Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin Paperback Book

Details

Rent Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

Author: Steve Martin

Format: Quality Paperback, Unabridged-CD

Publisher: Scribner Book Company

Published: Sep 2008

Genre: Biography & Autobiography - Entertainment & Performing Arts - Comedians

Retail Price: $17.99

Pages: 224

Synopsis

In the midseventies, 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. This book is, in his own words, the story of 'why I did stand-up and why I walked away.'

Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been awriter. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times -- the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.

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Reviews

BookLender review by Cyndie Browning of Tulsa, OK on 2008-05-21 17:29:00

Until I read the synopsis of this book and then listened to Martin reading the opening lines of it, it hadn't occurred to me that it had been so long since he gave up stand-up comedy and became a more-or-less serious actor. I used to love Martin's attacks of Happy Feet, the King Tut performances, and his one-liners, like excuuuuse-me and others. Listening to this book and hearing the serious side of Martin, I found I was interested in his life story, but at the same time, I didn't really care about it. Hearing how much work went into his act and that he wasn't really enjoying his own insanity on stage, sorta took away from my joy of listening to him tell about it, so I rated the book with only 3-stars. Nonetheless, the book is not obnoxious in manner and Martin reads it well so that you forget he's reading it, and I loved the few instances where he sang or recited excerpts from his act that I used to enjoy so much.