Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

 

Born Standing Up

By Steve Martin

Scribner

$25.00, hard back, 209 pages, 1-4165-5364-9 (2007).

 

This was an enjoyable book to read on a number of levels.  First, you get to learn more about how Steve Martin grew up, discovered his talent for comedy, and pursued it doggedly until he was at one time the most well known stand up comedian of his time.

 

Second, you get a glimpse of what it means to be at the top of the comedy scene: the appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, and working on the road.  Martin started out with routine audiences of a few hundred – but as his popularity soared he was doing eighty-five cities in ninety days – culminating in a show at the Nassau Coliseum in New York with forty-five thousand people attending.

 

Finally, you understand how being a white-hot celebrity was just too much for Martin and understand the reasons why he scraped his stand up and went on to movies.  For someone who is known in the industry as being “private,” Martin opens up and lets the reader see him for what he is – warts and all.

 

If you like Steve Martin – or stand up comedy in general – you’ll love this behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be superstar comedian.

 

Buy it on Amazon here.