Born Standing Up (Audiobook) by Steve Martin

I got this because Dane Cook mentioned the book in his talk with Google. The audiobook is read by Steve himself and it’s like a memoir about how and why he go in and got out of stand up comedy.

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The thing is, when Steve reads the book he sounds so boring. It’s like he didn’t have the energy to do it, nothing like how you see him in the movies. So while it was the hardest audiobook to focus on, I got to know parts of Steve that I didn’t know existed. And because I was so disappointed with the narration I thought I’d go through his standup albums and works before doing this review. Well his stand up is not only funny… the guy plays a mean banjo. I mean proper banjo skills! His act has lots of props and gimmicks, lots of magic, music and the tempo is all over the place. And his heckling skills are great! Some other works of his include a couple of music albums where he mostly plays the banjo in the band. So the audiobook was the not the most entertaining. Big up Dane Cook anyway, I got to see another side of Steve Martin.

Contents
– Beforehand
– Coffee and confusion
– Comedy through the airwaves
– Disneyland
– The bird cage theatre
– Television
– The road
– Breakthrough
– Standing down
– Acknowledgements