Amy Poehler doesn’t hold back in her new book, “Yes Please.”
Credit: Provided
Amy Poehler’s memoir “Yes Please” comes out today and early buzz is promising it will be just as successful as Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” and Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” Poehler’s glossy-paged hardback details everything from her early days of comedy to her “Saturday Night Live” career, but it also has the juicy stuff, like sex advice and details on her divorce. Here, we share some of the major talking points.
1. Divorce
Maybe it’s because celebrities get divorced all the time, but we tend to think it isn’t as bad for them as it is for us civilians. Poehler writes lovingly about her ex-husband Will Arnett and honestly about their divorce: it sucked. “When you are a person going through a divorce you feel incredibly alone, yet you are constantly reminded by society of how frequently divorce happens and how common it has become,” she writes. “You aren’t allowed to feel special, but no one understands the specific ways you are in pain.” Some life experiences don’t need a punchline.
2. Drugs
Poehler doesn’t hide the fact that she’s said “yes please” to most drugs. She chronicles how her father was a happy pot dealer and how she experimented with cocaine, mushrooms and ecstasy. “Cocaine is terrific if you want to hang out with people you don’t know and play ping-pong all night. It’s bad for almost everything else,” she reveals.
3. Getting older
Poehler has a lot to say about being in her 40s. Mostly, there’s a lot of awesome stuff that comes with getting older: “Gone are the days (hopefully) when you take everything personally and internalize everyone’s behavior. You get better at knowing what you want and need.”
4. Losing big awards
Poehler has won a Golden Globe and MTV Movie Award, but she’s been a loser, too. What’s it like when the camera at the Golden Globes pans to you not winning? Poehler gets honest about how even when you don’t want to get caught up in the award show hum, you can’t help it and actors that say they don’t care are lying. “You spend weeks thinking about how it doesn’t matter and it’s all just an honor and then seconds before the name of the winner is announced everything inside you screams …’GIMME THAT PUDDING!!’ Then comes the adrenaline dump, followed by shame.” It’s so much easier not being famous.
5. Career counseling
Poehler has channeled her passion and creativity into a successful career, so it’s only natural to want her advice. But “Yes Please” is no “Lean In.” Poehler talks about how important it is to not put your career first: “Your career won’t take care of you. … It will openly flirt with other people while you’re around,” she writes. She compares a career to a bad boyfriend. Poehler says the key to being happy with your career is caring about your work, not the result. “You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not how good people think you are or how good people think you look,” she writes.
