Tina + Amy LIVE!

Two best friends seeing two famous best friends embark on their first comedic tour was beyond exciting. It was me and Carly celebrating our 40^th birthdays and 27 years of friendship. It was Tina and Amy celebrating 30 years of friendship while navigating, breaking barriers, and succeeding in the comedy business. It felt like we were all on the Restless Leg Tour together!

Taking place at the Bellco Theatre in Denver, the show opened with Tina and Amy in ball gowns hosting a faux award show. They told the audience they were going to start fancy and end in pajamas which is exactly what they did. While a teleprompter was there to keep them on track (I would need one too!) these women are clearly the queens of improv. They play off each other like they’ve known one another for, well, three decades.

Divided into five parts – award show, the 1990s/Second City, New York/Saturday Night Live, individual stand-up routines, and then Q&A – their show was fast-paced, relevant, and extraordinarily funny. After their faux award show segment, they seamlessly transformed into their 22-year-old selves just landing in Chicago to study improv at Second City. With clips from the many pop culture moments that made the decade memorable, as well as era-appropriate music and outfits, it was fun seeing how they became who they are now and how most of the public knows them. It wasn’t an easy road as comedy is difficult enough to break into in general, nevermind as women trying to make noise decades before MeToo.

Next was my and Carly’s favorite – Weekend Update! Watching Tina and Amy’s famous Saturday Night Live skit LIVE was so exciting! In fact, the entire SNL segment was the most memorable for me because that’s when their comedy really struck a chord. It’s also why I read Bossypants in 2014 https://lauralieff.com/my-reading-list-pop-culture-biographies/ and Yes Please in 2016 https://lauralieff.com/amy-poehlers-yes-please/. Side note: I don’t want to ruin anything, but Weekend Update featured a surprise guest and it was a good one. I’ll leave it at that.

Following Weekend Update, Tina and Amy took turns doing individual stand-up routines which they said was a new challenge for them. They were both great, and integrated aspects of their personal lives, but Tina was definitely a little bit raunchier. The final “act” was a Q&A format where the ladies answered questions they read on index cards submitted by audience members at the merch booths before the show. Ranging from personal (“What’s a perfect day like for you?”) to asking about their work in movies and television, the questions (which they answered on couches while wearing pajamas) were a nice way to wrap up the 90-minute show.

So would I recommend purchasing tickets for the Restless Leg Tour? Of course. Tina and Amy are undeniably smart and funny and their story of friendship and surviving the comedy business is unique. Clearly they are doing something right because I keep reading about added dates in a variety of cities which is not at all surprising. Take your best friend to see two best friends – you will laugh and laugh and laugh.