Only a week after her prime-time hit "30 Rock" returns to TV, Tina Fey will hit the big screen in "Baby Mama," alongside fellow star comedian Amy Poehler. Count in one recent Vanity Fair cover and it's safe to say Fey is the reigning queen of comedy - and has at least temporarily stolen the spotlight from the Wilson/Stiller/Rogen fraternity that has dominated the form. New York's up-and-coming female comics can find plenty of inspiration in the resurgence heralded by Fey, Poehler, Kristen Wiig and Sarah Silverman and for five women in the five boroughs, the stock character of the funny girl will never be relegated to the wings
JENN BARTELS
Jennifer Bartels, 26, was born in North Carolina, but spent part of her childhood in Staten Island. After college, she moved back. "Staten Island has really played a part in the characters I pick to play," she says. "I'm big on playing, like, a Duane Reade employee that wants to get a pregnancy test or somebody that has a fight with Vinnie because he took her Honda."
Bartels performs long-form improv comedy with her team, Twelve Thousand Dollars, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the place that launched the careers of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and other contemporary comic bigwigs.
Bartels calls Fey and others such as Poehler and Kristen Wiig, "new age," women who are both successful and attractive. "I think that stereotype of [the female comic in] the vest with the tie and the water has died down a bit," she says.
Beauty and funniness haven't always gone hand in hand in pop culture, Bartels points out. She grew up aspiring to the princessy leading roles.
"I always wanted to be the pretty girl," she says, "the one who's, like, 'Come, save me, please.' And I never got that. I was, like, 'Why am I playing the fat sister?' And I'm not fat at all."
When she started reading for the comic parts, she began getting more work.
These days, she can be found taking the Staten Island ferry in time for a late-night improv show.
"At first, I envisioned 'Working Girl,'" she says, "where Carly Simon plays and I'm on the ferry in my tan tights and my Reeboks and I'm, like, 'I'm going to make a difference and be someone.' I literally played the song on my iPod to rev myself up. That worked for, like, one month."
CASEY WILSON
If Tina Fey set the standard for power-house comedian-slash-writers, Casey Wilson is ready to step up to the plate.
Gina Brillon (Alvarez for News)
.JENN BARTELS
Jennifer Bartels, 26, was born in North Carolina, but spent part of her childhood in Staten Island. After college, she moved back. "Staten Island has really played a part in the characters I pick to play," she says. "I'm big on playing, like, a Duane Reade employee that wants to get a pregnancy test or somebody that has a fight with Vinnie because he took her Honda."
Bartels performs long-form improv comedy with her team, Twelve Thousand Dollars, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the place that launched the careers of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and other contemporary comic bigwigs.
Bartels calls Fey and others such as Poehler and Kristen Wiig, "new age," women who are both successful and attractive. "I think that stereotype of [the female comic in] the vest with the tie and the water has died down a bit," she says.
Beauty and funniness haven't always gone hand in hand in pop culture, Bartels points out. She grew up aspiring to the princessy leading roles.
"I always wanted to be the pretty girl," she says, "the one who's, like, 'Come, save me, please.' And I never got that. I was, like, 'Why am I playing the fat sister?' And I'm not fat at all."
When she started reading for the comic parts, she began getting more work.
These days, she can be found taking the Staten Island ferry in time for a late-night improv show.
"At first, I envisioned 'Working Girl,'" she says, "where Carly Simon plays and I'm on the ferry in my tan tights and my Reeboks and I'm, like, 'I'm going to make a difference and be someone.' I literally played the song on my iPod to rev myself up. That worked for, like, one month."
CASEY WILSON
If Tina Fey set the standard for power-house comedian-slash-writers, Casey Wilson is ready to step up to the plate.
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