Live From New York - James H. Miller [290]
He’s just a great character. There’s a great rhythm about him. He’s so fun to listen to. He’ll go on and on. He’ll come up with the weirdest way of looking at things, but we were like his children in a way. He would look down and say, “Kevin’s going to do that third-year thing where he asks, ‘Who am I in the cast?’ Danny went through the same thing. You’re going through like that Chevy first-year shall-I-stay? kind of thing.” It was great.
FRED WOLF:
Farley looked at Lorne as the ruling patriarch. He goofed off to get his attention and then, when he got his attention and was chastised for it, he would be quiet for days, then furious at him. Chris got away with a lot because he was a really likable guy. But Lorne treated him differently than he treated, say, Dennis Miller or Dana Carvey or Mike Myers.
BOB ODENKIRK, Writer:
Chris Farley came up to me once and he was almost crying. He was in his second month at the show and he said, “I don’t get what’s going on. Every time I do a bad job, Lorne comes up to me and tells me I just did great, and every time I kill, he comes up to me and says, ‘You could work a little harder, you could’ve done that better.’” Chris’s head was spinning.
But if you want to know the greatest thing I ever saw Lorne do, it was the way he wound up treating Chris. I think Lorne was determined not to have what happened to Belushi happen to Chris on his watch. And it seemed to me that Lorne very seriously put it to Chris — every time Chris messed up, he had to go get cleaned up before he could come back on the show. And Lorne seemed to do that even to the detriment of the show, which is to say, he would take Chris off the show even on the Thursday before a show. Lorne really made Chris think about what he was doing, ’cause the most important thing to Chris in the world was performing on that show. That was the goal of his life. And Lorne knew it. And Lorne took it away from him multiple times and forced him to go to rehab. I don’t think he ever let Chris slide. And I think that was a great, great thing. An amazing thing, and something I haven’t seen anyone else do.
MARCI KLEIN, Coproducer:
Sometimes, right before they say “Live,” like right before the show starts, when the music is playing, but before the host comes out, I get — it’s so pathetic — I start getting misty-eyed and all emotional, because I just can’t believe I’m doing this job. I can’t believe how much I like this show.
And Lorne gets the same way. That’s the moment when I see him get the most excited. I’ll look over at him, and his eyes will be popped open, and he’ll get on his toes to look out, and he’ll be mouthing the intros, and he’s just so excited.
MOLLY SHANNON, Cast Member:
I did a Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch with Mike Myers and Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, and there was like a brick wall, really balsa wood painted to look like brick, and the stunt people cut the wood so you could break through it fairly easily. But they didn’t have enough time to stack the balsa-wood fake bricks and the sketch was starting and I went like, “Oh no, that’s the wall I’m supposed to break through, and it’s not ready, what am I going to do?” And it was like, “Nine, eight, seven, six… .” Oh God, oh shit, the whole sketch — and then Lorne just appeared behind the other side and looked at me like, “Don’t let this goof you up. Just do it. Go ahead.” And I was just like, “Wow,” it helped me a lot that he was there. Stuff like that sort of fuels your performance. And that little private