Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

by Steve Martin

Having cut myself off from him, 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.

Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.

The art world, always contrarian, responded to psychedelia with monochrome and minimalism. It was fun trying to “turn” a young conservative, which was easy because our music was better.

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I CONTINUED TO PURSUE my studies and half believed I might try for a doctorate in philosophy and become a teacher, as teaching is, after all, a form of show business.

I was now coming up with jokes about the increased size of the house. My opening was the magic dime trick, in which I would claim to change the date of a dime. Then I would ask the back row what they’d paid to get in.