But from ‘90 to ‘93, we still had Phil Hartman and Mike Myers and that era. And then we added in [what] we used to call the junior varsity—Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Ellen Cleghorne. And so I felt like for a period of time there, the show could do “Sprockets” or “Hans and Franz” or Jack Handey or “Toonces the Driving Cat,” or Farley would do something where he flies across the room or Sandler would sing a song. I felt like the show had an inordinate amount of firepower, if it’s a military analogy. So I look at that, and I was just part of that. But it did feel like, when those guys were coming into their own and we still had the other team who’d been there a while, it was pretty magic to be there.
Okay. If you had to name the single funniest cast member who’s been on the show…
The funniest? And that’s on the show, not backstage.
Yeah, on the show.
Let me just think for a minute. That’s like, then you make like 200 people mad, right?
It’s only like 150 people.
That kind of opinion just changes all the time. I think that Farley was the most uniquely explosive. It wasn’t like he had an eight year run with tons of multiple characters, but Farley doing “In a van down by the river…” was the most explosively funny thing. You would never want your sketch to come on after that. Full Farley in the moment was an unstoppable force physically, verbally. Pulling up his pants. When Chris was in that sketch, I thought, This is one of the funniest and most powerful things ever done in 8H.
What was your favorite sketch that you were in?
My favorite, for me personally, was when I was doing Johnny Carson with Phil Hartman as Ed McMahon. And the reason it’s my favorite is because I truly love the character that I was able to create out of Johnny Carson. I did not care if the audience laughed. I wanted them to laugh. But I knew that Johnny in that moment, and then being with Phil as the release button as Ed McMahon—it was just a favorite. And I run into people who are heroes of mine or I admire so much, like Martin Short—that’s his favorite thing maybe ever on the show. I have a bunch that I did really, really like, but that was probably my favorite. It also is Phil, I’d be sentimental about that, but working with Phil was always so much fun.
What about the best sketch that you worked on that didn’t make it to air?
Usually they were cut for a reason. I felt like they just didn’t work well enough to be on air. But there were probably some esoteric ones, some Jack Handey ones or things like that that were like a “comedian’s comedian” kind of comedy, that were cut.
What do you remember about your audition, and how did you celebrate once you were cast?
It was a process. In the eighties I was doing standup, and I was doing these goofy TV shows, and I was starting to do sketch or characters as a standup, and it was very difficult for me. But I auditioned three times, usually at cattle calls. And then when it came around again in ‘86, they were looking for new cast members. And my manager knew Lorne Michaels. Lorne was in town, so Lorne was going to come see me, and I knew I wouldn’t want to do it at the Comedy Store or The Improv.
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