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Small things delight Demetri Martin. The mop-topped comedian and long-time contributor to The Daily Show upholds the fine tradition of surreal comedy, while sharpening it for today's informed slacker. Where comics once made jokes about airline food and relationships, Martin focuses on more arcane Gen-Y minutiae.

To wit: “Most castles in America are located in fish tanks,” said a completely deadpan Martin recently. “About 99 per cent are located underwater. So we have what is called a submerged monarchy in the United States.”

Such observations are typical fare from Martin, who possesses the rare ability to appear both bored and bemused before an audience. He may resemble a character from That ‘70s Show, but he has the Steven Wright sensibility down cold.

And however low key, he's also today's hot comedy player, as evidenced in recent cover stories by Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. His Daily Show reports and stand-up clips featuring trademark easel-board presentations are among the most downloaded on YouTube. (At 35, Martin also looks about 18, which possibly explains his appeal to the largest slice of the viewing demographic.)

The inevitable next rung for Martin has been loudly announced lately on billboards and in print ads: Important Things with Demetri Martin, presents the lanky satirist with his first weekly comedy series, starting tomorrow.

“It's a good show, and it's thing-oriented,” he said in an interview. “It's not a topical show in as much as it covers news, but more that it covers a simple thing, like an object or an emotion. I try to treat things very broadly in that sense.”

Created for Comedy Central by Jon Stewart's production company, the seven-part series allows Martin wide-open comedic range, through sketches, animation and musical performance. At one point, the ambidextrous host simultaneously plays a guitar, three bells, a chord organ, a harmonica and a tambourine, while turning pages on a flip chart.

The first show's theme is timing, to be followed by Martin-style treatises on power, anger and other abstract human-condition issues. “We have an entire episode on chairs; that's probably my favourite,” said Martin.

In a nod to followers, Martin will also bring out a marker and flip chart on occasion to demonstrate some of his patented “product ideas,” including one he came up with recently on an airline flight.

“It's called a baby silencer,” he said. “It's kind of a funnel the baby wears over the nose and mouth. There's a tube going to headphones that go to the baby's ears, so when it's crying, it's going right back to his ears, like, ‘Wah – ow, God, that hurts. That's me. I should stop.' And then baby stops crying. That's still in development.”

This type of reflections occur naturally to Martin, whose world view was shaped by his working-class upbringing in Toms River, N.J., where his Greek-American parents ran a diner (his father is also a Greek Orthodox priest). An outgoing teen, and high-school president, the young Martin was drawn to the stand-up routines of Bill Cosby and Wright, and was particularly fascinated by the works of cartoonist Gary Larson.

“I loved The Far Side,” he said. “They usually left a situation hanging, so you could visualize the next part in your head. There was something in the economy of just lines or words that had a certain elegance to it, for my taste of comedy. It kind of led naturally to doing it onstage.”

Higher learning was important, too. Martin studied history for several semesters at Yale before switching to legal studies at New York University on a full scholarship. With one year of law school to go, he made a fateful life choice.

“One day I just decided, ‘Yeah, I'm going to be a comedian now,' and dropped out of law school,” said Martin. “I hadn't really tested if stand-up comedy was a viable career option.”

By his recollection, Martin's inaugural stand-up turn occurred on July 14, 1997 – Bastille Day, as it turned out. “It seemed like a good omen, I think, if you're French and you don't like fascism and you like comedy.”

After grinding it out in New York clubs and the comedy festival circuit, his profile achieved liftoff in 2000 when he added his simple sketches to the act. “Very often when I was trying to think up jokes, I would doodle,” he said. “I started to realize that certain jokes just work better as drawings.”

And from there, everything seemed to fall into place. Martin worked as a writer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 2003 to 2004 and one year later debuted on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as the show's “senior youth correspondent,” which required him to expound upon such trends as hookahs and text-messaging.

“I've only realized lately how strange it is to get into show business and have mentors who are almost like professors,” said Martin. “First, I had Conan, and then Jon, probably two of the funniest men on television. It taught me you can really learn something, if you pay attention.”

As with the career path of other comic actors, including Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler, the next logical step was film. Following small roles in Analyze That and The Rocker, Martin has already filmed the lead role in the upcoming movie Taking Woodstock, slated for release this summer.

Based on the book of the same name, the sixties-era period piece casts the comic into the role of Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay man who was instrumental in putting on the fabled Woodstock concert. Martin said the involvement of director Ang Lee sealed the deal.

“Hey, I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This guy made people run on the tops of trees – this is a talented person. It all felt a little strange, since I've only done small film parts and this was a lead role – and it was in the sixties and I was Jewish and playing a gay character – but it was cool,” he said.

Important Things is of more immediate concern for Martin, who seems anxious about what viewer response to the series might be. Most of his earlier comedy accomplishments came as a result of random stand-up meandering and good timing; in essence, he merely brought the things that amuse him to public attention. This time, though, he put in a lot of effort.

“The truth is, I tried pretty hard on this show,” said Martin, beaming with pride, “from the music to the drawings and stuff, and everything else. I'm not a great artist, and I'm not a great musician, but I do think I'm a pretty good comedian.”

Important Things with Demetri Martin premieres Wednesday, Feb. 18 on the Comedy Network at 10:30