Tragic Techniques In Steve Martin's Born Standing Up

Throughout Born Standing Up, we see Steve Martin go from a child with a fascination for magic, to an amateur comedian working as an opener and at local venues, to a famous comedian selling tens of thousands of tickets for each performance. Steve is very passionate about his craft and without this passion he wouldn’t have been able to advance nearly as far in the field of comedy. Through analyzing other’s acts and what works and doesn’t work in their acts to his willingness to experiment in his own acts, you can see that he is dedicated to furthering himself in the comedic world. Steve isn’t shy in carefully scrutinizing his own work either, and through the trial and error of new acts he is able to decide which ones to drop and which ones to expand upon.
There are many times in Steve’s life when he would have been able to choose a different path, and many times when that other path would have been
When looking at someone that is famous, it’s very easy to see them as simply lucky. While there is a certain amount of luck to to making a breakthrough, as there are many talented individuals who have never made a big breakthrough, it’s not simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Steve’s life wasn’t ever a perfect one. He experienced a great amount of difficulty in succeeding as a comedian, and had a great amount of failures as well. Through performing at empty venues, being referred to as “the most serious booking error in the history of Los Angeles music” (113), and having his act bomb at Playboy clubs, Steve’s journey was not one without its fair share of frustrations and bumps in the road. However, he was able to persevere through these hardships and worked hard in his pursuit of becoming a stand-up comedian. This wasn’t just a path that he could take, this was the only path that he wanted to