Yes Please

by Amy Poehler

Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062268341
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/28/2014
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	555,386
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 who is known for her years on Saturday Night Live, her starring role as Leslie Knope on the beloved series Parks and Recreation, as the voice of Joy in Pixar's Inside Out, and for being third runner-up for Most Casual in her high-school yearbook. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles with her two boys. She hopes this book will get her invited for lunch on a fancy yacht with her hero Judge Judy. She is dressed and ready.

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

Pure charm

People

Required reading for all young women.

Huffington Post

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

|Los Angeles Times

[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

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 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

Yes Please is a great story…because it is self-damning and hopeful at the same time.” — Los Angeles Times

“Pure charm” — People

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

“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

“Demonstrates the skill of this excellent comic actress, a funny woman who roots hilarity in specifics.” — Washington Post

“Required reading for all young women.” — Huffington Post

“[Yes Please] is honest words of wisdom within a joyous story structure.” — Philadelphia Inquirer

“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

“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 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

From the Publisher

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

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

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