Live From New York - James H. Miller [253]
MARCI KLEIN:
The host drives the show much more than people realize. When I first started working here, I was shocked that the host had anything to do with this show. I think people kind of have the image that the host takes a limo in on Saturday after reading their part — they just don’t know.
I think the best host that will make a good show is somebody that is confident and trusting enough to let go. When you come here, you need to trust that we’re not going to let you go out there and destroy yourself. Lorne and the writers, all of us, really want the hosts to be as good as they can be.
Tom Hanks, when he comes here, he’s here until five o’clock in the morning almost every night really working on the show, because he wants it to be funny, and that’s why he’s a good host. Christopher Walken is another great host, because he’s so easy for the writers to write for. He’s a great guy, and he doesn’t come with a bunch of people who are telling him, “Hey, that was funny.” You’d be surprised at the people who do that.
STEVE HIGGINS:
Christopher Walken is always a great show. You can’t lose no matter what he does. I love having John Goodman and Alec Baldwin around. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston were a lot of fun too. We’ve had some clunker shows, but they all blend together. I think when the hosts come here they’re on their best behavior. If they’re not, they have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
TINA FEY:
My advice to anyone that hosts: Don’t bring your own writers if you want people to love you. That was one thing I thought that Conan O’Brien was very smart about, because he has a staff of writers downstairs but he didn’t bring anybody, he came up here and put himself in our hands, which was a good move. Sometimes people with a large entourage can be difficult. It’s difficult when a host will have like a publicist in their ear telling them what’s funny. That always seems like bad news when you go down to talk to the host in their dressing room and you’re talking through a publicist.
Comedy people are hard sometimes, because they have their own kind of comedy that they do and they can be very resistant to what they will and won’t do. I think they’re usually my least favorite. A host who actually writes on the scripts and hands it back to the writer is usually bad news.
JAMES DOWNEY:
It was ironic when Jerry Seinfeld came, because some of the people he brought used to work here at the show. I can tell you that that approach has a terrible track record. I mean, almost without exception, when they bring writers along their stuff doesn’t get on. We will have the read-through without there being any kind of prejudice against them. It’s just that often they write stuff that eats it.
HORATIO SANZ:
Tom Green brought in a few of his own writers and was kind of more preoccupied with his image as a guy who doesn’t give a fuck. And the show I think suffered.
JON STEWART, Host:
It was the first time I’d been asked to host, and I jumped at it immediately. I didn’t bring any of my own writers with me; they’ve got plenty. They’re very, very talented people over there who already know their thing, and hopefully I went into it thinking I’d bring a little something to the process and shape it in a way that would give this show a little different flavor than it had the week before. We had a great time doing all that stuff. It’s a very collaborative environment. I really had just a mind-blowing good time.
I thought the process that they used to hone material was really smart. The way the show came into focus makes complete sense. It’s very linear, it’s not arbitrary. There’s obviously politics associated with any organization, especially one that’s been alive for that long. As the host you obviously are a guest, and it’s a different atmosphere. But when you’re around some place for a week, you can pick up what’s what and who’s what and where’s what and that kind of shit.
CHRIS KATTAN:
When people recognize you for the first time, it’s really a shock. And especially when you’re like in a restaurant somewhere