Editing Steve Martin (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Steve Martin HS Yearbook.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|Steve Martin as a senior in high school, 1963]]
Stephen Glenn Martin was born on August 14, 1945,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sKCfomKSa74C&pg=PA204 |page=204 |last=Whiteley |first=Sandy |title=On This Date |publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional |year=2002 |isbn=978-0071398275}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGjsvmNt8UgC&pg=PA94 |page=94 |title=Universal Men |magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |date=September 1999 |volume=15 |number=9 |issn=0886-3032}}</ref> in [[Waco, Texas]],{{sfnp|Walker|1998|p=1}} the son of Mary Lee (née Stewart; 1911–2002) and Glenn Vernon Martin (1914–1997), a real estate salesman and aspiring actor.<ref name="filmref">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieVj9Z-w12UC&q=%22steve+martin%22+waco&pg=PA2| title=Steve Martin: The Magic Years| first=Morris| last=Walker| year=2001| page=2| publisher=SP Books| location=New York| isbn=978-1561719808}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wargs.com/other/martin.html |title=Ancestry of Steve Martin |publisher=Wargs.com |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref> He has an older sister, Melinda.<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 11, 2015 |author=Jennifer Garcia |title=Steve Martin's Life in Pictures in PEOPLE|website=PEOPLE.com |url=https://people.com/movies/steve-martins-life-in-pictures-in-people/|access-date=February 12, 2022}}</ref>

Martin is of English, [[Scottish people|Scottish]], [[Welsh people|Welsh]], [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]], German, and French descent. He and his sister grew up in a [[Baptist]] family in [[Inglewood, California]], and later in [[Garden Grove, California|Garden Grove]] in [[Orange County, California|Orange County]];{{sfnp|Martin|2007|pp=20–39}} he was a cheerleader at [[Garden Grove High School]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/20/top-5-famous-former-male-cheerleaders/ |title=Top 5: Famous former male cheerleaders |date=February 20, 2009 |work=The Washington Times}}</ref> One of Martin's earliest memories is seeing his father as an extra serving drinks onstage at the Callboard Theater on Melrose Place in [[West Hollywood, California|West Hollywood]]. During [[World War II]] in [[Great Britain|Britain]], his father appeared in a production of ''[[Our Town]]'' with [[Raymond Massey]]. Expressing his affection through gifts like cars and bikes, Steve's father was stern and not emotionally open to his son.<ref Name="Mild"/> He was proud but critical, with Steve later recalling that in his teens his feelings for his father were mostly of hatred.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wills |first=Dominic |title=Steve Martin – Biography |url= http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/steve-martin/biography/118 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209043647/http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/steve-martin/biography/118 |archive-date=February 9, 2010 |publisher=[[TalkTalk Group|TalkTalk]] |access-date=May 15, 2010}}<!-- only first 5 pages of biography are available -->{{cbignore}}</ref>

Steve Martin's first job was at newly opened [[Disneyland]], selling guidebooks on weekends and full-time during summer break. The work lasted for three years (1955–1958). During his free time, he frequented the [[Main Street, U.S.A.#Shops|Main Street Magic shop]], where tricks were demonstrated to patrons.<ref Name="Mild"/> While working at Disneyland, he was captured in the background of the home movie that was made into the short-subject film ''[[Disneyland Dream]]'', incidentally becoming his first film appearance. By 1960, he had mastered several magic tricks and illusions and took a paying job at the Magic shop in [[Fantasyland]] in August. There he perfected his talents for magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals in the manner of mentor [[Wally Boag]],{{sfnp|Martin|2007|pp=18–19}} frequently performing for tips.{{sfnp|Martin|2007|p=39}}

In his authorized biography, close friend Morris Walker suggests that Martin could "be described most accurately as an agnostic ... he rarely went to church and was never involved in organized religion of his own volition".{{sfnp|Walker|1998|p=40}} In his early 20s, Martin dated Melissa Trumbo, daughter of novelist and screenwriter [[Dalton Trumbo]].

After high school, Martin attended [[Santa Ana College]], taking classes in drama and English poetry. In his free time, he teamed up with friend and high school classmate Kathy Westmoreland to participate in comedies and other productions at the [[Bird Cage Theatre]]. He joined a comedy troupe at [[Knott's Berry Farm]].<ref Name="Mild"/> Later, he met budding actress [[Stormie Omartian|Stormie Sherk]], and they developed comedy routines and became romantically involved. Sherk's influence led Martin to apply to the [[California State University, Long Beach]], for enrollment with a major in philosophy.<ref Name="Mild"/> Sherk enrolled at [[UCLA]], about an hour's drive north, and the distance eventually caused them to lead separate lives.{{sfnp|Martin|2007|p=65}}

Inspired by his philosophy classes, Martin considered becoming a professor instead of an actor-comedian. Being at college changed his life. {{cquote|It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about [[Non sequitur (absurdism)|non-sequiturs]] appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying [[logic]], and they were talking about [[Causality|cause and effect]], and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the [[climax (narrative)|punch line]], you twist the [[Non sequitur (absurdism)|non-sequitur]] so hard away from the things that set it up.<ref name="RS">{{cite magazine |last1=Fong-Torres |first1=Ben |author1-link=Ben Fong-Torres |title=Steve Martin's New Song and Dance (Steve Martin Sings) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rwIbBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT33 |access-date=June 18, 2022 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=18 February 1982 |isbn=9781626743212 |via=Conversations with Steve Martin ([[University Press of Mississippi]])}}</ref>}} Martin recalls reading a treatise on comedy that led him to think: {{cquote|What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation.<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite magazine |last=Martin |first=Steve |date=February 2008 |title=Being Funny: How the path-breaking comedian got his act together |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/being-funny-17061140 |archive-date=December 27, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227133322/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/funny-martin-200802.html?c=y&story=fullstory <!-- alternate archive url (links to subsequent pages don't seem to work): http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091014124041/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts%2Dculture/funny%2Dmartin%2D200802.html -->|magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian Magazine]] |access-date=December 21, 2022}}</ref>}} Martin periodically spoofed his philosophy studies in his 1970s stand-up act, comparing philosophy with studying geology. {{cquote|If you're studying geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life.<ref>{{IMDb name|0000188}}</ref>}}

In 1967, Martin transferred to [[UCLA]] and switched his major to theater. While attending college, he appeared in an episode of ''[[The Dating Game]]'', winning a date with [[Deana Martin]]. Martin began working local clubs at night, to mixed notices, and at twenty-one, he dropped out of college.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stevemartin.com/stop_the_presses/newsweek_78.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227054918/http://www.stevemartin.com/stop_the_presses/newsweek_78.php|url-status=dead|title=SteveMartin.com &#124; Stop the Presses|archive-date=February 27, 2009|access-date=April 8, 2020}}</ref>