Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Do you want to get to know the woman we first came to love on Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade? Do you want to spend some time with the lady who made you howl with laughter on Saturday Night Live, and in movies like Baby Mama, Blades of Glory, and They Came Together? Do you find yourself daydreaming about hanging out with the actor behind the brilliant Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? Did you wish you were in the audience at the last two Golden Globes ceremonies, so you could bask in the hilarity of Amy’s one-liners?
If your answer to these questions is “Yes Please!” then you are in luck. In her first book, one of our most beloved funny folk delivers a smart, pointed, and ultimately inspirational read. Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. With chapters like “Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend,” “Plain Girl Versus the Demon” and “The Robots Will Kill Us All” Yes Please will make you think as much as it will make you laugh. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.
I read this book at the recommendation of my therapist, although it’s been on my list for awhile.
Why would a therapist recommend a comedic memoir, you may be asking?
The answer….I’m not really sure š
Somehow it came up when I told her my recent improv class was really giving me some hard ass realizations about my anxiety and my inability to be mindful, present and “in the moment”. (which BTW in case you do not know, is VITAL AF when you’re doing improv….and why I struggle with it IMMENSELY… and one of the many reasons this class has been SO DAMN GOOD FOR ME)
She asked me if I read this book, I said no, she said it was good….and here I am š
Still not sure why she told me to read it…maybe I’m missing some hidden meaning… or maybe she just wanted me to lighten the eff up a bit and get outta my head and have some laughs.
I’ll be sure to ask at my next session LOL
Whatever the reason for the recommendation, I am happy I read it as it was a very enjoyable book.
I think I will always prefer to listen to audio versions of memoirs/autobiographies than read in print.
It is just super cool to listen to the author tell THEIR story, in THEIR voice…laughing at certain memories, getting choked up over others.
Amy is not the only voice you will hear in this audiobook though.
She brings in multiple narrators and it is GREAT.
Listening to Patrick Stewart read her haikus on plastic surgery, Kathleen Turner’s voice as Amy’s inner body bully demon, and her Boston parents giving life advice was TOO MUCH FUN and added SO much to the stories she shared.
She shares a lot in this book about her middle class childhood, her adventures into improv, becoming a parent, going thru a divorce, and of course her multiple roles in “the biz”.
I LOVED hearing her stories about her years on SNL..it sounds like it is just as hard and just as fun of a job as I have always thought it was.
She has plenty of humor in these pages but she does share a few more serious things as well.
I really appreciated her honesty and openness, even when it was about things she has done that were quite shitty.
Like her chapter on her worst moment so far in her career…where she did a bit on SNL that involved horrible jokes about disabled people.
She really dug into the concept of awareness, forgiveness and apologies…and how sometimes we get it ALL WRONG…but it is never too late to DO BETTER.
She doesn’t try to excuse herself…she calls herself out and collects herself…and really shows how there is room for all of us to do the same.
On a less serious but still very real note, her chapter about being a bad sleeper TOTES resonated with me as I SUCK at sleeping and am pretty sure I have a sleep disorder that I just continue to deal with and ignore regularly. (super healthy behavior BTW š) Glad to know I’m not alone in that LOL
This book was a good time, I must say.
She’s funny, real, and has some pretty legit wisdom on lots of various things like sex, friendship, being a mom and acting.
It made me want to share a coffee…or better yet a STAGE…with her one day.
Bravo…well done with this one. š