Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
By Steve Martin
Publisher: Scribner
224 pages
$25.00
#6. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
by Steve
Martin
Publisher: Scribner
224 pages
$25.00
Martin was a standup comedian for 18 years. It's a bizarre occupation
for a temperamentally private person, just as memoir is an odd genre for
such a person to attempt, but Martin turns out to be a genius at both.
Born Standing Up is full of hard-won personal truths, lightly tossed-off
comic touches and astute observations about the 1970's, the decade when
Martin made his bones — he played off 1970's culture as cleverly as Warhol
or any of the punk musicians. He's also touchingly forthcoming about his
difficult childhood, all the more so since his personal revelations come
to us untainted by any hint of exhibitionism.