Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Scribener

Steve Martin opens this book, “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.” This book is about those eighteen years and the lessons learned about the comedic craft and what events drove him to it and what events drove him away.

The book is a memoir, with family drama and varied insights that come from life off (as well as on) stage. The book has pathos to temper its bathos, making an altogether more interesting and authentic read. Of course there’s humor throughout, from discussion of some of his comedic bits to humous personal stories.

I found it fascinating to learn about Martin’s philosophy of comedy. For example, his attempts to avoid punchlines to get away from the conditioned response laughs that came not necessarily from a genuine experience of mirth but because of a realization that it’s a time at which one is expected to laugh. Martin also has a unique message to tell given the nature of his comedy. It is not relatable. It’s silly — hilariously silly, but silly, just absurd and wacky. Like political comedy, one would expect a reduced size of audience willing to come along for the ride. That makes it all the more impressive to achieve what he did as a comic, because his type of work seems like it would have a smaller following than the comics who talk about family life and dating and office jobs and tax audits and their vaginas.

I enjoyed reading this book tremendously and would highly recommend it for readers with an interest in standup comedy (or those fascinated by the life cycle of celebrity.)

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