Steve Martin's New Memoir

I love seeing how other people's lives work. And seeing how different people do their work. Born Standing Up is a good, quick read and a view into another kind of life on the road. When Martin went huge in the late 70's and was performing for five, ten and fifteen thousand people a night, he was doing it all by himself. Unlike musicians who tour together, Martin was alone a lot on the road as he perfected his act over thousands of performances. Surprisingly, drug addiction isn't a part of his story. It feels like a pretty honestly told tale. He is hard on himself and his act, and he is understandably proud of his hard-earned successes. He talks about writing his material, trying things out, and working on timing. This study of comedy as an art reminds me of a very interesting documentary, Comedian, which follows Jerry Seinfeld after his show ended and when he was trying to get back into live comedy step by step.