Doing Comedy Alone Onstage Is The

From Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (2007). Martin uses the phrase to describe the psychological exposure of solo standup performance, where there is no character, no co-star, and no script to hide behind — only the comedian's own personality laid bare in front of a crowd. The "last stand" framing is deliberately combative: the ego must fight to justify its place on stage every single night, with no institutional support and no shared credit.