-Welcome to the show.
I'm so happy to have you on. -Thank you, Jimmy.
I'm so happy to be here.
-I've seen you at "SNL," I've seen you in the hallways,
but I've never had you as a guest and I'm --
-And you've never said a word to me.
-I know.
I like to keep it really cool,
keep the mystique happening.
But, finally, you're here.
How's the week going with Quinta?
-It's going great.
I think it's going to be a really great show.
Quinta is so funny, so talented.
We had table read yesterday. -Good.
-I think she's got it on lock. -Yeah, yeah. Good.
And how about you? Let's talk about you.
-Quinta is going to have a really great show.
-Yeah.
-She's going to be amazing. Yeah, yeah.
I think it'll be fun for me. I'll be in the show for sure.
We have a pretty big cast.
-Do you know, when I was on the show,
when I was a featured player,
they had a rule that if you weren't in the show,
they would take you even out of the credits.
-That is messed up.
-So I would call my mom like, "I'm not in the show at all.
Like I'm not even in the credits."
-I hate that for you. -Like, "Jimmy Fallon."
I wasn't even -- -Like, they skipped right to --
-No, they skipped right over that.
-To the "G" last names? -Exactly. Yeah. Completely.
It was rough.
-My mom called me a few weeks ago
in the middle of the show and was like,
"Hey, did you not go to work tonight?
I don't see you."
-Oh, my God. It's rough. It's rough, man.
-I said, "I'm here. -"Yeah, I'm here.
I'm just not in the show at all."
-But at least I'm in the credits.
-Oh, yeah, yeah.
At least you got the credits. -Fooled her.
That's the thing about it, though.
The credits -- if you're not in the credits,
your mom knows not to expect you in the show.
-Yeah. Then she's like, "This is the best episode I ever saw."
You go, "Hey, I'm not in it." Yeah.
I was talking to you backstage.
Because it was, like, a kind of a sports-themed night.
We're talking about March Madness.
And I said, "Did you play any sports?"
You played a little basketball?
-I was going to say, I played a little ballet.
Yes, I was a ballerina for 10 years,
but I played a little basketball.
I had a short-lived basketball career.
-How short was it? -It was three games.
-There you go. -Yeah.
-That counts. -Exactly three games long.
So, I have to get this off of my chest.
So, back in L.A., when I was coming up in improv,
there was this all-female basketball league,
and a lot of the sketch and improv players
were on this team and on this league, right?
And it was highly coveted to be in one of the teams, right?
But there were no spots. There were never spots.
And it was like, "Darn, you missed out."
So, a spot opened up, and everyone was e-mailing,
being like, "I want in, I want in."
I e-mailed.
I got a response immediately that's like, "We want you."
And I have to believe it's because I'm black.
I think they thought I'd be good at basketball.
But here's the thing.
I also thought I'd be good at basketball because I'm black.
Don't work that way.
It don't work that way. -It doesn't work -- No.
-Turns out it don't work that way.
-Do you know anything about basketball?
-I know what traveling is.
-Oh, my gosh. Doesn't count.
-The very first game, the other team,
I saw them sort of size me up like,
"Oh, shoot, The Traveling Pants have --"
That was our team name, Traveling Pants.
But we weren't Traveling because we know that's not allowed.
-Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Good. You know that.
-So, the other team, I saw them size me up like,
"Oh, shoot, they got a, like, tallish black girl.
We're going to have to look out for her," right?
First play happens.
I'm assuming that's what it's called.
And I get out on the court.
This is real. -"First play."
-Is that not what it's -- Tell me.
-No. -Okay. Very cool. Alright.
I really don't know what I'm talking about.
So, I get out on the court,
and the first whatever it's called happens
and the ref starts screaming at me to get out of the paint.
And I look at the court, and I'm like,
"This whole thing is painted.
What is the paint?"
-There's nothing but paint. Where do I go?
Am I traveling? -Right. This is years later.
I still don't know what the paint is.
-Okay.
-I don't know what the paint is,
because, truly, the whole thing is painted.
Or is that real wood? -Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah.
-Okay. -The paint is under the rim.
-Okay. Okay. Okay.
Because I've heard songs like, "I go hard in the paint,"
and I was just like, "Yeah, cool."
I didn't know what it meant. But now I know.
Okay, it's under the rim.
So, anyway, I mean, people were guarding me, like, arms up,
and my arms were up, too,
but mine meant like "I surrender.
I am not a threat.
I'm not a threat."
I remember, like, being wide open,
because everyone realized very quickly,
I don't know what I'm doing.
-Yeah.
-"Actually, don't worry about the black girl."
-No one was guarding you? -Nobody was guarding me.
And my team -- my teammate had the ball
and needed to pass it to someone,
and I was the only one who was open.
Arms were still up, and I was like, "Don't do that.
Please don't do that.
Please don't do that."
-Could I tell you about you're having such a fantastic season
on "Saturday Night Live."
I think I told -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. Thank you. -Really. Fantastic.
-Thank you.
-The sketch I remember I was e-mailing a bunch of --
you know, Higgins and our friends over at "SNL."
I said, "There's that sketch last night,
'Lisa from Temecula,'" where you were cutting --
you were cutting the steak on the table,
and the table was shaking.
Dude, it was unbelievably funny.
It made me laugh out loud. I go, "What is going on?"
I know those people that kind of cut too much,
and the whole table is shaking.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Walk me through it.
Did you -- Do you know someone who did this?
-You know, I used to be a Lisa from Temecula,
except for I was an Ego from Baltimore.
I used to order my steaks well-done.
I got bullied out of it.
People bullied me enough -- I stopped doing that.
But Alex English,
who wrote this sketch alongside Gary Richardson,
another writer, and Michael Che -- people know --
his cousin is a Lisa from Temecula,
is not from Temecula.
I don't know if she knows it's about her,
so I might have blown his cover.
-Wow! Wow! It's happening.
-But it is about his cousin, who I guess he went to dinner
over one of our hiatuses,
and she had ordered her steak well-done.
It was kind of shaking the table.
Only thing is, no one said anything to her about it.
So I guess this was cathartic and healing for him.
-And did you know that in dress rehearsal --
Like, sometimes, you go, "Oh, I got a feeling
this is going to be a fun, big sketch."
-Well, okay, so, all week long,
we had thought it was going to be so exciting.
I mean, when we did it at table read,
I couldn't -- They had a steak delivered to me at table read,
and that doesn't happen.
And Mikey Day and I, by the way, have this bit
where he -- I think it's a bit.
I hope it's a bit.
Where he thinks I'm a diva.
And someone delivered a steak to me at our table read,
in the middle of our table read, and he saw it.
Like, he saw it and he was like, "What?!"
-"You really are a diva. Wow! My God."
-Right, right. Truly. So, the steak comes to me.
I'm doing it at table.
I can't get through the sketch at table read
because I'm laughing so much.
And then, every time we run it, I'm laughing
and can't really get through it.
And I thought, "How am I going to do this for the air show?"
Well, at dress rehearsal, it didn't go so well.
The table wasn't shaking.
I got a T-bone steak all of a sudden.
Can't can't saw through a T-Bone steak.
Not because it's well-done. There's a bone in the middle.
-Oh, my gosh. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, it was a -- Like, all week long,
everyone thought it was going to go well.
But I have this little theory that, like,
everyone thinking a sketch is going to kill on Saturday
is like the kiss of death.
I'm like, If everyone thinks it's going to kill,
it's going to tank.
And that did happen at dress rehearsal.
But then -- I don't know -- Lorne had faith in it,
and he brought it --
-And it went to air, and, man,
that was the best sketch of the year.
Congratulations, buddy. -Thank you.
-That was unbelievable.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
-Thank you for coming on the show.
Have a great show this weekend. Ego Nwodim.
"Saturday Night Live" returns this weekend
on NBC and Peacock the next day,
with host Quinta Brunson and musical guest Lil Yachty.
More "Tonight Show" after the break.
Stick around.