Seven things you missed at Mindy Kaling’s book talk
The comedy powerhouse spoke with Atul Gawande about her new book ‘Why Not Me?’ at Back Bay Events Center.
Mindy Kaling returned to Boston this week to promote her new book, Why Not Me? On Tuesday evening, the Cambridge-born comedian chatted with best-selling author Atul Gawande about her ascent to comedy queendom and her love of Freddie Mercury.
If you couldn’t get tickets to Kaling’s talk, you weren’t alone. The Harvard Book Store-sponsored event sold out in minutes. Some of the conversation touched upon topics Kaling explores in Why Not Me? like confidence, her slightly wistful attitude about being single, and the challenges of her job.
In case you missed it, here are a few other highlights from the event.
1. The opening montage.
In general, calling the first few minutes a highlight implies that the rest of the evening wasn’t great. In this case, the montage was just that funny. As photos, video clips, and graphics flew on the screen, Kaling narrated via voiceover. She consciously kept it from becoming a brag-fest by reminding the audience that she has zero husbands, zero children, and many trips to McDonald’s every week.
2. She listed a few of her favorite local haunts.
Kaling went to high school at Buckingham Browne and Nichols and spent a lot of time in Cambridge. She said that she used to love going to Cafe A in middle school, ate many a burger at Bartley’s, and spent a lot of time not buying expensive books at the B.U. book store.
3. She was honest about why she wrote another book.
“For the money,’’ Kaling said. “You know, I’m living in L.A. There are clothes, shoes, drugs…’’
4. She spoke lovingly about her family.
She told Gawande that she was never really embarrassed of her parents growing up because she and her mom were “cut from the same cloth.’’ When her mom died of pancreatic cancer three years ago, her dad moved to Los Angeles and they’ve grown closer in their grief. Kaling also said that she’s been surprised how much her relatinoship with her mom has continued. Her mom was her best friend, so she’s able to imagine what she’d say about recent developments in Kaling’s life.
5. She (accidentally?) revealed the gender of her baby on The Mindy Project.
Season 3 wrapped up with a pregnant Mindy and the baby will be born early in the newly-premiered fourth season. Kaling said that writing a pregnancy into the show means a baby on set—and mentioned casting her son. So there you have it: it’s a boy!
6. She’s writing a movie.
She plans to direct it in order to retain creative control. She also riffed that she’s going to learn Spanish, and join Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. “I know the crowd, we’re in Greater Boston now,’’ Kaling said to the cheering audience.
7. She had some funfacts about Titantic.
Her fashion designer, Salvadore Perez, worked on Titanic. Because they were low budget—“They didn’t know they were making TITANIC,’’ Kaling said—Perez bought sari fabric in bulk from a store in Los Angeles and made costumes by hand, rather than ordering expensive period clothing. Kaling was impressed by his work ethic, saying she would have been “lazy as hell’’ in that situation, and has been working with him since 2012. Then she looked at Gawande and said, “You’re bored as hell right now. Next question!’’
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