Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

When I was growing up, my mom would always fill out those Columbia House music club forms.  You know, the ones where you got 12 records or 8 tracks for a penny.  One time, she got a Steve Martin recording by mistake.  I can remember listening to that over and over.  I didn’t understand everything he was saying (probably a good thing) but it was memorable.  He was unlike anyone I had ever heard before.  He was certainly trying something different than Bill Cosby was doing (our comedy album of choice).  This autobiography of Steve Martin brought all those old skits rushing back to me.  Martin goes into detail about his stand up routine, what worked and what didn’t, the philosophy behind what he was trying to do and how his unique, slightly damaged upbringing fed into his stage show.  There have been times when I have wondered if Steve Martin is a “nice” man or not, but he reveals himself to be a deeply private, almost shy person whose fame overtook his capacity to deal with it for a while.  He also talks about his estrangement from his father and how he managed to become closer to him and the rest of his family over the years.  This is not a gossipy tell all celebrity biography, but it is a good examination of the craft of comedy and what it took for Martin to succeed in this field.  Any Steve Martin or SNL fan will enjoy it.