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A review by jonscott9
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
3.0
I largely audio-ed this book, though I flipped through my spouse's paperback as Amy Poehler read its final chapter before a live audience in Los Angeles, at her Upright Citizens Brigade comedy group's outpost in Los Angeles. Let me just say at the outset, the audio version is the way to go, with appearances by Poehler's parents, Patrick Stewart, and Kathleen Turner. Stewart, for his part, expertly recites Poehler's multi-verse "Plastic Surgery Haiku."
From her comedic infancy to the look-at-her-now Golden Globes cohosting with her pal Tina Fey, who she idolizes, Poehler has run the gamut of experiences, laughs and funz. Her lookback at the SNL daze provides some amusing, if resolvedly safe, insights into various hosts and trappings of the show over her years. Better yet, candidly, is her appraisal of NBC's Parks and Recreation, Mike Schur's gem of a show set in my Hoosier homeland. Poehler is ultra-affectionate about this time – as she's writing this book, they're heading into their final season – and about her costars and the crew and writers.
Schur and Seth Meyers make out well in this tome (tho not with each other). Another who does, in a semblance of how some perspectives don't age well, is Louis C.K. Poehler fawns over his comedy and their friendship; he's a bang-up guy, in the quick-strike thoughts she and Schur deliver in the chapter that the Parks and Rec creator annotates/ad libs in this audiobook. Ah well.
As a not-parent, those sections about conceiving-birthing-raising her young sons (this was the early 2010s, when I first put this on my to-read list!) didn't directly resonate with me tho I appreciated them for the writer's (and liver's) perspective. Those passages helped me understand what my colleagues and friends who are parents (dads, but esp. moms) are living day to day, year to year.
Overall, a hearty jam of a comedian telling it straight and funny by turns. Poehler does well to differentiate from Fey's Bossypants hit and other books by famous funnywomen, in part by speaking to how life and career, and the balance thereof, are tough for women. Tougher than they are for many a man. She wheezes a few times at the arduous task of developing and putting out a book – would that we all had such hardships – tho aside from her middle-class but uneventful upbringing as a Boston-area kid, she does a good job of noting her relative lack of struggles.
Hard work can do so much. Poehler's work ethic, and the poignant POV she obtains by way of an invite (accepted) to help kids in Haiti, are standout moments here. From Baby Mama to Parks to all that comes next, I'll always be watching.
From her comedic infancy to the look-at-her-now Golden Globes cohosting with her pal Tina Fey, who she idolizes, Poehler has run the gamut of experiences, laughs and funz. Her lookback at the SNL daze provides some amusing, if resolvedly safe, insights into various hosts and trappings of the show over her years. Better yet, candidly, is her appraisal of NBC's Parks and Recreation, Mike Schur's gem of a show set in my Hoosier homeland. Poehler is ultra-affectionate about this time – as she's writing this book, they're heading into their final season – and about her costars and the crew and writers.
Schur and Seth Meyers make out well in this tome (tho not with each other). Another who does, in a semblance of how some perspectives don't age well, is Louis C.K. Poehler fawns over his comedy and their friendship; he's a bang-up guy, in the quick-strike thoughts she and Schur deliver in the chapter that the Parks and Rec creator annotates/ad libs in this audiobook. Ah well.
As a not-parent, those sections about conceiving-birthing-raising her young sons (this was the early 2010s, when I first put this on my to-read list!) didn't directly resonate with me tho I appreciated them for the writer's (and liver's) perspective. Those passages helped me understand what my colleagues and friends who are parents (dads, but esp. moms) are living day to day, year to year.
Overall, a hearty jam of a comedian telling it straight and funny by turns. Poehler does well to differentiate from Fey's Bossypants hit and other books by famous funnywomen, in part by speaking to how life and career, and the balance thereof, are tough for women. Tougher than they are for many a man. She wheezes a few times at the arduous task of developing and putting out a book – would that we all had such hardships – tho aside from her middle-class but uneventful upbringing as a Boston-area kid, she does a good job of noting her relative lack of struggles.
Hard work can do so much. Poehler's work ethic, and the poignant POV she obtains by way of an invite (accepted) to help kids in Haiti, are standout moments here. From Baby Mama to Parks to all that comes next, I'll always be watching.