My 13-year-old
daughter has been doing her own “talent review” of successful funny people since
she started taking drama classes last fall. Intrigued by Tina Fey’s wry wit, she
was proud to know that we can claim Tina as a Philly homegirl since she hails
from Upper Darby.
My own review of
my daughter’s current comedic role model revealed much about what shaped Tina’s
comedic blend and how Lady Fey snuck to the top of the heap.
Elizabeth Stamatina Fey was born May 18, 1970 in Upper Darby to Jeanne and Donald Fey. Tina’s
interest in comedy developed during middle school, and by the time the self-proclaimed
“geeky” honors student reached Upper Darby High School, she was anonymously
authoring the school newspaper’s humor column.
Her experiences
at Upper Darby High helped Fey pen the screenplay for the comedy film Mean Girls in which she co-starred in 2004. Surprisingly, teenaged Tina wasn’t the picked-upon,
but rather the mean girl. Few has admitted, “I ate weaker girls for breakfast.
I really was a snarky girl.”
As a drama student at the University of Virginia,
Tina was often on the outskirts looking in since she disapproved of heavy drinking,
drug-taking and sexual promiscuity. Tina has said, “I want to be on record
saying this, so my daughter can see it one day in the future. I have never done
any drugs! I am extremely square and obedient in nature!”
Tina’s college years also featured a
less-than-satisfying romantic life, “What 19-year-old Virginia boy doesn’t want
a wide-hipped, sarcastic Greek girl with short hair that’s permed on top?” Fey,
who discovered that there’s not much of a market for that recalls, “I spent
four years attempting to charm the uninterested.”
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Tina anchoring SNL's "Weekend Update" with Jimmy Fallon |
After
graduating from college in 1992, Fey started training in improv at famed Second City in Chicago. Tina credits Second City with teaching her
that her focus should be entirely on her partner when acting: “Suddenly it all
made sense.” In 1997, her talents attracted the attention of Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, and she was hired as a
writer. By 2000, she began performing in sketches on the show and began
co-anchoring SNL’s “Weekend Update” segment. Fey would spend
nine seasons at Saturday Night Live,
most of those as the show’s first female head writer.
In 2006, Fey
landed her own comedy show on NBC, 30 Rock, in which she imitated life as the head writer of a fictional
live sketch comedy series, dealing with the show’s crazy stars and her arrogant
boss. Some feminists argued that
Fey’s Liz Lemon character showcased single-woman stereotypes more than her
professional abilities. But Tina went for funny, executed well, and though the
program never achieved spectacular ratings success during its seven seasons,
the show and Fey both walked off with a number of Emmys. (Fey thanked their "dozens and dozens of viewers" in one acceptance speech. Tina earned another
pop culture badge of honor with the introduction of Ben & Jerry’s Liz Lemon Greek frozen yogurt flavor.
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Tina Fey as Liz Lemon on 30 Rock |
Fey gained
national attention in 2008 when she guest-starred in a series of SNL sketches hilariously channeling vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. “Doing Sarah Palin was one
of the strangest things that’s ever happened to me. You can grow up thinking,
‘I want to be on Saturday Night Live
one day’ or ‘I want to be in a movie some day,’ but you never think, ‘I hope
there’s a politician who looks just like me.’ To have that fall in my lap was
just crazy.”
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Tina Fey impersonates Sarah Palin, while Amy Poehler appears as Hillary Clinton on SNL |
Rather than reveling in the image of a “woman
who has it all,” Tina has chosen to more honestly express the angst of working
moms. Returning to Saturday Night Live
only six weeks after giving birth to Alice in 2005, she quipped, “NBC has me
under contract. The baby and I only have a verbal agreement.” But yet Fey
remained true enough to herself to not let being the head of a top TV show
prevent her from expanding her family in 2011. When announcing her pregnancy
with Penelope, she said, “My husband and I really decided that we felt rather
than risk having 30 Rock end in several years and feeling like part of
our family is missing that we were going to prioritize our family."
With a flair for
one-liners, and leaving a trail of self-deprecating zingers in her wake, Fey
has managed to climb her way in heels to the top of the male-dominated world of
comedy. Proving that smart girls
can win big, Tina regularly appears on magazine covers, was named to Time’s “100 Most
Influential People” list in 2007 and 2009, and was the youngest recipient of the
prestigious Mark Twain prize for American Humor in 2010. At present, she sits
at #79 on the Forbes’ “World’s 100 Most Powerful Celebrities” list.
All in all, sounds
like a role model for my teen that I can live with. Enjoy more of the wit and wisdom of Tina Fey in her memoir "Bossypants."
Which of your life experiences would make a funny comedy sketch? Have you started your memoir yet? Personal Chronicles can help.
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