Live From New York - James H. Miller [241]
The first time I did my Mary Katherine Gallagher character was a long time ago at NYU, in a revue show there. I didn’t really base her on anyone. It’s just bits and pieces, parts of myself but an exaggerated version of myself, but then there’s a lot just made up. I did Mary Katherine Gallagher in that show.
Mary Katherine took a lot of falls. I would bruise myself and cut myself, but I never injured my back or anything. I started to get afraid. At first I didn’t think anything of it, it was like punk rock, I actually liked getting bruised. It felt wild and committed and I enjoyed it. But being on TV, so many people would come up to me and go, “Do you get hurt? Do you get hurt? You must get hurt.” And after thousands of people asked me, I started to get scared. So then I started to wear padding.
STEVE HIGGINS:
One of the nice things about Tom Davis coming back is that he’s such a breath of fresh air. He says, “Oh, you guys are doing a great job.” But any of the other writers who leave and come back, it always seems like they’re saying, “My high school drama department was better. When I was here it was way better. Now look; they’re doing Ten Little Indians. Ugh, that’s a horrible play.” Because most of the people here, this was their first TV job, so they form so many opinions off it, and it’s always that high school thing: “My football team was better.”
CHRIS KATTAN, Cast Member:
When I first saw SNL as a kid, I didn’t think it was funny. When I first saw the Belushi stuff, I didn’t think it was funny. I was watching Fawlty Towers and Monty Python at that age, and I was hooked on old movies like Road to Rio and Abbott and Costello. I was addicted to that stuff. I really got into Saturday Night Live when Eddie Murphy came on. He was so relaxed and had so much control and power over the audience and everything that was going on. If there were no laughs he was still so powerful, so relaxed and comfortable. He didn’t get nervous, he didn’t act like, “Oh my God, this isn’t working,” and rush through the lines. One time, I don’t know what sketch it was, he made some mistake and the audience laughed, and he went, “Shut up!” I was like, “Wow, that was great.” It’s so great if you can be that relaxed and that confident. Then by the time I got to high school, I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. I didn’t know if I was good enough, but I thought, “I actually feel like I might be able to make it on that show, at least I might be able to audition.” I just had a gut feeling that I could do it.
Right before I got here, when they had Quentin Tarantino and Tom Arnold as hosts, it wasn’t that funny, and I was like, “Oh God, what’s happening?” and I was like, “I’m glad I didn’t get the show.” I actually auditioned with Will and everybody else and I didn’t get it, and then months later they asked me to come on out next week all of a sudden. The first couple of years, at least for me, you can’t help but take stuff so seriously about getting your sketches in and “is this going to work?” and you stress out so much. I would get so stressed out and so worried about sketches it was just a big waste of energy. But you don’t learn that until you kind of let it all go, and then you just relax and you’re a better performer.
TRACY MORGAN, Cast Member:
I didn’t watch the show after Eddie Murphy left. That’s how my community is. We stopped watching basically after Eddie left. He was like the blackest thing on TV then. Now everybody has a sitcom. So I don’t know if I even want to do prime time after this. But I love doing Saturday Night Live. It’s late-night. It’s live, baby. It’s like Jackie Gleason. Once