born standing up: a comic's life. steve martin. (268)

i have to admit that i wasn't a big fan of steve martin the actor.  my love for him started off with steve martin the writer.  i remember watching shopgirl because of jason schwartzman and decided to read the novella by martin.  which then resulted in me reading his books and becoming a fan of steve martin, the author.

what made me fall in love with steve martin the actor was it's complicated with meryl streep and alec baldwin.  as his character, adam, wooed streep's character, martin wooed me!  seriously them getting high was the best!  and due to all of this, i am a fan of martin, also love that he has a band.

due to all of this, born standing up has been on my to-read list but after seeing it listed somewhere as a memoir to read, i added it to my library request.

this memoir is a wonderful read.  and though it was a bit of challenge for me to imagine his stand up routines, thanks to the internet, i was able to watch his groundbreaking performance on johnny carson (it was archived on the smithsonian website!) and some of his other skits!  though i didn't find him laugh out loud hilarious, he was funny, but wonder if its a generational thing.

what i loved most was reading about was how  martin used to work at disneyland as child! he sold maps and then worked in two of the magic shops! disneyland got way more cooler for me!  he also

worked at knott's berry farm at their theater.

i also enjoyed the little tidbits he shared about his art collection as well.  like how once when leaving disneyland he came across diane arbus taking a photo of the sleeping beauty's castle.  which after googling, i was able to see what the photograph looked like.  he also discussed the influence of dalton trumbo was on his collecting of art, (he dated his daughter) and was surprised to find that trumbo wrote one of my favorite books in high school, johnny got his gun.

it was sad to read about the poor relationship martin had with his father and inadvertently with the rest of his family.  he was a bit of a loner which being on the road especially after his success grew detrimental to his mental health.  it was sad to read about how all alone he felt and he went through a very dark period on the road, which i saw as a result of his family life.  however, his relationship with his father and mother improved.  and he stopped touring which helped relief some of the stress in his life.

i have to add it was great to read about his time on snl.  today, snl has a permanent cast but it seemed like back then, he would drop in randomly to do guest appearance on the show, which seemed cool.  i don't know if he was just an exception or if that is how it was then.  and thanks to google also watch the snl skits he mentioned including  "jeopardy 1999" (which included very cute chevy chase, what a hottie when he was younger.)

i wish i was more familiar with martin's stand up routines but after reading this book will look into watching some youtube videos.  this was a wonderful memoir, i was surprised by how dark is family history was but i am now a fun of steve martin, the stand-up comedian.