-Is it alright, sitting back like this?
Too casual, too...?
The first time I auditioned, I remember walking
underneath all these pipes that you've seen,
you know, in sketches, whenever they do backstage things.
I go, "This is really surreal."
Like I was here once before.
My Uncle George, when he played Norm on "Cheers"
and he hosted the finale of 1991,
so I got to come watch that show
and so this was the second time I got to be,
you know, in the space and here it was,
you know, 12 years later, a dozen years later.
And then turn and then there's the stage
and the brass are sitting there at a table
and you're just doing it, but to no laughs.
You're like, "Ah, [bleep] Alright, okay."
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
I guess it was like August 2003,
I was doing a Second City show in Las Vegas at the Flamingo.
We were performing for no one.
We were doing shows for like eight people.
I remember Jeff Richmond,
Tina Fey's husband, who did music here
for many moons, I remember him saying to me, he was like,
"Would you ever want to audition for 'Saturday Night Live'"?
And I was like, "I don't know. Why? No. Why?"
You know, and the way I've always said it,
it's like the prettiest girl at school,
you know, you're like, "Oh, I hate her,"
and then like, "Oh, that's too bad.
She has a crush on you." "Really?!"
The first time I auditioned was
at Stand Up NY.
There was 12 guys. A guy named Rob Riggle.
-Rob Riggle. -J.B. Smoove.
-Aah! -Finesse Mitchell.
-[ Crying ] "SNL" sold me out."
-Kenan, who got hired at that time.
-Yeah, my name is Kenan Thompson. How y'all doing?
-But then, I get up to go do my thing
and, right before I go up, Chris Rock;
and Jeff Ross, you know, the RoastMaster General,
come walking in and then, the guy hosting the thing
was like, "We got a special surprise for you.
Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Chris Rock!"
And Chris looks at me [ Laughing ] and he goes,
"Was this your big shot, man?"
I go, "Yeah, kinda." He goes, "Sorry,"
and then he goes out there, you know, the place goes nuts.
Then the guy onstage is like, "Ladies and gentlemen,
put your hands together. Next comic, Jason "Sudehkis."
You know, I go up there. I said,
"It's actually pronounced 'Sudaykis,'
not that anybody cares, but,
alright, here we go." It went well.
It felt like it went well. Got done with that and then,
we got a call the next day, saying, "Hey,
they're going to ask you to test,"
and then did the same thing
at home base here.
I mean, it was, you know, surreal.
Alright. Jason Sudei--
[ Laughter ] Yeah, Jason Sudeikis.
And then got on a flight, went home, found out
a week later, "They want to fly you back to meet Lorne."
I sit down. He sits next to me and goes --
[ As Michaels ] So, what era of the show did you grow up with?
And I just blanked. And I said,
"I really loved Eddie Murphy."
Now, sure, I picked the one famous dude that guy didn't hire
and he gets the sense that I'm not a fan of the show,
and he has this great line where he just goes --
[ As Michaels ] Oh, don't worry. I didn't watch the show
when I didn't work on it, either.
[ Laughs ]
One of the first times that that dude
bailed me out of my own [bleep]
Later that night, we got a call from Steve Higgins, saying,
"Hey, we're going to hire you as a writer."
I'm like, "[Bleep] I blew it."
[ Laughs ]
I was confused because I had just figured out how
to write for myself.
I had imposter syndrome.
And Tina, she was a hero of mine at Second City.
She was like, you know, "If you can improvise, you can write."
And then her other piece of advice was like,
"Don't write anything for someone in the cast
that you could do yourself."
At this point, she was on "Update,"
so she had walked that path herself.
It was a learning process of how to develop my voice,
but have it come out through other people
and I got lucky.
I had two sketches on my first two weeks,
one with Jack Black.
And then, the second week was Justin Timberlake,
the first time he hosted, and I wrote this sketch,
it was a parody of "Punk'd." -I know I am.
I'm Ashton Kutcher. I'm awesome!
-And Timberlake just crushed. And so I was like two for two.
Then, Week 3, I think I got to write with Robert Smigel
and write a thing for my Uncle George
to play the Superfans.
-♪ Come on, babe, why don't we paint the town? ♪
-But it was like kind of like
I landed and dropped in
and just off to the races.
Hi, I'm a I'm a big fan
of your new sitcom, "Hope & Faith."
-Oh, wow! Thank you!
-Yeah, no. I was just kidding.
And then, I went like 10 weeks with jack [bleep]
I loved the rewrite table.
The rewrite table was the best.
It was like joking around with friends
and you get to, you know, mumble like a joke pitch
under my mouth and Tina would be like, [ Snaps fingers ]
"What was that? That's great.
Okay, we're going with that." You know, like,
"Alright. Oh, I'll be darned."
And again, the imposter syndrome was so prevalent,
it only helped fill the thing up to be like,
"You belong, you belong, you belong here."
And yet, at the same time,
when I'd have those lows, I'd be like,
"Why did I stop performing?
Why did I stop performing?"
So, after the first year and everything went decent,
then, the summer was off and then,
come back and I auditioned again.
George W. Bush doing an abbreviated
stump speech in Wisconsin.
[ As Bush ] It's nice to be around some Cheeseheads
that aren't in Washington.
[ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ]
-Don't get it. Then, I was asked to test
for "Weekend Update."
I'm Jason Sudeikis. -I'm Tina Fey
and here are tonight's top stories.
-And that was fun. Amy got it, Amy Poehler.
Again, no complaints.
And so, then, it was just right back into the writing thing.
And I'd get asked to play, you know,
like someone in the monologue
or like a cop in the background,
but, at some point, I remember there were like
five shows left my second season.
I asked Lorne if I could talk to him on Friday night.
You always want to hit him after dinner.
People have drinks at dinner.
I say, "Lorne, this has been
an amazing experience,
but I had to give up two things that I love the most,
and that was living with my wife and performing."
And he just looks at me. He's pouring water. He's just like --
[ As Michaels ] Well, if you had to choose one?
[ Laughs ] You know, and I was like --
And I just started laughing. And he goes --
[ As Michaels ] No, I understand.
And we just sort of left it there.
It was by no means me throwing down the gantlet, like,
"Hey, you put me in the cast or I --
I take my bad sketches
[ Laughing ] and I go elsewhere."
Now, that week also happened to coincide
with Tom Brady hosting.
John Lutz, Rich Talarico, and Joe Kelly,
we all wrote this "Behind the Music"
for the "Super Bowl Shuffle" for the '85 Bears
and, in that sketch, we were playing
all the white dudes on the Bears.
Tom Brady played Jim McMahon.
So the premise was that Jim McMahon,
they did the "Super Bowl Shuffle."
It was a huge success. Then, he tried
to do another one. Then he went solo.
And, when he went solo, I would just dance behind him.
And that same week, Beck was the musical guest.
He, for some reason, had a guy, like a hype man, next to him
and was just dancing buck wild, just going crazy,
so then I was like, "Oh, I'll just do my version of that,"
which is like doing all this '90s hip hop dance
that I knew how to do from being like one of the few white kids
on a predominantly Black basketball team
in my high school basketball days.
That sketch was in rehearsal.
So you had 20 dudes that were onstage,
who are now off stage, who are now watching me do this,
and I remember them all laughing.
I remember Lorne walking in.
It kind of became like a spotlight thing,
something a cast member should be doing,
which I totally agree with.
And so, then, Friday night meeting,
and they're talking about recasting that part
and Tina's like, "Well, who's going
to get those laughs?" So Lorne's like --
[ As Michaels ] Okay, we'll just have him do it.
So then, cut to Saturday.
My parents happen to be there.
-♪ Struttin' for fun ♪
♪ Struttin' my stuff ♪
♪ For everyone ♪
-Cut to, you know, two weeks off.
I get a call. It's Lorne's office.
"Lorne wants to talk to you."
I was like, "Okay."
I wait like 30 minutes. I'm kind of like,
"What's going on?" What's going on?"
And I call and he's like, you know --
[ As Michaels ] So, we want to put you in the cast
and, um, you know,
just write anything you think you can score on."
You know, I was like, "Okay."
[ As Michaels ] Okay. That's it. Bye.
There's three episodes left and it's just like, "Alright."
I was like, "Thank you for changing my life."
♪♪
So, yeah, that's how I ended up in the cast.
It's that same friggin' dancing
that people love from "What Up with That?"
It's the same friggin' dance that I did as a 16-year-old kid,
trying to make my teammates laugh.
It's like, you know.
So, leaving here, I was maybe going to leave in 2012,
when Kristen and Andy left.
I wasn't sure and I wasn't sure that night
and that was really, really hard because, one, I'm saying goodbye
to friends, people that I had, you know,
grown up with, you know, at that point,
a, you know, quarter of my life.
We're all very close and connected,
and especially Kristen and I.
Having to say goodbye to that friend
on live television, it was a lot.
And, again, not knowing if I was going to go,
but it just -- ah!
So then, ended up deciding to come back for 2012-2013.
Our group was leaving. You know, I knew Seth was going
to be leaving. Fred was leaving.
I knew Bill was leaving and I knew I was leaving.
I just didn't really tell anybody.
It was like, "Who's going to be across the table?"
And I didn't want to be a bad upperclassman,
a [bleep] senior, being like, "It was better this."
Cynicism, it's a currency we spend here,
but is not one that has a great exchange rate.
And I wrote a sketch, kind of a goodbye sketch.
It was like where I play the strip club DJ and it was --
[ Raspy voice ] His last night there. Now, we gonna head out.
Going to miss the hell out of all you dummies
and, if I could do it all over again,
I wouldn't change a thing.
So long!
And it didn't get picked.
It didn't get picked for the final show.
So, it was just like,
"Oh, son of a bitch."
I wish I would've just been a writer the whole time,
you know. [ Laughs ]
And so, yeah, I left.
♪♪
To get to work here 10 years, in the rearview mirror,
I feel like I nailed the entry and the exit for me
because I got to learn the place as a writer, first and foremost.
I was just, you know, trying to keep my head above water
and keep up with what I would argue is one
of the greatest generations
of cast and writers that the show has had
and I was just so lucky to get to be at that table, yeah.
This place changed my life twice, twice.
Once, as a cast member, as a writer here.
But, most importantly, as a kid, watching from home, you know.
And I'll tell you this -- if this is your first time
watching this show, well, I mean,
well, this one probably won't change your life, you know?
But we got a great show for you tonight.
Brandi Carlile is here!
So stick around. We'll be right back.
♪♪