ScribnerProduct DescriptionThe riveting mega-bestselling beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man a vocation and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainment Weekly.
In the mid-seventies 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 Awardwinner 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 a writer. 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 Knotts 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 Co" 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.Amazon.com ReviewAt 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 decis"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 " 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. "hey'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 assume