Steve Martin Book:

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Editorial Review:
In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away."

Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been awriter. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times -- the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.

Description of Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life:
At age 10, Steve Martin got a job selling guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland. In the decade that followed, he worked in Disney's magic shop, print shop, and theater, and developed his own magic/comedy act. By age 20, studying poetry and philosophy on the side, he was performing a dozen times a week, most often at the Disney rival, Knott's Berry Farm. Obsession is a substitute for talent, he has said, and Steve Martin's focus and daring--his sheer tenacity--are truly stunning. He writes about making the very tough decision to sacrifice everything not original in his act, and about lucking into a job writing for The Smothers Brothers Show. He writes about mentors, girlfriends, his complex relationship with his parents and sister, and about some of his great peers in comedy--Dan Ackroyd, Lorne Michaels, Carl Reiner, Johnny Carson. He writes about fear, anxiety and loneliness. And he writes about how he figured out what worked on stage.

This book is a memoir, but it is also an illuminating guidebook to stand-up from one of our two or three greatest comedians. Though Martin is reticent about his personal life, he is also stunningly deft, and manages to give readers a feeling of intimacy and candor. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs collected by Martin, this book is instantly compelling visually and a spectacularly good read.


Amazon.com Exclusive
Three Bonus Deleted Passages from Steve Martin's Born Standing Up

On Returning to Disneyland
Ten years later, after the Beatles, drugs, and Vietnam had changed the entire tenor of American life, I returned to the magic shop at Disneyland and stood as a stranger. As I looked around the eerily familiar room another first came over me, a previously unknown emotion, one that was to have a curious force over me for the rest my life: the longing tug of nostalgia. Looking at the counter where I pitched Svengali Decks and the Incredible Shrinking Die, I was awash with the recollection of indelible nights where the sky was blown open by fireworks and big band sounds drifted through trees strung with fairy lights. I remembered my youth, when every moment was crisply present, when heartbreak and joy replaced each other quickly, fully and without trauma. Even now when I visit Disneyland, I am steeped in melancholy, because a corporation has preserved my nostalgia impeccably. Every nail and screw is the same, and Disneyland looks as new now as it did then. The paint is fresh, and the only wear allowed is faux. In fact, only I have changed. In the dream-like world of childhood memories, so often vague and imprecise, Disneyland remains for me not only vivid in memory, but vivid in fact.

On Meeting Diane Hall
During the day, I attended Santa Ana Junior College, taking drama classes and pursuing an unexpected interest in English poetry from Donne to Eliot. I would occasionally assist on a college stage production--never appearing in one--as a member of the crew. Years later I was looking through a box of memorabilia and noticed a silk-screened playbill of the musical Carousel, May, 1964, which listed me as a stagehand. The lead actress was Diane Hall. Something connected and I remembered that Diane Keaton's name was once Hall, (hence, Annie Hall). I confirmed with her that she was in that production. Neither of us remembers meeting the other, yet we must have worked in proximity. More evidence that I was a wallflower. Decades later, we ended up "making love" on the floor of a movie set on Father of the Bride.

On the Kennedy Assassination
One Friday in 1963, I had finished a class and was about to drive to Knott's Berry Farm for the afternoon shows when I saw a clump of agitated students across the campus. I asked someone what was going on. "They're saying that the president's been shot."

I drove across town to Knott's and punched radio buttons. I could hear the scheduled programs clicking off and being replaced by live broadcasts. Assassination seemed so ancient and inconceivable, I was sure that someone would soon correct the erroneous report. President Kennedy died that day and I didn't know that news could be taken so personally by a nation. Sitting backstage, watching the Birdcage's black-and-white TV drone out the increasingly grave report, we were all mute. We assumed the performance that night would be canceled, but as show time neared, word came down that we were going on. We couldn't fathom why; we believed no one would show up, much less enjoy us. I still can't explain the psychology, why the very full house that night was able to roar with laughter. The obvious must be correct: our silly show was providing some kind of balm that soothed the ache.

In 2003 I hosted the Oscars on the particular weekend that the United States invaded Iraq. The news was grim and just hours before the show I flipped on the TV and saw a report, subsequently proven false, that our captive soldiers were being beheaded. I quickly turned the TV off, sick. I knew, from my experience forty years earlier with the Kennedy assassination, what my job was, and I harbored a secret knowledge that the audience would laugh. I also felt that soldiers who might be watching would be tuning in to see the Oscars and all its hoopla, not a cheerless comedian doing what he doesn’t do best. I decided to acknowledge the circumstances early in the show and then get on with the jokes. The academy had announced that the show would "cut back on the glitz." I walked out for the opening monologue, took a look around the stage at the dazzling, swirling staircases, mirrored curtains and polished floor, and simply said, "I'm glad they cut back on the glitz." It got a laugh of relief and the show could go on.

More from Steve Martin

The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z!

Shopgirl

The Pleasure of My Company

Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays

Pure Drivel

"Absolutely magnificent. One of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written." --Jerry Seinfeld, GQ

"The writing is evocative, unflinching and cool. When Martin takes a scalpel to his life, what you feel is the precision of the surgeon more than the primal scream of the unanaesthetized patient...Born Standing Up is neither fanfare nor confession. It gives off a vibe of rigorous honesty. With lots of laughs." --Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

"A spare, unexpectedly resonant remembrance of things past…Martin's one true subject is the evolution of his comedy--the transcendent moments...A smart, gentlemanly, modest book…winning." --Jeff Giles, Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick: A

"A charming memoir tracking what the great comic characterizes as his 'war years.' Martin offers an eloquent and exacting account... [and] approaches his subjects with generosity, warmth and integrity." --Kirkus Reviews

"Sure to delight fans and create new ones." --Laura Mathews, Good Housekeeping

"What fun to discover the humble beginnings of some of his iconic personas...inspiring." --Rachel Rosenblit, Elle

"The archetypical story of the underdog's rise and a particularly American story...beautifully written, honest, engaging, and quietly brave." --Frederic Tuten, Bomb Magazine

"Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor." --Elvis Presley

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Reviews:
Steve Martin
2009-11-21 - Being born in the early 80s I never experienced the stand up comedy of Steve Martin. Martin for me has always been the comedic actor in such films as The Three Amigos, Plains Trains and Automobiles, The Jerk, Roxanne, All of Me and many more. So why buy a book centered on his early career in stand up? For precisely this reason, because although I grew up with his films, I know little of his early start. Being a big influence in my early life, I would like to learn more about this great comedian. Now I have to be honest, I have not read the book yet. My copy was only shipped a few days ago. So why rate a book before reading it? Because as always I trust Steve Martin will not upset. He has made me laugh many times before and I'm sure to find a gem of a book here. I promise to follow up on this review once I've had the chance of reading through. For now 5 stars!!!

An excellent but highly specific memoir
2009-10-15 - This is an excellent memoir, mostly for its specificity: the book is almost entirely about Martin's approach to comedy. Most of the anecdotes provided relate specifically to his comedy, or some influence on it. This provides a really interesting insight into both the subjective experience of performance and celebrity. Unfortunately, this is also the book's weakness: much of Martin's rise to fame and ensuing celebrity is whisked over very quickly in comparison with the years of development his routine went through. Granted, this was intentional, and accurately represents the briefness of this period compared to the long, trying development of his career, but it leaves the reader desiring something of a sequel dedicated to anecdotes from his period of early fame. He gives enough interesting stories from earlier in his life that you feel like he had to be holding back towards the end. Still, a very excellent book - I recommend checking out the audiobook edition, read by Martin himself.

Comedy yes, but some sadness too
2009-09-23 - Probably it's all been said here already, but I will reiterate that being a successful standup comic implies some pain, and Martin had that in an emotionally distant, occasionally abusive father who'd once had aspirations to show business himself. Some of the best parts of this book are the small glimpses Martin allows of his childhood, and then the difficult last years with his aging parents, during which there is a kind of reconciliation. The truth is, the sadness in Martin's personal life shows through, albeit in a book (like Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays) that often makes you laugh out loud. Martin's anecdotes of his life in comedy often reads like a Who's Who of show business. Because of his youthful and continuing interest in magic, I was also reminded of Sid Fleischman's wonderful memoir, The Abracadabra Kid, and wondered if the two men had ever met. They would undoubtedly have much in common despite the age difference. I guess I hoped for more of the personal from Martin, but what he does reveal is entertaining and even occasionally moving, despite his overall reticence. I hope he'll do another memoir one day, one in which he is a bit more forthcoming and covers his later life as an actor, filmmaker and writer. - Tim Bazzett, author of SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA

Born Standing Up
2009-08-02 - As a long time fan of Steve Martin, I found his focus to funny dedication was his secret...somehow, I never thought about how long and hard it was for him. Intelligence, humor and wit are a winning force....and I enjoyed listening to it on CD during my many hours of driving.

okay; not great
2009-07-25 - I enjoy Steve Martin but do not consider myself such a big fan of him. Not a big enough fan, at any rate, to read a autobiography of him.

The reason I did read this autobiography was that I had heard that Steve Martin, despite his wild and crazy demeanor onstage, is in fact morbidly shy when not in front of the floodlights, and in fact spends most of his spare time poring over the Greek and Latin classics. I found this rumor to be intriguing enough to warrant picking up this short autobiography.

For an autobiography it is. The dust jacket presents the book as though it were Martin's chronicles of the years he spent as a stand-up comic, and how and why he got into and out of this business.

Sure, the book does that. You won't be left with any questions on that head.

But it's more than that: Martin goes into his family life, his private life, and even his education. So it's really just a short autobiography.

And it's not funny. I don't know if you're expecting it to be humorous writing, but, aside from mentioning jokes, it's pretty straight-faced throughout. Here's a sample:

"The TV also brought into my life two appealing characters named Laurel and Hardy, whom I found clever and gentle, in contrast to the Three Stooges, who were blatant and violent. Laurel and Hardy's work, already thirty years old, had survived the decades with no hint of cobwebs. They were also touching and affectionate, and I believe this is where I got the idea that jokes are funniest when played upon oneself." (p. 18)

All in all, Martin's book is a swift read: he sticks to his plan and the reader is never bored.

I have two complaints:

1. Steve Martin does an awful lot of name-dropping here. So unless you plan on making frequent stops to Wikipedia and YouTube to figure out who he's talking about, you're going to have difficulty with many of his topical references from the `70s. (And I'm from the `70s!)

2. Martin seemed to have some great material on his remote and unsympathetic father. Those are the parts of the book I'm going to remember the most. Take this:

"My father . . . died . . . and afterward his friends . . . . told me how enjoyable he was, how outgoing he was, how funny and caring he was. I was surprised by these descriptions, because the number of funny or caring words that had passed between my father and me was few. He had evidently saved his vibrant personality for use otuside the family. When I was seven or eight years old, he suggested we play catch in the front yard. This offer to spend time together was so rare that I was confused about what I was supposed to do. We tossed the ball back and forth with cheerless formality." (p. 19)

It seems he could have written an entire book about that time.

Anyhow, regarding the Greek and Latin thing, which induced me to read this thing in the first place: it doesn't seem to be true. Martin majored in philosophy at a third-rate California college before switching to English, but that seems to be the extent of it.