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Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life, by Steve Martin
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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.
- Sales Rank: #1819 in Audible
- Published on: 2007-11-01
- Format: Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Running time: 243 minutes
Amazon.com Review
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
Praise for Born Standing Up
"[A] lean, incisive new book about the trajectory of [Martin's] life in comedy...Born Standing Up does a sharp-witted job of breaking down the step-by-step process that brought Steve Martin from Disneyland, where he spent his version of a Dickensian childhood as a schoolboy employee, to both the pinnacle of stardom and the brink of disaster...tightly focused...Born Standing Up is a surprising book: smart, serious, heartfelt and confessional without being maudlin." --Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"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
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Neatly combining his personal and professional worlds, beloved comedian, filmmaker, author, magician and banjoist Martin (Pure Drivel) chronicles his life as a gifted young comedian in this evocative, heartfelt memoir, which proves less wild and crazy than wise and considerate-though no less funny for it. The typically reticent performer shares rarely disclosed memories of childhood-his father, a failed actor, harbored increasing anger toward his son through the years-and the anxiety attacks that plagued him for some two decades, along with his early success as a television comedy writer, first for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and the evolution of his stand-up routine. Sharp insight accompanies stories of his first adult gig (at an empty San Francisco coffee house), his pioneering "no punch lines" style ("My goal was to make the audience laugh but leave them unable to describe what it was that had made them laugh"), appearances on programs like The Steve Allen Show and breakthrough moments with small, confused audiences. Though vivid and entertaining throughout, Martin doesn't dish any behind-the-scenes dirt from Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show; rather, he's warm and generous toward everyone in his life, including girlfriends and colleagues. Tellingly, this intimate early career recap ends not with Martin's decision to give up live performance or his film debut The Jerk, but with a visit to his parents and Knott's Berry Bird Cage Farm, where he first performed as a teenager.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a quarter century since Steve Martin packed the props and walked away from a stunningly successful turn in stand-up. His career as a popular actor, a critically lauded writer (Shopgirl), and a dramatist has since flourished, of course. But readers hoping for vintage Martin can get a quick fix with Born Standing Up. While the memoir may not be as salacious as fans expect or as riotously funny as an arrow through the head, Martin writes with the wisdom of experience (don’t miss a remarkable meeting with Elvis Presley after a 1971 show) as he recounts his development into one of the most popular and original comedians of his generation.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Not A Hollywood Tell-All But Rather A Sneak Peek Into The Hard Work Roller Coaster of a Professional Comedian
By Drevik
I bought the audio version with the e-version and it felt as if he walk speaking specifically to me. It gave it a much more intimate feel. I highly recommend the professional reading addition.
The book itself is a collections of stand-up memories and developmental notes on how Mr. Martin began his professional career as an onstage performer. It goes through a bit of the highs and low without going for the cheap "tell all" trash of sex, drugs, and back room deals that seems more like a low class ploy to sell books. What little there is of that in the book is quickly and quietly glossed over. He speaks of his career and gives his nuances on how he moved from an unknown to having more fame and less privacy. The professional reading is also punctuated with mini banjo solos.
He does not go much into his movies beyond "The Jerk." Most of his private life is still very much private, although he does go a bit into his relationship with his immediate family. There is not a lot of mentions of other famous people beyond a few tiny mentions here and there. It really is merely focusing on career development without throwing any of his past coworker under the proverbial bus.
For me, he came off as a hard-working professional with a lonely somewhat secluded life that makes me want to reach out and be his friend. However at the same time, it made me know that since his fame that he has erected a wall between his public persona and his private life. I do not see him as capable to have a friendship with the "common" folk anymore, as he will always be unable to trust anyone without expecting ulterior motive, which is a shame.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Not a barrel of laugh, monkeys, etc.
By Stepan Spoonwalla
It's kind of depressing, actually. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing; who was it that explained that most good comedy comes not from light-hearted people, but is a weapon aimed at the powerful rather than a tool to amuse them; to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" ?
Martin's book brings the dark, but not so much the anger; more sadness. What he does a pretty good job of is showing that, while he landed by an accident of birth in a charmed place and time, he was plagued with the same dysfunctional family relationships as people whose lives are less charmed.
But what I found the most interesting is that he's somewhat candid about the conceit behind his most-lucrative period of "new comedy" -- that it was aimed at creating the impression that you had to be smart to understand it, that something important was being said that you needed desperately to be a part of, something that the yapping masses wanted to"be hip to," and that you didn't dare let on that you didn't find it funny for fear of letting people know how uncool you truly were. You had to get the inside joke, or pretend you did, to avoid being mocked. And in that sense, his comedy was actually a microcosm of much of the culture of the seventies, (and '80s) specifically -- phoniness, full-blown artifice. That's what Madison Avenue, when it co-opted the hippie culture, created; it morphed the sixties' culture into its polar opposite while retaining the superficial trappings.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderful!
By stout25
One of the best autobiographies I've read. Though seemingly a shorter read than some, every word is woven into an intensely interesting, honest and heart warming story. With a self-made and brilliant career as a back-drop, Martin entices the reader into his life and takes you along for the ride. His revelations about his relationship with his parents will bring you to tears as well. I remember his famous phrases from his comedy routines being repeated at work. His and Dan Ackroyd's Czech "wild and crazy" guys skit is one SNL's funniest of all time. You will enjoy this book immensely and will read it in record time.
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