Live, From New York!

On a cool evening in April students filled an upstairs room of the Dartmouth Bookstore to hear comedienne Rachel Dratch ’88 read from her new book, Girl Walks into a Bar. Dratch, who famously

created and played hit character “Debbie Downer” during her seven-year stint on Saturday Night Live, struggled to find work after leaving the show in 2006. “After watching much daytime TV,” Dratch says, she decided to write. Her own life provided the plot twist in her book about SNL and her dating misadventures when she became pregnant at age 43. “I decided to put it all out there,” she said, “although I feel slightly more vulnerable now that it’s in book form.” She read from her chapter on Dartmouth, titled “WASP World,” even though she was hesitant to do so because “I feel like I’m spitting on the host’s floor,” she said. Her quips about the conservative feel of campus and the trials of living in the River Cluster got lots of knowing laughs. Dratch spoke of initially disliking Dartmouth, but finding her place after joining improv group Said and Done (now called The Dog Day Players). “It seemed like it combined being the class clown with acting,” she said.

Number of seats available for Commencement on the Green 10,000

percentage increase in tuition, room, board and fees for the coming school year