Born Standing Up: A Comics Life

Born Standing Up: A Comics Life by Steve Martin, 207 pages.

Martin recounts his life, his beginnings as a Magician / banjo player / comedian and his somewhat unexpected rise to fame in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unlike a lot of comedians who have written their own stories, Martin doesn't spend a lot of time trying to be funny here, he tells his story pretty straight. There's a lot of detail about honing his craft, about practicing every bit of his act over and over again. His transition from being a performer to being a star comes over years. He makes a good start on the Tonight Show, before losing Johnny Carson's interest for a while. He takes his old, somewhat dated material as far as he can, before starting on the new material and attitude that strike a chord with a huge audience
Martin also doesn't waste a lot of the reader's time with accounts of all the wonderful things that other celebrated folk had to say about him, which is a relief. It's doesn't seem to be a book written just to fulfill a contract, but because Martin wanted to recount a story. And it is a good one.