A young love named Stormie suggests that Steve read W. Although this is not a typical 'reading' and the topic might be somewhat unorthodox, I consider discussing Philosophy & Comedy perfectly legitimate and this a suitable text for the endeavor. I'd like, rather, to partially examine something in the book that surprised me and is relevant to our PEL universe - Steve Martin studied philosophy in college during his 'formative' years and attributes a certain amount of influence to the discipline on his development. It is not my intention to give a full fledged review of this book. No one who (over)used the catch phrases 'Well excuuuuuse me!" or "I'm a wild and crazy guy!" or dropped a "Grandpa bought a rubber.duck" in conversation can forget Martin's truly novel and paradigm shattering form of expression - it hardly does it justice now to call it simply comedy or entertainment. I am old enough to remember the phenomenon that was Steve Martin at his stand-up peak, having reached teenage awareness with liberal and progressive enough parents who allowed me to watch Saturday Night Live and got cable with HBO. The book covers the time from his childhood through to his 30's when he walked away from stage performing to do movies and other media. I just finished reading Steve Martin's autobiography Born Standing Up - a comic's life, an honest and direct memoir about his youth and early life experiences which shaped the development of his unique comedic style.
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