Born Standing Up

From singles 2

In a sense, this book is not an autobiography but a biography, because I am writing about someone I used to know. Yes, these events are true, yet sometimes they seemed to have happened to someone else, and I often felt like a curious onlooker or someone trying to remember a dream. I ignored my stand-up career for twenty-five years, but now, having finished this memoir, I view this time with surprising warmth. One can have, it turns out, an affection for the war years.

I finished "Born Standing Up" just before leaving Brisbane. It was an interesting read and I was humbled by seeing someone else's determination, ambition, and work.

Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.

In "Born" Steve Martin describes his origin- the family he was born to, the amusement parks where he got his first taste of "show biz", and life on the road. It obviously is not easy getting or being famous. Fame was never an ambition of mine and perhaps that is why Kevin liked the book more than I did.

I had a long routine (for me) in which I confessed to weird sexual fetish, "I like to wear men's underwear."

My favorite bits, I must admit, were when he tossed in a line from his act. I'd feel a bit shallow or guilty except that this is my nostalgia. As you can see from the photo up top, we were products of the Steve Marin phenomenon.

I'm so mad at my mother, she's a hundred and two years old, and she called me the other day. She wanted to borrow ten dollars for some food! I said, 'Hey, I work for a living'"

The book did, however, provide an excellent closer for any entry.

And my closer, "Well, we've had a good time tonight, considering we're all going to die someday."