Far left: In
Baby Mama
with Tina Fey.
Left: An instant
SNL classic,
Hillary Clinton
showed up
for a surprise
appearance
during
the 2008
presidential
campaign.
After Parks debuted, The New Yorker’s
Nancy Franklin wrote, “Is there a more
appealing performer on television than
Amy Poehler? Yes, ‘appealing’ sounds
bland and unappreciative, and it’s unspe-
cific, but the radiance and the warmth
that come from Poehler are general and
broad in the best way, and they offer a uni-
versal welcome.”
Alessandra Stanley of The New York
Times concluded that Poehler is “deli-
cious” as Leslie Knope, “a delusional
self-promoter who is also relentlessly
cheerful—a cross-eyed optimist.”
From Second City to Stardom
Those who have worked with Poehler (and
anyone familiar with the rowdy improv
of her earlier days) also know not to be
fooled by Poehler’s petite appearance.
“She’s sort of this cute, small girl
who also is tougher than anyone you’re
going to run into,” Meyers says. “More
than any other comedian I’ve ever
worked with, she’s who I’d want with
me in an alley fight.” He clarifies that
they haven’t actually been in an alley
fight together. “But if we did get into
one, I’m sure it’d be because Poehler
started it.”
Indications are that she’s always been
eager to stir things up. Poehler grew up
in Burlington, Mass., the daughter of
two teachers.
“I have all these pictures of me as a
kid, always dressing up, goofing around
and pretending to be someone,” she
recalls with a laugh. “I wasn’t really, uh,
a shy kid.”
Early gigs, she says, consisted of
school plays; when she went off to
Boston College she decided to major
in theater. After graduating in 1993,
Poehler moved to Chicago, immersed
herself in improv training at the famed
Second City (alongside friend and
future co-star Tina Fey) and worked
with legendary instructor Del Close at
ImprovOlympic. Her earliest heroes
had included the likes of Carol Burnett,
Gilda Radner, Steve Martin and Eddie
Murphy. Now, she says, she was study-
ing improv luminaries just ahead of her
on the Chicago scene, including Amy
Sedaris and Steve Carell.
“That’s where I realized, ‘Oh yeah,
this is the path.’ ”
She also became an integral player
in the Upright Citizens Brigade and in
the late 1990s helped relocate the self-
styled renegade improv group to New
York City, where it would go on to do
a TV series and open its own theater.
Meanwhile, Poehler began making a
splash on Late Night with Conan O’Brien
with a series of appearances as Late
Night sidekick Andy Richter’s fictional
little sister, Stacy. She would pose in the
studio audience as a mega-awkward teen
in pigtails and dental gear. The running
gag was that Richter would introduce
her and betray her obsessive crush on
O’Brien, after which she would launch
into a hilariously hyperbolic, romanti-
cally tortured tirade concerning O’Brien
and unrequited love. Stacy had traces of
Gilda Radner and Lily Tomlin, but she
was also uniquely Poehler—endearingly
spastic, with a big magnetic grin quiver-
ing just below the surface.
A shot at stardom on Saturday Night
Live soon followed. After signing on in
2001, Poehler became one of very few
featured players ever to be promoted
to full cast membership during a rookie
season. In addition to the stint to come
at the “Weekend Update” desk, she
contributed numerous characters and
impersonations over the next seven-plus years. Among the most memorable
was her impersonation of the 2008
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Poehler started her run on SNL just weeks
“I want to be killed in a movie—I want to
have a really spectacular end. Right now
I’m picturing a giant fall from a water
tower, but that could change.”
