Steve Martin talks to WWDScoop about his relationship with his father: as the article states, “Steve was beaten, often brutally, by his father. The marks on his psyche were long-lasting and for many years kept him estranged from his father, a story Steve tells with dignity and purpose. Or as he wryly puts it, ‘I have heard that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you the story of my father and me to let you know that I’m qualified to be a comedian.’�

Following are other comments from Steve Martin’s interview found in the November issue of WWDScoop:

ON THE BEGINNING OF HIS CAREER…The article describes how “He performed in bars and clubs, often to the echo of an empty house. He slept in his car. He scrounged about for gigs that would put him on a stage; he went to college to study philosophy, thinking even to become a professor – another form of showmanship. But there was no going home on weekends, no cheering-on phone calls from Mom and Dad. His was a self-improvised, lonely world of work and dreams.�

ON HIS PARENTS REACTION TO HIS SUCCESS…The article tells of how “even when Steve star’s had risen high enough to be visible and when his mother publicly reveled in his success, his father was not ‘impressed.’ He remained unimpressed even after Steve’s great screen success in his classic The Jerk, saying to one of Steve’s friends, ‘Well, he’s no Charlie Chaplin.’�

ON RECONNECTING WITH HIS FATHER…The article states that Steve “reconnected with his parents, taking them to lunch every week, and even enlisted his father’s advice in real estate matters. It was a slow process but one that produced deep, lasting rewards. One afternoon after lunch, Steve and his father hugged goodbye and Steve heard him say very softly, ‘I love you.’ And later, shortly before he died, his father confessed to Steve: ‘You did everything I wanted to.’ ‘I did it for you,’ Steve said. Not adding the more complicated truth: I did it because of you. ‘He was a more cheerful man at the end,’ he says. ‘He had come out of his financial difficulties and had come to terms with his failed dreams.’�

ON WHAT THE BOOK IS ALL ABOUT…The article states that it is “a book of climbing self-doubts, defeats and restarts, of facing each time on stage the prospect of ‘Comedy Death.’ Which Steve says is ‘worse than regular death.’�

ON WHY HE CHOSE HIS 18 YEARS AS A STAND-UP COMIC AS THE SUBJECT FOR HIS MEMOIR, BORN STANDING UP: “I had been looking for something to write,� he says, “perhaps another novel.� But then he adds, “I wanted to write a memoir, but I could not figure out where to end it. My stand-up life had a beginning, middle and end.�

ON WHY WRITING THE MEMOIR WAS DIFFERENT THAN WRITING ANOTHER NOVEL… “I did not want to write another made-up story,� Steve says, “but one with my heart in it.�

By Fabien Montique posted time [ 6:40 PM]