Born+Standing+Up,+Jordan+G.


 * //Born Standing Up// By Steve Martin Created by Jordan Goldstein**

Jordan Goldstein __Born Standing Up__ By Steve Martin 3/16/11 Pgs. 1-55

__Journal #1__ Steve Martin starts off the book at the beginning of his career in a coffee shop called the Coffee and Confusion in San Francisco in 1965. His tryout there went so well that he was hired, but his first night started off terribly because no one was there. This memory of Steve Martin’s leads him back to his childhood where everything started. The Martin’s moved from Texas to California in the 1950’s. Steve had an older sister and his mom was very much interested in fashion. Steve’s father wasn’t around him very much and when he was, he always seemed to be very angry. Steve has only a few memories with his dad like playing catch in the yard, but that was it. Mr. Martin always wanted to be a star and that could be where Steve got his desire for it. The Martin’s got a TV when television came out and that got Steve interested in a lot of characters like Laurel and Hardy and Jack Benny. He also received a box of magic tricks at age eight and started to perform shows for his class and family. After getting a job at[| Disneyland]as a guide book salesman at age 10, Steve began to work his way up to working at Merlin’s Magic Shop in the park. He was able to demonstrate many magic tricks for crowds of people and meet several comedians. Dave Steward, a former vaudevillian, really captured Steve’s attention. He taught Steve a couple of key tricks and performance tips. The last item that help to form Steve’s early acts was a book called //Showmanship for Magicians.// Through reading the book, Steve started to keep records of how his acts went and was able to improve himself because of it. At age eighteen, he ended his career as a Disneyland employee and started a new phase of his life. I have really enjoyed reading about where and how Steve Martin grew up. I was fascinated that he started his career in Disneyland. I think it would be great to work there and something I really enjoyed like Steve did. I’m glad he went back that far in his history because it gives the reader an idea of what he learned, who he learned from and how he learned it. I thought that all the events in his life lined up for him to be a performer- moving from Texas to California, his father wanting him to be an actor and working at Disneyland for eight years. This passage also got me thinking about what it would be like to listen to a radio show instead of watching it on TV. I would hope the book stays as interesting as it is now.

References: 1. [|Vaudeville] 2. Dave Steward 3. Laurel and Hardy 4. Jack Benny 5. the opening of Disneyland 1955 6. San Francisco 1965 7. //Showmanship for Magicians// by Dariel Fitzkee Steve Martin ain the magic shop at Disneyland during the 1950's and 1960's. Disneyland today

Jordan Goldstein __Born Standing Up__ by Steve Martin March 24, 2011 p. 57 – 97

__Journal #2__

After leaving Disneyland, Steve took a job at the Bird Cage Theater at [|Knott’s Berry Farm]. He performed many different skits many times a day, only received $2 a show, and performed 25 shows a week. After reading a book called //The Razor’s Edge//, he enrolled at Long Beach State College to major in philosophy. While attending school, he learned about the poets e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, and Stephen Vincent Benét and even tried to include them in his act. It didn’t go well except for the Benét poem about a fiddle contest in Georgia. Steve continued to try to find gigs at nightclubs but was discouraged when nothing came through. He left the Bird Cage after realizing the actors there had been there for fifteen years or more and he would probably get nowhere, too. Steve focused on his education because his girlfriend Stormie inspired him to do so. He was getting good grades and his look was “strictly wholesome Baptist” (71). About this time, Steve realized that he needed to write his own comedy material and not use other people’s writings. The two ways he thought he could come up with material were seeing things in life that made him laugh and writing them down and just dreaming stuff up. In order to try out his material, Steve went to Aspen and worked in the nightclub called the Abbey Cellar. He encountered his first heckler here and had to learn some defensive lines to use in the future. He also met many talented comedians there who influenced his act. At this point Steve thought he “might try for a doctorate in philosophy and become a teacher” (86), but that “not to continue with comedy would place a question in my mind that would nag me for the rest of my life: Could I have a career in performing?” (87). The book so far has shown me a different side of Steve Martin that I didn’t know about. I wasn’t aware that he studied philosophy or that he wanted to get a doctorate degree. I only knew that he was very funny, and I didn’t think he would want to continue being a comedian with all that knowledge. The book started out more carefree and easy, but then started to get a bit harder when Steve was mentioning philosophical ideas and people. I didn’t find this very interesting because I didn’t understand all of the terms and ideas. Steve is way too intelligent for me! I also wasn’t that interested in the girlfriends he had – I really just want to know about him and his comedy.

· Knott’s Berry Farm · e.e. cummings · T.S. Eliot · Carl Sandburg · Stephen Vincent Benét · Lewis Carroll · // The Razor’s Edge // Where Steve started to perform Knott's Berry Farm

Jordan Goldstein __Born Standing Up__ By Steve Martin 4/3/11 pgs 99-154 __Journal #3__ Steve Martin was still attending classes at UCLA when a friend of his hooked him up as a writer for the //Smothers Brothers Show//. After the first season of the show, he wrote comedy for the //Summer Brothers Smothers Show,// where he met Bob Einstein (later known as Super Dave). They got along extremely well and both of them began to have walk-on appearances on the show. Steve started to think about doing stand-up comedy again and developed a routine where he had no punch lines. It didn’t go well, so Steve hired a manager who had little experience, but got him an audition for the //Steve Allen Show.// The performance went well and that led to more T.V. show appearances and being the opening act for Ann-Margret in Las Vegas. Shortly after that, Steve got an invite to perform on //The Tonight Show.// That went well, and he was invited back many more times. At this point in time, Steve stopped writing for television and went around the country doing a comedy routine. Steve got mixed reviews, so he began to tape his shows to help improve his act. The steady work and the improvement each night led to a tight, physical act. He was singing, dancing and jumping all over and even decided to change his look by cutting his hair and putting on a suit. Although Steve was still working, he wasn’t making any money, so he called comedian David Brenner. David suggested that Steve propose getting money at the door of a club and the owners would get the bar money. This worked well for Steve, so between that and successful //Tonight Show// appearances, he was on his way to stardom. I found it interesting that Steve wrote for television and thought about giving up doing stand-up for good. I’m amazed that he stayed in the business for so long even after he thought of giving it up. I find myself laughing throughout the book and he is funny no matter what he does. Knowing the future, I can understand how he became such a success after all those years of work. I’m glad he stuck with comedy, and he didn’t become a teacher.

· // [|The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson] // · The Smothers Brothers · David Brenner · Super Dave (Bob Einstein) · Anxiety attacks/panic attacks media type="youtube" key="EYGBsrCmcCw?version=3" height="367" width="772"

Jordan Goldstein __Born Standing Up__ by Steve Martin 4/9/11 pg. 155-204

__ Journal #4 __

==== Steve continued to be the opening act for other more famous performers and didn’t seem to be getting noticed. Finally, Steve performed for the first time in front of people who had actually paid to see him. It was at the Boarding House in San Francisco, California, and it appeared to be the break Steve needed. He was starting to feel funnier, was adding more to his routines, and was being interviewed for papers and magazines. All of things started to get Steve noticed, and he saw the need to change a number of things in his act. Back when he wasn’t too famous, he could lead people out of the building at the end of his show, continuing it into the street. Steve realized, though, that he couldn’t do that with 2,000 people as they couldn’t hear him or they would end up in the street blocking traffic for getting hit. When his audience reached 3,000, he bought a white three-piece suit that could be seen in the seats further back. ==== ==== Finally, Lorne Michaels approached Steve about hosting [|Saturday Night Live] and Steve said “yes” immediately. He first appeared in October 1976 and from that point on, he was famous. His fame finally reached his parents, but “my father, though, wasn’t impressed” (171). Steve’s dad felt “his performance did nothing to further his career” (171). Steve’s mother, though, was very proud of Steve. Steve would send money to her, and she would enjoy shopping at all her favorite upscale stores. Shortly after this, he produced his first album //Let’s Get Small// in 1977 which sold 1.5 million copies. The only thing left for Steve to do was a movie, which he did. His first movie was called //The Jerk;// the idea for it came from one of his own lines which was “It wasn’t always easy for me; I was born a poor black child” (188). That movie made $180 million dollars and was voted one of the greatest comedies of all time. Fifteen to twenty years later, Steve reconnected with his parents and finally got the love he had missed from his father all his life. This and Steve’s success made his life a happy one. ==== ==== As Steve became more famous, he started to mention things I have heard about such as the movie //The Jerk// and his famous King Tut song. Since I had already heard about these things, I was even more interested in the reading. I felt really badly for Steve not having a connection with his family and not getting love from his father until the 1990’s. If his dad had been supportive of Steve wanting to be in show business, Steve might have gone straight into acting instead of taking the long way around. I thought the book was great for giving details about Steve’s life, and I really enjoyed it. Reading this book made me want to see Steve’s movies (I watched //The Jerk// so far), and helped me understand his comedy more. I would recommend this book to people who like comedy and want to know what serious side might be behind their favorite comedian. ====

· Bill McEuen · Saturday Night Live · //The Jerk// · Playboy Club – San Francisco · The Boarding House – San Francisco media type="youtube" key="w_zPmwvQFaM?version=3" height="434" width="944"

media type="youtube" key="4VbI5zcB8Ac?version=3" height="398" width="949"