Sunday, July 31, 2011

The World According to Tina Fey

I know. You thought it'd be at least 6 months before I finished another book. But I really did finish one book yesterday and another one today. (This will likely never happen again.) During my hiatus from Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!), I read 80% of Tina Fey's Bossypants That's what happens sometimes during my long weekends at home in Ohio.

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My friend bought Bossypants for me--Thank you, Heidi--at a book-signing event I was too slow to get into before it sold out in 3.7 seconds. Coincidentally, days before, I was blurting giggles while browsing through this book to pass time in the airport's Borders Express. (What am I going to do now? R.I.P., Borders.) Having been a loyal fan of Tina's since her days at Saturday Night Live, I didn't need convincing that this book would be good. Just as Stephen Colbert's voice yelled out of his book, Tina Fey's reads clear (and calmer) out of hers.

Bossypants chronicles Tina Fey's life in essay format with her humor sprinkled on each page. It offers an interesting peek into her professional life as a writer/performer, from learning improvisation at Chicago's Second City and becoming Saturday Night Live's first female head writer to creating 30 Rock, her brilliant show about producing a late-night comedy show.

Tina Fey and I even share a favorite 30 Rock moment--when Tracy, the fictional comedy show's slightly mental star played by Tracy Morgan, stands outside reprimanding a pigeon for eating out of the garbage: "Stop eating people's old french fries, little pigeon. Have some self-respect. Don't you know you can fly?"

She didn't write that. (30 Rock writing team member Kay Cannon did.) But Tina does write plenty words of wisdom in Bossypants:

  • After being dumped: "Of course I know now that no one can "steal" boyfriends against their will, not even Angelina Jolie itself." 
  • After her honeymoon cruise was cut short by an engine room fire: "If you've never been on a chartered flight full of people who are afraid to fly who have also been traumatized in the past 12 hours, I recommend it more than a cruise." 
  • On Photoshop: "If you're going to expend energy being mad about Photoshop, you'll have to be mad at earrings. No one's ears are that sparkly!....At least with Photoshop, you don't really need to alter your body....Isn't it better to have a computer do it to your picture than to have a doctor do it to your face?" 

Who better can teach you these things?

Enjoy,

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