Watching 30 Rock

Maybe not as edgy as the Vanity Fair shoot (it is Reader’s Digest after all) but still interesting:

Tina Fey: Funny Girl
Tina Fey talks about Laverne and Shirley, her favorite Stooge, and the fine line between mean and mellow.
By Jancee Dunn
From Reader’s Digest
April 2008

Getting a Good Laugh
As a shy, nerdy student in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, Tina Fey wrote a satirical column for The Acorn, her school newspaper, taking aim at the usual subjects — rigid teachers and even more rigid school policies. Her writing didn’t propel her to cool-kid status, but it did make people laugh. Fey was hooked.

Now 37, she’s still getting laughs as the creator, executive producer and Emmy-winning star of 30 Rock. The show is not so loosely based on Fey’s experiences as the first female head writer on Saturday Night Live and acerbic host of its “Weekend Update” segment. She made the jump to a bigger screen when, in 2004, she wrote, produced and appeared in Mean Girls, a pitch-perfect high school comedy.

While Fey can be pointed, she’s also thoughtful, self-effacing and almost absurdly well-adjusted. She’s close to her parents, likes to sew and bake cookies rather than hit the town, and lives quietly in New York City with her husband, composer and producer Jeff Richmond, and their two-year-old daughter, Alice.

This month, Fey returns to theaters in Baby Mama, a comedy about a single executive who hires a surrogate to have her baby. After a day of filming in Manhattan, she sat down with RD to talk about funniness, family and Febreze.

RD: Do you see your humor as a gift?
Fey: I always think of everything from a mother’s point of view now. Every kid has something they’re good at, that you hope they find and gravitate toward. This is my thing. I don’t think I was supposed to be a gymnast and accidentally landed on this.

RD: Do you still get that hit when you get a good laugh?
Fey: Absolutely. My favorite day at 30 Rock is Thursday, when the show airs. At lunch we screen the episodes. For everyone to watch together, to see the stuff we all worked on, to hear the crew laugh — it’s great fun.

RD: What pleases you more, applause or laughter?
Fey: Laughter. You can prompt applause with a sign. My friend, SNL writer Seth Meyers, coined the term clapter, which is when you do a political joke and people go, “Woo-hoo.” It means they sort of approve but didn’t really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] The Daily Show.

RD: Your humor has been described as biting. Are you a mean girl?
Fey: I’m not a mean person, but I have a capacity for it. I have the biting comment formed somewhere in the back of my head — like it’s in captivity. Sometimes people expect that I’m going to be tough. It’s not a bad situation. People treat you better. People are on time.

RD: What’s the difference between male and female comics?
Fey: Every comic way of writing is unique, but I think male comedy is more boisterous. Usually it involves robots and sharks and bears. Female comedy is more likely to be about the minutiae of human behavior and relationships.

RD: Your mom was one of your comedy inspirations. Did you play to her at the dinner table?
Fey: My whole family played to each other. My mom’s a dry wit. Philadelphians have a smart-alecky humor. A college roommate from the South said, “How come when I ask someone in your family a question, they give a smart-aleck answer before the real one?” I think it’s the difference between the North and the South.

RD: What did your dad bring to the proverbial table?
Fey: My dad has a good sense of silliness. He was the one to let me and my brother stay up to watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He introduced us to the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy and even the Three Stooges.

RD: What TV shows influenced you?
Fey: There was a great night of TV that was Mary Tyler Moore into Bob Newhart into Carol Burnett. There was SNL. I know I saw those early shows somehow, but they must have been repeats because I was only five in ‘75. Second City Television, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and The Love Boat. Laverne & Shirley might be the direct influence for Baby Mama.

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Here is the cover of Vanity Fair featuring our girl Tina Fey, along with Amy Poehler and Sarah Silverman. Be sure to take note of where Amy’s hand is. HOTT.

The cover was shot by the amazing and incredible Annie Leibovitz as part of a photo spread accompanying the article “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?” Not me, that’s for damn sure.

30 Rock, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz

So the Buzz Log over on Yahoo! agrees with me …. maybe the Saturday Night Live writers should go on strike occasionally, because they seemed to be on top of their game this past week. The show was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, in no small part because of host Tina Fey.

One of my favorite parts of Saturday Night Live has always been the parody commercials. Mom Jeans, Corn Chip Nail Tips, Cracklin’ Oat Flakes (with Ecstasy), Excedrin RT, Happy Fun Ball, Oops I Crapped My Pants, Woomba, all classics.

Here’s one of the funniest parts, a parody commercial for a drug called “Annuale.”

This episode of SNL also had some pretty good political humor, with the cold opening CNN debate, where all the debate moderators kiss Barak Obama’s ass and ignore Hillary Clinton. (Although I think they should keep looking for someone to portray Obama — Fred Armison did okay, but doesn’t quite have it yet.) And Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s appearance on Weekend Update was funny, and gave me some new respect for someone I thought was a little bit crazy.

The Digital Short was another winner too, with a old man whose wife put his grandsons into movies so he watches, so they won’t just be full of people he doesn’t know (and to translate slang.) “Hi Grandpa!”

So it may be time for you all to give the show another try. If you are up and you’ve already watched all your Netflix movies, flip on over to NBC at 10:35 on Saturday. Or if you like to go to bed early on Saturday nights, set your DVR and you can watch the show during Sunday brunch and fast forward through all the commercials. This week’s host is Ellen Page (star of Juno) which gives us hope that it will be another good show.

Bitch is the new black!

Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live, Ellen Page

So Tina Fey hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend> Either her presence or the end of the writer’s strike seems to have thrown a little life into the show (which hasn’t been the same since she left.) Below is my favorite moment from the show … not just because Tina was back behind the Weekend Update desk, but because she did a little politickin’ for Hillary Clinton.

Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Hillary Clinton

I think I mentioned last week that Amy and I were making a pilgrimage to Second City this past weekend and I am telling you now that I sure wasn’t lying. A year ago, my sweetie gave me tickets to see the improv group as a Valentine’s Day gift and we finally got around to using them this year … as part of a Valentine’s Day trip. Two, two, two gifts in one!

So we got up early this past Saturday (a pretty big deal for us, two people who really, really value their sleeping-in time on the weekends) hopped in the car and made the five hour drive to Chicago, with only one stop to pee, one stop for gas, and one stop to switch drivers. We checked into our hotel, grabbed some deep dish pizza for lunch, made a trip to the Art Institute, and then went back to the hotel for a quick nap, as we had tickets for the 11PM show, and I know I’m too damn old to get up at 7am and keep going until well, well after midnight without a nap.

After the nap and dinner we grabbed a cab and headed over to the Second City theatre at North and Wells and I have to say I was pretty excited as the cab turned the corner and I saw the marquee.

After we got in and the nice lesbian host sized us up and then seated us at a table right by the stage (even though we were at least a third of the way back in line). And then I started my usual fidgety behavior, because even when I show up to a show thirty minutes early, I decide that “hey, I’M HERE, so why can’t this get started now?”

So the show finally got started and was really enjoyable and funny. I won’t try to recreate any of it here, because I know I can’t do it justice and because you should really try to go see it yourself. But suffice it to say, I saw some really funny stuff regarding Barak Obama, You Tube and Evite, conception, playing the race card, blowing off your vagina with firecrackers, and a cursing llama (just to name a few.) And I was expecially thankful for the drunk people at the next people who repeated all the funny lines right just in case anyone missed them. THANKS DRUNK PEOPLE YOU SUCK.

Because we were there for the second show, we were lucky enough to be able to stay late and watch the players practice some new material they are currently writing, plus watch them play a quick few rounds of the improv game “Freeze.” All in all, a fabulous night of comedy. And who knows, someone we saw on that stage this month may be the next Tina Fey and next season be on Saturday Night Live or MADTv or some sitcom that will last two episodes and get canceled.

Second City Chicago, Tina Fey

I just came across this picture and decided to post it, for obvious reasons. Yowza. I think I need a glass of water. Or a glass of Tina Fey.

Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Yay! The Writer’s Strike is finally over and we all can get back to sitting on the couch watch our favorite shows as opposed to sitting on the couch watching crappy, hastily thrown together reality shows and weird stuff on cable. Hey, what was I supposed to do? Read? (Just kidding, in case any of my literature professors happen to be reading this.)

The New York Times is reporting that the first new show back on the air is likely to be Saturday Night Live which will return February 23rd, with our girl Tina Fey as host. Following on March 1st as host will be Juno star and Academy Award nominee, Ellen Page.

30 Rock will return on April 10th, with five additional episodes. Only five? I don’ want to be complainy, because I am happy to get anything at this point, but really, only five? Entertainment Weekly has some hints to spill about possible plots, apparently straight from an email from one Tina Fey: “Liz has a pregnancy scare” (Go Liz! Get some already!) and “Jack may be called to serve his country.”

There is some hope that more than five episodes may be shot, but Alec Baldwin is scheduled to begin work on a new movie at the beginning of March. The film is called My Sisters Keeper and costars Abigail Breslin and Cameron Freakin Diaz. Jeez, Alec Baldwin, isn’t NBC paying you enough? Why you doing a movie with Cameron “I Used to Do it With Justin Timberlake” Diaz? You know you’re going to have to put up with Drew Barrymore on the set every day and the fact that she and Cameron will constantly be raiding the craft services table with their daily attack of the munchies. Better hide some donuts in your trailer.

Sorry, got off track there. What I meant to say is that the strike is over, 30 Rock will be back on your TV soon, Tina Fey will be there even sooner, and Alec Baldwin is making a probably crappy movie. Back to business as usual!

30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Tina Fey, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin

Amy and I have tickets to see a show at Second City in Chicago this weekend, so with that in mind I am running with a slight Second City theme this week at Watching 30 Rock. We all know that our Tina Fey got her start at Second City, as did costar Scott Adsit and season one guest star Rachel Dratch. The Chicago Tribune recently ran an article “Before they were stars” with info about comedians who got their start in Chicago. The best part of the article … the photo gallery including pictures of the “stars before they were stars. Yeehaw!

Here’s one of Tina and Scott. I have an idea that the concept from this sketch won’t make it onto 30 Rock:

Here’s another one of our girl Tina. Very very early to mid 90s there, Miss Fey. The only thing separating this from what I wore every single day in college is holes in the knees of the jeans. She looks like she’s on her way to a Collective Soul concert.

Funny pictures aside, I am looking forward to the Second City show and the chance to see comic actors that might be on Saturday Night Live or some other hip, edgy sitcom in the years to come. And yeah, I admit that I had a little daydream that Fey or Amy Poehler or Rachel Dratch might make a surprise appearance. Unlikely, especially now that the writer’s strike is over(!!!) but hey, who knows, maybe they’ll be out celebrating. Just please don’t bring Horatio Sanz.

Second City, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit

I found a link to this picture on another cool 30 Rock themed site called Pregnant Cornbread. It’s a picture from Glamour magazine of Tina Fey’s desk, complete with notes about some items from Tina herself.

Of course she’s got the big old Mac computer, but if you look hard you can also see pictures of Tina with her daughter and from her SNL days. Of course, you know the office probably isn’t always this tidy (I know mine isn’t.) I wonder if there are people who come in and “dress” a room before it is photographed for a magazine …. sort of like I think people go into celebrity homes and organize the refrigerator before an episode of Cribs is shot.

What is it about Ellen DeGeneres that makes stars want to act silly? I mean, it doesn’t take much to get me to act silly, but I’m not on television and I don’t have a film/television/music career to promote and protect. (Not that being silly would ruin a career or anything, but you know what I mean.) But people go on Ellen’s show and act silly for her benefit without much hesitation. Maybe that is because Ellen herself is willing to be pretty silly herself.

What does this have to do with 30 Rock you might be asking? Well here is a video featuring Jack McBrayer, perhaps better known on this website as Kenneth the Page. These celebrities are lip syncing to Glorida Gayner’s “I Will Survive” as part of a birthday video for Ellen, who celebrated her 50th birthday recently.

How silly is that? Pretty silly, but also pretty awesome and pretty funny. Jack McBrayer is great, but my favorites are Queen Latifah and Jake Gyllenhaal. But I also think it’s great that Ellen inspires a lot of people — not just the “regular” people who watch her show, but also the celebrity guests she interviews.

Here’s Ellen being silly with our favorite, Tina Fey, as she teaches her how to be a guest host on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. How silly is this?

And here is one more moment of silliness on the Ellen show. It’s not 30 Rock related, but it’s still nice, because it is both silly and touching. After hearing of Heath Ledger’s death, she showed a clip of his last appearance on her show. Yes, it was silly. But also very heartfelt and touching.

Thank you, Ellen DeGeneres. You are a friend of 30 Rock!

30 Rock, Jack McBrayer, Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Heath Ledger

Can anyone tell me what this image has to do with 30 Rock? Anyone know? Anyone see some sort of connection? Anyone?

Look closer. Closer. Closer.
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The other day when I posted that video “Monkey Boners” from the ASSSSCAT Improv Special, it actually was the second video I located from the program. The first one I located is actually the one I linked below, and is actually my favorite of the two. In this one, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler play “sexy tennis.”

Sexy tennis! Sign me up for lessons. But only if these two are my instructors:

I’ve read here and there that Tina Fey is uncomfortable with love scenes (which leads me to believe we won’t be seeing her playing any romantic leads anytime soon) which I’m thinking is true, based on her body of work so far. But if we can get a hint of sexy Tina Fey while we are laughing our asses off, then that is good enough for me. Oh yeah!

So tonight, Amy is liveblogging the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards for our sister site, Trashy Celebs. And since our hero Tina Fey is presenting the first award (and showing off her bare right shoulder — pretty racy there, Tina Fey!) with Steve Carrell, I thought I’d pop over here and tell you about any of the 30 Rock angles to the event. Fey and Carrell are presenting Best Actor in a Drama Series, which must be a bit awkward because you know they will be making jokes and those serious, serious actors will just be all “shut up, so I can be pretentious!” Oh, James Gandolfini won! And he gave Tina Fey a peck on the cheek and totally did not order a hit on her. That’s a relief!

Other, more obvious 30 Rock connections to the SAG Awards:

Tina Fey, nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series (along with Christina Applegate, America Ferrera, Mary-Louise Parker, and Vanessa Williams.) Guess what? TINA FEY WON HELLS YES! She thanked the SAG for “considering her an actor at all” and then she thanked Alec Baldwin, comparing doing scenes with him to “Fred Astaire dancing with a hat rack.” Funny and humble, even after winning. And thanking SAG for supporting the Writers Guild, because she is selfless and giving.

(See that NBC, you bitches? She won. WON! And I have been hearing too many rumors suggesting that with the writers strike and all, 30 Rock might get cancelled. DO NOT DO THAT YOU WILL BREAK MY HEART.)
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Oh. My. God. People. This is freakin’ awesome. This is MADE of awesome. “Awe” and “Some” hooked up at the drive-in one night last spring and this video was born.

Like anyone likely to be reading this blog, I have been missing 30 Rock lately, longing for a new episode and dreading the possibility that there won’t be any new episodes for a long time, if ever, due to the writer’s strike. So I went a cruised around YouTube, doing searches on Tina Fey, and came across the above video, which is from the ASSSSCAT Improv TV special which originally aired on Bravo. And while it sure isn’t the same as a brand spakin’ new episode of the best show on television, it certainly made me laugh pretty hard and filled a little bit of the gaping hole in my comedy world. Watch it now! Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and monkey boners! What else could you ask for? (Well, maybe Alec Baldwin also saying “monkey boners.”) In fact, this video kinda makes me want to make a list of actors and actresses that I would like to hear say “monkey boners.” This list would include Helen Mirren (as Queen Elizabeth and as herself), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Angela Lansbury, Bea Arthur, John Malkovich, Kate Winslet, and Sir Ian McKellen. That would also be made of awesome. Tell me I am wrong!

Still, I would much rather be hearing Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin saying “monkey boners” on a new episode of 30 Rock. But while I am wishing for things that won’t happen this week I’ll also wish for a magically clean house, a winning powerball ticket, and gas for 25 cents per gallon.

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Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, ASSSSCAT Improv

Well Keith over at Pop Culture Buzz found what I wasn’t able to find a few weeks ago when I first posted about Tina Fey’s upcoming movie, Baby Mama … the movie trailer! (Thanks, Keith!) And unless all the funny jokes are in the trailer (which, we all know, is certainly possible) then I do have hope that the movie itself is going to be pretty funny.

Trailer not enough Baby Mama for you? Then check out the official movie website! Baby Mama Movie! The movie will be released on April 25th — is there a way to buy tickets NOW?

Tina Fey, 30 Rock, Baby Mama