Tina Fey on Over-Thinking It


This is from Tina Fey’s new book, Bossypants. It is the second on a list of things she learned working on Saturday Night Live:

“The show does not go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30. This is something Lorne [Michaels] has said often about Saturday Night Live, but I think it’s a great lesson about not being too precious about your writing. You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke you can until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go. You can’t be that kid at the top of the waterslide overthinking it. You have to just go down the chute. And I’m from a generation where a lot of people died on waterslides, so this was an important lesson for me to learn.”