Tina Fey Reads From Her Bossypants

Bossypants: Self-Scribed Ode of a Grecian Daughter

So far I've found two podcasted interviews from Tina Fey's promotion of her meteoric memoir, Bossypants. One is gal-pally and sort of skimmy; the other is more focused on the comedy industry. Both are worth listening to if you're a die-hard fan, but if you're short on time, I recommend the first half of the NPR: Fresh Air Tina Fey interview with Terry Gross, followed by the whole spanikopita of Fey's appearance on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show (permanent iTunes link here).

"She Need Not Lie With Drummer"
One of the best bits of the 45-minute "NPR: Fresh Air" interview (perishable iTunes link here) comes right at the beginning, when Fey reads the entire text of "The Mother's Prayer for Its Daughter" [<-this links to transcript]. The mock-serious poem is just what you'd expect from Fey: a gnarly and zeitgeisty momjacking of William Butler Yeats' "A Prayer for My Daughter" which should do more for young female empowerment than a tweendom of earnest lectures or a drawerful of abstinence panties (said messagewear is probably less effective than "mom jeans" and not a joke; discovery credit to Ms.Magazine blog]. Shortly after the poem Gross also plays the audio from the "30 Rock" episode in which Liz Lemon debates career vs. hot young motherhood with a "sexy-baby" mentee. The rest of the interview is a panoramic cruise through Fey's experiences in comedy writing and performing.

Super Fey
For a more zoomed-in account of Fey's career, listen to her 4/14/2011 appearance on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show here (iTunes link). Lopate gets a lot of good stories out of Fey about the behind-the-scenes world of "Saturday Night Live," sexism in the comedy industry, and the confluence of Lorne Michaels' doorman and Robert De Niro in the Sarah Palin casting (at Minute 20 Lopate plays the audio for the Palin character's sanctity of teenage/gay marriage joke). Fey and Lopate talk a lot about "30 Rock" at the end, and Lopate plays the audio of Liz Lemon's projectile-sharing toward Oprah on an airplane. Lopate wraps it up with Bossypants, and asks Fey how she adapted her  comedy writing voice to memoir. Fey says, "you have to be as honest as you can and to remember to still have jokes." Excellent choice.