Name: Born Standing Up
Rating: 3.932098765432099 (81 reviews)
ISBN: 9781410403124

Steve Martin

A Comic's Life (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series)

Born Standing Up

The Emmy Award-winning comedian shares the stories of his years in stand-up comedy in a humorous memoir that recalls a first job selling guidebooks at Disneyland, his early magic and comedy act, his years of honing his craft, and the sacrifice, discipline, and originality it took to take him to the top, set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. 350,000 first printing.

A Comic's Life

Katy Welyczko

Of course I loved this book. Not only is he one of my heroes, but he lays out his experiences and career beautifully and without any bragging or contempt. Plus, the audiobook has banjo interludes that are simply delightful.

Phil

Greg Talbot

For a memoir written in 2007, it almost seems like Martin’s life ended in 1981. That would be the year he put away King Tut, and all the trinkets of his act. Since the book was published, Martin has restarted his career in stand-up…but you are left with this pernicious sense that his joy of entertaining ended when the larger public was just getting acquainted. The Steve Martin I’ve grow to love and know from SNL, “The Three Amigos”, “Planes Trains and Automobiles” and …”Cheaper By the Dozen” doesn’t get a voice here. His scope is squarely on his encounter with fame. Early clowning, magic trick sets, college tours, coffee shop shenanigans. These feel like the events only witnessed by an unimpressed evening crowd, but we get the sense it was the very part of entertainment Martin loved. His unbridled joy in getting an audience to follow him through an absurd plumber’s joke, or his full immersion into a Johnny Carson set, demonstrate his bravery as a performer. Let me point out there are some really precious photographs stored in the book of young sponge Martin soaking up his head with ideas, and picture later in the book I love of his cross country traveling. The first portion of the book is about his childhood. It’s written with the care of a man who is very self-aware, and maybe slightly resentful. While Martin claims later in the book that he was never really acquainted with rage until the artistic burnout with the stadium tour…he describes an emotionally absent father and docile mother. It’s the portrait of a man who longs to get away from the restrictions of his youth. Martin zings us without the obvious, of course he had all the fertile soil to be a comedian. Martin discusses the process of comedy like an engineer. Craft, design, the rush of emotions are the tools he uses, and the laughter seems an afterthought. He uses an E.E. Cummings line to describe the reaction he wants from an audience. And it’s clear as his confidence and humor expand, it’s clear just how intentional Martin is in his absurdity. This isn’t to take away from Martin’s emotional range. His relationships to women come across as delicate, and his reverence for his mentors borders on jubilant. Pathos and wistfulness are weaved in the text as Martin’s skills improve, his world grows colder. Martin got huge because of his originality, and his consistency, and ultimately it just became a larger box. He describes the pranks he could pull with an audience of 300 he could never dream of with 3,000. This isn’t to say it’s all sad. He focuses on the reconciliation of the relationship to his parents. He describes the freedom of playing to crowds…and somehow getting paid for it. And it’s a reminder of just how much a path Martin cleared for the “professional comedian”. Martin type of entertaining was so fluid as an actor, comedian, writer, musician, he developed a persona all his own. Steven’s autobiography contains potent life lessons, and some hard truths about the contradictions between fame and success. Martin’s voice is so strong here. His reticence, his word placement, his surreal allusions, all of this is incredibly captivating. On the advent of the new comedy’s breakthrough to the wider audience, the leading star would burn out. But Martin’s optimism informs me that his creative juices never really went away. Maybe a better interpretation is that he just didn’t need to share all the joy in his personal life. He was finally comfortable living out a life without an audience to accept it.

Steve Martin has been an international star for over thirty years. Here, for the first time, he looks back to the beginning of his career and charmingly evokes the young man he once was. Born in Texas but raised in California, Steve was seduced early by the comedy shows that played on the radio when the family travelled back and forth to visit relatives. When Disneyland opened just a couple of miles away from home, an enchanted Steve was given his first chance to learn magic and entertain an audience. He describes how he noted the reaction to each joke in a ledger - 'big laugh' or 'quiet' - and assiduously studied the acts of colleagues, stealing jokes when needed. With superb detail, Steve recreates the world of small, dark clubs and the fear and exhilaration of standing in the spotlight. While a philosophy student at UCLA, he worked hard at local clubs honing his comedy and slowly attracting a following until he was picked up to write for TV. From here on, Steve Martin became an acclaimed comedian, packing out venues nationwide. One night, however, he noticed empty seats and realised he had 'reached the top of the rollercoaster'. BORN STANDING UP is a funny and riveting chronicle of how Steve Martin became the comedy genius we now know and is also a fascinating portrait of an era.

Marcy Pursell 

This memoir want quite what I expected. It was interesting, but not my favorite audiobook by a comedian. I think some of his jokes were over my head, or were used in previous generations, so they just didn't click for me.

brendan sudol

main takeaways: success/wealth != happiness; it takes awhile to get really good at your craft (even if super talented)

Sarah Ryan

An interesting read that seems to prove the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice rule. Steve started working on his routine as a 10 year old working summers in Disneyland. By the time he became the biggest comedian of the day he had been working on his act for 20+ years. There is no such thing as an overnight success!

ANDREW BRYK

Impressive how descriptive Martin is of his time years ago as a rose through the comedy world. His resilience and effort in honing his craft can inspire those in any profession. There seemed to be no place for a Steve Martin type in the classic realm of comedy at his time but he was able to push through and succeed in his niche, creating a new style of comedy for the generation. Hard work pays off even though it may take years on end to get the results

Cola

A must read for every comedian. This book inspired me to do great work and at the same time made me feel like I could be doing more.

Enfys J. Book

I've read a number of autobiographies written by comedians, and this one stands out from the rest by focusing more on the development of an unusual comedian's craft as set against the rapidly-changing world of comedy in the '60s and '70s, rather than dwelling on other aspects of his life. I really enjoyed hearing how his act evolved from his experiences working at Knott's Berry Farm, as a writer for the Smothers Brothers, touring during the end of the hippie era, and performing on talk shows. The book is a "tell-all" but not in the sense of gossip, and the narrative holds together as the story of how his comedy came to be what it was, rather than him. Martin clearly wants to keep a lot of his life private, and that's fine; the story would be bogged down if he'd added endless relationship and family stories.

I.m. ruzz

short, and avoids anything of real substance but still an interesting look into his mind and mentality. reading this book with a thought more on what he isn't saying, wasn't into, didn't do given his estimable fame in the late 70s tells you more about him than what he does say, or did do. Also, his meticulous attention to control and detail and precision are an interesting look inside the mind of a comedian, and also artist. I believe, for a time he uncovered the universal tide of art which extends to all things requiring mastery, and using his observant, thoughtful, almost OCD nature fostered it into some of the periods best comedic work. 

a short read at just slightly over 200 pages, you can chew through it in an afternoon.

Born Standing Up A Comic's Life (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series)

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