Tina Fey in conversation with Steve Martin at Live Talks Los Angeles on April 19, 2011 discussing her memoir, "Bossy Pants."
Two of America’s funniest actors and humorists take the stage in downtown Los Angeles for a rare joint appearance. Both are winners of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American humor named to honor America’s - and the world’s - greatest humorists.
Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update,” before “Sarah Palin,” Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.
She has seen both these dreams come true.
At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon - from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.
Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy. Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!
Actress, comedian, writer and producer, Tina Fey has received seven Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards. She was singled out as the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment in 2008 by the Associated Press, which gave her its AP Entertainer of the Year award.
Fey took classes at the improvisational comedy group The Second City, where she became a featured player in 1994. Three years later, Fey became a writer for Saturday Night Live. She became head writer 1999 and the following year, Fey was added to the cast of SNL. During her time there, she was co-anchor of the show’s Weekend Update segment. After leaving SNL in 2006, she created the television series 30 Rock. She made her film debut in 2004 as writer and co-star of the teen comedy Mean Girls. In 2008, she starred in the comedy film Baby Mama, alongside Amy Poehler. In 2009, Fey won an Emmy Award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah in a guest appearance on SNL. In 2010, Fey was the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, and the youngest-ever winner of the award.
Steve Martin is America’s Renaissance comedian. He is without doubt one of the most versatile and popular actors before the public, a performer with happy feet who wears many hats well beyond his signature arrow-through-the-head gear. He is a hit playwright, a reluctant literary light, an urbane and witty social commentator, an astute art collector, a mean banjo player, a dancing King Tut, an Oscar Award host, and a clown. His dashing looks landed him on People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” List in 2003 (just barely: he was #50). He has interpreted Samuel Beckett on stage, David Mamet on screen, adapted Rostand with panache, created an unforgettable movie jerk as well as television’s most attractive wild and crazy guy, written and starred in blockbusters from Dead MenDon’t Wear Plaid to L.A. Story and Shopgirl, and all the while-never taking himself too seriously-he continues to nurture his considerable gifts with tongue firmly in cheek. (Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts bio)
Steve Martin has won an Emmy Award, four Grammy Awards, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and a Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to American Culture. He has hosted the Oscars three times.
His most recent book is the novel, An Object of Beauty, and he has an upcoming banjo CD with the Steep Canyon Rangers, Rare Bird Alert, to be released on March 15. For more information on on Steve Martin, visit www.stevemartin.com.