Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (2007, Hardcover)

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life
THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC BOOK REVIEW, BY JAMES MYERS
BORN STANDING UP: A COMIC’S LIFE
By Steve Martin
Published by Scribner, An Imprint of Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: November, 2007
Price: $25.00
209 Pages
ISBN-13: 9781416553649
Four Star Rating *****
CELEBRATED WRITER, ACTOR AND PERFORMER
FILM CREDITS INCLUDE THE JERK, FATHER OF THE BRIDE, PARENTHOOD, ROXANNE, LA STORY, AND BOWFINGER.
EMMY WINNER FOR HIS TELEVISION WRITING
THREE TIME GRAMMY-WINNER
HE HAS WRITTEN SEVERAL PLAYS, A COLLECTION OF COMIC PIECES, AND NOVELS.
HIS WORK FREQUENTLY APPEARS IN THE NEW YORKER AND THE NEW YORK TIMES
2007 KENNEDY CENTER HONOREE

"I continued to appear on The Tonight Show, always with a guest host, doing material that I was developing on the road. Then I got a surprise note from Bob Shayne:

‘We had a meeting with Johnny yesterday, told him that you had been a smash twice with guest hosts, and he agrees that you should be back on with him. So I think that hurdle is over.’ In September 1974, I was booked on the show with Johnny. This was welcome news… Johnny was the comedian’s friend. He waited; he gave you your timing. He lay back and stepped in like Ali, not to knock you out but to set you up. He struggled with you, too, and sometimes saved you…

For my first show back, I chose to do a bit I had developed years earlier at the Ice House. I speed-talked a Vegas nightclub act in two minutes. Appearing on the show was Sammy Davis, Jr., who, while still performing energetically, had also become a historic showbiz figure. I was whizzing along, singing a four second version of “Ebb Tide”, then at lightning fast speed, ‘Frank Sinatra, personal friend of mine, Sammy Davis Jr., personal friend of mine, Steve Martin I’m a personal friend of mine too and now a little dancin’!’ I started a wild flail, which I must say was pretty funny, when a showbiz miracle occurred. The camera cut away to a dimly lit Johnny, precisely as he whirled up from his chair, doubling over with laughter. Suddenly, subliminally, I was endorsed. At the end of the act, Sammy came over and hugged me. I felt like I hadn’t been hugged since I was born.

This was my sixteenth appearance on the show, and the first one I could really call a smash. The next day, elated by my success, I walked into an antique store on La Brea. The woman behind the counter looked at me.

“Are you the boy that was on The Tonight Show last night?”

“Yes”, I said.
“Yuck!” she blurted out.” (Pp.150-154).


Comedy is not easy. If you are the funny guy in your family or in your classroom, or in your school you know what I mean. There are those moments when the laugher ceases, and you hear silence, followed by a hot flash, a tightening around the collar and the realization that you have just gone from what is funny to that which is absurdly not funny, and your audience expected much better. It happens to all funny guys. It is that fear that scares them; it is the motivation that drives them. The quest is to avoid the moments of dead air, and kill the audience for putting them up against this tension. Steve Martin has given us a genuine comedian’s book. It is not designed to be funny or to give you a rehash of all of his old jokes; instead it is about the process. This book is about the 15 year journey he takes in going from a not-so-listened to comedian to man who re-invented stand up comedy and changed audiences all over