The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten. The Tweets of Steve Martin

The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten.
The Tweets of Steve Martin - 105 pages

This books collects some of the early tweets of comedian Steve Martin.  I never would have read this book if not for this month's reading challenge of celebrity authors.  I'm glad I did.  I found myself giggling out loud while reading most of the tweets in this book.  It's not just his original tweets, but also the responses he got to them from his twitter followers.  I would highly recommend reading this book if you are a Steve Martin fan.  I definitely plan to start following him on twitter.

Pure Drivel by Steve Martin

Pure Drivel by Steve Martin - 104 pages

This is a collection of short stories by comedian Steve Martin.  All of the stories were interesting to read.  My favorite was actually the final story which was "written" by the words in the previous stories.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin - 209 pages

This book is memoir by the comedian Steve Martin reflecting on his childhood and stand-up career.  As this is a topic that he very rarely talks about anymore, I found it fascinating.  He stated at one point during the book that he didn't necessarily want to be a comedian but a performer.  I think that sums up the book perfectly - especially as he walked away from stand up comedy in the 1980s and has refused to go back instead focusing on acting, writing, and most recently his music.  This was a great book - especially on audio as he narrates his own memoir.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

                                      Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, 208 pages

The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of 2007 by Time and Entertainment Weekly.

In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.”

Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

 

I listened to this in the car on another trek across Missouri. It was pretty self-analytical and not as funny as I was thinking and hoping it would be. Unfortunately, this did not make me laugh out loud but I do have a deeper understanding of the inner workings of a comedian's mind now.