Mar 5, 2009
Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life
Author: Steve Martin
Pages: 224
Year Published: 2007
I’ve always been a fan of Steve Martin. I was just a kid when he was selling out stadiums and dancing around to “King Tut,” or shuffling across the stage with an arrow through his head while shouting, “I’ve got happy feet!” As I grew older, he moved into movies and I remember watching The Main With Two Brains, Roxanne, Parenthood and others. One of my favorite movies to this day is his L.A. Story, a wonderful urban fantasy and commentary on life in Los Angeles.
So in addition to stand-up, actor and screenwriter, it seems he’s moved into writing his own books. Born Standing Up is an auto-biography, of sorts. There are pertinent details about his childhood, his parents and siblings, his adolescence and so forth, but everything revolves around the core of the book – his stand-up comedy that would eventually engulf just about everything.
The book reads a lot like his narration sounds in the films he’s done. It’s very deliberately built so that every anecdote, every job, every relationship is all working towards the height of his stand-up career. Along the way, there are some interesting stories about Hollywood in the 60’s and California culture in general during that period. As one follows the trail of breadcrumbs, the reader is given one piece after another of what made Martin’s comedy very different than other acts in its time.
In all, I enjoyed the book. I was surprised how the “success” portion of it was so short and almost seemed tacked on as an afterthought, but other than that, it was well worth the read. Anyone who is a fan of Martin’s work, or even stand-up comedy, would be well served to check it out.
-K
I enjoyed this one a lot myself. I should point out that Martin’s been writing books almost from the start. At the height of his fame, he wrote “Cruel Shoes”, a collection of very silly vignettes. He’s been fairly consistent about putting out books ever since. The movie “Shopgirl” (in which he starred) was based on his own short novel.
I’ve got a lot of respect for Steve. He seems like a real renaissance man. I just wish he’d stop doing crap movies like “Pink Panther”. (I understand he does those flicks to support his massive art collection.)
The fact that he’s such an art aficionado makes the scenes from L.A. Story where he roller skates through the art museum even funnier.
I’d forgotten about Shopgirl, amusingly enough since I caught it on TV just a few weeks ago.
-K
I don’t think I’ve seen L.A. Story since it was in theaters. I need to Netflix that bad boy.
I do believe it might resonate more with you now that you’re a resident.
-K