Born Standing Up

I don't normally like to offer recommendations on books to people. I find that doing so automatically reveals me for the dork that I am - "Oh my God, you're one of those readers, aren't you?" - so normally I keep my reading list to myself.

On those rare occasions where I am asked by some curious and literate acquaintance about my reading list, I am happy to reveal the litany of rare raunchy pornographic magazines from the 1920's and historical fiction books that I love ever so dearly. Of course, most of those curious acquaintances walk away disgusted. I imagine because nobody likes historical fiction books, but what can I do? I can't change who I am.

In this instance, though, I'm going to make a recommendation. Go out and get a copy of Steve Martin's Born Standing Up.

The book is not a raunchy pornographic magazine from the 1920's, nor is it a historical fiction book, so it's a bit of a departure for me. My Dad bought me the audio book for Christmas, probably knowing full well that I would refuse to actively read anything other than my two favorite genres, and I loved the damned thing so much that I went out and bought a paper copy of the book.

Born Standing Up details the rise and eventual decline of Steve Martin's standup career. He could very easily have written about the wild success part and been perfectly fine. I'm sure he could have sold plenty of copied. Luckily, the vast majority of the book is devoted to how he did it and what he learned about comedy, performing, and the business of bringing that to a grass roots audience.

It's a useful book for anyone looking to have a career in comedy and performance, so if you are one of those poor sufferning fools then scrape together some change and go get a copy. It's also interesting for regular humans too, fans or no, just to see what all went in to creating such a phenom.

So that's what I think about books. Also, if you love rare 1920's pornographic magazines, I would recommend "Hairy Hags from the Harding Administration, vol. 4.: The 'Ohio Gang' Bang."

Choice.