Amy Borkowsky has been collecting her mother's phone messages for 10 years and has packaged them as two CDs, and now as an iPhone application.
She started saving the tapes from her old dual-microcassette answering machine. As each tape filled up, she would toss it in a drawer, never imagining that someday the messages from her overprotective mom would lead to two "Amy's Answering Machine" CDs, this year's new release, "The Mother of All Comedy CDs," and an iPhone app called "Amy's Mom," now on iTunes.
Amy got her first clue that the messages which drove her crazy could be entertaining to others in her early days on New York's stand-up comedy circuit. After gathering some of her mother's most extreme messages, she played them on stage at Manhattan's top comedy clubs, and audiences consistently howled.
The daughter who Mom nicknamed “Amila” (AY-muh-luh) stepped into the national spotlight when she appeared on the “Today” show with Matt Lauer and on National Public Radio's “Morning Edition” to introduce the first volume of her “Amy's Answering Machine: Messages from Mom” comedy CDs.
She earned press coverage from Life magazine to a full-page profile in People, and the following year embarked on a 12-city tour for the Amy’s Answering Machine book. Amy has performed at the prestigious “Just for Laughs” Montreal Comedy Festival, and she entertains audiences at events and fundraisers across the country with her mom-based comedy act.
As Susan Adler writes in a brief review in this month's Hadassah Magazine,
The results are hilarious -- and familiar - reminders about how to dress for the weather, upcoming birthdays, the single state, warnings not to get a cat, financial advice and the danger of kidney stones.
You can listen to a few of these real messages at Amy's website. When you get to the website, scroll down and click on the big arrow on the answering machine to hear six funny sample messages.
Some of the messages that are included in the iPhone app appear in this YouTube video. Enjoy!
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