The assignment for the entire first grade class was for us to draw ourselves as whatever career our 6-year old minds pictured us having as adults. I distinctly remember drawing myself as a clown. Now for the record, I didn’t want to be a clown. What I wanted to be was a stand-up comedian, but I didn’t really know how to draw one, so I chose the closest thing I could think of. Well…that’s not entirely all true either. I actually didn’t want to be any old stand-up comedian. What I wanted to be was Steve Martin! My older brother Ariel had a friend who, for whatever reason, gave me one of Steve Martin’s live comedy albums. I still own the record to this day and am amazed that there are any grooves left. I must have listened to that dozens and dozens of times, memorizing the routines and performing them for my friends and family (even the “mature” parts which in retrospect I realize that I didn’t even understand, but because the audience on the record was laughing, I figured it must be funny). In the late 1970s, Steve Martin’s act was unlike anything that any other comic was performing. Not only was he doing his “comedy” bit, but he also performed magic, twisted balloons, and was a heck of a good musician, cutting into his comedy routine several times during his act to play his banjo.