Tina Fey was at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. At 40, the actor/writer/producer/comedienne is the youngest person to be given the honor, and just the third female in the prize’s 13-year history.
The whole shebang was taped for a PBS show set to air this Sunday night, featuring an all-star cast of Fey’s comedy comrades from her curriculum vitae. Steve Carell, Jimmy Fallon, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Seth Meyers, Jane Krakowski, Jon Hamm, Betty White, Amy Pohler, and Tracy Morgan all were on hand to fete Fey’s achievements. As was Jennifer Hudson, somewhat oddly, but it’s always good to see my favorite Dreamgirl getting some airtime. (Sunday’s broadcast will no doubt attract the youngest, non-preschool PBS audience in history.)
In advance of the honor, Fey sat down for a series of questions submitted by PBS’ Twitter followers and Facebook likers (yes, it appears both of those accounts really do exist and have some traction). And though my headline to this post is a total groaner, based Fey’s answers, I’ve got a feeling she’d be totally okay with it, because kids, failure is fantastic
I do, however, take issue with her choice of cake over pie. Pie is amazing.
The Thirteenth Annual Mark Twain Prize airs on PBS stations nationwide on Sunday night at 9/8c. Get local station information here. As for Mark Twain, the former Samuel Langhorne Clemens is back with a brand-new work. The first volume of his autobiography, which the writer stipulated could not be published until 100 years after his death (Twain died on April 21, 1910), has just been released by the University of California Press. It weighs in at 760 pages and covers the years 1870-1906.