By Alex P.

Steve Martin is best known as an accomplished Hollywood actor, recognized as the star of classic comedies like Father of the Bride, Three Amigos, and Cheaper By The Dozen, but some folks may remember his brief time as a standup entertainer. In fact, Martin achieved national stardom through his standup work, released four comedy albums (Let’s Get Small and A Wild and Crazy Guy sold millions of copies), and established national catchphrases, such as, “well excuuuuse me”. His acting career only began after he burned out from that stardom, and Martin seeks to revisit those beginnings in his new memoir.

Born Standing Up focuses on the early life and career of the Hollywood multi-hyphenate. He comes of age in California; his first jobs included selling guidebooks at Disneyland and performing in a comedy troupe at Knott’s Berry Farm. His surreal sense of humor got him a position as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which kept him afloat while his “experimental” standup comedy struggled in California clubs and on late-night TV appearances. Against the blunt advice of his agent (“stick to writing”), he quit writing to take his performances on the road. 

Steve Martin’s standup comedy was weird, conceptual, nonsensical, and almost completely unique. There were props, he was a master juggler, and he played the banjo. He was a consummate entertainer, but his work was intellectual too; his friend Rick Moranis termed it “anti-comedy.” He had a theory behind his performances: “What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it?… What would the audience do with all that tension?… if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation.”

Some typical Martin one-liners:  

• “I’m so depressed today. I just found out this ‘death thing’ applies to me.” 

• “Here’s something you don’t often see:” [spreads mouth open with fingers, and leaps into the air while screaming] 

• “I think communication is so firsbern.” 

The driving force of Martin’s life during this time seems to be either deep dissatisfaction or reckless ambition, as he constantly abandons his own comfort to try his hand at success. Martin seems more motivated by the idea of mastering his craft than by fame and fortune. He taped his shows on cheap cassette recorders so he could listen back and master his timing, obsessing over how to make audiences “get” his weird material better. He found the uncharted territory of playing those clubs exciting as he refined his craft, but the constant work was met with lukewarm results. It clearly took a toll on him,“ When I think of moments of elation I have experienced over some of my successes, I am astounded at the number of times they have been accompanied by elation’s hellish opposite.” 

He finally broke through and his inventiveness was widely recognized, but he lost the thrill of winning over those tough, small audiences. He now performed in arenas to crowds who were eager to recite his catchphrases and punchlines at him. “The nuances of stand-up still thrilled me, but nuance was difficult when you were a white dot in a basketball arena. This was no longer an experiment; I felt a huge responsibility not to let people down… I dabbled with changes, introducing a small addition or mutation here or there, but they were swallowed up by the echoing, cavernous venues.” Stardom made him terribly lonely and deeply exhausted. He was determined to use his stardom to try to find success while he could, and he pitched a tentative screenplay for The Jerk to Paramount. Carl Reiner signed on to direct, the film became a smash hit, and the rest is history.  

This obsession with self-improvement, artistic satisfaction, mastery, and success seems to stem from family issues: Martin is clearly haunted by his parents. His father, who physically disciplined Martin, sometimes indiscriminately, could barely acknowledge his son’s fame and success and would only do so disparagingly. His mother was clearly happy that her son became a star, but her compliments took an oddly backhanded form: “Oh, my friends went to the movies last weekend, and they couldn’t get in anywhere so they went to see yours, and they loved it!” The book ends with the deaths of each of his parents, with him at their sides, attempting to bring closure to the trauma and understand why they shaped each other the way they did. 

When you’re reading a comedian’s memoir, you usually expect an entertaining, light read with some poignant biographical vignettes to add a little gravitas. Born Standing Up reverses the ratio of jokes to earnestness. Not only does Martin impart a tremendous amount of wisdom and pain from his life experiences, he offers some of the most profound and thoughtful writing I’ve read in a long time. Martin reserves the jokes for either explaining the details of his standup material or making light of awkward life situations he found himself in, and I never really minded.

Born Standing Up is available in print or as an audiobook read by the author. 

Alex Pyryt is a DIY Instructor & Research Specialist at HCLS Elkridge Branch.