Steve Martin: "Be undeniably good."
How to make it in show business and the challenge of being CONSISTENTLY good.
Steve Martin’s advice to someone trying to make it in show business: "Be undeniably good."
Be undeniably good. When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them — And nobody ever takes note of it 'cuz it's not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is here's how you get an agent, here's how you write a script, here's how you do this — But I always say, "Be so good they can't ignore you." If somebody's thinking, "How can I be really good?", people are going to come to you. It's much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.
And here are some money quotes from his great book Born Standing Up and elsewhere:
“Through the years, I have learned that there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”
“It was easy to be great. Every entertainer has a night when everything is clicking. These nights are accidental and statistical. Like lucky cards in poker, you can count on them occurring over time. What was hard was to be good. Consistently good. Night after night. No matter what the abominable circumstances.”
“If you have anything to work out with your parents, do it now. One day it will be too late.”
“Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol.”
“I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot.”
“Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.”