Fey has written a hilarious autobiography that begins with her as a child of five being slashed across the face by someone leaving a scar. She refuses to talk about the actual incident but spends time talking about the kind of people who ask about it and how she wants to have nothing to do with them. She also talks about how she received lots of attention from family and friends over the incident for a long period of time and how it made her feel special and confident in her talents.
She writes of working at Second City and Improv Company in Chicago. She began working on the touring group Blue Company, or BlueCo. They were supposed to travel to various parts of the Midwest and Texas and perform the "best of" sketches in church basements and community centers. She was paid seventy-five dollars per show and a twenty-five dollar per diem. They would ride in a van and sometimes travel from Kansas to Texas then back to Kansas over a matter of two days just to get paid. Soon, though, Amy Poehler sick of the blond-girl roles wanted to rewrite her material and soon the others were rewriting the whole show. By the time the ten-day tour was over the original show was completely rewritten. They would get in trouble for this and be punished for it by being assigned the worst gigs ever, like the after prom spots or the corporate gigs where they are about to be told about the reduction in their health care, college shows where the audience was very drunk, or charity buyouts where the audience was very sober. She would get promoted to the main company when Amy Poehler left for New York because Second City at that time was rather sexist and believed in having only two women and four men in a company.
In 1997 she interviewed with Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live for a position in the writer's room that was hoping to diversify. She includes some things she learned from Michaels such as "The show doesn't go on because it's ready; it goes on because it's 11:30". This means that you have to learn to let go of what you have written and hope for the best. "When hiring, mix Harvard Nerds with Chicago Improvisors and stir...Harvard Is Classical Military Theory, Improv Is Vietnam". "Don't hire anyone you wouldn't want to run into the hallway at three in the morning." "Never tell a person he's crazy." This is important because you can get good work out of these odd people. Find a way to deal with them.
When SNL needed a new Weekend Update anchor after she had been working there for about three years she was encouraged to audition. Michaels gave it to her in part because he knew he could count on her to write good copy on time. Later after she left the show she would return to do the Sarah Palin impressions. But the idea was not hers. The public was clamoring that she looked just like Palin and was wondering when she was going to lampoon Palin I guess not realizing that she no longer worked there. She didn't feel comfortable doing it at first and was ready to turn it down if Michaels ever got around to asking her. It took a while for him to decided to ask her. But when he did, she said yes especially when she saw the script that Seth Myers had written for her and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. Trouble came when the real Sarah Palin wanted to come on the show but they were able to handle that without allowing her getting booed or seeming to endorse her in any way.
This book also details her getting 30 Rock off the ground and some memorable moments with the show. It doesn't get too much into her personal life but it does have a chapter on her honeymoon with her husband Jeff on a cruise ship to Bermuda and the slight disaster they had with that. She also writes about going on the annual family Christmas trip to Pennsylvania to visit the in-laws over the years. This is a smart, funny, and well-written book by a woman I expected no less from. It was everything I expected and more. I really recommend this book.
Quotes
Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Bossypants-Tina-Fey-ebook/dp/B0047Y0FGY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1523881886&sr=1-1&keywords=bossypants+tina+fey&dpID=51fF6xG3QxL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srchI have a suspicion—and hear me out, ‘cause this is a rough one—I have a suspicion that the definition of “crazy” in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to fuck her anymore.-Tina Fey (Bossypants p 271)
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