Live From New York - James H. Miller [210]
The good thing about me being on Living Color, I got things on that had nothing to do with race. On SNL, I either had to play a militant or a hip-hop guy. If you watch my stand-up, race is ten minutes of an hour-long show. I talk about relationships, whatever. And Living Color allowed me to talk about other shit. I could do sketches about, you know, funny stores I was in.
DAVID SPADE:
It was weird when I left there, because when you are around Lorne and Jim Downey and some cast members and writers that you think are really funny, you are with some truly sharp, fast people. And I didn’t realize it, but when you leave, and you do movies or TV, or whatever I’ve done since, it’s not always the case. And that kind of bummed me out. I did a few movies after, and I did a few smaller parts in them, and I thought, “Wow. I didn’t mind taking orders from guys I looked up to, but there is no one in this room that I think is that hysterical, and now they are telling me what to do.” And that started to drive me crazy.
FRED WOLF:
There’s no reason for me to kiss anybody’s ass at Saturday Night Live, including Lorne Michaels, who I’m talking about. But he set it up so brilliantly in that it’s like this enormous pool of talent, and they all have egos, and they have to have egos to survive the situation at Saturday Night Live, and it’s almost set up like sports teams — a university and a varsity. I always thought that that was a great way to do it. And that you had your varsity, your first-string guy, out there doing these sketches in the first half hour or the first half of the show. And you’d have second-stringers that were so hungry to get on the air that they would do anything they could to make that happen. So they’d write sketches for themselves and they’d write sketches for the star that they could be included in.
And it just kept everybody sort of working as hard as they could to take advantage of the place. Because one of the things I loved about SNL is that it’s one of the only showcases left on TV where you can actually vault into star status. Back in the days when Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show, when he had a comic on, that meant a lot, and that comic generally would get a lot of attention in the industry. Those days of that being one of the best showcases for any comedian are gone.
Saturday Night Live is still the main place where you could actually say, “If I did three or four years of Saturday Night Live, I would become a star if I’m ever going to become a star.” I think it’s the case to this day. So anyway, these guys come in and they’re so hungry to get on the air and there’s like twenty-five, you know, very talented people and egos walking around there — I mean the writing staff and the performing staff. It’s such a big mix, and I don’t think there’s ever been a show like that, really, where you just have a bunch of people out there vying to get on the air and trying to do their best once they do. It’s a remarkable place, because if you survive that process, you’re probably going to be able to survive the next ten years of your career.
DAVID MANDEL:
We were sort of trapped there. There was a bunker mentality. You know, there was the siege of putting the show up each week. And that ultimately meant you were sort of eating and drinking and, in some cases, sleeping with these people, the same group of people, and going to the bathroom with them and, you know, seeing them at their best and their worst. And so ultimately, it was very collegiate. I guess that’s the best word. It was a lot like freshman year rooming experiences, where you don’t necessarily get to pick your roommates but you ultimately have to try and get along. And then you think back and go, “Well, there were some bad times, but there were some really good parties too.”
FRED WOLF:
There are definitely internecine rivalries and fighting and all that sort of stuff. But ultimately I don’t feel that that’s a bad thing. I mean, I think it’s bad if you go in there in a fragile sort of psychological