Five minutes. Good luck.
My favorite parts of the new SNL docuseries
In case you haven’t heard, it’s SNL’s 50th anniversary this year. As part of their promotion for the big milestone, Peacock has released the first four episodes of a docuseries reflecting on the making of the show, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night. The first episode entirely covers the audition process, a legendary gauntlet all hopeful comedians must surpass if they want to make it on SNL.
I was vaguely familiar with the SNL audition process after reading Live from New York and a bunch of ex-SNL celebrity memoirs. But funnily enough, I’ve never actually gone down the rabbit hole of watching anyone’s audition tapes. This was entirely new for me and it damn near moved me to tears.
Just to walk you all through some of my favorite things I learned while watching episode 1:
Each person auditioning only gets 5 minutes in front of the panel of judges. Doesn’t matter who you are, doesn’t matter where you come from. 5 minutes.
Heidi Gardner squeezed 12 character impressions into her time. Most people only do 5 characters at most.
Pete Davidson isn’t good at impressions (so he says). He just did stand-up, wearing this way-too-small red Spiderman t-shirt with his shoulders all bunched up around his ears. Look at those arms! Bare!
Every single character Kristen Wiig auditioned with made it on air at some point. Some of the characters she debuted in her five minute stint? Aunt Linda and Target Lady. Only two of SNL’s most iconic characters ever. God I miss the Kristen Wiig days.
Kate McKinnon, brought on as a mid-season hire, did an impression of Penelope Cruz that had me rolling around in my seat:
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserAmy Poehler was already something of a local comedy legend by the time she auditioned. She had been running the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) theater in New York for a few years and they knew that SNL wanted to hire her. The audition was mainly a formality, and they actually asked her to do the opposite of what they asked everyone else: no characters. Just be yourself.
On the note of Amy Poehler, she says Tina Fey got her the job. The two worked together at the Second City in Chicago and Tina had joined SNL a few years earlier as a writer.
Bowen Yang was asked to audition four separate times. After the last one, when he got the job, Lorne pulled him aside to say, “And Bowen? You’ve gotten better every time.”
Andy Samberg auditioned with a Jimmy Fallon impersonation.
Andy Samberg apparently also brought a HUGE box of wigs and props with him for the auditions and shared and elevator up with Bill Hader. When Bill saw his box of props, he thought “oh shit. Should I have brought props?” When Andy saw Bill WITHOUT props, he thought “oh shit. This guy must be so good he doesn’t need any props.”
one of the wigs in question The judges don’t always laugh during the auditions. Actually, they rarely laugh. They lurk in the darkness while the comedian’s in the spotlight, just watching. Pete said that throughout his audition, the judges only twice let out a sarcastic-sounding “HA!” I would absolutely be shitting my pants
Heidi Gardner and Bobby Moynihan cried rewatching their auditions in this episode. I almost cried too.
Ego Nwodim got called in for a second audition on a Friday night at 7pm. She was in LA, and was asked to be in New York Monday morning with 5 minutes of entirely new material.
Bill Hader did an impersonation of an Italian gameshow host, doing an impersonation of Al Pacino. The judges talk about how they just knew that he had some sort of indescribable magic about him.
Most of the comedians who rewatch their tapes in this episode had never seen them before. Some didn’t remember their auditions at all — they nervously blacked out the memory. Amy Poehler actually requested not to rewatch her tape. She said she felt so good about it in her memory that she didn’t want to rewatch it and feel differently.
There are also dozens of now-famous people who auditioned for SNL and didn’t get the gig. Two main ones that stuck out to me: Jennifer Coolidge and Kevin Hart.
I’ve been binging my way through the docuseries on this rainy SF weekend. All that’s left is episode 4. So far I’d highly, HIGHLY recommend watching it if you’re in any way an SNL fan. It’s pretty tender, seeing all of these legends as nervous little babies.
Catch ya later this week for more Park It!