Live From New York - James H. Miller [287]
CONAN O’BRIEN, Writer:
Robert Smigel and I were working on this silly pilot for Lorne called “Lookwell,” and one night he said, “Let’s have dinner and talk it over.” So we go to the restaurant and Lorne’s there and he’s eating a bread stick. And we sit down and he says, “Some friends are going to join us,” and I said, “Fine.” And we’re sitting there for five minutes, and all of a sudden I hear over my shoulder, “What’s goin’ on?” And I turn around, and it’s Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda! And they come over and sit down!
Now if you asked me who I would most want to meet in the world, it’s like — well, John Lennon’s dead, so I guess Paul McCartney, you know? And now he’s sitting right there! So I’m trying to recover while they sit down, and Lorne is gesturing with this bread stick and he goes like, “We’ve been talking about a TV pilot. Conan, tell them what it’s about.” And my mind is just frozen. I’ve just suddenly been handed this ball and I’m completely frozen. Lorne’s eating a bread stick and I’m thinking, “Why do I have to talk?”
That was a huge night for me. I’m a huge Beatles fan. And I had never met a Beatle. But for Lorne it was just another night, just another dinner.
ELLIOT WALD, Writer:
Lorne’s had an enormous amount of success and he lives very well. Someone once said if he had his way, the show would be “Live from St. Bart’s.”
HOWARD SHORE, Music Director:
Lorne and I were much more equal when the show began; we started to become less equal as the show progressed. He became much more the producer and I became just the music director. But it didn’t start out that way.
TOM DAVIS:
Lorne a snob? Sure he’s a snob. He’s a starfucker of the highest order. And all of his close friends know it too. But you just have to get past it. He has a very sweet side. He also, in my opinion, does reward the squeaky wheels — which I sort of resented personally, because I always stuck up for him when he wasn’t around. I’m very loyal. Meanwhile, the people who created problems, criticized him in the press, and stuff like that seemed to be rewarded for it, whereas someone like me, who was more protective of him, didn’t seem to get the reward. That’s the way I interpreted my own personal experience.
I always wanted to be Lorne’s friend — in the way that Dan Aykroyd is my pal and Bill Murray is my friend. It just never quite worked out. I think part of it might have been smoking dope in the office. He did then; he doesn’t now that he has kids.
I was closest to Lorne in the fourth and fifth year. It was the peak of my influence in the show. And I have great affection for Lorne. I sometimes wish that we were closer. But you know, it’s business. He’s one of my business associates. And some people become close pals, and with other people it’s just a business thing.
ROBIN WILLIAMS, Host:
Lorne has that Hotel Algonquin thing going on, filled with all the people he knows and has made and has been around. Kind of like the grand guru of comedy. “Look at what has occurred under my reign” — Emperor Lorne. Careful now — I’ll be fucked for life. Be not afraid of him, he knows not where you live now, you’re free, boy! He made Kids in the Hall, what else can you say? Came from Canada, a frostback, not knowing why, a boy with a vision, a vision in comedy, and then ending up at Brillstein-Grey, and the rest is history.
He likes to schmooze. You come into a meeting with Lorne and he’ll tell you how many times he’s seen Jack Nicholson that week. It was like, “I was just out with Jack.” “Oh, you mean Onassis?” “No! That’s Jack-ee, boy.”
PENNY MARSHALL, Guest Performer:
My mother always said she wanted her ashes spread over Broadway, because she was a tap dancing teacher