Bossypants

Tina Fey's Bossypants is really a series of sketches. Sketches about how she grew up - bit and pieces. Chapters about her parents - bit and pieces. And how Second City, SNL and 30 Rock work - bit and pieces. She gives us a good tale, punches it up with some laughs and moves on the the next topic - which makes this book a very fast read. And an enjoyable one. It really is. She really has a nack for showing her reader that she is just like us - and just lucky.

I think my favorite part of the book - besides the essay on child rearing (The Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter) which can be found wandering online - is where she tells us how hard it was to break the comedy barriers that were still around by the time she got to Second City. She was part of one of the first casts to have an equal number of men and women on it. Before her cast apparently, they had only needed two women to be funny. As someone who knows several funny women, and has worked and performed with some more, I find that insulting to our gender.

I thought she was very polite about gender politics at SNL. It is obvious she still works with them and is on the NBC Network. But you can tell she is thrilled that sketches with just female members of the cast get on the air. And her chapters about "becoming Sarah Palin" are interesting. She comments how she was never good at doing impressions - mostly because she never 'looked' like anyone famous, and then this happens. She just got lucky.

Lucky my eye! The woman has talent! A very fun read, but I wished it was longer!