I purchased Born Standing Up several years ago but never read it until yesterday, when I devoured the entire book in a handful of hours. That’s what happens when you deeply connect with a book.
On the surface, the book appeared to be about stand-up comedy, particularly the stand-up career of Steve Martin. However, when you look below the surface, Born Standing Up is about so much more: life, love, art, struggle, success, self-discovery. Comedy is simply the lens through which we view those themes.
In a nutshell, Born Standing Up is the story of a young man who’s trying to find himself, make his way in the world, and do something significant and original. In the end, Steve Martin went on to become one of the world’s most famous comedians, selling millions of albums, starring in numerous movies, and inspiring generations of comedians who have followed in his footsteps.
For me, the book hits close to home because, like Steve Martin, I am a bit of an eccentric. I don’t follow the standard way of doing things. I reject the status quo and actively find ways to be different and set myself apart. Like Steve Martin, I want to find my own way in life and make my mark on the world. Perhaps that’s egotistical and/or narcissistic. So be it.
Quick summary of Steve Martin’s career
Steve writes:
I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a by-product. The course was more plodding than heroic: I did not strive valiantly against doubters but took incremental steps studded with a few intuitive leaps. I was not naturally talented—I didn’t sing, dance, or act—though working around that minor detail made me inventive. I was not self-destructive, though I almost destroyed myself. In the end, I turned away from stand-up with a tired swivel of my head and never looked back, until now.
I think that, like Steve Martin, we all seek originality, comedic or otherwise, and come to realize that it’s extremely difficult to be different, especially in a culture where everyone is encouraged to be the same.
We’re encouraged to admire the same people. We’re encouraged to believe the same philosophies and dogmas. We’re encouraged to want the same things. To go in a new direction seems almost blasphemous to those who subscribe to the status quo. However, if you follow the status quo, you will never do anything original. It is only by deviating from the norm that you can change the norm.
Enjoying what you do
Enjoyment while performing was rare–enjoyment would’ve been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford.
While it is important to enjoy what you do, it is not always possible to enjoy what you do in the moments that you do it. Like stand-up comedy, many tasks that we must complete in life cannot be accomplished without extreme focus. As Steve points out, enjoyment is an indulgence, which distracts the mind from the task at hand.
Too often, we try to enjoy what is happening right now to the detriment of ourselves. If we focus instead on the task at hand with intensity, we will find much more enjoyment on the back end, helping us fulfill our goals faster and with greater scale.
Checking your ego at the door
Doing comedy alone onstage is the ego’s last stand.
There are fewer ways to put your ego in check faster than getting onstage in front of tens or hundreds or thousands of people, trying to make them laugh. It is one thing to make your friends laugh at parties or to make your colleagues laugh at work. It is another thing entirely to make a room full of strangers, some of whom are skeptical of your work, laugh at what you say.
When laughter is the expectation, the pressure to make people laugh goes through the roof. Still, it is important to check your ego from time to time. I personally find jujitsu to be a fantastic way to check your ego. Soon, I will likely discover that improvisational comedy is just as effective as jujitsu for crushing egos if not more so.
Distraction is the enemy of success
Comedy’s enemy is distraction.
While distraction is the enemy of comedy, distraction could also be considered the enemy of any endeavor. Because of distraction, many projects are left unstarted, many tasks are left undone, many goals are left unfulfilled. It is only by eliminating distraction that we can accomplish what we hope to accomplish in life, in work, in anything. We must strive at all times to remove distraction from our lives, especially in an age of glowing screens, likes, pings, and Pokémon Go.
Don’t be afraid to be still
Stillness can be as deceptive as motion.
Sometimes, the funniest moments are the ones in which nothing happens or so little happens that no one else knows but you and one other person, like when you fart in church. As humans in a modern society, we often abhor the idea of stillness and silence. if we are not busy doing something, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. I am as guilty of this as anyone. I love to be “busy,” always busy.
“Sorry, I can’t do that. I’m busy.”
“I’d love to go, but I’m busy.”
Busy with what? Who knows? We’re just busy. But, some of the most profound moments in life happen instillness, when you look at someone, say nothing, and have a complete conversation. When something funny happens and, instead of making a joke, you simply smirk and raise and eyebrow, causing your group of friends to burst into laughter. Rather than avoiding stillness and silence, we must learn to embrace those moments and use them strategically to emphasize our points and make bigger statements.
There is always room for innovation
All entertainment is or is about to become old-fashioned. There is room, he implies, for something new.
Like entertainment, obsolescence seems to be an enemy of many industries, especially technology. If you’re not innovating, you’re done. It is not enough to grow. You must also innovate. If you stall, your game is over. You must, in some way, be leading change, moving your organization to the fore, finding a way to change the world. Otherwise, you and your organization fall into the abyss, never to be seen or heard from again. So you must continue to look for ways to innovate, to disrupt, to improve, to change, to reinvent.
Perseverance beats talent in the long run
Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.
The ironic thing about talent is that it requires perseverance to exist in the first place. Even Mozart had to learn what “middle C” was. There was a point in his life where Picasso had to be taught how to hold a paintbrush. There was a point where Michelangelo never held a chisel, where Stephen Hawking knew no math. Yet, these individuals went on to change the world because of their perseverance and their desire to learn and grow. While we may not be the next Mozart, Picasso, or Hawking, we can develop talent through perseverance.
Naïveté is a beautiful thing
Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naïveté, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do.
Probably equal in importance to perseverance is the possession of naïveté. Often, it is naïveté that helps us get started in the first place. Because we don’t know how truly terrible we are at something, we try anyway, we get started anyway, we move forward anyway. As a result, we do what most people never do: we get started. Many times, getting started makes all the difference.
Charge yourself up with delusions when motivation is lacking
Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between the moments of the valid inspiration.
Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” While I agree with Feynman to a point, there are times when it is helpful even necessary to fool yourself. In those darkest moments when you’re not sure that you can go on, when you feel defeated, you must sometimes fool yourself into believing that it’s possible to succeed. Even though it shouldn’t, the Placebo Effect sometimes works.
You can always find new material and angles
Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening.
In this passage, Steve wrote about his concerns that every joke will eventually be used, that there will be no new jokes to make. He eventually realized that as long as the world kept turning that there would be new jokes to be made. Our current political environment is evidence enough of that.
Steve’s realization can be applied to any aspect of life, personal or professional. As long as something’s happening, something can be done about it. unless the world comes to an “all stop,” you have an opportunity to develop new ideas. Even if the world did come to a standstill, you could still find a way to view old ideas in new ways, creating fresh perspectives.
You can will yourself to confidence
Now that I had assigned myself to an act without jokes, I gave myself a rule. Never let them know I was bombing: this is funny, you just haven’t gotten it yet. . . . Another rule was to make the audience believe that I thought I was fantastic, that my confidence could not be shattered. They had to believe that I didn’t care if they laughed at all, and that this act was going on with or without them. . . . It is possible to will confidence.
Some suggest that “confidence is key” and that confidence can make or break your career. Self-belief is a powerful thing. However, there will always be times when you have no confidence in yourself. Occasionally, you may even have anti-confidence in yourself. I know that I’ve struggled with both many times over the years. That said, one of the best ways to overcome those issues is to act confidently. Some studies suggest that you can actually trick yourself into feeling more confident. The body and mind move together. What one does, the other must do.
For example, if you stand confidently, your mind thinks, “Well, I’m standing confidently so I must be confident.” So your mind adjust to match your body. Similarly, if you stand unconfidently, your mind thinks, “Well, I’m standing unconfidently so I must be unconfident.” While it sounds overly simplistic, there has been a great deal of research on the idea of “cognitive dissonance,” which describes the synchronicity of your body and mind.
Try it sometime. Think of the most confident person that you know and try to stand like they stand and talk like they talk. Eventually, you will think like they think. Humans are masterful mimickers. Use that to your advantage.
Being consistently good versus being occasionally great
It was easy to be great. . . . What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances.
It is better to be good consistently than great occasionally. Jerry Seinfeld became one of the most prolific comedic writers of all time because he wrote every day. The top performers in any field engage in their craft every day. Strive to be good every day. You’ll never be perfect, and you’ll rarely be great. However, you can certainly aim to be good, every day. Over time, you will be.
Free your mind and start
All I had to do was free my mind and start.
While easier said than done, freeing your mind and simply starting can mean the difference between success and failure. Speaking from experience, freeing your mind is usually the hardest part. We are too self-critical and stop ourselves from trying because we are too afraid to fail. To overcome our barriers, we can look outward for help. The Internet is littered with articles and videos on how to get yourself unstuck and start moving forward. Use them to get and stay inspired.
Make yourself uncomfortable on purpose
The more physically uncomfortable the audience, the bigger the laughs.
In many ways, physical closeness leads to emotional closeness. Any comedy club that I have ever been in has been packed with people sitting close to one another. While the closeness makes people feel awkward at first, no one notices or cares at the end. What’s important is that they spent two hours laughing their asses off, hopefully.
Challenge the status quo with fresh perspectives
The whole point of this comedy [Saturday Night Live] was to turn off the older crowd while reeling in the young.
Sometimes, you will do things in life that older generations don’t understand. As a technophile, my parents and others of their generation don’t understand what I do, how I do it, or why I do it in the first place. Some people in older generations, for example, believe that technology is an obstacle to and distraction from life, dehumanizing our experience.
I, however, think the opposite, believing that technology has brought together far more people than it has torn apart. It is important to understand that people might not always get you, especially people of different generations, backgrounds, etc. But, that does not mean that what you are doing is wrong. It simply means that what you are doing is different. Different can be a beautiful thing.
Make an impact with each page
Our goal in writing was a laugh on every page.
Writing “a laugh on every page” reminded me of a high school English teacher of mine, Mr. Rodriguez. As a substitute teacher with no background in English education, Mr. Rodriguez made a profound impact on my approach to writing. His grading system was simple. If you made Mr. Rodriguez laugh or cry when he read your paper, you got an automatic A.
I took that lesson to heart and made Mr. Rodriguez laugh with every paper I wrote that entire semester. It was then that I discovered my love of writing, particularly my love of comedic writing. The idea that I could make people laugh with written words had a magical quality to it, and I never would have discovered that magic without Mr. Rodriguez.
I’m grateful to Mr. Rodriguez for teaching me an important lesson: good writing evokes emotion. People are not swayed by facts; they are swayed by emotions. Facts can aid in the creation of emotion, but it is emotion that ultimately spurs people to action, changes their mind about a subject, or both.
Work things out with family and friends
In the early 1980s, a friend whose father had been killed crossing the street and his mother had committed suicide on Mother’s Day advised to me, “if you have anything to work out with your parents, do it now. One day it will be too late.”
I’m fortunate that I have little to “work out” work my parents. Over the years, they have been incredibly supportive, encouraging me to pursue my interests regardless of their economic prospects. For example, I majored in music performance in college, which is probably the most worthless major on the planet from an economic perspective. Still, they supported my journey as a musician, even questioning my decision to leave music to pursue more “realistic” occupations.
However, I know that other people are not so fortunate and have open items with their parents that they need to address. I sincerely hope that they will follow Steve’s friend’s advice and create some sense of closure with their parents or anyone else for that matter.
“Never go to bed angry” is a piece of advice often given to newlyweds. Yet, I think we should apply that same advice to friends and family as well. Never go to bed angry with your family or friends because one day you’ll never see them again.
Don’t ask too much of your friends
You can’t ask a friend to read your manuscript twice.
In his acknowledgments, Steve notes that he learned an important lesson in his journey as a writer: you can’t ask a friend to read your manuscript twice.
I have often followed that advice unknowingly. Before I publish some of my articles, I will send them to friends whose opinions I trust and get their insights on my work. That said, I will only send an article once because I know that, especially with long articles like this one, it would be disrespectful of their time to ask them to read an article more than once.
The same can be said for advice. When asking friends and family for advice, it is important and necessary to limit your asks so that you don’t wear a hole through someone with questions. People generally love to give advice, but, like anything, try to use moderation.
If you enjoyed this article, leave a comment and share your key takeaway. If you read Born Standing Up, I encourage you to share those thoughts as well.
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