To start, Martin sat with author and columnist Dave Barry for an interview. Perched on a folding chair with his hands on his knees, shoulders hunched under a shiny gray suit, Martin looked a bit uncomfortable -- or maybe he was playing at looking uncomfortable.

Barry, who may be America’s funniest Pulitzer Prize winner, read from prepared cards, feeding Martin straight lines and bouncing lively jokes his way. He led each question with Martin’s first name; with perfect formality, Martin responded, “Yes, Dave,” again and again.

At one point, Barry asked an atypically serious question about Martin’s many creative pursuits, which include writing books, plays and screenplays, acting in and directing films, writing music, playing the banjo and collecting art.

“That’s a serious question, Dave,” Martin said. Barry then suddenly shouted a curse at Martin and tossed his card aside. “That card really said [the curse],” Martin replied.

Much laughter ensued -- except for a tense voice in the crowd that whispered, “This is for the library. Please.”

The event did make for an unusual intersection of cultures and expectations. Martin is a smart man who has long excelled at being silly; he’s an author, but he’s a performer too.

Martin’s CD “The Crow,” released in January, peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s bluegrass chart. He’ll be touring this spring, playing songs from it, as he did Monday, backed by the Steep Canyon Rangers. The five young men play fiddle, guitar, stand-up bass, mandolin and banjo. (“Isn’t that redundant?” Martin cracked.)

Together, they played several instrumentals -- “Pitkin County Turnaround,” “Tin Roof” and “Saga of the Old West” -- with Martin frequently taking time to switch and tune his vintage banjos and joking about the delays.

He introduced the third song of the night, “Daddy Played the Banjo,” by giving its twisted history: Martin said his wife once gave him a book of bad poetry, and it inspired him to write a bad poem of his own. He resurrected it years later, he told the audience, because “that might be a bad poem, but it’s not a bad country song.”

Steep Canyon Rangers guitarist and lead singer Woody Platt picked up vocals on some tunes, and Martin, who called himself “a pretty terrible singer,” sang a few times.

But he was far from being the night’s sole celebrity performer. Joining Martin for two songs was his record producer and longtime friend John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, who also played banjo. (“A friend from high school produces your record,” Martin said wryly, “when you’re almost dead.”) And Barry, a guitarist in the band-of-authors the Rock Bottom Remainders, came onstage for the encore, the classic bluegrass tune “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

Though the audience had earlier seemed unsure how to behave -- spontaneous clapping-along bloomed and died, always from one corner of the 2,300-seat venue -- in the end, the performers received two standing ovations.

L.A. Public Library supporters should probably get used to being loud: Future fundraisers include a performance by musician-author-artist David Byrne in the fall.

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