Girl Walks into a Bar...: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle
By: Rachel Dratch
I love smart, funny women. I've paid tribute at the alter of Tina Fey, perhaps the greatest female comedian of this generation (her 2011 book Bossypants had me laughing out loud, literally), and I can only look to my early years bonding with my mom as we laughed 'til we cried watching Carol Burnett (whose book This Time Together is next on my memoir list) for my love of comediennes.
So when Rachel Dratch (of late night's Saturday Night Live and many films) came out this year with her book - I was delighted. However; like many SNL fans, I did wonder, well, "where has she been?" Dratch's turn on SNL resulted in some classic skits in that pantheon; from the perennially life is half-empty humour of "Debbie Downer" to her frenetic Bostonian relationship with Jimmy Fallon as "Sully and Denise", Dratch was memorable and her ability to play odd characters made her a highlight. As part of the Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Amy Pohler Tracey Morgan -era of SNL, she was a part of one of the most successful SNL generations in recent times.
And then she left - and it feels like we didn't see much of her again.
In this memoir, Dratch tells her story from her early days in comedy, through her 7 years with SNL (worth reading for the description of a party at Tracey Morgan's House alone!) and includes a glimpse into her personal life via the route of hilariously unsuccessful dating mishaps -from which you may glean some useful 'red flags' to watch out for. Dratch also tackles the place in Hollywood for nice-but-not-crazy-hot looking women, and sums it up in this way, "...by Hollywood standards, I'm a troll, ogre, woodland creature, or manly lesbian" and how to make a career out of that. Like many real stories, Dratch's own ends with some uncertainty, but a lot of joy as she describes her unexpected pregnancy at the age of 44. So that's where she's been - working hard and raising her son, like a lot of us are. It's just that her journey has been a little quirkier than most, certainly rich in humour and makes for a terrific read. Girl Walks into a Bar...can be found the library among many other books by funny women.
Reviewed by Andrea Palmer, communications coordinator at the Prince George Public Library.
