Live From New York - James H. Miller [243]
My agent called me and he was like, “Marci Klein is coming to your show — put it together!” I did a show just for her. When I auditioned for Saturday Night Live, the person who was having the auditions for Lorne told me, “Whatever you do, please don’t do that Mary Katherine Gallagher character. You’ll never get hired. Lorne won’t like that, he’ll think it’s disgusting and dirty.” Yeah, she said it was such a disgusting, dirty little character that Lorne wouldn’t like it and “whatever you do, don’t do that!” For some reason, she just didn’t think it was right. I don’t want to say her name. But I’ll never forget that lady.
TRACY MORGAN:
You know when I first saw Lorne Michaels? I was working at Yankee Stadium, before I got into show business. It’s where I met my wife fourteen years ago. I used to see Lorne Michaels go in Gate 4 every day. I was selling T-shirts and all that. I was a vendor at Yankee Stadium. Now look where I’m at. It was so ironic that I met Lorne Michaels like that. And now years later, he’s my boss and I’m working on his show. I didn’t know him. I was a kid from the ghetto, trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents.
HORATIO SANZ:
One prevailing frustration is kind of like not knowing where you’ll be the same time next year. But I guess a lot of show business is like that. Another reason is sometimes you start thinking you deserve something. You can fall into a situation where you think, “That sucks, I got screwed.” But there are so many other factors involved in the show. You have to not get too high with the good and not too low with the bad — to kind of be rational about it. Because whether the host likes something could affect whether it’s on the show. Ultimately it’s not our show. Lorne’s the producer. It’s his show. He’ll be here for as long as he wants. Some stay longer than others, but it’s not our show. It’s a shared thing. You have to take those frustrations. Things usually swing around. Like if you have a good week, you’ll have a better one next week.
CHRIS KATTAN:
My parents are Zen Buddhists, but that’s pretty much the least crazy religion, it’s not even a religion really. I had a pretty normal childhood; my parents divorced when I was two and then I lived with my mother and stepfather. My mother left my dad for another man, who was also at the Zen Center thing, but they were friends with people like Leonard Cohen and things like that. We moved to a place called Mount Baldy that was in a mountain, a very secluded area. I lived there from like age four to twelve and I think I went a little crazy up there. I think I really did, because there was nothing to do. I mean, you’re in a mountain, and I guess kids should be around other kids. Like at age eight, nine, somewhere around there, they’re supposed to be around other kids. And I was not. I mean, except for school. I was a shy kid and I didn’t do very many sports and I used to have crushes on somebody every week. I started getting obsessed with other people a little bit — just their personalities. I’d do a lot of observing, but observing while talking with them and stuff like that. I used to get crushes on women like once every three months, a different one. I would never, ever kiss them or anything, because I was not that guy in school, but I would follow them around. That obsession helped me create. It’s almost like I started creating for that person — to get in their good graces, in a weird way. I don’t know what I’ll do when I get married.
TINA FEY:
The seventies and the twenty-first century