Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: paddle game, doing comedy, magic shop, Los Angeles, Bird Cage, The Tonight Show (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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.


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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

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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

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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Martin recounts his tense childhood, his desire to become a magician and his segue into standup comedy in his surprisingly serious and eloquently written memoir. Martin's memories are perceptive and emotionally honest even though he confesses early on that while writing this book, he felt some events in his life seemed to happen to someone else and I often felt like a curious onlooker. Martin's writing is spare, concise and evocative, and he's a smooth and limber reader, an assured and relaxed, seasoned raconteur. Martin runs through some of his classic comedy routines to give listeners an idea of how they developed into his anti-comedy sets (humor without punch lines). Enjoyment while performing was rare, he reveals. Enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford. After 18 years of studying, refining and finally succeeding, Martin ends the book when he gives up the solitary standup life in favor of a collaborative life making films. Martin also provides the banjo music that plays between chapters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416553657
• ISBN-13: 978-1416553656
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (236 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,020 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, a must read, thank you Steve Martin!!!, November 22, 2007

By	Thomas B. Gross (Winchester, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Hardcover)

My pre-ordered copy from Amazon arrived the day before Thanksgiving. I tried to explain to my son who was home from college for the break how much I looked forward to reading Steve Martin's autobiography. He thought it sounded about as interesting as reading the autobiography of Chevy Chase.

But to anyone old enough to remember Steve Martin's sensational, if seemingly brief, career as a stand-up comic, this is a fascinating book, not to be missed. There is much here that was new to me. I had no idea, for example, that he appeared so many times on the Tonight Show before becoming really famous, or that he had appeared as a bearded, long-haired comedian before adopting his famous clean-cut 3-piece white suit look, or that he suffered from debilitating panic attacks just as he began his career as a writer on the Smothers Brothers show.

For the first 80 pages or so I thought his life story was a bit humdrum, almost like a parody of Bob Dylan's "Chronicles". Martin grew up 2 miles from Disneyland, and the fact that he became an entertainer seemed almost inevitable. But the book really takes off as he recounts the early days of his career making the transition from magician with a few funny bits to a full-blown stand-up comic. Not that Steve Martin is the colossal genius that Bob Dylan is, but it's interesting that much as Dylan describes how he became a songwriter because he realized he could never succeed as a virtuoso guitarist, Martin writes how he became a comic because, well, who doesn't want to be in show business?

At the height of his career as a stand-up comic Steve Martin was the funniest man in America. One of the joys of this book is that he appreciates how funny he was and delights in retelling the same jokes that amused us then and amuse us now. For the generation of Americans who came of age in the Seventies, Steve Martin's routines remain an important part of our lives. For example, for me personally, on the night in September 1978 when I finished my first day as a microprocessor programmer I recalled his profound insight: "...and the most amazing thing to me is: I get paid for doing this." I am very grateful that Steve Martin has taken the time to write this book.

33 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The sad man behind the crazy guy, November 24, 2007

By	Julie Neal "The Complete Walt Disney World" (Sanibel Island, Fla.) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Hardcover)

Steve Martin calls this a biography instead of an autobiography, because "I am writing about someone I used to know." His ability to stand apart from his career makes for a sometimes impersonal book, but one full of fascinating details and anecdotes.

The book covers Martin's stand-up comedy career over 18 years. It starts early, when Martin was a young boy of 10 working at Disneyland selling guidebooks. His stories of learning comic timing from the Golden Horseshoe Revue, mastering magic from Merlin's Magic Shop in Fantasyland, and finding unused "A" tickets on Main Street U.S.A. are vivid and interesting.

The middle section recounts his rise through comedy clubs and being asked to be on the Johnny Carson show. His success on Saturday Night Live and as a concert draw leads, ironically, to him leaving the stand-up life forever. Throughout the book is the cold and critical voice of Martin's father, who was never satisfied with his son's success or choice of career. Photos from Martin's family albums and personal scrapbooks are spread throughout the pages.

At the end you end up feeling sorry for Martin, who seems like a sad man, an intellectual who chose to play to the masses and didn't get much happiness from it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly candid & heartfelt, September 30, 2008

By	Joseph Boone (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

With a number of hit movies under his belt, it's almost easy to forget that Steve Martin first earned fame doing stand-up comedy. In the late 1970's he was selling out large arenas, appearing regularly on Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show, and spinning platinum comedy albums excerpted from his act. He made it look easy and was wildly successful until he walked away in the early 80's. In this book, he takes a look back at the path that led him toward all that fame. While he begins with childhood, he limits himself to events that were formative to his career. The narration is honest and concise. Whether he talks about failures in himself or others, he adopts a matter-of-fact tone that deftly avoids dips into self-pity or bitterness.

As the book continues, we learn all of his major stepping stones from Disneyland to the Bird Cage theater at Knotts Berry Farm, and so on. Martin traveled a winding road to stand-up success and is brutally honest about how much he had to learn for so long early in his career. Yet, with each step, you can see the progress as he figures out how to create his own unique comedy voice and make it work.

There are many things that could be said in favor of "Born Standing Up." From my perspective the most important are these two. First, I felt like I knew Steve Martin better when I finished reading than when I started. That may seem an obvious result of any biography but it can only be said if the author is genuinely candid. The second thing is that I both like and respect him more as a result. Not because he paints a perfect picture of himself, but because he is honest about his shortcomings and how he dealt with them. It was a true pleasure to spend this time in his company and I hope he writes a sequel someday covering the experiences of his movie career.