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By Root 1338 0

to do a whole Mango thing that I thought really was — you know, we didn’t want to do that. I thought, “Oh my goodness, that would create quite a stir.” Wearing a dress almost accomplished the same thing. Then in the dress-rehearsal version, there were one or two skits that they cut out. They thought other ones were funnier. I remember there was one about the Statue of Liberty, where I played a park ranger giving a description of the Statue of Liberty and like getting out of control, like I was in love with the Statue of Liberty. And there was another one where I did a press conference and there was like a nephew of mine who was jumping all over me. But those were just cut as part of the normal process they go through.

Of the various skits that I did, the one I liked the best was probably the one where I played the taxi driver, and then maybe the one where I played the Italian grandmother was second. In the others I more or less played myself, but in those I got to create a character, and it was just a lot of fun to do that.

DARRELL HAMMOND, Cast Member:

The first time I met Lorne I had just had a root canal. I was like dripping, I can remember I felt like blood was going to come pouring out of my mouth. I met him in that studio, no one else in there but a couple of camera people, he shook my hand and asked me to sit down and said to perform. He goes, “You okay?” I said, “Yeah.” He goes, “All right, go ahead, whenever you’re ready.” That’s the first time I met him. I auditioned for him three more times and then I had a long dinner with him after that, and I guess it was shortly after that he hired me.

MARCI KLEIN, Coproducer:

Darrell’s a huge talent. When his audition tape got put in the machine, I wasn’t really paying attention, and all of a sudden he was doing Phil Donahue and I was like, “Holy shit!” I could not believe he sounded so much like the real thing. It almost scared me, because I thought, “He’s too good.”

WILL FERRELL, Cast Member:

I was hired for the first nine shows and they were going to pick me up, and that was changed to the next six shows, and after that it was whether you were going to be picked up for the next year. And then after that it was year by year, and so you always feel like you’re a little bit on shaky ground. When I got hired, I found an apartment and I was like, “Well, I better take the subway a lot before the first show starts, because once that first show starts I won’t be able to take the subway.” And I still ride the subway, so I don’t know.

I think it’s different; it’s definitely a gradual thing in terms of auditioning and meeting Lorne for the first time. We were seen at the Groundlings, and then there was like the first round of auditions, and then there was a call-back round in which you met with Lorne the day before and then you auditioned again. And then in our case they flew back out and they saw us again at the Groundlings, and it was six weeks before we got hired.

After I made like the first cut, I knew that I was going to have to meet Lorne. I had read somewhere that Adam Sandler did a bit where he humped a chair like a dog when he met Lorne and was signed on the spot. Like, that was it for Adam Sandler. I thought, “When I meet Lorne Michaels, I’m not going to be trite, I’m going to do something funny, I’m going to be really funny.”

So my idea was that I filled up a briefcase full of money that I bought at a toy store, and while he was talking to me, I would open the briefcase and start piling fake money on his desk and just say, “You know what, Lorne, you can talk all you want, but I’m going to walk out of this room, I’m not going to know what happened to this money, you either take it or leave it.” That was going to be my big thing — and just walk out.

Well, as soon as I walked in with my briefcase I could tell that the atmosphere was not right for it. Lorne’s first thing he said to me was, “Okay, so you’re funny, you were funny during the first audition. I hope you’re funny tomorrow. Because consistency is what we’re looking for.” I was just like, oh God. And