Born standing up

I probably have a slightly inordinate fondness for this book because of the many hours I spent in Junior High School listening over and over again to the "Let's Get Small" and "A Wild and Crazy Guy" comedy albums of Steve Martin.

The book itself is a straight-forward and honest accounting of how fame, that seems to strike all at once, is actually the result of years of hard work and craft and an idea. It's really a simple autobiographical accounting of where and how he grew up, how he learned magic and comedy and performing, and how over the years he developed a routine that suddenly became the hottest thing around in the late seventies and early eighties, and then how he walked away from being a stand-up comic when fame ruined the gig.

I found the brief passages recounting jokes and gags that he used to do onstage reminded me fondly of hearing these same routines on his albums. I was too young, really, to have attended any of his comedy concerts, but the albums were very important to me in my understanding of humor.

The book reads very quickly, I finished it in two afternoons, and found it to be well worth while.