“The best producing training you can have on TV,” Fey explained, “is working as a writer on SNL.” She said that the head writer role is more of a managerial position, where the goal is to run the table and to help take whatever ideas the writers have and create the best material for the show. “What you are experiencing, Linda, is called ‘bits.’ It’s the strutting and preening of the male improviser.”įey explained that developing the skill of handling, encouraging, and shaping that creative energy is necessary as a head writer. “Do they not exhaust you, if you are one of them?” “It’s ok, we’ve all been there,” Fey replied. Those early muttering remarks were eventually shaped into a sharp comedic voice, through Fey’s training in the UVA drama program, at Chicago’s Second City improv troupe, and during her time at Saturday Night Live.Īt Second City, Fey learned the “Yes, and…” rules of positive collaboration in improvisation, and she learned how to navigate the “competitive energy” and one-upmanship of the SNL writers’ room.Īfter she described the environment of the SNL room full of mostly male comedians, moderator Linda Holmes admitted with exasperation that she once had dated an improviser.

I was never a class clown…I was more muttering cutting remarks.” “I think I was more sarcastic than funny. “I knew I wanted to be funny around 8th grade,” Fey told the audience. Those in attendance on Saturday night were promised an evening of humor and of insights into Fey’s multifaceted, award-winning career in comedy, and Fey delivered on both counts. They even performed a rendition of the theme from Fey’s 30 Rock.

The evening’s musical act, Love Canon, is a popular bluegrass cover group that plays the pop hits of the ’80s and ’90s.

(She did so with a tribute to one of Fey’s idols, David Letterman, with a “Top 5 List of Things People Say to You When They Hear You’re Going to Introduce Tina Fey.”)įey wasn’t the only star of the evening to come out of Charlottesville, as Executive Director Bill Chapman pointed out. It probably didn’t hurt that Fey was also one of the most-requested speakers of the last ten years by Forum subscribers, according to Jennifer Hunter, who had the enviable task of introducing Ms. Tina Fey is an alumna of the University of Virginia, as were many in the audience that offered roaring applause as she took the stage with Ms.

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