Born Standing Up

Jan 04, 2008 J.P. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: comedy fans, biography fans

I usually avoid these types of books like the Plague. Celebrity autobiographies---ego unchained, coupled with a "Then I went here, then I did this, then I went there and did that. . ." boring-ass format. Nine times out of ten, books like these put me to sleep.

Not so, Steve Martin's BORN STANDING UP. First of all, it's more focused than most celeb tell-alls. It centers around Martin's life leading up to and including his career as a standup comedian, not as an actor/filmmaker. So "Three Amigos" f...more I usually avoid these types of books like the Plague. Celebrity autobiographies---ego unchained, coupled with a "Then I went here, then I did this, then I went there and did that. . ." boring-ass format. Nine times out of ten, books like these put me to sleep.

Not so, Steve Martin's BORN STANDING UP. First of all, it's more focused than most celeb tell-alls. It centers around Martin's life leading up to and including his career as a standup comedian, not as an actor/filmmaker. So "Three Amigos" fans, you'll have to wait for Martin's next volume for those fascinating Chevy Chase anecdotes.

This is not a laugh-out-loud book, but there are funny bits in it. Once , while working as an up-and-coming comedian in the late 1960s, Martin recalls how he stepped on to the stage of a Playboy Club on a Monday night. Monday nights in nightclubs, he tells us, were usually as dead as graveyards. On this particular night, however, the club was packed. Martin describes how his performer's ego soared---until he realized that he was standing in front of an audience consisting entirely of Japanese tourists who spoke almost no English.

Most interesting to me was Martin's chronicle of how he slowly, painstakingly evolved from a self-conscious, teenaged magician working at Disneyland to the banjo-plucking, arrow-through-the-head wildman who sold out arenas and defined 1970s comedy. Martin is generous in providing insights into how he developed the "punchline-free", surreal humor that he's known for today.

Along the way, the comic spins numerous anecdotes concerning his encounters with those who shaped his life, both personally and professionally; old-time vaudeville comedians, writer Dalton Trumbo (and his daughter, Mitzi), Johnny Carson and the Smothers Brothers are just a few of the notables who are vividly recounted. Even Elvis makes a cameo appearance.

Even more intriguing, Martin finally answers the question of why, in the early 1980s, he walked away from standup comedy, never to return.

Martin is as skilled a writer as he was a standup comedian; he keeps the pace brisk as he tells his multi-faceted tale. If you're looking for an insightful, intelligent page-turner, look here. If you don't know much about this entertainer, you'll walk away from BORN STANDING UP with a new appreciation for his singular talents. If you're a Steve Martin fan, roll up your sleeves and dig in!(less)

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Jul 12, 2012 Flannery rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who loves Steve Martin, memoirs, or author-narrated audiobooks

Shelves: audiobooks, kcls, read-in-2012, wishlist-for-books-to-keep, memoir

I loved this book so much because it was everything I subconsciously wanted it to be and nothing that I expected it to be. I thought it would be mostly about Martin's career as a primarily comedic actor and it basically ends at the onset of his film career. I thought it would be hilarious and filled with jokes and I think I actually laughed out loud about five times. And a part of me harbored some sort of belief that every person who saw Steve Martin do stand up comedy must have known they were...more I loved this book so much because it was everything I subconsciously wanted it to be and nothing that I expected it to be. I thought it would be mostly about Martin's career as a primarily comedic actor and it basically ends at the onset of his film career. I thought it would be hilarious and filled with jokes and I think I actually laughed out loud about five times. And a part of me harbored some sort of belief that every person who saw Steve Martin do stand up comedy must have known they were seeing something amazing. Surely someone so hilarious never experienced the silence of an unappreciative audience, and he could not possibly have crashed and burned with some of his bits. Of course, I know that is never the case but it will never cease to amaze me how some people worked so hard for their success when their talent is worthy of an unimpeded rise to the top. I've seen some fabulous stand up comedy and some absolute abysmal stand up. This is the first book I've read about what life as a stand up comic is like but it certainly won't be the last and it definitely has me wondering about Martin's fiction works.

Steve Martin knew he wanted to be a performer from a very young age. Martin narrators the audiobook of Born Standing Up himself in his contemplative, matter-of-fact voice. He talks about working at Disneyland, learning magic and rope tricks, selling park maps, and every minuscule step that brought him closer to his ultimate goal. Woven through the entire book are Martin's ruminations on the strained relationship he had with his father and they provided a sturdy backbone upon which the rest of his story could rest. I want to say that that aspect of the book ended satisfactorily for me but this is someone's life and these are real people. I suppose I can say that I was very disappointed about several choices Steve Martin's father made but I'm glad Martin is a strong enough person to achieve everything he has despite a lack of paternal support when it might (nay, probably would) have provided validation.

I was extremely surprised and entertained by the number of celebrities who peppered Martin's path to success. He was/is friends with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Allman Brothers, played at the same clubs at the same time as people like Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell, and even played a small gig where the other act that night was a pair of unknowns, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. He knew Dalton Trumbo, author of Johnny Got His Gun, and actually had a conversation with Elvis Presley in which Elvis commented on the fact that he and Martin shared an oblique sense of humor. I knew how talented Martin is at playing banjo, but just in case you are in the dark on that one, check this out: Martin playing the banjo.

I was aware of several of Martin's famous bits before listening to his memoir, including "Wild and Crazy Guys", "Well, ex-cuuuuse me," "King Tut," the arrow through the head bit. It was immensely entertaining to hear how these bits came about and about other lesser-known (to me, of course) jokes he used to use. He is an admittedly private person and I can't remember ever learning too much about his personal life from the surprising amount of (arguably useless) information I've garnered from entertainment websites over the years, so I was very interested to learn about Martin's philosophical studies, how he acquired the skills he has, and about the private life I'm glad the media mostly seems to allow him to keep to himself. Though there were many memorable moments for me in this memoir, my favorite quote of his was this one: “Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”

I am such a believer in the idea that every random skill, story, or piece of information you gain in your life will come to some use later in life. For that reason, I was so excited to hear Johnny Carson tell basically that exact thing to Martin, who used random rope tricks on The Tonight Show that he'd learned from a childhood coworker of his. One of the highlights of listening to the audio production of Born Standing Up is how apparent Steve Martin's appreciation is for all the people who were a part of his comedic journey. His voice is flat in a realistic way--there's no pretension or fakeness to his storytelling. This is four hours (yes, it is only four hours long) well spent if you enjoy Steve Martin's comedy or are curious about a life doing stand up.

Also appears at The Readventurer.(less)

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Jan 03, 2008 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

If, before I read this, someone were to tell me that I would only laugh one time in the whole book, I would be like, “No way,” and he would be like, “Seriously, at one point a bird craps on Steve Martin’s head and that's literally the only time you’ll laugh in the whole book,” and I would be like, “Come on, really?” and he would be like, “Well, think about it: think about his material during this period and try to imagine how it would translate onto the page, and then think about where he is now...more If, before I read this, someone were to tell me that I would only laugh one time in the whole book, I would be like, “No way,” and he would be like, “Seriously, at one point a bird craps on Steve Martin’s head and that's literally the only time you’ll laugh in the whole book,” and I would be like, “Come on, really?” and he would be like, “Well, think about it: think about his material during this period and try to imagine how it would translate onto the page, and then think about where he is now, both as a writer and just as a person, and imagine that person trying to convey anything that you would be able to have any connection at all to, and plus you’ve heard all of his albums, right? Like pretty recently?” and I’d be all, “They’re – they’re on my iPod,” and he’d be all, “Well, so even if there were some way to transfer a live performance of this nature to paper successfully, you still wouldn’t laugh when you see it typed out because you’ve just heard it,” and I’d be all, “So, should I not read it?” and he’d be like, “Obviously, yes, you *have* to read it, it’s a document of a period in American comedy that you’ve always admired and been fascinated by. I’m just saying you’ll be frustrated with it; in fact, what you’ll say when it’s over is: ‘I wish this book were the Internet’,” and I’d be all, “Whaaaat?” and he’d be, “Like when he talks about being writing partners with Bob “Super Dave Osbourne” Einstein and how much fun that was, you’ll be all, ‘Yes, please, more about that, click click click,’ but then he won’t give you anything, until about seven [generously margined] pages later when he will mention again that he’s still writing partners with B“SD”O, and you’ll be all, ‘More? About this?’ but he won’t tell you anything, nor will there be more than a passing mention about Saturday Night Live, plus you’ll also be creeped out when he mentions Linda Ronstadt’s panties, but that’s just because you have a problem with that word,” and I’d be all, “Yes: I can’t hear it without imagining the speaker is in some state of arrested adolescence,” and he’ll be all, “It’s a perfectly cromulent word,” and we’d be all “Simpsons reference!” and high five and I’d be all, “I’ll try to get past it,” and then I’d be all, “But wait, how do you know this is all true?” and he’d be all, “Because I am you! From the Future!” and I’d be all, “Really?” and he’d be all, “Yeah. Wanna make out?” and I’d be all, “OK. But no gay stuff.”(less)

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Jul 18, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, memoir, nonfiction

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

I hope this isn't too embarrassing a thing to admit, but when I was a kid I used to have Steve Martin's old comedy albums literally memorized; and I mean, literally, back in the late '70s and early '80s when he was at his commercial height, back when I was ten, eleven, twelve years old, I could litera...more (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

I hope this isn't too embarrassing a thing to admit, but when I was a kid I used to have Steve Martin's old comedy albums literally memorized; and I mean, literally, back in the late '70s and early '80s when he was at his commercial height, back when I was ten, eleven, twelve years old, I could literally relate entire routines of his to a public audience (and sometimes did), pause for pause and inflection for inflection. And now I look back, of course, and wonder what the childhood-me ever saw in Martin's edgy, countercultural performances; as can be expected from a '70s comedian, most of his work was about drugs and sex and other strictly adult topics, half the jokes zooming right over my head as a child even as I was able to perfectly recite them. I guess, then, that it was maybe the pure manic energy Martin brought to his performance, the traditional zaniness of it all, which I guess adults were enjoying for ironic reasons at the time but I loved just because it was silly -- a grown man wearing rabbit ears, a clown wearing a formal three-piece white suit. "Well, excuuuuuuuusssse meeeeee!!!!"

So how interesting, then, to get to sit down and read Martin's memoirs on those years, Born Standing Up, decades after he quit stand-up for good, decades where he has been ambivalent and shy about his stand-up years in the first place, preferring to constantly delve forward with his traditional acting instead, as well as the more intellectual humor that has defined his later career as a novelist and playwright. Because as this tight, slim, plainly-spoken, always entertaining volume shows, it was in fact precisely the combination of his traditional showbiz childhood experiences and the countercultural excesses of the '60s that led to his act in the first place, not an affectation of any sort but merely the things that naturally interested him back then, the things that he naturally found funny; but by doing so, he in fact forged something entirely new, unique and unforgettable, leading to him at one point being the number-one live-entertainment draw in the entire United States, and this counting rock musicians as well.

That's important to remember about Martin's early career, that he had the kinds of live-audience successes that sound surreal anymore in these "Laff Shack on every corner" days; at the height of his stand-up years, he was sometimes packing in 20,000 people a night or more, night after night and city after city, precisely because he did the kind of hybrid performance that no other comedian did, a wry sensibility attuned to the times combined with literal cornball routines and effects from the Catskills era. It'd be easy to believe, as many did, that Martin deliberately added these cornball details to his routine at a certain point during adulthood, precisely for the ironic enjoyment that jaded '70s audiences would get out of it; but as this book shows, these elements have actually been a consistent part of his public act since literally his teenage years, when he worked at the magic store inside of California's Disneyland during high school, wearing such things as arrows-through-the-head and Groucho Marx glasses unironically, trying to actually sell more of them at the store. Once he got into college, according to him, once he was in his twenties and starting to put together an adult touring club routine of his own, he simply left the magic-store accrouchements in, simply because he was 20 and a terrible comedian and needed stuff to fall back on; it was only as he started getting older, started embracing more of the countercultural things going on around him, that these details took on their ironic effect, by which time he was a good enough comedian to understand how to exploit them for that purpose.

In fact, it's no surprise that no less than Jerry Seinfeld has called Born Standing Up "one of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written," because this is a very wonky, very process-obsessed memoir, a chance for Martin to literally record the steps that moved him from one moment to the next in his early career, to literally talk about the specific things he changed from step to step, the specific things he held onto. Because let's face it, there's actually a hugely fascinating milieu of significant events that was swarming around him during his youth; raised in southern California, actually a philosophy student at college while first pursuing a career as a comedian, Martin was lovers and roommates with all the various future legends of Hollywood, but also compatriots with student radicals, art historians, blacklisted Communist writers, and all kinds of other people who would have such a profound effect on his later, more mature career. (For those who don't know, in fact, on top of his performance career, he's currently also one of the most respected private collectors of 20th-century art in the entire country.) He was a writer on the old "Smothers Brothers Comedy Show," right at the height of its Nixon-hating, network-preempting controversy; he was brought into the now-classic "Saturday Night Live" right at its most daring start, one of the people who helped cement the show into what it now is. When the "Lenny Bruce Look" finally became the norm on comedy stages in the mid-'70s, he switched over to a short haircut and a three-piece suit, for no other reason than to be different; and then right at the height of his career, a moment when he was literally selling out basketball stadiums for weeks on end, he walked away from it all and never looked back.

And that's maybe the biggest irony about Martin's early career, as so smartly but sometimes cynically detailed in Born Standing Up; that he had never meant to be a stand-up in the first place, had only done so because he literally had nothing else going on in his life at the time, and in fact couldn't wait to walk away from it all as soon as he could, perpetually embarrassed as he was over the entire stand-up industry in the first place. And in this I share a deep empathy with Martin, in that this is how I in general feel as well about my own youthful years in the slam-poetry community of the 1990s; how even something that brings a person quick fame and attention can ultimately be embarrassing to the person it's benefiting, how a person can be weirdly proud of what they themselves did within that medium but still deeply disappointed by the medium itself, by everyone else in it and what the general public thinks of it. As Martin explains throughout this memoir, he has always seen writing and intellectualism as much more worthy life pursuits than simply getting on a stage and making with the yuk-yuk, and in fact even needed to be convinced by friends to write the memoir in the first place; it's very telling, I think, that he actually had to hire a researcher to track down all the photos and documents seen throughout the manuscript, in that he had held on to barely any of this stuff himself.

That's a fascinating thing about Martin, I think, that his career can be classified into such two clean and unrelated halves, not just the mediums he's worked in but even the type of humor he uses. He truly was a master of the stand-up format, which is why I have such immense respect for him for walking away from it all, the moment his fame got big enough that he had the actual opportunity to do so, to delve instead into traditional movies and traditional acting. But I have to say, I'm glad as well that he was eventually convinced to indeed write Born Standing Up -- it's a treasure trove of information for anyone who was old fan of his from those years, as well as any aspiring stage performer who wants to understand more about how one hones one's craft over time. It comes highly recommended today.

Out of 10: 9.0(less)

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Mar 24, 2008 Trebro rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books

I am a huge fan of Steve Martin, to the point that even though I was probably a bit too young for it, Mom took me to see Roxanne in the theater. His SNL work and standup and early movies were a big part of forming the peculiar sense of humour that I have today.

So next time *I* am laughing hysterically while the rest of the room looks on in silence, remember kids, it's all Mr. Martin's fault.

This book, which I listed to as read by the author (I think it would have been funny to have it started to...more I am a huge fan of Steve Martin, to the point that even though I was probably a bit too young for it, Mom took me to see Roxanne in the theater. His SNL work and standup and early movies were a big part of forming the peculiar sense of humour that I have today.

So next time *I* am laughing hysterically while the rest of the room looks on in silence, remember kids, it's all Mr. Martin's fault.

This book, which I listed to as read by the author (I think it would have been funny to have it started to be read by someone else, but he's a bit more serious nowadays.), tells of the early days of the comic's career, from his troubled childhood to an early job at Disney, where Martin met some of the people that would affect his future career.

With a co-dependent mother and a father that, while Martin covers it a little, seems to have been abusive, Martin grew up very isolated and therefore gravitated to the adult figures he found in his work. It let to him putting together a very strange act--a new comedy, one that didn't rely strictly on joke and punchline. Part of going to a Steve Martin show was not knowing what was going to happen next.

The narrative takes us through his life a young man, warts and all, discussing his personal life and phobias, his enchantment and disillusion with flower power, failed loves, and of course the comedy. In some ways, the book is a love story to what made Steve Martin the person most of us recognize today. The zaniness came from a strong desire to be different--rejecting the acts and jokes of others to come up with something truly original. The sheer amount of work and risk it took to do so is sometimes astounding and had not a few things broken the right way, he might be an insurance salesman or something by now, or perhaps a tenured philosophy professor, wondering what might have been.

We're better for the fact that he succeeded.

Martin's tone in this book is rather serious for a good portion of it, especially his early years. There are some good one-liners here and there, but the overall tone is more scholarly than silly. Those looking for the old Wild-and-crazy-guy aren't going to find it here, though flashes of the Martin wit, when written in, are guaranteed to make his fans smile.

Perhaps most interesting to me is the description of why Martin got out of stand up and moved toward the movies. Increasingly isolated and increasingly popular, he couldn't do the things that made the act work--it's hard to be spontaneous when twenty thousand people are looking for King Tut and the interplay between actor and audience is lost completely. (Perhaps the most telling example of this loss of what made him so good is the last show he ever did, where a guitar didn't come down on stage and instead of reacting with classic Martin shtick, he froze and later yelled backstage.)

This is a book about a man and how he made his life, painful at times but very enlightening. If you want a complete biography, this isn't it. Maybe we'll get "Steve Martin: The Movie Years" at a later date. But if you want to know how it feels to be shuffled off to guest hosts on the Tonight Show or how Marin got to write for the Smothers Brothers, this is for you.

While I miss the old Steve Martin--the newer, older Martin seems to try too hard to be "deep" now, and that shows in places during the text--I understand the need to change over time. (After all, when's the last time I put on roller skates and talked about the extinction of the dinosaurs?) I am thankful to Martin for writing this very touching look at that past I loved so much, and if you are a fan of the comic, I think you will, too. (Library, 03/08)

Trebby's Take: Highly recommended!(less)

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Mar 11, 2008 James rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone.

This probably gets an extra star for my undying love for Steve Martin.

When I was a kid, I had three heroes: Han Solo, Kermit the Frog, and Steve Martin. Two of them are fictional, so only one can tell his life story, and damn, he f'n did it. It's a story of perseverance, and how to persevere under what I would call whelming odds. Not overwhelming, but enough that you might see where he would want to pack it in. Sometimes.

I love his approach to this book. He doesn't really write too much about p...more

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May 27, 2008 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was born in 1978, a particularly good year for comedian Steve Martin. That was the year he won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album with Let's Get Small, the year he released "King Tut" on 45, the year he appeared in the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, made so many appearances on SNL that he seemed more like a regular fixture than a guest host, and was basically as successful as any comedian can hope to be. But since I wasn't exactly cognizant in 1978, all this was lost on me. By the ti...more I was born in 1978, a particularly good year for comedian Steve Martin. That was the year he won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album with Let's Get Small, the year he released "King Tut" on 45, the year he appeared in the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, made so many appearances on SNL that he seemed more like a regular fixture than a guest host, and was basically as successful as any comedian can hope to be. But since I wasn't exactly cognizant in 1978, all this was lost on me. By the time I was old enough to appreciate popular culture Martin had long since traded in his stand-up career for one in film, so my early memories of him are more of the Little Shop of Horrors variety rather than the comedic banjo/magic act sort. And so, I entered into this autobiographic recount of his stand-up career with slight apprehension. I love Steve Martin but had never seen his stand-up routine, so I wondered if a story about this particular era of his life would be slightly lost on me.

As I came to learn, Martin's early career made for a pretty interesting read, even for those who were not yet self-aware in 1978. Before making it big, he more than paid his dues working in a Disneyland magic shop, performed some of his earliest material in a Knott's Berry Farm theater, made endless and often unsuccessful appearances on daytime variety shows, and strove to create a original brand of comedy that relied more on quirky non sequiturs than on punch lines. He was also a student of philosophy, loved art and poetry, suffered from severe panic attacks, had a complicated and poignant relationship with his father, and very nearly gave up on show business before finally making it big. On top of learning these interesting facts about Martin, his autobiography also revealed that he's a great writer who comes across as a genuine, wholly likable, and all-around good guy.

Personally, I clearly prefer fiction over non-fiction, and biographies/autobiographies are generally not my thing at all. It's not that I don't find true stories interesting - I do! - it's just that I'd rather enjoy my stories of celebrity life in episodes of E! True Hollywood Story form rather than in book form. But I needed a book for the plane and had heard good things about Born Standing Up, so when I noticed that it happened to be available at my local library I rolled the dice and picked it up.

And the verdict? Born Standing Up is a very enjoyable read that can easily be digested in a few hours, making it the perfect airplane read. If you are a Martin fan, it's definitely worth your time.(less)

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Jan 04, 2008 CJ rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: steve martin fans

Recommended to CJ by: Jillian

I heard Steve Martin talk about this book a couple of weeks ago on NPR and he was brilliant. He's so low key about his celebrity it makes me want to sit and have a cup of coffee with him.

In Martin's own words this book is "a biography, because I am writing about someone I used to know." It chronicles his childhood entrance into show business and follows him all the way through playing stadiums in the 1980s.

What interested me most is his approach to doing stand up. I've often wondered what it's...more

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May 23, 2008 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in comedy or the history of comedy

Shelves: non-fiction

I enjoyed reading Steve Martin's memoir of his years in stand-up comedy. His job handing out guide books in Disney Land as a pre-teen led him to a love of magic, then to a love of performing on stage. I loved the hard work and thought he put into his act; honing it after years of trial and error.

I think so many people today break into "the business" because of nepotism, but Martin did it by persevering. I first knew of him as the guy in the movie The Jerk, but he was also a writer for The Smoth...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it 4 of 5 stars

"I was born a poor black child" from the lips of Steve Martin struck me as one of the funniest things I'd ever heard when I was 7. At that young age and for years after, his humor resinated with me and I never fully understood why until reading his autobio, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Martin's humor, especially early on, was based on the absurd. It didn't always make sense, it was often silly and that appealed to me as a kid. He was the reason I enjoyed the child-like humor of characters l...more

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May 31, 2008 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Patty!

for me, this book read just as if it were a one-sided, long conversation with the only thing forcing story progression being when steve would remember his original point and refocus on the story. he veered off on related tangents and then would jump back into the plot very quickly.

that sounds much more critical than it should. the man has done a lot in his lifetime and i'm sure it's hard to put all of that into a book cohesively. even thought it was a bit scattered, i would still recommend it.

i...more

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May 04, 2008 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

I'm not the biggest Steve Martin fan, but I watched "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" a few months ago and my brother gave me his book "Cruel Shoes" in college, so I was interested to read his take on his stand-up years, which were a kind of anti-comedy that employed the banjo and purposely bad magic tricks. The book is only 200 pages, so it's concise and interesting thoughout. My favorite part was when he explained his theory of what he was trying to do:

"What if there were no punch lines? What if the...more

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Jan 20, 2008 Colleen Venable rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiography, 2008-read, non-fiction-adult

I count my idols on one hand. When I was 18 I took a cross country road trip with my father during which we listened to Martin's LET'S GET SMALL on repeat for the entire length of New Mexico. The trip confirmed a few beliefs, yes my father was the greatest man on the planet, and yes Steve Martin was a close second. Martin's stand-up has still never been rivaled, a perfect blend of absurd with a straight face, as if his goal was to make the joke fly over the audience's heads. Many times there wer...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humorous, memoirs

A very enjoyable read. I've liked Steve Martin's other books, especially Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and this memoir is a good behind-the-scenes look at how he came to craft his hyper-silly comedy routine of the '60s and '70s.

I was interested to learn how much philosophy he studied and how he evolved his brand of comedy. Rather than cue the audience for a punchline, he got rid of the punchline altogether and went on with another bit, waiting for the audience to catch up. (Based on...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Sarah Fay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having read and enjoyed "An Object of Beauty", I remarked (naively) to a friend in the entertainment world that I was impressed Steve Martin could move from being a performer to such a well written author. Duh! Steve Martin actually began as a writer, first creating all of his own comedy material, then for years he was a TV writer (Smothers Brothers, Sonny & Cher), and of course, he wrote the screen plays for blockbuster movies, "The Jerk", "L.A. Story", etc. My friend, swiftly sent this bio...more Having read and enjoyed "An Object of Beauty", I remarked (naively) to a friend in the entertainment world that I was impressed Steve Martin could move from being a performer to such a well written author. Duh! Steve Martin actually began as a writer, first creating all of his own comedy material, then for years he was a TV writer (Smothers Brothers, Sonny & Cher), and of course, he wrote the screen plays for blockbuster movies, "The Jerk", "L.A. Story", etc. My friend, swiftly sent this biography to educate me on the hard work and talent required to become a successful comedian. Point taken!

For anyone who thinks comedy is all fun and games, think again. Martin lived hand-to-mouth for more than a decade, tweaking his act, playing dives, and trying to get under the hood of the human psyche to better understand how to trigger laughter, and how to be remembered as a comedy innovator. You know the rest of the story - Martin became wildly successful... but the journey he describes in "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life" is fascinating. This biography provides a detailed sequence of events that ultimately shape the author's experience, ideas, talent, network of friends / colleagues, etc. It also provides a real psycho-analysis of Martin's past relationships (family, close friends, girlfriends) and the deeper feelings and perspectives these created for him. Martin was a Psychology major in college, and that must have contributed to this close introspection. I was impressed with how much of himself he was willing to show, given he admits to being shy, and has not enjoyed the aspect of fame that makes strangers approach him as a friend (he writes that returning this level of familiarity has always felt dishonest, and he can't do it). Yet, he treats the reader intimately, with details of his demons (anxiety, depression, lack of closeness with his family) - and he is forthcoming with both the facts and his emotions, which makes the reader feel like you are getting a sense of the real Steve Martin.

In addition, this book satisfies the entertainment junkie who is interested in which celebrities Martin encountered along the way. He includes some great cameos of the Smothers brothers, Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Merv Griffin, Linda Ronstadt, the cast of SNL, a host of famous comedians and musicians, and numerous other entertainment professionals you may not know, but wish you did after reading his descriptions of them. While this book is not meant to be a funny story, it is written (as you would imagine) with a healthy amount of Martin's usual wit and irony, so the pages fly. He also does detail gags from some of his routines that definitely got some audible laughs out of me.

Mostly, I came away with an enlightened view and profound respect for Martin and anyone who is able to achieve success as a comedian. Hats off!(less)

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Apr 08, 2009 Shellie (Layers of Thought) rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers who like memoirs/autobiographies

Shelves: genre-humor-satire, read-in-2009, genre-memoir-bio-autobio, genre-non-fiction

Coming of age in the 1980's Steve Martin sits in my youthful consciousness as a stand out/up celebrity. I laughed at his movies and all my high school and community college friends loved him. I remember everyone imitating him in conversations and at parties in attempt to be funny or contemporary. So when trying to find a comedian to read about for an April fools day challenge I chose his memoir Born Standing Up. I expected the book to be funny - it wasn't. So if your looking for humor this is no...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Dennis Budd rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book and surprisingly have not read anything else by Steve Martin, other than his one-pagers in the New Yorker (more Martin planned for my Goodreads queue). As one who played his comedy albums over and over, Steve Martin's voice was ingrained in my adolescent ears and to read this book was to hear him again. His comedic voice is ever-present but nothing in the book is funny, which reinforces a perspective that humor is a light overlaying lens on our reality, one Steve wears...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Svengali rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-autobio

When I first became obsessed with Steve Martin I was very young. My father had two records of his stand up and I idolized the silly innocence in the movie 'The Jerk'. I Sang the song 'King Tut' in front of my second grade class. I couldnt get enough information about this man, Steve Martin. Perhaps I wanted to know more about this figure, but more importantly I wanted much larger amounts of material that he produced comically. The comedy was cathartic - an embodiment of freedom, yet perfected. I...more

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Sep 16, 2008 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting book ... as a kid growing up in the 70s, I certainly knew who Steve Martin was ... I saw him on Saturday Night Live, I had all the albums, I watched the movies he was in. But reading the book gave me new appreciation for him. Coming out of a pretty bad upbringing (not unusual among comedians), he really strived to do something different ... and his explanation of how he evolved his act to the point of what became a mega-sensation (playing stadiums) is extremely intriguing, because he...more

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Aug 13, 2008 Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I devoured this book like semisweet chocolate, only some kind of chocolate that isn't too rich and doesn't leave me sick no matter how much of it I eat. I feel like I could read about Steve Martin's analysis of his own standup comedy for thousands of pages. Instead I'm stuck with about 200, and these I cherished.

Born Standing Up is not an intimate confessional by Martin, and those eager to learn more about the man behind the rather aloof, cold public facade will be disappointed here. The book fi...more I devoured this book like semisweet chocolate, only some kind of chocolate that isn't too rich and doesn't leave me sick no matter how much of it I eat. I feel like I could read about Steve Martin's analysis of his own standup comedy for thousands of pages. Instead I'm stuck with about 200, and these I cherished.

Born Standing Up is not an intimate confessional by Martin, and those eager to learn more about the man behind the rather aloof, cold public facade will be disappointed here. The book finds Steve Martin looking back on his own standup career as if it all happened to someone else. He seems completely detached from it 25 years later, and rather mystified himself at the astounding success he achieved. And really, I can't say I blame him. If I'd reached a level of performance in which I was putting my show on in front of 20,000 people, I don't think I'd really believe it either. Martin explains what happened. Explains what he did to get where he got, and explains the development of his comedy from doing magic tricks at Disney Land to the astoundingly bizarre "avante garde" style he adopted as a 30-something. Observing the sheer weirdness of his act in retrospect it's hard to imagine how it got so popular, and I think it has entirely to do with the fact that Martin was so obsessed with comedy he performed literally thousands of shows during his lifetime. He attacked the craft with almost unprecedented zeal and the result was a level of comic timing so advanced he could get away with anything on stage, and make people laugh--including wearing balloon hats, slapping himself in the face, and tuning an imaginary banjo. He honed such a unique style that he is the one comic I can think of who is utterly inimitable. Nobody could ever try to emulate Steve Martin without looking like a total copycat. Somehow, in his absurd randomness, he created something utterly profound and memorable.

Anyway, it's fascinating to read Martin's deconstruction of his own comedy career, especially if you're interested in standup comedy itself as an art form, which I very much am. In Born Standing Up Martin provides the best, most succinct description of his own act I could possibly think of, and because he is my favorite standup comic in history, the quote, to me, really describes an ideal version of comedy in general:

"What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh."

Genius. You have to do something a hell of a lot, for a very long time, to come up with such an acute sense of how you actually do it. It's debatable if Martin was the greatest comic in history, but I'm almost positive he was the most precise, astute, and self-aware.(less)

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Apr 12, 2008 Todd Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: entertainers, comedy enthusiasts, and other old people

Shelves: humor

I purchased this book as part of a long-standing tradition of buying books for my mom about people she has expressed interest in. This one had been standing out to me on shelves in the months leading up to Christmas, so when the gift rush set in, Born Standing Up was a no-brainer.

As you know, the beauty of book giving is in trying the item out before you pass it along. Long story short, this led to a two day devouring of this book before seeing the family to exchange gifts. I could not put this...more

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Feb 28, 2008 Jason DeGroot rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jason by: Julie

Shelves: biography-autobiography, humor, audio-books, 2008

A friend from work let me borrow this, and I'm so glad I listened to the audio book rather than read it (I'd almost bought the book at Target last week on a whim). Steve Martin is my favorite comedian; I've had all his albums at one time or another, his early movies are some of my favorites. I don't know much of his literary work, unfortunately, like "Pure Drivel" and "Shopgirl", but will be atoning for that shortly. Hearing Martin tell his own story is a real treat. While it starts off pretty d...more

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Jan 31, 2008 Paul Holbrook rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who was a fan of Steve Martin's stand up comedy

Steve Martin is an interesting fellow. When I was in high school, he went through his "overnight sensation" phase, where his lines were on every high school student's lips. He was the embodiment of a kind of faux stupid attitude that many high school students affected. His first movie, The Jerk, went right along with that.

But somewhere Steve Martin dropped all that. Today you're more likely to find his work in The New Yorker than on Saturday Night Live, and he hasn't done a stand-up comedy show...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Johnsergeant rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiblecom, audiobook

Downloaded from Audible.com

Program Type: Audiobook; Unabridged
Narrator: Steve Martin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2007
Length: 4 hours and 3 min.

Publisher's Summary
In the mid-70s, 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. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away".

At age 10 Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the n...more

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Dec 19, 2007 Joey rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Steve Martin Fans

Shelves: non-fiction

I am a huge Steve Martin fan. I own his comedy albums and never get tired of them. He has great clips on Youtube, too. When my mom told me that a book was coming out soon about his life as a stand-up comedian, I was anxious for a month to get my hands on a copy. I bought the book as soon as it came out and devoured it, but I was not impressed.

Steve Martin barely exposes any part of himself as an artist. He seems to just give a quick overview of what happened to him and what he did to become so s...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2007

BORN STANDING UP: A COMIC'S LIFE BY STEVE MARTIN: Actor/writer Steve Martin’s latest book, Born Standing Up, is neither a novel nor a complete autobiography. It is an insightful and entertaining read about Steve Martin’s rise to fame through comedy, starting during his teen years and leading up to his success as an actor in blockbuster movies.

The book begins with Steve’s birth in a classic American family, with a supportive mother and a father who always wanted to pursue a career in comedy but n...more BORN STANDING UP: A COMIC'S LIFE BY STEVE MARTIN: Actor/writer Steve Martin’s latest book, Born Standing Up, is neither a novel nor a complete autobiography. It is an insightful and entertaining read about Steve Martin’s rise to fame through comedy, starting during his teen years and leading up to his success as an actor in blockbuster movies.

The book begins with Steve’s birth in a classic American family, with a supportive mother and a father who always wanted to pursue a career in comedy but never did, sticking to a more “productive” and safer job. From a very young age, Steve felt the need to be on a stage, entertaining an audience whether it was with comedic stories, amusing jokes, or slapstick magic tricks. When Steve was living with his family in Anaheim, CA, on July 17th, 1955, Disneyland opened its doors for the first time. He immediately went over and managed to get a job selling programs to park attendees. Steve Martin soon became firmly established as a Disneyland employee, climbing the ranks until he took the job as an entertainer performing tricks at the magic shop in the park.

In his later teen years, Steve began working with different groups in stage comedy. It was the start of his comedy career, when he was barely known, but would never give up. After falling in love with and falling out with Stormie Sherk, later known as Stormie Omartian, he pursued an interest in philosophy, attending Cal State Long Beach and then transferring to UCLA due to where he was performing. Eventually it became too hard for him, and he wanted to dedicate himself more to his slowly growing comedy career.

He set a goal for himself: if by thirty he hadn’t made it, he would change careers. He traveled across the country, getting work wherever he could, making friends and contacts. Thirty came and went, but he didn’t quit. His name became known, his audiences grew larger, and his routine became longer and funnier. It was at the point when he started drawing thousands that he knew he’d made it, as well as recording a number of comedy albums that were bestsellers. He also began performing on a new stand-up live comedy TV show called Saturday Night Live.

It was during 1980, when Steve Martin was performing an astonishing number of shows a week, his energy and stamina sapped, the audience numbers beginning to shrink, that he knew his stand-up career was over. It was a brilliant move by Martin, to stop when he was still at a relative high point. He turned to movies, using some of his stage material and working on a screenplay for a movie that would eventually be called The Jerk. The movie was an instant success, becoming a cult favorite, and was the perfect start to Steve Martin’s movie career.

While Born Standing Up provides a detailed biography to Steve Martin’s stand-up career, he also writes about his relationship with his family, and more importantly with his father, and how this changed during his life. Filled with memorable and some hilarious photos, Born Standing Up is an excellent, short, but very entertaining biography that will make the perfect gift for Christmas.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Aug 04, 2008 Kara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Wow. Big disappointment. I was hoping for some insight into this this man who was so hilarious in the 70s, yet disappeared to later reemerge as a family-friendly "light" comic actor. But this is an impossibility due to the fact that Martin seems to have little insight into himself.

His book reads like a Filofax diary of who and where and what. What's missing is any genuine humanity or emotion. Is he married today? Has kids? Who knows because it's not addressed.

He also appears to have less emotio...more

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Sep 12, 2008 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

The secrets of Steve Martin's (or any highly skilled professional's) success revealed! 90% perspiration, 9.9% desperation, 0.1% inspiration. Hard work. Years of poverty and hand-to-mouth living. Practice, practice, practice. Rejection. More hard work. More practice. More rejection. Then a lucky break and a breakthrough, and the rest is history. But for the break to produce success on the level Martin has had, he had to be prepared for it, and he was. This book tells us what being prepared means...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Bob Jakubovic rated it 4 of 5 stars

Steve Martin is a genius. He's funny, he writes, he acts and he let Glen Frey know that Eagles was not the right name for his newly formed band...it would be The Eagles. This is more a book about Martin and his rediscovery of his family than anything else.

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Apr 20, 2008 Tricia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Tricia by: Mike Bath

A well-written and engaging memoir from an iconic comedian. What blew my mind was how his success was the result of incredibly hard work: he spent years dissecting and analyzing comedy through performance. This is almost a "how-to" book on stand-up, but times have changed and so what is best gleaned from its pages is the level of dedication and sheer will power needed to create art. Inspiration might strike some, but the majority of creativity comes from careful observation of masters and a fear...more

1 like · like · see review

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