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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 Aykroyd, 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.
Here are some "deleted bits" that you won't find in Steve Martin's Born Standing Up, "one of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written" (Jerry Seinfeld).
"Deleted Bits"
1) At age twelve, my sex education was non-existent, thanks to a restrained media and an embarrassed father, who once said to me in an uncomfortable heart-to-heart talk when I graduated high school, "I never taught you about sex because you learn that in the schoolyard." Once I commented to a co-worker about the strange fat women who occasionally came through the turnstiles. "They're pregnant," said my amazed friend.
2) In January of 1974, I met Mimi Farina, the sparrow-voiced folk artist and sister to Joan Baez, at a small club called the "Egress" in Vancouver, where we worked together for several nights. She had a delectable sense of humor and loved to laugh. One afternoon we bantered back and forth as we strolled along the Vancouver waterfront. It's impossible to reconstruct how she arrived at this line, but I always remembered it: "Are those glass fishnet balls in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" She said it with the glee of someone who knew she had landed on the perfect last joke of a series, and we went into a laughing fit.
After I became successful, Mimi, an activist herself, chastised me for not being more visible politically. I felt defensive as I had already delivered anti-Vietnam war rhetoric as a writer on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. I'm not sure I adequately explained to her my reasons for withdrawal from activism, but I can try now. I love comedy. To work, comedy needs to be perfect, clear and focused. A dropped cocktail glass on your punch line can kill the laugh. When I perform I want the audience thinking about only one thing, what is going on at that exact moment. A public political position, especially a strident one, can be like a dropped cocktail glass. I desire to be active privately and not publicly. But more importantly, I am not an authority. When I am asked on television about a topical issue, I feel unqualified to comment. They should ask someone who knows about the issue, not a comedian who's promoting a movie.
3) Letter to Mitzi Trumbo, influenced by logic class:
There exists in Pasadena a cafeteria such that it either has good food or it is full of young people; it is not full of young people. If there exist in Pasadena a cafeteria such that it has good food and is close to the Ice house, then we shall eat there or we shall eat at the ice house. We shall not eat at the Ice House and the cafeteria is close; if we eat at the cafeteria that has good food, is close to the Ice House and it is not the case that it is full of young people, we shall leave ½ hour earlier.
[three triangular dots] we shall leave ½ hour earlier.
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 coffeehouse), 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 Comedy Hourand breakthrough moments with small, confused audiences. Though the book is vivid and entertaining throughout, Martin doesn't dish any behind-the-scenes dirt from Saturday Night Liveor 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 first starring role in The Jerk, but with a visit to his parents and Knott's Berry Farm, where he first performed as a teenager. (Nov.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationIn analyzing the development of his stand-up comedy career, Martin considers to have written a biography of someone he used to know. With a preteen passion of becoming a master magician, he escaped domestic turmoil by working at a magic shop in Disneyland. Once he gained confidence in performing live, his eclectic brand of humor was honed at coffee clubs and in local theater productions. Along the way, Martin studied philosophy, which allowed him to observe comedy as social commentary. Within a few years, he stumbled into television writing, working for the controversial Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He was a regular guest on the Tonight Show, but it was his exposure on Saturday Night Livethat catapulted Martin to success. In the early 1980s, he decided to leave stand-up comedy and become the film star we know today. Martin has always taken his life and the art of comedy seriously; his wonderful catchphrases (e.g., "Excuuuuse me"; "I'm a wild and crazy guy") will live on forever in our vocabulary. An intelligent biographical assessment recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ8/07.]
—Richard A. Dickey
So how did Steve Martin achieve Steve Martin status? The answers can be found in the performer's autobiography, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. "I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a by-product," Martin writes without false modesty, adding elsewhere that "despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: na?veté, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do." His volume itself is modest as well: spare and unsentimental, gently self-effacing, a colossal success story told in just over 200 pages (including photos). This is partly because the book is not so much autobiography as autobiographical, limited almost entirely to the genesis and flowering of Martin's brainy-meets-loony stand-up career.
In other words, if you are dying to know what it was like to work with Eddie Murphy, you are out of luck (though you will get a soupcon of Dan Aykroyd). I should also add that if you are looking for wild-and-crazy-guy tales of late nights on the road -- sex with fans, benders with Sam Kinison -- you will also be disappointed: Martin spends his between-show downtime watching The Brady Brunch and trolling antique stores for art. And if you are expecting out-loud, fall-down laughs on every page -- this is Steve Freaking Martin, after all -- you should probably read Cruel Shoes. This book, though not without funny asides and anecdotes, is actually not all that hilarious. And as it turns out, that's part of what makes it good.
Martin's first big break came at age ten, when he landed a job selling guidebooks at Disneyland, whose opening had been announced with two-inch headlines "as though it were a victory at sea." Disneyland, he writes, was his "Versailles." It was also his earliest education. Apprenticing himself to the performers in its employ, Martin learned rope tricks, sleights of hand, sight gags, the essentials of patter. By age 15, through the kindness of the local Kiwanis, he was performing "at the hectic pace of one show every two to three months." He kept scrupulous notes on how each bit played -- "Quiet," "Big laugh!" "Relax, don't shake" -- and learned to juggle and play banjo, eventually landing a regular gig performing melodramas and olios with the troupe at Disney rival Knotts Berry Farm. There, he writes, the "soft, primordial core" of his act was formed.
Then it was on to crappy clubs in San Francisco, crappy clubs in Aspen, crappy clubs in God-knows-where -- plus philosophy studies at a series of colleges -- and a stand-up routine that was anything but. "How many people have never raised their hands before?" he asked, drawing on his fascination with logic, or lack thereof; he confessed his fetish for wearing men's underwear; he developed a habit of Pied-Pipering the audience out into the street, ad-libbing all the way. After lucking into a TV job writing for the Smothers Brothers, things snowballed from there, to Carson, to Saturday Night Live, to the 45,000-seat Nassau Coliseum, sold out -- a bit too large for the Pied Piper routine. "The lightning strike," he writes," was happening to me."
Along the way, of course, there are panic attacks, political shifts, puzzling breakups (best advice he gets: "Oh, that'll happen a lot"), and plenty insights into the really rather alien anatomy of his act. And there are lingering grudges -- resolved beautifully at the end -- against his distant and likely envious father, a failed actor turned real estate salesman who presided over silent dinners and threatened at any moment to explode into violent rage. Martin recalls, at seven or eight, the one time ever that his father suggested a game of catch: "This offer to spend time together was so rare that I was confused about what I was supposed to do," he writes. "We tossed the ball back and forth with cheerless formality." This simple, haunting image makes quite clear what prompted young Steven to, in effect, run off and join the circus.
This image also makes Martin's scattered lapses in writing craft all the more glaring by contrast. "Having cut myself off from [my father], and by association the rest of the family, I was incurring psychological debts that would come due years later in the guise of romantic misconnections and a wrong-headed quest for solitude," Martin writes clunkily, obviously taking dictation from his therapist. Elsewhere, he's sophomoric -- "The balls were bright red, and so was I" -- or in desperate need of a line edit ("The physical distance from each other had permanently broken up Nina and me").
But honestly, this awkwardness and unevenness are part of the book's charm. At heart, Steve Martin is a dweeb -- a handsome dweeb, but a dweeb. (Come on, he was the guy in high school who did magic!) As he has also made clear in interviews, he is not altogether comfortable talking about himself. His act was only superficially autobiographical, if ever; the genre does not come naturally to him in the first place. And yet here he is. He resists the urge to hide behind jokes, to do -- in the guise of self-disclosure -- well honed, perfectly polished material. (Perhaps he learned something from an appearance on Merv Griffin, where, when he launched into a bit -- "I just bought a new car. A '65 Greyhound bus" -- Griffin, interrupting, asked why on earth he would do that. "I had no prepared answer; I just stared at him," Martin recalls. "I thought, 'Oh my God, because it's a comedy routine.' ") In this book, however, Martin is telling the truth. Most of it, anyway. Even when, like comedy itself, it's not pretty. --Lynn Harris
Lynn Harris is an author, essayist, commentator, and award-winning journalist. Her most recent book is the satirical novel Death by Chick Lit. A former stand-up comic, she lives in Brooklyn.
Steve Martin is one of today's most talented performers. He has had huge success as a film actor, with such credits as Cheaper by the Dozen, Father of the Bride, Roxanne, Parenthood, L.A. Story, and many others. He has won Emmys for his television writing and two Grammys for his comedy albums. In addition to his bestselling novel The Pleasure of My Company and a collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel, he has also written a play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. He lives in Los Angeles.
Growing up in Orange County, California, Martin worked afternoons, weekends and summers at Disneyland, where he learned to do magic tricks, make balloon animals and perform vaudeville routines. By the time he was 18, he was performing at Knott's Berry Farm while attending junior college. He was a bright but unenthusiastic student until a girlfriend (and her loan of Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge) inspired him to transfer to Long Beach State and major in philosophy. There, he delved into metaphysics, semantics and logic before concluding that he was meant for the arts. He transferred again, to the theater department at UCLA, and started performing comedy in local clubs. Truth in art, he later said, "can't be measured. You don't have to explain why, or justify anything. If it works, it works. As a performer, non sequiturs make sense, nonsense is real." (Aha -- there was a philosophical impulse behind those bunny ears.)
After a string of successful T.V. comedy-writing gigs, Martin got back into performing, and a few years later, he was landing spots on "The Tonight Show" and guest-hosting "Saturday Night Live," where he performed his famous King Tut routine. His first album, Let's Get Small, won a Grammy and was the best-selling comedy album of 1977. His first book, Cruel Shoes, was a collection of comic vignettes with titles like "How to Fold Soup" and "The Vengeful Curtain Rod." And his starring role in The Jerk kicked off a highly successful film career that includes more than 20 hit movies, including Roxanne and L.A. Story, both of which Martin wrote and directed.
Early on, critics classed Steve Martin with comedians like Martin Mull and Chevy Chase -- goofy white guys whose slapstick comedy had no overt political message, though it might have a postmodern touch of self-critique. But Martin kept scaling the heights of absurdity until he'd reached an altitude all his own. Beginning in 1994, he took two years off from movie acting to concentrate on his writing. The result was Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a surreal comedy about Picasso and Einstein that won critical and popular acclaim: "More laughs, more fun and more delight than anything currently on the New York stage," raved The New York Observer.
Though Martin went back to the movies, he also kept on writing, turning out several more plays and a series of ingeniously demented essays for The New Yorker and The New York Times, many of which are collected in book form in Pure Drivel. Then, in 2000, he surprised readers with his bestselling book Shopgirl, a tender, insightful novella about a Neiman Marcus clerk and her two suitors. These days, Martin is recognized as a "gorgeous writer capable of being at once melancholy and tart, achingly innocent and astonishingly ironic" (Elle). He's also been tapped to host ceremonies for the prestigious National Book Awards. It seems the man who once defined comedy as "acting stupid so other people can laugh" is in fact one of the smartest guys ever to emerge from L.A.
After he became nationally famous as a comedian, Martin joked that his new wealth had allowed him to buy "some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks, got a fur sink ... let's see ... an electric dog-polisher, a gasoline-powered turtleneck sweater ... and of course I bought some dumb stuff, too." Actually, Martin is a serious art collector whose purchases include paintings and drawings by Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso and David Hockney.
Martin's marriage to the actress Victoria Tennant ended in 1994. But it was his subsequent breakup with actress Anne Heche that really broke his heart, he hinted in an Esquire interview. "I spent about a year recovering, and searching out myself and asking why things happened the way they did. I wrote a play about it, Patter for the Floating Lady. Oh, I shouldn't have told you that. I should have said I made it up."
Ross_Hearns
Posted March 29, 2011
Steve is a very complex individual, with his past relationship with his Father, his ability to create humor, his writing, his musical ability and art appreciation. This book lets you feel like you are a friend. When in public I'm sure Mr. Martin has to always "be on". The public expects this image. I felt like I got to know the real person away from that image just trying to entertain. I would recommend this book to anyone that wanted to get to know Steve Martin a very fun book to read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 7, 2012
For those that want a serious laugh(and I mean not a gut buster but a hard gut checking laugh) then read this book!!!! You will find a candid (free from resaervation ,disguise,or reservation) then this is the book for you! Remember that the greater part of comedy is truly "Tragedy"! This book will deliver nakedness of soul mostly unsought.( If you think I mean it in the litral sense put your clothes back on he"s not gonna have sex with you!)A fine and candid read. ( No sugar intended!)
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Posted February 29, 2012
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Steve Martin is the man!!!
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Posted August 8, 2010
This is the best book I have read in a long time. I love reading about celebrities that had it rough in the beginning and worked so hard to get where they are now. It is awesome to know that he went from living in a van to being famous. I have always loved him and now I love him alot more. He thought so many times about giving up and having a normal life but he didnt, he went for what he wanted and succeeded. I would recommend this book to everyone!
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Posted January 23, 2010
Pure delight, every word. I'm just a year older than Steve, and have traveled in the periphery of his high school buddies' circles (John McEuen and others). The stories are touching, it's not a name-dropping book, it's just the recollections of a very funny mind in a very nice man who has lived a very extraordinary career. Try to catch him on tour with his banjo - it's even better than his standups, 'cause now you get standup and great bluegrass. Go Grammy, Steve.
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Posted May 27, 2009
The story of Steve Martin's humble beginnings and early career were both insightful and enjoyable. I always loved Steve Martin as a stand-up comedian. His act and his early television specials were so original and cutting edge that they stood out from what everyone else was doing.
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Posted February 16, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was especially impressed by the effort required to develop his routines. My only disappointment (-1 star) was that the book seemed to end rather abruptly; I had to re-read the ending before acknowledging that it had, in fact, left me hanging. Perhaps a sequel is out there somewhere. I listened to Steve's "Let's Get Small" album shortly after reading the book and enjoyed the album much more than before.
I should also confess to enjoying his book, "Shop Girl" and his play, "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." Both are 5 stars on my list.
One of the best books i've read in a long time. I enjoyed every facet of this book. I felt like I was witnessing everything alongside Steve Martin. I laughed. I cried. I will be reading it again.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Few stars as big as Steve Martin come off as a regular guy. So if Martin's carefully crafted "regular guyness" has no bearing on his true persona -- well, you won't learn otherwise from this disarming memoir of his growth from dorky teenage magician to arena-filling stand up superstar. Plain-spoken and unsentimental about his arduous path to the top (it's shocking to learn how many times he had to appear on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show before it made a difference in his comedy bookings), he writes frankly about his rocky search for comic originality and, finally, about his willingness to set aside his sky-high stand-up career when he begins to feel it getting stale. Martin also doesn't shy from addressing his father's mean-spirited disinclination to acknowledge his son's success -- but overall his book is a shamelessly entertaining look at one man's single-minded struggle for comic fame before comedy clubs were common ... or comedy on cable (not to mention cable itself) even existed.
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Posted June 26, 2008
it was one of the best books that i have read in years. it keeps you so interested that you dont want to put it down. Steve Martin is truly a genius. This is a most read for any steve martin fan or fan of comedy.
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Posted May 29, 2008
I am always pleased when I find an author that reads his own work. In BORN STANDING UP, that is the case. Who better to tell the story than the person who wrote it! When Mr. Martin was doing stand up, I was not a big fan of his. His humor and mind didn¿t match. Yet, in reading his story, I understand where his humor came from and why. He tells us how he got started in stand up and how it developed. He tells us the story of his life right from his childhood up to today. He takes us through the learning years where his act was just beginning to the act that everyone wanted to see. He tells the listener how he became estranged from his own family and how he managed to get back together with them again. In other words, he takes us full circle through his life. He even tells us about his writing talent of which I was not aware. All in all, BORN STANDING UP is a great listen. Even if you are not a fan of Steve Martin, you can¿t help but become enthralled with his life and why and how he got where he is today.
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Posted March 13, 2008
This is a must read for any fan of comedy, Steve Martin, or someone who wants an insiders perspective on what it takes to 'nake it' in show business.
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Posted March 4, 2008
This book really changed the way I look at comedy. I appreciate Mr. Martin's personal stories and lessons learned. A great read!!
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Posted February 12, 2008
Loved it. Finished it the day I got it, in just a few hours. Thought it was great.
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Posted February 11, 2008
Anyone who enjoys comedy should read this book, short easy read and gives you an insight how difficult stand up really is. Very entertaining
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Posted January 26, 2008
To tell the truth, I bought this book because 1) I like Steve Martin's sense of humor, and 2) it was on the sale table after the holiday. I couldn't put the book down, finished it in one day. It's not a book about how to be a stand up comedian, although you'll understand how Steve got into the businesses. It's a very well written book about life, about families that love but can't express love, about finding oneself by examining your own life. You can actually sense Steve's self-discovery as the book unfolds. Take a break from reading self-help books and read this book. You won't be disappointed.
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Posted November 28, 2007
....a book every parent of a child in the arts should read.
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Posted November 22, 2007
I must say that I enjoy reading books from people who actually wrote the books, not ghostwriters. I find that these type of books are the most true to life books you will find, and this book is just that. As you read through this book, Martin relives his early childhood life with his family and his early roots that would eventually lead to him being arguably one of the greatest comedic talents of all-time. I especially love this book because the tone of the book has a feel that Martin himself is actually talking to you and wrote this book with his famous humor in mind. I would definetely reccomend any one who is a fan of his to read this book, it is an easy read and once you turn the first page you will not be able to stop.
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Posted November 27, 2007
There are really only a few comic geniuses in the world. Robin Williams is one, and of course, Steve Martin. Has it really been that long since we first saw him on television, with that arrow through his head? The book intrigued me for so many reason, the least of which wasn't the fact that I'm a fan. But also because I got some answers that I've always wanted: how he grew up, what kind of relationship he had with his parents, how he 'figured out' his routine---all that and more. If you want a very insightful book about one of the world's greatest talents, look no more. This is one 'Wiiilllld and crazzzy book!'
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Posted January 6, 2008
Steve Martin writes well and he tells a story that is both interesting and coherent... but it's another comic's tale of life as a comic having a dark side, that it didn't fulfill him personally. His storytelling sounds honest but not an overall happy story, which he makes clear from the start. Be advised that the book ends shortly after 'The Jerk' was released it is about his evolution into 'and out of' stand-up comedy which he clearly does not miss. He is a bright man and thankfully he made better movies than Robin Williams.
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Overview
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 ...