Born Standing Up Review

The book opens with his first performance at the Coffee and Confusion club in San Francisco in the summer of 1965.  Martin records his remembrances of his performance.  Then he turns back the clock to tell how he got there.  His early childhood was spent with a remote father, a mother and sister.  He explores the family dynamics briefly concluding that the sense of being unloved influenced him in his career.  He recalls listening to the classic comedians of the time on radio and appreciating them immensely. 

Upon the opening of Disneyland in 1955 in Anaheim, Martin quickly got a job there and moved by his interest in magic began to work at the magic shops demonstrating magic and performing for customers.  He also began to read joke books and develop his act, a combination of stand-up, banjo-playing and magic.  Working alongside vaudevillians ignited an interest in the history of vaudeville.  His performances were revolutionized by a classic book of magic, Dariel Fitzkee's Showmanship for Magicians, the first volume in what's known as the Fitzkee Trilogy (The Trick Brain and Magic by Misdirection being the other two).  The book taught Martin how to break his show down into distinct elements such a music, lighting, rhythm, personality, etc.  It also taught him the importance of originality, although he wasn't to learn this lesson for another six years.

In 1963, Martin joined the company of The Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm.  Performing 25 shows a week led to him becoming more polished and professional.  The Bird Cage is where he developed the rudiments of what eventually became his stand-up act.  He also began taking classes in philosophy at Long Beach State.  As time went on, he began to expand his performances beyond The Bird Cage.  While at Long Beach he had the realization that in order to be original, he would need to abandon nearly his entire act and start anew.  This he did.

As time went on, his act became better and he started to gain recognition.  He appeared on late night TV (The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, Saturday Night Live and others).  As his fame grew, his stand-up performances became sold out shows.  Eventually, by the mid-1970s, he reached the pinnacle of his fame, and indeed found it fleeting.  His career was made up of sold out concerts, acclaimed TV appearances, best selling records, and the beginning of a movie career.  By 1979, his act had become automatic.  The fun was slipping away.  Martin decided to quit the road and parlay his fame into film.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  The stories and anecdotes were usually entertaining and sometimes sobering.  Martin is a good writer and tells his stories well.  His thoughts on how he developed his act and his reasoning for what he did are extremely valuable.  This book should be a model on how to become a stand-up comic.  I highly recommend it to anyone interested in stand-up comedy or memoirs of Hollywood actors.