My disappointing experience with Taylor Tomlinson’s new memoir put me in the mood to revisit a memoir I loved. When it was a brand new release, I purchased a copy of Tina Fey’s Bossypants from an airport bookstore at Louis Armstrong in New Orleans, and by the time my plane touched down in Newark I had finished it. That was 2011, when 30 Rock nearing the end of its run and Fey’s legendary appearances as Sarah Palin on SNL were fresh in the public memory. I was a Tina Fey superfan and still am.
At the time, people raved about the audiobook edition of Bossypants, but it would be years before I gave them a try. Perhaps it comes down to the fact that I was already familiar with the material, but I genuinely found the opening chapters a little dull. Family and background stuff doesn’t typically appeal to me too much, and you can tell Fey is fairly guarded about certain aspects of her life. Things perk up a little at the start of her comedy career at Second City in Chicago and then take off with her recollections about SNL, including bits that have since become notorious, like the observation about her male colleagues on the writing staff peeing in jars in their offices rather than go to the restroom, or the anecdote about Amy Poehler laying down the law on Jimmy Fallon, snapping at him that she didn’t care if he found what she was doing “cute.”
The Palin stuff might be the best part of the book, because Fey is candid about what a bewildering whirlwind that all was. For those who don’t recall, Palin’s resemblance to Fey was observed by many immediately and there were widespread calls for Fey to impersonate the governor on SNL. The problem Fey had with it was that it felt like people hadn’t noticed that she was no longer on SNL, and in fact had her own show on the air. In fact, Fey had to balance her first appearance as Palin with her taping of Oprah Winfrey’s guest appearance on 30 Rock.
Fey is wryly funny throughout her narration, occasionally squeezing in extra jokes under breath or playing with the format by including the audio of a famous sketch. It’s easy to see why this is such a beloved audiobook.
