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
It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.
I've failed a million times on stage. I've listened to notes that I knew weren't right. I've pitched ideas and let other people change them, knowing that it was the wrong choice. The question you have to ask yourself is: How do you want to fail? Do you want to fail in a way that feels like it respects your tastes and value system?
I'd say any good set or any comedy that I've worked on, that's worked, has been comedians pitching ideas back and forth to each other. A lot of like, 'What if you say this? What about this?'
I had already made a decision early on that I would be a plain girl with tons of personality, and accepting it made everything a lot easier. If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be. I decided early on it was not going to be my looks. I have spent a lifetime coming to terms with this idea and I would say I am about 15 to 20 percent there.Decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have. People who do this are happier and sexier.
I had no idea how to get guys to notice me. I still don't. Who cares?
As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.
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.'