VernonGirl

Four things comedian Steve Martin can teach us about success

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life is the book funny man Steve Martin authored. It was published in 2007, but I just read it, so it's new to me. An excellent read. Martin recounts his love interests, a complicated relationship with his father, encounters with famous celebrities like Elvis Presley, and how he persevered through being broke, being rejected, delivering comedy to empty theatres and, even, being famous to become the man he is today (or when his book was released).

There are at least four key messages from Martin that can teach us how to be more successful:

1. Dress differently to be seen.

When Martin began seeing three thousand people come to his stand-up comedy performances, he bought a white suit to wear onstage for visibility.

"I was afraid it might seem derivative, but I stayed with it for practical reasons, and it didn't seem to matter to the audience or critics. The suit was made of gabardine, which always stayed fresh and flowed smoothly with my body. It got noticed in the press because it was three-piece, which appeared to be a symbol of conservatism, but I really wore the vest so my shirt would stay tucked into my pants."¹

2. Invent a new way to get paid.

Martin observed that opening acts never got noticed, mentioned or reviewed because the headliner got all the glory. He decided to exclusively pursue headline gigs and in one year he was completely broke. His travel costs were about three hundred dollars, and he was getting a flat fee of five hundred dollars per show. Netting just two hundred dollars wasn't cutting it.

Wisely, Martin called a show business friend for advice.

"He told me the deal he always proposed to club owners. He would take the door, and they would take the bar."....."I would be paid according to how many people I drew.."⁵

3. Be encouraged by naysayers.

When Martin concluded that the audition process was a dead end, he decided to resign from his television writing career and go on the road to do stand up comedy. His agent told him his stand up comedy was headed nowhere and that he should "Stick to writing". Martin says that he "took this warning with a strange delight" and it was a "necessary ingredient in any young career".³

When Martin was doing stand up comedy to over eighteen thousand people, regularly appearing on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, he definitely proved his agent wrong.

4. Do the opposite of what everyone is doing.

When Steve Martin observed that "a skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope's "But I wanna tell ya") or even a slight body shift"⁴ like slapping a stomach, he decided to do the opposite. Rather than giving audiences a punchline, he let the audience pick their own place to laugh. This type of anti-climactic tension-induced comedy was completely revolutionary and even Rick Moranis, another comedic actor, called it anti-comedy.

Martin writes, "My goal was to make the audience laugh but leave them unable to describe what it was that made them laugh."

One of Martin's techniques was to end his comedy routine in an unexpected way, so that the audience never really knew what to expect. He led his audience outside, hailed a taxi, went around the block, returned and waved to the audience - and drove off and never came back. This led to a review in The Miami Herald saying "Steve Martin is the brightest, cleverest, wackiest new comedian around."²

Martin's book also comes in an audio cd. If you have long commutes and want something inspiring to listen to, I recommend Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Audio CD)

(Disclosure: Amazon.com affiliate links mean I get paid when you buy through these links.) If you don't want to buy the book, you can probably borrow it from your local library like I did.

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay

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Crutches

Talk about embarassing.....

I was warming up my son prior to his whole soccer team arriving to our game last Saturday. I am team coach. He is 8 years old. I am, well......old. Anyway, I slipped on the ball with my left foot and rolled to the right stretching all the ligaments in my right ankle. I had to be helped to the sidelines and waited on. The Assistant Coache's wife ran to get me frozen peas for my ankle, and a chair, since another nice lady named Sandra (I've never met her before in my life, but she  was kind) had already stolen a chair from a poor lady from another team. I never did give that chair back. Instead, I propped my foot up on it.

I feel bad for barking at some lady, right after I fell, for asking me to take my shoe off and sit up. I said, "Are you a nurse." And she said, no. And I said, "I don't think you know what you're doing. I'm not taking my shoe off and I'm not sitting up." (I was in a lot of pain and there also could be some PMS mixed in there.)

Anyway, I stayed to watch the game and cheer our team on. After the game, the Assistant coach drove me home, his wife drove my car and after 3 glasses of red wine and one ibuprofin (I know, you're not supposed to mix them), I felt great. In fact, that's practically the most excitement I've had on a Saturday night for a long time....since my kids were born that is.

Two days later, as I'm writing this, my foot is up and I'm working. Maybe I can slow down a bit. Life has been really really hectic.

In good health, Courtenay