"Sometimes, in my class, I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know, and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something"
About this Quote
Her teaching move is simple and a little ruthless: anchor a monologue in someone you actually know. Not a celebrity impression, not a generic archetype, but a person with contradictions and habits you can’t invent from thin air. When you build from specifics - the way someone corrects you, the odd kindness that follows a cutting remark, the unnecessary detail they always include - you’re forced into empathy and observation. The joke can still land, but it lands on something true rather than on a demographic.
There’s subtext here about ethics, too. Comedy has a long history of mining "types" that map neatly onto stereotypes, especially around age and gender. By pushing students toward real models, Poehler nudges them away from cheap signals and toward textured choices: what the character wants, what they’re avoiding, what they think they sound like versus how they actually sound. It’s also a method for originality in an algorithmic era: specifics don’t trend, they stick.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Poehler, Amy. (2026, February 16). Sometimes, in my class, I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know, and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-in-my-class-i-have-people-come-in-and-157698/
Chicago Style
Poehler, Amy. "Sometimes, in my class, I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know, and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something." FixQuotes. February 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-in-my-class-i-have-people-come-in-and-157698/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Sometimes, in my class, I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know, and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something." FixQuotes, 16 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-in-my-class-i-have-people-come-in-and-157698/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
