“It’s really difficult to write a memoir because I don’t want people to know my shit!”
That isn’t really something one would expect a public figure like Amy Poehler to say. In a world that likes to assume that celebrities live their lives fully on display, the exclamation made me realize something: This woman is real.
On Wednesday night, the woman sitting on stage at the Back Bay Events Center wasn’t a glamorous Golden Globe Awards host, a lovable portrayer of Leslie Knope on television show “Parks and Recreation” or even a hilarious “Saturday Night Live” actress. She was just Amy Poehler, a Burlington native who just wrote a memoir titled “Yes Please,” released Friday.
Joining Poehler on stage was her high school English teacher, Kathy Dalton. Dalton led the discussion as the two chatted about a wide variety of subjects, from Poehler’s book to coworkers to careers and of course, humor.
“This is payback for every time you made us do book reports,” Poehler said teasingly.
One of the things that stood out about Poehler was her complete honesty about the writing process.
“Writers are coy,” she said. “They like to pretend it’s very civilized and sophisticated to write.”
Poehler argued against this idea, calling the process “very blue collar.”
“If I waited to be tranquil, I would never write anything,” she said.
And yet, despite the obviously demanding nature of the process, writing has played a central role in Poehler’s life thus far. She rose to fame through many well-known writing gigs: in Boston College improv group My Mother’s Fleabag, in Chicago improv and sketch comedy group The Second City, on “Saturday Night Live” and currently, on “Parks and Recreation.”
Throughout her entire writing career, Dalton pointed out, one thing has remained constant: Poehler is often one of the few women in a male-dominated workplace.
“That’s the headline: There have been a lot of guys,” Poehler joked.
With this in mind, she took the time to share some advice with the audience: “Real men like real women.” She expressed her admiration of strong and dominant females and encouraged women not to settle or stand down, whether in their personal relationships or at work.
Poehler also shared some pearls of wisdom with the audience in regard to creativity and careers. She encouraged the audience to become more ambivalent about their careers and to treat a career “like a bad boyfriend.” And though there’s always a lot of hard work behind any success story, Poehler said she believes that there is a lot more that creativity can do for a person than focusing too hard on one’s career can do.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Americans to really go for it,” she said. “It’s like, ‘What time of the day is it? Too late.’”
While Poehler is an exceptional comedian — especially when she’s dropping Burlington-related “Parks and Rec” references like, “Lexington is the Eagleton to our Pawnee!” — one of the most compelling moments of the forum was when she spoke seriously about the role humor has played in her life.
“Humor can be used for all kinds of things,” she said. “Women can use humor as something to hide behind. We, as women, are conditioned to laugh more than be funny.”
This, again, played a part in her goal to empower women: “We should laugh a little less, and tell more jokes.”
So what’s next for Amy Poehler? As “Parks and Rec” fans already know, the show’s upcoming season will be its last. Poehler expressed her appreciation to the writers — and writer-creator Michael Schur in particular — and her gratefulness for having “the privilege to say goodbye on TV.”
But this doesn’t mean that Poehler will be disappearing from your television screen forever. Not only will she become more involved in her web series, “Smart Girls at the Party,” but she also hinted at a possible Netflix series spin-off for 2001 cult film “Wet Hot American Summer,” in which she had a starring role. In typical Poehler fashion, she exclaimed, “It’d be just like the movie, but everyone’s going to be older and fatter.”
