Live From New York - James H. Miller [286]
STEVE MARTIN, Host:
I think I understand him. I never found him inscrutable. I hear it sometimes said about myself. When you’re dealing with all different kinds of people all day, and everyone has a goal toward you, a lot of times you don’t fulfill their goal, and then they think, “Oh, uncommunicative,” when really it’s just that there’s no time to fill everyone’s goal. Lorne hasn’t changed that much. He’s Lorne. He’s always been a talker, always been kind of wise, always had an overview of how things work.
GWYNETH PALTROW, Host:
When I first met him, I was very intimidated by him. I’d never met such a Waspy-seeming Jew in my life. And I was like, where’s the “in,” you know? I didn’t get how to access him at all and I found him very intimidating. And then I sort of feel like I broke through and didn’t feel intimidated, and now it’s easy to be around him. I am very fond of him. I think he’s very smart and a very nice guy, and such a fan of comedy and talent. He’s really an amazing person.
The most interesting thing is to kind of be around people like Will Ferrell who talk about Lorne. He carries such weight for all these guys. And they sort of talk about him with love and fear, it’s like he stays with them in an extraordinary way. They tell stories of him being very encouraging while also kind of not letting them get a big head about where they are, kind of being discouraging at times in his effort to maintain the hierarchy there. And they’re always imitating him, constantly. Everyone imitates Lorne.
GARRETT MORRIS, Cast Member:
There’s this commercial with a guy sitting on top of a John Deere machine and the guy says, “How long does a John Deere last?” You know, they’re like a Maytag, nobody ever goes to repair these mother-fuckers, right? That commercial has always reminded me of Lorne. Nobody ever had to call the repairman on him.
I was lucky to work for a man like Lorne, who was a great guy and a genius. Two or three times I figured I should’ve been fired. It wasn’t that he was soft, he just dealt with his people a certain way. He knew I was totally dysfunctional. He accepted the responsibility of hiring me, whatever I was. But if you did something wrong he would tell you about it. He would cut me to pieces. It wouldn’t take him long to cut you down either — about a minute and a half and I was crawling back to the dressing room. Lorne dug me with all of my flaws, I dig him with all of his. I’m still a Lorne Michaels man.
TOM SCHILLER, Writer:
I don’t hold anything against Lorne at all. I think he’s a shrewd businessman. He realized his dream. He has the power to galvanize people around him who can help him realize his dream, he can make you very excited about the possibilities of exploring your own creativity, and he can get you going. He’s good at that.
I was friends with him for a while, but I haven’t spoken to him in years. I don’t think anyone can get really, totally close to him.
PAUL SHAFFER, Musician, Performer:
I don’t know if Lorne was standoffish. He was very good to me in that he let me participate in anything I wanted to. I could be right in there with him and Paul Simon and his inner circle anytime I wanted, and I was just the piano player. I was very impressed with that. So though I can’t say I was tight with him, he was really, really good to me by including me in the early days of the show.
CARRIE FISHER, Host:
Lorne was on my honeymoon, so by all rights I should know Lorne very, very well. He was always like Big Daddy, giving his little comedy treatises and lectures and explaining things to you about comedy. I was really young and I thought I had quite a bit to catch up on. I actually don’t know that I did, but that was the feeling I had, because most people were older than I was.
Lorne talks a lot. He’s an expert. He liked to warm to his topic. It used to be me and Paul and Lorne and his wife Susan in St. Bart’s. He was a little bit dignified, which was funny in combination with Paul’s a lot of bit dignified. But they are very close friends. They’ve been the closest