Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler is an American actress, comedian, director, producer and writer. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, she went to New York City in 1996 to become part of the improvisational comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. The group's act became a half-hour sketch comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler was a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth16 September 1971
CountryUnited States of America
When I began doing theatre in high school I saw that I could get laughs from people but I didn't really connect that to going on and becoming a comedian. I was interested in acting and while I was at Boston College I was part of an improv group, Mother's Fleabag, which had a long history and has been known as one of the best college improvisation groups in the U.S.
[At Boston College] I started working on the kinds of skills that you need for comedy. It's about being creative and learning to use your gift for being able to let loose and be very unself-conscious. It took me time though before I was really able to get comfortable doing that.
Masters of Sex is the degree I got from Boston College.
I think the idea of ensemble should really be re-enforced and that's staying with the same group of people. In college troupes the turnover can be so fast and so furious that you don't ever really get to develop as a group, like who has different roles in the group and how is it working with all these people. I think people need to be encouraged to stick together.
There's a couple of enemies to improv, and one of them is editing; when you edit on TV it makes it seem like it's not really improv.
Everything looked like you could run around in it you could catch a bus!
I used to get my hair dyed at a place called Big Hair. It cost $15. They just used straight bleach, so my hair was the color of white lined paper, and my eyebrows looked like they were done with a thick black marker.
It is completely improvised. We have had no meetings backstage, we have not written anything, and everything you see onstage tonight is being made up on the spot,
We want to extend our adolescence as long as we can. I.O., Upright Citizens Brigade and 'SNL' have enabled me to do that.
We want to extend our adolescence as long as we can,
You tell somebody you're an improviser and they think you're doing Random Acts of Comedy and it's just like, a bastardization of what I think is the purest form of art. People still don't get it, they still don't understand that...well, number one, it's hard to prove to people that you're improvising when you're on TV. They don't believe it.
That is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again. 'Good for her! Not for me.'
If you can speak about what you care about to a person you disagree with without denigrating them or insulting them, then you may actually be heard.
I think if you can dance and be free and not embarrassed, you can rule the world.