Sterling Terrell

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You are here: Home / Books / Born Standing Up, By: Steve Martin

Born Standing Up, By: Steve Martin

Born Standing Up, By: Steve Martin

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life
By: Steve Martin
Scribner; Reprint edition (November 20, 2007)
228 pages

Born Standing Up is Steve Martin’s memoir. And although he touches on a bit of everything along the way, the main focus is, of course, Martin’s years as a stand-up comedian. He shares some good stories and reminisces about all the years and all the fun that went by in a blink. Of course, at my age, I know Steve Martin primarily from his life in the movies, addressed briefly at the end of the book. Where did he begin his journey you ask? Working at Disneyland as a teenager.

Two of my favorite quotes:

When I graduated from high school, he offered to buy me a tuxedo. I refused because I had learned from him to reject all aid and assistance; he detested extravagance and pleaded with us not to give him gifts. I felt, through a convoluted logic, that in my refusal, I was being a good son. I wish now that I had let him buy me a tuxedo, that I had let him be a dad. 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. I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.

I DID STAND-UP COMEDY for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success. My most persistent memory of stand-up is of my mouth being in the present and my mind being in the future: the mouth speaking the line, the body delivering the gesture, while the mind looks back, observing, analyzing, judging, worrying, and then deciding when and what to say next.

Buy this book.

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Filed Under: BooksTagged With: #Books, #MyReadingLife2018

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