Friday, January 4, 2008

A Small Piece of Steve Martin, Pt. I

A Small Piece of Steve Martin is a new reoccurring piece in which we analyze a passage from his book Born Standing Up.

Page 181:

"...and the laughs, rather than being the result of spontaneous combustion, now seemed to roll in like waves created far out at sea."

Often the reaction of a large theater audience doesn't sound like laughter but just a rush of energy. In a live recording you may only be able to pick out a few individual laughs, maybe because a guy was sitting close to a microphone. How powerful it must be to have the ability to create the same instantaneous response from thousands of people just from talking. And to have the ability to experience that moment of silence between saying that last word and the noise crashing towards you. And how depressing and draining it may become to have to do so every night.

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