Current Reading: Born Standing Up

Steve Martin really did spend ten years trying to make his stand up act work before real success. My favorite section of the book came when Martin described how, shortly before his big breakthrough, he was halfway through his act and had not heard a single laugh from the audience. He decided to see if he could go through the rest of the set without a laugh. But he had hear Bill Cosby say that a comedian should pay attention to how the waitresses, who did not pay to hear the show react. He noticed that the waitresses did laugh even though the audience did not and he knew he was on to something.