Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away."
Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.
At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.
Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.
Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.
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Steve Martin. (2007). Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Unabridged Simon & Schuster Audio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Steve Martin. 2007. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Simon & Schuster Audio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2007.
MLA Citation (style guide)Steve Martin. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Unabridged Simon & Schuster Audio, 2007.
| Library | Owned | Available |
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| Shared Digital Collection | 4 | 0 |
There are 18 holds on this title.
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- The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainment Weekly.
In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away."
Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.
At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.
Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.
Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time. - reviews
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- content: Listening to comic great Steve Martin read his own "biography" (as he calls it) is a touching and hilarious experience. Known for his philosophical and wacky humor, Martin delivers in a flat "Steve Martin" manner. Listeners will soon be enthralled as this audio presentation has many laugh-out-loud moments. However, if you aren't familiar with Martin's style of comedy, you might think he's bored relating his story. Don't be fooled! He sounds exactly as he appears on stage and in films--intellectually challenging yet completely huggable. The production features Martin's banjo licks as incidental music and his stories of his early years, involving Disneyland, girls, Knott's Berry Farm, girls, early stand-up routines, magic, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," girls, and "Saturday Night Live." His thoughts about his family, especially his judgmental father, and his loneliness are heartbreaking. M.R.E. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from December 24, 2007
Martin recounts his tense childhood, his desire to become a magician and his segue into standup comedy in his surprisingly serious and eloquently written memoir. Martin's memories are perceptive and emotionally honest even though he confesses early on that while writing this book, he felt some events in his life “seemed to happen to someone else and I often felt like a curious onlooker.” Martin's writing is spare, concise and evocative, and he's a smooth and limber reader, an assured and relaxed, seasoned raconteur. Martin runs through some of his classic comedy routines to give listeners an idea of how they developed into his “anti-comedy” sets (humor without punch lines). “Enjoyment while performing was rare,” he reveals. “Enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford.” After 18 years of studying, refining and finally succeeding, Martin ends the book when he gives up the solitary standup life in favor of a collaborative life making films. Martin also provides the banjo music that plays between chapters. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (reviewed online).
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Starred review from December 31, 2007
Neatly combining his personal and professional worlds, beloved comedian, filmmaker, author, magician and banjoist Martin (Pure Drivel
) chronicles his life as a gifted young comedian in this evocative, heartfelt memoir, which proves less wild and crazy than wise and considerate—though no less funny for it. The typically reticent performer shares rarely disclosed memories of childhood—his father, a failed actor, harbored increasing anger toward his son through the years—and the anxiety attacks that plagued him for some two decades, along with his early success as a television comedy writer, first for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
, and the evolution of his stand-up routine. Sharp insight accompanies stories of his first adult gig (at an empty San Francisco coffeehouse), his pioneering “no punch lines†style (“My goal was to make the audience laugh but leave them unable to describe what it was that had made them laughâ€), appearances on programs like The Steve Allen Comedy Hour
and breakthrough moments with small, confused audiences. Though the book is vivid and entertaining throughout, Martin doesn't dish any behind-the-scenes dirt from Saturday Night Live
or The Tonight Show
; rather, he's warm and generous toward everyone in his life, including girlfriends and colleagues. Tellingly, this intimate early career recap ends not with Martin's decision to give up live performance or his first starring role in The Jerk
, but with a visit to his parents and Knott's Berry Farm, where he first performed as a teenager.
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Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.
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