Sweet baby Jesus in the manger, I love me some Steve Martin. Here, Mr. Martin recounts his years in stand-up, calling his memoir a biography - not an autobiography - because it's about someone he used to know. This book is rumored to be outstanding, and judging from the following deleted passage, it's a "can't miss" for me ...
On Returning to Disneyland
Ten years later, after the Beatles, drugs, and Vietnam had changed the entire tenor of American life, I returned to the magic shop at Disneyland and stood as a stranger. As I looked around the eerily familiar room another first came over me, a previously unknown emotion, one that was to have a curious force over me for the rest my life: the longing tug of nostalgia. Looking at the counter where I pitched Svengali Decks and the Incredible Shrinking Die, I was awash with the recollection of indelible nights where the sky was blown open by fireworks and big band sounds drifted through trees strung with fairy lights. I remembered my youth, when every moment was crisply present, when heartbreak and joy replaced each other quickly, fully and without trauma. Even now when I visit Disneyland, I am steeped in melancholy, because a corporation has preserved my nostalgia impeccably. Every nail and screw is the same, and Disneyland looks as new now as it did then. The paint is fresh, and the only wear allowed is faux. In fact, only I have changed. In the dream-like world of childhood memories, so often vague and imprecise, Disneyland remains for me not only vivid in memory, but vivid in fact.
9 comments:
I remember how cool it used to be to 'know' all of Steve's routines. Eddie Murphy kind of knocked him off the stand-up throne, but Steve was always more of a performance artist anyway. Can't wait to read this.
He was on NPR this morning talking about getting started at Disney and developing his act. Looks like a great book. I remember having 'A Wild and Crazy Guy' memorized. I still have it on vinyl, in fact.
"Grandpa... bought a rubber"
The Steve Martin Holy Trinity for me was A Wild And Crazy Guy, Comedy Is Not Pretty, and Let's Get Small. I remember spending HOURS huddled around a turntable with friends listening to those albums.
In junior high, I had my girlfriend check out Cruel Shoes from the library, and I kept it for a year. (I have three copies of the book now.)
In my high school locker, I had a mini-poster of Steve looking very serious with a fish sticking out of his sport coat. Written in the space beside him it said, "Best Fishes!"
I've only read excerpts of 'Cruel Shoes.' Is it still out of print?
A bunch of excerpts here:
She was clever and she was charming, but above all, she had the jugs.
I'm very excited about this. I think Steve invented a new form of comedy in bits like Happy Feet that goes something like this: I'm not actually being funny, but the comic I'm playing thinks that he is. The audience and I are both in on this, so it becomes funny. And by laughing at this unfunny comic, the audience is also participating in his act.
Lurker smokes pot!
Damn fine observation, Lurker. As usual.
The pot helped.
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