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Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions
NUMBER ONE IS WALKING is an illustrated memoir of Steve Martin's legendary acting career with stories from his most popular films with artwork by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. The book is filled with anecdotes from film sets, exploits with co-stars, moments of inspiration, and other stories. Also: stand-up, banjos, writing, and cartooning.
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A Wealth of Pigeons: A Cartoon Collection
Multitalented comedian Steve Martin ventures into the lauded territory of cartooning by partnering with heralded New Yorker cartoonist, Harry Bliss. Steve shared caption and cartoon ideas, Harry provided impeccable artwork, and together they created this collection of humorous cartoons and comic strips, with amusing commentary about their collaboration throughout. The result: this gorgeous, funny, singular book, perfect to give as a gift or to buy for yourself.
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The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten.: The Tweets of Steve Martin
With over 2.2 million followers (a number growing by the day) and a now famously uncanny ability to pack 140 characters with a maximum amount of humor and wit, Steve Martin has redefined what it means to be a celebrity in today’s world of social media. Martin’s tweets have been covered by personal blogs, major news outlets, and everything in between. And this collection brings his funniest, most memorable messages together for avid followers and offline fans alike.
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Steve Martin - Rare Bird Alert
Steve Martin's latest CD, Rare Bird Alert, has received raves from critics, fans and players alike. His 13 songs and sparkling banjo solos, in both clawhammer and three-finger picking styles, are whimsical and fun-filled, always beautifully crafted and superbly played. This new book features tablature and lyrics, and Steve has added brief instructions for playing each tune. Songs: Rare Bird Alert * Yellow-Backed Fly * Best Love * Northern Island * Go Away, Stop, Turn Around, Come Back * Jubilation Day * More Bad Weather on the Way * You * The Great Remember (For Nancy) * Women Like to Slow Dance * Hide Behind a Rock * Atheists Don't Have No Songs * King Tut.
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A captivating presence who naturally draws in everyone around her, Lacey Yeager appears on the New York art scene as a clever and funny young intern at Sotheby’s. With her charm, ambition, and questionable and sometimes illegal tactics, she climbs the cultural ladder, step by step, and moves from cataloging paintings to success in the labyrinthine and mysterious art world. Her knowledge of art and art collectors quickly grows, and the list of men she enchants and inevitably destroys grows right alongside it. Her rise to the highest tiers of the city’s social life parallel the soaring heights—and, at times, the dark lows—of the art world and the country from the early 1990s through today. Will be released November 23, 2010. Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBookstore | IndieBound.
An Object Of Beauty has also been released in the UK. You can order the UK version from Amazon UK. -
Getting to school has never been quite this difficult—or hilarious. Celebrated writer and performer Steve Martin and dynamic artist C. F. Payne have teamed up to tell the story of the adventure, danger, and laughs of one youngster’s journey to school. With an enclosed bluegrass CD of Grammy-winner Steve Martin playing the banjo and singing the book’s story, LATE FOR SCHOOL will be the perfect gift to be read—and listened to—again and again.
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Kindly lent their owner: The private collection of Steve Martin
The private collection of Steve Martin with essays on art and collecting by Steve Martin April 7 - September 3, 2001 to Benefit the Steve Martin Charitable Trust Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, Las Vegas
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Cruel Shoes is a collection of offbeat, mostly humorous essays and short stories by Steve Martin, and his first published book, and is also the title of one of the pieces therein, a satirical short-short story about a woman in a shoe store. Cruel Shoes was originally released in 1977 as a handmade limited edition of 750 signed and numbered books published by Press of the Pegacycle Lady (Victoria Dailey). The cover is just pale paper over pressboard. It only contained 48 pages and many of the stories that appeared in the trade version were not included.
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Movie star Martin shone in the comic essays of last year's Pure DrivelAbut can he write serious fiction? His debut novella gives fans a chance to find out. Shy, depressed, young, lonely and usually broke, Vermont-bred Mirabelle Butterfield sells gloves at the Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus (nobody ever buys); at night, she watches TV with her two cats. Martin's slight plot follows Mirabelle's search for loveAor at least romance and companionshipAwith middle-aged Ray Porter, a womanizing Seattle millionaire who may, or may not, have hidden redeeming qualities. Also in and out of Mirabelle's life are a handful of supporting characters, all of them lonely and alienated, too. There's her father, a dysfunctional Vietnam vet; the laconic, unambitious Jeremy; and Mirabelle's promiscuous, body-obsessed co-worker Lisa. Detractors may call Martin's plot predictable, his characters stereotypes. Admirers may answer thatAas in Douglas CouplandAthese aren't stereotypes but modern archetypes, whose lives must be streamlined if they are to represent ours. Except for its love-hate relations with L.A., little about this book sounds much like Martin; its anxious, sometimes flat prose style can be affecting or disorienting, and belongs somewhere between Coupland and literary chroniclers of depression like Lydia Davis.
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Audio Book Excerpt:
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Theobald Maske has an unusual problem: his wife's underpants won't stay on. One Sunday morning they fall to her ankles right in the middle of town-a public scandal! Mortified, Theo swears to keep her at home until she can find some less unruly undies. Amid this chaos he's trying to rent a room in their flat. The prospective lodgers have some underlying surprises of their own. In The Underpants, Steve Martin brings his comic genius and sophisticated literary style to Carl Sternheim's classic 1910 farce. His hilarious new version was staged by Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, and opened in March '02 on Off-Broadway to critical acclaim.
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Don't listen to Steve Martin read this hysterical compilation of his most absurdly funny writings if you're recovering from abdominal surgery or have taken a vow of silence. Martin's brilliant, juxtaposed wordplay, sly commentary, and hilarious observations are delivered with such a droll wit that only a dead person will avoid unabashed laughter. Genius is in the ear of the beholder and Martin's metronomic timing allows each sentence to unravel perfectly. His deadpan delivery is often clever enough to make you laugh twice at the same line and makes it clear why he has enjoyed such remarkable success as an actor, screenwriter, playwright, and author.
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Audio Book Excerpt:
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The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z!
The acclaimed entertainer and bestselling author Steve Martin and the wildly clever New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast team up in a weird, wonderful excursion through the alphabet. The ABCs have never had it so good. Created by two of today’s wittiest, most imaginative minds, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! is a sheer delight from A to Z. In twenty-six alliterative couplets, Steve Martin conjures up much more than mere apples and zebras. Instead we meet Horace the hare, whose hairdo hides hunchbacks, and Ollie the owl, who owed Owen an oboe. Roz Chast contributes the perfect visual settings for Martin’s zany two-liners. Her instantly recognizable drawings are packed with humorous touches both broad and subtle. Each rereading—and there will be many—delivers new delights and discoveries. There, hidden behind Bad Baby Bubbleducks, is a framed picture of a beatnik holding balloons; and the letter C finds clunky Clarissa all clingy and clueless adrift in a landscape cluttered with images ranging from a curiously comfortable clown to Chuck’s Chili stand. A smart, laugh-inducing introduction to the alphabet for young children, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! will also enchant adults with its matchless mix of the sophisticated and the silly.
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Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays
Ever wonder what it would have been like if wild and crazy Steve Martin had written an episode of "The Twilight Zone"? Well, wonder no more. The zany actor/comedian made playwright rookie of the year with this, the script of his first comedy, set in a bar in 1904 Paris. Two of the regulars, twentysomethings Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein, argue about the art of physics and the physics of art as they try to impress and bed a pretty girl. And then the space/time/culture continuum ruptures, and they're joined by a figure from the future who seems to be . . . Elvis Presley! Read for yourself why the show's been done Off-Broadway and at regionals around the country.
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The Crow: Book of Tablature: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo
Steve Martin is a comedian, novelist, screenwriter, actor and many other things, but his first love is the banjo. His recent hit CD, The Crow, features 15 original tunes in both clawhammer and Scruggs style. This book of tablature, accurately transcribed by Tony Trischka, is a great learning tool for aspiring players.
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The Pleasure of My Company: A Novella
Martin's first novella, Shopgirl (2000), was a revelation, a compassionate yet cool, meticulously crafted tale of a young woman's affair with an older, successful man not what most readers were expecting from the famed comic actor and author of Pure Drivel. Martin's second novella continues the enjoyment, offering another story with a conscience, one funnier than Shopgirl but put together just as smartly, if very differently. Martin forgoes the distanced omniscient narration of Shopgirl by plunking readers into the head of one the odder yet more charming protagonists in recent fiction, Daniel Pecan Cambridge, a gentle soul suffering from a mild mix of autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Daniel, 33, lives in a rundown Santa Monica apartment, his life constricted by an armor of defensive habit (all the lightbulbs in his apartment must equal 1,125 watts; he can't step over curbs so can cross streets only where two opposing driveways align, etc.), his dull days punctuated only by imagined romances and visits by his student social worker, lovely and kind Clarissa. Daniel's ways (a product of child abuse, Martin shows with subtlety) are challenged when Clarissa and her infant son, Teddy, move in to escape an abusive husband; when Daniel wins a contest as "Most Average American" and must give a speech to claim the $5,000 prize; and when his beloved grandmother dies, sending him on a road trip of discovery back home. This novella is a delight, embodying a satisfying story arc, a jeweler's eye for detail, intelligent pacing and a clean, sturdy prose style. What's most remarkable about it, though, is its tenderness, a complex mix of wit, poignancy and Martin's clear, great affection for his characters. Many readers are going to love this brief, big-hearted book.
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Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
At age 10, Steve Martin got a job selling guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland. In the decade that followed, he worked in Disney's magic shop, print shop, and theater, and developed his own magic/comedy act. By age 20, studying poetry and philosophy on the side, he was performing a dozen times a week, most often at the Disney rival, Knott's Berry Farm. Obsession is a substitute for talent, he has said, and Steve Martin's focus and daring--his sheer tenacity--are truly stunning. He writes about making the very tough decision to sacrifice everything not original in his act, and about lucking into a job writing for The Smothers Brothers Show. He writes about mentors, girlfriends, his complex relationship with his parents and sister, and about some of his great peers in comedy--Dan Ackroyd, Lorne Michaels, Carl Reiner, Johnny Carson. He writes about fear, anxiety and loneliness. And he writes about how he figured out what worked on stage. This book is a memoir, but it is also an illuminating guidebook to stand-up from one of our two or three greatest comedians. Though Martin is reticent about his personal life, he is also stunningly deft, and manages to give readers a feeling of intimacy and candor. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs collected by Martin, this book is instantly compelling visually and a spectacularly good read.
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Audio Book Excerpt:
