If the coronavirus quarantine has your family missing things like fine dining and travel, then pay close attention to the creative way Tina Fey’s kids have brought those luxuries back into their lives.
During a virtual visit to Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show: At Home Edition,” the actress, writer and comedian shared the secret boredom buster that put fun back on the menu.
“This was awesome, and I wanted to tell you about it because I feel like it’s something you can do — anyone can do — at home, if they’re trying to fill time,” Fey said. “My older daughter, Alice, is 14 now, and … she was saying we should do theme dinners. We did one the other night, and it was an airplane-themed dinner.”
And the key to making it work was that Alice, and her 8-year-old sibling, Penelope, really committed to it — costumes, props, food, libations and more.
“The thing that was great about it was that it took a lot of time for them to get ready,” Fey said. “Alice was actually kind of helping her little sister get ready for it, and the little sister is so pumped when her big sister pays attention to her at all. She was pumped!”
The 49-year-old flashed her phone at the screen to share the results.
“Penelope dressed up as a stewardess,” she said as a video clip played from the big night. “They did the whole safety (speech).”
They did so much more than that. Magazines were strapped to the backs of all the chairs, an airplane window was projected beside mom and dinner was served on lap trays.
“And because they were treating this like a really nice flight, they were like, ‘Would you like a glass of wine?’” Fey recalled. She and husband Jeff Richmond answered in the affirmative. “And afterwards they were like, ‘We didn’t know how much wine was too much.’”
After offering up a peek at their massive goblets of vino, she added, “We were like, ‘Yeah, you didn’t!’”
Not that they were complaining.
But that’s not the only bit of family fun they’re had while holed up in their Manhattan apartment. Another activity Fey wholeheartedly recommends is a talents show that allow kids to compete with friends and family via the same software that everyone’s using for their work-from-home meetings these days.
That’s what her children did, alongside the kids of famous friends Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler and Ana Gasteyer.
“So if you have a Zoom work account, you should definitely abuse it and use it for other things,” Fey suggested with a smile.