While Steve Martin has always made me laugh long and loud with his comedy, his writing has been pretty much a miss for me. But I decided to give this a go anyway, and am glad I did. He's got such a distinctive vooice and is so embedded in my brain for my college years... It was fun to revisit old sketches, learn his life before I knew of him, and fill in the blanks as to why he moved away from stand-up to other forms of art. He is a funny, insightful and intensely private man. Little of his personal life is revealed. (In fact, it's just in passing you learn of his first marriage -- and the passing remark has to do with his divorce. He never mentions the name of his first wife, or goes into any detail of any of his more famous romances.) Funny to realize that he was working at Disneyland when my family went there in the mid 60's. And I remember when he came to St Louis in the late 70's while I was at Washington University, and we all were loving the "wild and crazy guy." Also neat to learn why he started wearing the white suit in his act. But intimacy, you won't get. Just some smatterings of fascinating stuff and interesting interactions with comedy greats.

I did listen to this on audio, and while I might have missed seeing any photographs, I did get to hear his banjo licks in between segments, and that was fabulous. He has come out with a CD of his banjo-playing, and hearing him play on the book is enough to make me consider getting the CD.