Steve Martin, Born Standing Up is an autobiography. And it is incredibly well put together. I cannot imagine what it would be like to try to remember the details of a lifelong career. But after reading the Acknowledgement page, he did go through a lot of moldy boxes from his parents’ garage that flooded.
Steve Martin’s career is a work of art. Reading this book made me miss art and being an artist. He started in magic and vaudeville in Southern California as a young child. But he ended up in comedy and acting worldwide. And it was no small journey, nor was it an easy one.
“What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances.”
Being on stage is something that never gets easier, you just get used to it. And the butterflies never go away completely. It is a rush of adrenaline. There is just no way around it. And there is always a fear and possibility that something could go wrong. When it goes well, it feels amazing. But when it goes wrong, there is no lower feeling. Living this rollercoaster ride of emotions for years on end is hard on anyone and takes a toll. But most people who do it for years love it. Because there is nothing better than being on stage and being great. And when you know how to be good night after night, the statistical probability that you will have great nights goes up incredibly.
“Johnny hosted authors, children, intellects, and nitwits and treated them all well, and he served the audience with his curiosity and tolerance. He gave each guest-like the ideal American would-the benefit of the doubt. You’re nuts, but you’re welcome here.”
In talking about being on The Johnny Carson show, Steve says a lot of nice things about the man. Johnny did make a lot of people famous and give them their shot. But Steve said being on The Tonight Show did not make or break his career. However, it did help after repeated appearances.
“In psychoanalysis, you try to retain a discovery; in art once the thing is made, you let it go.”
Steve actually was close to a degree in Philosophy from universities in Southern California. But when he got a writing job for television, he had to quit school. Erick Fischl said the above quote when he was talking with Steve about art and psychoanalysis. There is a connection between self awareness and art that no one can really deny. One has to have a philosophy on how to create art. And doesn’t living and being your yourself require a philosophy in itself? Can you truly create great art if you have not learned how to be yourself?
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to accomplish something big in their life and having a hard time. Sometimes we need to remember that anything worth having does not come easy. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of the struggle to create great things. We often see the end product and results from decades of struggle and forget to take these years into account. Sometimes our lives and these struggles are the work of art we create.
You cannot tell the most important moments in our lives until we have lived our whole lives. Not until the end can we truly assign meaning. The moments you are living right now and today could be the moments you look back on near death that changed everything. Only in hindsight can we see 20/20.