"I did stand-up comedy for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spend in wild success." This is how actor and writer Steve Martin starts his book, Born Standing Up: A Comics Life. The book serves as an open and honest tale of the traveling comedian lifestyle, and serves as a wake-up call to those looking to get into show business.
The Truth Behind The Comedy - Steve Martin's Story in Born Standing Up
From a very early age, Steve wanted to be in show business. He practiced magic tricks to any that would indulge him, and jumped at the chance to work in the newly-opened Disneyland in California. Over the years, he moved up from selling guidebooks to working in a magic shop selling and performing gimmicks for tourists. After high school, he got a job as an actor at Knott's Berry Farm, and throughout college continued to work small gigs, honing his craft and making notes of what worked, what didn't, and straining to come up with truly original material.
In his book, Martin takes great care to list the names and places that inspired and guided him, and how they helped him hone his abilities as a performer, all the while taking note of his family life (especially his supportive mother and distant father) and how it suffered due to his drive for comedic perfection.
As his popularity grew, Martin took in the hippie culture and enjoyed long road trips filled with lonely gigs and lonelier women. Still, he was getting bigger and finding his niche with a combination of comedy, banjo playing and magic.
Now more or less completely estranged from his family, Martin made a few television appearances and had been writing for comedy variety shows. He would go on to gain audiences of thousands, and with each performance, sink a little lower into depression.
Martin was going hotel to hotel, a new city each day, and was rather devoid of company or friendship. The intimacy of a small audience and his ability to use that intimacy was now lost, and the pressure was so great to do everything to perfection that performing had become about getting it right, not enjoying the thrill of performing. In 1981 he quit stand-up comedy forever.
The Last Word On Steve Martin's Born Standing Up
Born Standing Up is a rare chance for comedy fans and those hoping to hit the stage to get an inside look at both the entertainment world of the nineteen seventies, and the mind of a stand-up legend. Entertaining while completely serious, Martin has the writing talent to weave the sadness, joys, and passion involved in his life into an autobiographical tapestry well worth picking up.
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