Outside Reading 5

When Steve Martin was twenty seven, he decided that he would give himself three more years to finally make it as a stand up comic, or go back to college and find himself a real career. He decided to try and be the main eventer instead of the opening act. His first three shows he headlined had no ticket sales. Not a single ticket was sold. After appearing numerous times on the Johnny Carson show, he started to make a name for himself. He started appearing in sold out clubs that seated one thousand, to clubs that seated two thousand, to clubs that seated three thousand. After his first appearance on Saturday Night Live, he sold out a club that held six thousand seats. After this he continued touring. He started performing in stadiums seating twenty thousand plus. Even with all this success he started to feel isolated from real life. He once asked a girl out on a date, and during the dinner she started talking about her boyfriend. It turned out that the boyfriend knows that she was on the date and he thought that that was great. Steve lost touch with his family and only reconnected with them after he left the stand up world.