Our next guest is an Emmy-nominated writer
and comedian you know from his work on "Saturday Night Live,"
which airs this Saturday on NBC and streams live on Peacock
with host Pedro Pascal and musical guest Coldplay.
Please welcome to the show Andrew Dismukes, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome to the show. I'm so happy you're here.
-Thanks for having me, dude. I'm so excited.
-This is your first talk show.
I'm very excited to experience it with you.
-First talk show ever.
Everybody says you're the best one to do it with.
-Oh, well, thank you very much.
-Yeah. Sucking up immediately.
-Immediate suck-up. Well, there you go.
Now, I'm gonna not ask any of my gotcha questions.
-Yeah. Oh, that's your style. That's your mode.
-So you started on the show as a writer.
That's when I first met you. -Yes.
-Now you're a cast member. -Yeah.
-Do you remember your first experience
meeting Lorne Michaels?
I mean, feel like six years -- you might not feel like
you fully know him yet, but -- -Oh, no.
I talk to him -- I've talked to him maybe five times in my life.
No, no, he's -- The first time I met him --
I remember, like, it's in that meeting
that you know where it's, like, very cryptic
if you have the job or not.
And he asked me if I had any questions for him,
and I'm a huge Paul Simon fan.
So I asked him about Paul Simon.
He told me a lot about Paul Simon.
And he mentioned that him and Paul Simon
would go on these road trips to Central Louisiana,
where my family is from.
And so I mentioned that, and he was like,
"Oh, that's really cool, yeah. Beautiful part of the country."
Cut to a year later, Paul Simon's the musical guest,
and Lorne introduces me to Paul Simon and says,
"Andrew, this is Paul.
Paul, Andrew's from Central Louisiana
where we went on all those road trips."
And Paul was like, "Oh, that's great.
It's a really beautiful part of the country."
Then I was like, "Um, I'm actually from Texas...
[ Laughter ]
...but my family's from that area.
And it is a beautiful place.
And I also imagine it is a wonderful place to grow up."
[ Laughter ]
And Paul was like, "Okay, cool."
And then I turned to look at Lorne,
and Lorne is looking at me like...
"Could you just be chill, dude? Like...
I'm introducing you to my friend Paul,
and you're, like, big-doggin' me like..."
So I got to mend some fences. -Yeah. So, yeah.
Well, you know, give him another six years,
and I'm sure it will be back to normal.
-Yeah. We'll have five more conversations.
-Exactly. Did you remember your first table read?
Did you have nerves for that experience?
-I -- I did have nerves, but I pulled a move
that would make people think I was, like,
the most confident kid in the world
where I showed up to my very first table read in flip-flops.
-Uh-huh.
-Which apparently -- Not allowed.
[ Laughter ]
Not -- Not supposed to do that, I learned.
It was like -- I was kind of late to the table read.
So everybody was there. It was really quiet.
And then you just hear coming down the hallway..
Fip-fip-fip-fip-fip-fip.
and then I walk out, and I'm like, "Hey, everybody, it's me!
New writer!"
And I was, like, sitting at the table read
doing this really, like, douchey thing people do with flip-flops
where's it's, like, slapping against your bare foot
disgustingly.
And then the next day, I got a call from my manager
who was like, "Hey. How's your first week going?
Heard this crazy story.
Apparently -- Apparently you wore flip-flops?!
That's -- That's crazy, right?"
I was like, "Oh, yeah, I guess I did."
And she was like, "Okay. Can't do that.
Gotta wear shoes, bud. Can't have your feet out."
-It's so funny -- a place that has history
with some very hard drugs -- the line is no flip-flops.
-They're like, "Coke? Hell yeah.
Flops? Don't bring that here!"
-Your parents, as we've established,
from Louisiana, then raised you in Texas.
-Mm-hmm.
-Are they -- Is this something they saw for you?
Did they have an expectation
that you would want to go into comedy?
-I think, like -- You know, I got in trouble in school
and stuff for, like, talking a lot.
So that kind of -- -Dead giveaway.
-Yeah. But they were still surprised.
They were definitely surprised
when I said I wanted to go into comedy.
And then they were pleasantly surprised when I got "SNL."
That was kind of the thing where they were like,
"Oh, okay. So this is real." You know?
-Now, I remember my early years on the show.
It's very touch-and-go how often
you're gonna be in any given episode.
-Yes. -Have your parents ever been
to one and have they been to one where you're in a lot?
Have they been to one where you're in a little?
-They have been to almost exclusively ones
where I have not been in very much.
-Is that awkward?
-It's a little awkward just because, like,
they're in your dressing room,
and you're there, like, the whole time, you know?
And you're, like, watching the show,
and you're just like, "This one's really good."
You're like, "You gotta see this one.
Bowen is going off in this one, so you're going to like that."
But they're great, and they're always so excited.
-Do you have people in your hometown
who are impressed -- or maybe the opposite?
-So many of the people I grew up with
are, like, super supportive and great.
My favorite teacher that I ever had
is my French teacher in high school,
and he was just, like, this "Dead Poets Society" type,
had, like, a band of kids who, like, followed him around
and just thought he was, like, God.
And he would watch "SNL" every week,
and then on Sundays,
he would post, like, scathing takedowns of "SNL,"
just, like, 18th-century literary critic,
like, scathing takedowns of the show.
And we all loved "SNL," especially that era.
So every Monday, we would be like,
"Hey, did you watch the show? What did you think?"
And he just be like, "Garbage! Tripe!"
[ Laughter ]
But so when I got the show,
he did, like, comment and was like, "Congratulations.
I always knew you'd do it." That kind of thing.
-Oh, well, that's very nice. -Yeah.
He still hates the show, but, uh...
-That's alright. As is his right.
-As is his -- I would not respect him
if he switched up just because I'm on the show.
-You -- This is, I think -- My first year on the show,
one of the sketches I was in, I was in a full bear suit,
so you couldn't see me at all. -Yeah.
-And I was very proud of it.
You played a dog, but you were just the dog's hands.
-Yeah. The dog --
-So this is a dog who had human hands.
-Yeah, this is, like, my second year as a writer.
And fun fact -- This is --
I think this is the role that, like, got me into the unions.
[ Laughter ]
This was, like, the last punch on my S.A.G. card.
And, yeah, I was a dog's hands.
-And, by the way, you and the dog worked very well together.
-Yeah, we had chemistry.
-The more you look at it, you're like, "I believe that's..."
-It's just when you work with, like, you know, legends...
-Oh, so you knew this dog ahead of time.
-Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, I knew Gizmo.
Oh, I was familiar. This is me.
I'm in, like, a giant hoodie with this dog,
just, like, bear hugging him.
And I asked the writers.
I was like, "Why did y'all pick me to do this?"
Streeter Seidell and Mikey Day wrote this one,
and they were like, "We needed with somebody, like,
disproportionately long arms and, like, a crazy flat torso."
And they were like,
"Who's, like, the Ichabod Crane of 'SNL'"?
And that was me.
-Now, have you added that to your head shot
under special skills -- that you have a flat torso
and super-long arms? -Yeah, it's like,
"Horseback riding, flat torso, crazy long arms."
-Well, you're the actor for that, I will say.
Man, it's been so much fun watching you grow into the cast.
And like I said when I introduced you,
you were so great last Saturday.
Thanks for being here, buddy. -Thanks so much, dude.
-You guys, that's Andrew Dismukes.
"SNL" this Saturday on NBC streams live on Peacock
with host Pedro Pascal and musical guest Coldplay.
We'll be right back with Rian Johnson.