i don’t know if you know this, but there’s a gem of a website out there called goldstar that sells discount tickets to all kinds of shows. you can sign up for their email newsletter and get periodic updates on what cheap tickets are available in your area, and it’s awesome the stuff it has available sometimes!

their newsletter is how we came to see steve martin play the banjo.

apparently steve martin’s been playing the banjo since he was like 17 – i saw a tiny clip on tv years ago of him pickin’ and grinnin’, and i have to tell you it was magic. so when i saw $15 tickets to see steve martin play the banjo i told josh immediately if i don’t go to this show i will die.

so it turns out that this concert’s a fundraiser for the los angeles public library – and i’ll tell you what, there are some major differences when a concert is put on for the library. number one, before the show there’s people reading. number two, the opening acts are folks in suits talking about the library.

the show itself was freaking amazing. the first chunk of it was dave barry interviewing steve martin about his banjo playing, and then the second part was steve martin playing a bunch of songs off his new cd called the crow. if you dig bluegrass music like i dig bluegrass music, even if you don’t dig bluegrass music you should give it a listen cuz the crap is GOOD!! and since it was a benefit for the library when we picked up our tix at will call we were also given a free copy of his latest book, born standing up, which leads us to:

hearts and laserbeams book report: born standing up by steve martin

i have to tell you i’ve always been a huge steve martin fan. one of my fave movies as a kid was roxanne, the song “king tut” will stay with me forever, one of my fave books is pure drivel, and i can even forgive the movie where he’s got a dozen kids or whatever it was. (cheaper by the dozen? that sounds about right.) is that gonna bias this book report?

probably.

i get really nostalgic when i see steve martin movies, like kinda fuzzy-hearted and if it’s a really good one like my blue heaven or planes, trains and automobiles, i may even get a tiny bit weepy. i heart steve martin because he has always just felt really genuine and real to me, like he’s not playing a bit. like if you met him in real life, he’d be exactly the way he is on stage, in movies, whatever. i am convinced if josh and i met steve martin in real life, not in any kind of fan/celebrity sort of way, we’d be friends.

this genuine realness totally comes through in born standing up. it’s a memoir about steve martin’s time doing standup comedy, from the time he was working at disneyland starting to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, through his development as a standup comedian, including lots of chunks about his family and how that helped shape his future.

while it exposes the painful parts of his past, it doesn’t exploit it. he lays it out for you without throwing anyone under the bus and i really respect that. it’s not a tell-all, it’s a tell-some.

and the way steve martin writes is the way he talks. so as you’re reading the book, it’s not really like you’re reading at all. it’s like he’s sitting right there in the lunchroom with you just chatting with you about his life and his comedy while you eat your stouffers macaroni and beef microwavey lunch goodness.

i remember i saw steve martin on the jon stewart show a while back, and he was asked at what point did he know he was big. he tells this story about how at one show, at the end of the show, he took the entire audience outside and there was an empty swimming pool there. so he told everyone to get in the pool. and then he swam over them, crowd surfing style, doing the crawl. and the excitement he gets on his face when he’s telling this story – you can see it when you’re reading about it in the book; you can totally tell this is one of his favorite memories.

the end of the book came full circle – it started with him giving some background on how his family started him down this road, and it closes with thoughts on making peace with his past. and it kinda made me tear up quite a lot, guys. good good stuff.

anyways, i can’t give away my copy of this book because i loved it too much and i’ll probably read it again soon, but stay tuned – i’ll be doing a giveaway of another good book i read recently, into the wild, soon soon soon! in case you didn’t guess, here’s how born standing up rates:

ratings

hearts: 5 hearts – you’re gonna be hard-pressed to get me to say anything bad about steve martin, sorry charlie! (except uh… please no more cheaper by the dozen sequels)

farts: 0 farts – yeah sorry see above… except for cheaper by the dozen you got nothin’ on this guy the end!