#15: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Steve Martin is an interersting figure; he came to prominence acting like a goofball as a standup comedian, then transitioned to warm fatherly roles in Hollywood movies, but has always displayed a dry, detached style in his writing (in The New Yorker and elsewhere).

A little of all of his personalities are on display in Born Standing Up, Martin's autobiography covering his peanut-butter days at Knott's Berry Farm working in a magic store to the very height of his popularity in the late 70s, just as he gets ready to step off the mountain and try movies.

It's an interesting read, as Martin has one foot in the "Old Hollywood" while tentatively feeling out the paradigm shifts of the late 60s and early 70s. Martin name-checks everyone from old vaudevillians to Janis Joplin to Johnny Carson to Richard Pryor with ease.

I enjoyed Born Standing Up, but would have liked more of it, both in detail and in page count. Perhaps a second autobiography, covering his Hollywood years, will be forthcoming.

I listened to the author read the audiobook (with some banjo picking included) and would recommend this version. I checked it out from the Morrison-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.