Born standing up
The author shares the stories of his years in stand-up comedy in a humorous memoir that recalls a first job selling guidebooks at Disneyland, his early magic and comedy act, his years of honing his craft, and the sacrifice, discipline, and originality it took to take him to the top.
Stats for nerds
14recommend
18mentions
18people
2008–2025years
78% recommend22% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Strong second for Born Standing Up, just in case anyone was on the fence. Steve Martin is a delight.
(Get the paperback if you can, the edition I have is the most well-weighted and well-proportioned high-quality paperback I think I own. I hope they still print it like that.)
- Steve Martin - "Born Standing Up" is a nice one.
- Steve Martin's biography "Born Standing Up" is all about his life before he became a sensation. It's not engineering, but it details a lot of failures.
- The one that stands out to me the most because it's so quirky is Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. And in second place I'd have to suggest Born Standing Up by Steve Martin.
- Born Standing Up by Steve Martin is really a great read -- much of the short book focuses on the weird process of experimenting and refining as he developed a new style of comedy (at the time).
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Born Standing Up (Steve Martin's autobiography)
