Amy Poehler never "imagined" she could make a job out of being a comedienne.
Amy Poehler
The 45-year-old actress and comedienne didn't think she could make a career out of being funny and admits success was very slow.
She said: "I wish I had some great story to tell you about when I wrote my dad a $1m cheque and said, 'You're going to see my name in lights!' ... It [success] was slow. I didn't grow up with any actors or writers around me, so I didn't imagine it was a job I could do. In some ways that insulated me from this idea of: am I a funny person who is going to use this comedy to do something? Thankfully there was no YouTube where I could have gotten in front of the camera and been like, 'Hey you guys!' What a nightmare.'"
And the 'Parks and Recreation' star insists being a comedienne is not the right job if you want "instant gratification".
Asked what it takes to make it in comedy, she added to the i newspaper: "You have to be really OK with not succeeding for a very long time; you have to be OK with rejection. If you're looking for instant gratification, it is not the job for you. People think, 'I want to make people laugh,' but the job of doing that is a slow process.
"If your goal is to be famous, you may be getting ahead of yourself. Find your voice, try a lot of things to figure out what you like, surround yourself with good people, and - most importantly - have a life to talk about."
Tagged in Amy Poehler