Yes Please

by Amy Poehler

Overview

In a perfect world . . .

We'd get to hang out with Amy Poehler, watching dumb movies, listening to music, and swapping tales about our coworkers and difficult childhoods. Because in a perfect world, we'd all be friends with Amy—someone who seems so fun, is full of interesting stories, tells great jokes, and offers plenty of advice and wisdom (the useful kind, not the annoying kind you didn't ask for, anyway). Unfortunately, between her Golden Globe-winning role on Parks and Recreation, work as a producer and director, place as one of the most beloved SNL alumni and cofounder of the Upright Citizens' Brigade, involvement with the website Smart Girls at the Party, frequent turns as acting double for Meryl Streep, and her other gig as the mom of two young sons, she's not available for movie night.

Luckily we have the next best thing: Yes Please, Amy's hilarious and candid book. A collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers, Yes Please offers Amy's thoughts on everything from her "too safe" childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and "the biz," the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has a "face for wigs." Yes Please is chock-full of words and wisdom to live by.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062268341
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/28/2014
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	310,057
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Amy Poehler is a writer, actress, producer, and director. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles with her two boys. She hopes this book will get her invited onto her hero Judge Judy's yacht, Triumphant Lady.

Table of Contents

Writing is Hard: A Preface ix

Instructions for How to Use This Book xvii

Part 1 Say Whatever You Want

How I Fell in Love with Improv: Boston 3

Plain Girl vs. the Demon 15

Laughing to Crying to Laughing 29

The Day I Was Born 57

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry 65

My Books on Divorce 87

Talk to Yourself Like You're Ninety 97

Part 2 Do

How I Fell in Love with Improv: Chicago 107

The Russians Are Coming 121

Humping Justin Timberlake 135

Every Mother Needs a Wife 149

My World-Famous Sex Advice 153

Gimme That Pudding 157

Bad Sleeper 171

Part 3 Be Whoever You Are

How I Fell in Love with Improv: New York 185

Parents Just Do Understand 201

Don't Forget to Tip Your Waitresses 207

Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend 217

Partner in Crime 229

I'm So Proud of You 233

Let's Build a Park 245

Things They Don't Tell You About the Biz 271

Time Travel 279

Obligatory Drug Stories, or Lessons I Learned on Mushrooms 287

My Boys 299

The Robots Will Kill Us All: A Conclusion 313

Acknowledgments 331

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/03/2014
Poehler, the sharp and self-deprecating Emmy-winning star of TV's Parks and Recreation, takes a stab here at autobiography mixed with advice on sex, babies, and even divorce. She mines her 20s, back in the 1990s, when she cut her teeth in theater at ImprovOlympic in Chicago, and with the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. Poehler struggled for many years in part-time gigs—including doing bits on Late Night with Conan O'Brien—and her humility and good work ethic shine through: for example, in the chapter "Don't Forget to Tip Your Waitress" (which was excerpted last year in the New Yorker), she recounts rather poignantly her various early jobs, such as working as a junior secretary in a podiatrist's office at age 16 and doing waitressing stints in Chicago and New York. Poehler gives ample credit to current and former colleagues, such as Matt Besser of UCB, Seth Meyers at SNL, and the cast of Parks and Recreation; elsewhere she offers some wonderful advice on apologies—both receiving and giving. Her memoir is as bewitching and chameleonlike as Poehler herself is when she appears onstage and on-screen. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Yes Please delivers what it should: life lessons and vicarious thrills…the book is largely a portrait of confidence. Reading it, some of it rubs off on us.

New Yorker

2014-10-06
The star of Parks and Recreation shares stories from her adolescence, her star-making tenure at Saturday Night Live and her abiding love of improvisation.In her debut book, comedian Poehler credits her approach to work to Carol Burnett, who was "funny and versatile and up for anything" and "a benevolent captain" on her eponymous variety show. The author's successful career proves that collaboration, good manners and gratitude are assets in both business and life. She has written a happy, angst-free memoir with stories told without regret or shame; rather, Poehler provides a series of lessons learned about achieving success through ambition and a resolute spirit. She affectionately recounts her perfect-seeming childhood and adolescence, including making lifelong friends, waiting tables, and living and working in the rough, pre-gentrified Greenwich Village. Poehler is especially grateful to her proud, comical parents and shares their wisdom with readers: "Make sure he's grateful to be with you," "Ask for what you want" and "Always overtip." With benevolent humor, she shares "Obligatory Drug Stories, or Lessons I Learned on Mushrooms" ("I've tried most drugs but avoided the BIG BAD ONES") and explores why ambivalence is an important component of success in a chapter titled "Treat Your Career Like a Bad Boyfriend." Along with Meredith Walker and Amy Miles, Poehler has created a Web series, "Smart Girls at the Party," to empower and celebrate women and girls who "chang[e] the world by being themselves." The author conveys the ethos of this project in pithy statements and reassurances sprinkled throughout the book in large type—e.g., "If It's Not Funny, You Don't Have To Laugh" and "Everybody Is Scared Most Of The Time." This is not a treacly self-help book or spiritual guide but rather motivation from a hilarious and kindhearted champion. A wise and winning—and polite—memoir and manifesto.

Kirkus Reviews

Pure charm

People

Yes Please isn’t a scan of the comedic brain so much as it is something far better—the full exposure of Poehler’s funny and very magnanimous heart.

Elle

Yes Please is a great story…because it is self-damning and hopeful at the same time.

|Los Angeles Times

Required reading for all young women.

Huffington Post

Yes Please veers between reminiscing and philosophizing. Poehler had developed some principles over the years and shares them in usually funny fashion.

Chicago Sun-Times

Demonstrates the skill of this excellent comic actress, a funny woman who roots hilarity in specifics.

Washington Post

[Yes Please] is honest words of wisdom within a joyous story structure.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Delightful...Poehler is frank and funny throughout [Yes Please], as is her nature, but her writing unearths a wise narrator who’s seen some of the worst of life and come out the other side unscathed…Can we get more from Amy Poehler? Yes, seriously, please.

Newsweek

Poehler is very funny, so the jokes are very good…Poehler is very wise, so her advice is on point.

Slate

Yes Please delivers what it should: life lessons and vicarious thrills…the book is largely a portrait of confidence. Reading it, some of it rubs off on us.

New Yorker

Yes Please delivers what it should: life lessons and vicarious thrills…the book is largely a portrait of confidence. Reading it, some of it rubs off on us.” %COMM_CONTRIB%New Yorker

Demonstrates the skill of this excellent comic actress, a funny woman who roots hilarity in specifics.

Washington Post

Yes Please is a great story…because it is self-damning and hopeful at the same time.

Los Angeles Times

Delightful...Poehler is frank and funny throughout [Yes Please], as is her nature, but her writing unearths a wise narrator who’s seen some of the worst of life and come out the other side unscathed…Can we get more from Amy Poehler? Yes, seriously, please.

Newsweek

Yes Please veers between reminiscing and philosophizing. Poehler had developed some principles over the years and shares them in usually funny fashion.

Chicago Sun-Times

Poehler is very funny, so the jokes are very good…Poehler is very wise, so her advice is on point.

Slate