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.
