This is the third memoir I’ve read by a female Saturday Night Live castmember from the 2000s, after Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Amy Poehler’s Yes, Please. Sadly, this is clearly the bronze medalist of the group. (Fey’s book is far and away the best of the three.)
Dratch was on SNL for quite a long time, though she is probably best remembered for her Debbie Downer sketches, wherein the character’s propensity for negativity could bring down the mood in any situation. Though, perhaps ironically, Dratch’s delivery was often so hilarious that the sketches left her fellow castmates and the guest host struggling not to break. Outside SNL, Dratch has been a consistent presence on TV and recently received a Tony nomination, but at the time of the publication of this book, the thing she was best known for outside SNL was the career setback of being written off of her friend Tina Fey’s sitcom 30 Rock. Dratch was cast in the role of Jenna, but the character was reconceived and Jane Krakowski replaced Dratch in the role. She describes the awkward situation with tactfulness and grace, and seems more hurt by the fact that the story has become so public that even strangers will ask her about it.
Much of the rest of Girl Walks into a Bar… details Dratch’s misbegotten dating life, culminating in her surprise pregnancy in her mid-forties. While Dratch describes dating foibles and her struggles to prepare for motherhood with occasional comic verve, her experiences are rather commonplace and she doesn’t have any particularly fascinating insight to offer.
Even for the SNL superfan, Girl Walks into a Bar… offers fairly meager entertainment value.
