Steve Martin proved that comedy could be experimental, avant-garde and, most importantly: funny. "Born Standing Up" is a memoir which chronicles Martin's comedic journey from Minsk to Milan…errr, I mean from demonstrating tricks in Disneyland's magic shop for a few curious kids to selling out arenas full of thousands of adoring fans. Martin details how he honed his absurdist routine over the years, eventually creating a sort of "anti-comedy" where the comedian's persona is so confident that bad material or lack of any real "act" still produced laughter. Plenty of laughter. But of course, like any clown, there are sad facets and these are dealt with candidly and touchingly. I reserved both the audio and print versions of "Born Standing Up" (from our own IMCPL, one of the great public library systems in the nation) and listened to the first couple of chapters in my car on the way home. Once there, I resumed the story in book form and was able to hear Steve Martin's voice distinctly in my mind's ear. It was an interesting experiment adding a certain vivid veracity to this memoir.