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(#12) Marc Maron
- 55
SNL has turned down plenty of people who then went on to have successful comedy careers anyway, like standup comedian and podcaster Marc Maron. But according to Maron, he lost out on SNL for the pettiest of reasons: He took a piece of candy from Michaels's desk.
In 1995, Michaels considered hiring Maron to host the "Weekend Update" segment. By Maron's telling, the interview didn't go well at all. He showed up to the meeting stoned. He felt slighted by comments Michaels made about the Luna Lounge, a nightclub where he performed, and Maron made an ill-advised joke about monkey droppings. But worst of all, Maron took a Jolly Rancher from a bowl on Michaels's desk. Maron believed that Michaels put candy on his desk as a test to see if a potential candidate was worthy of the job. Maron left the interview thinking that candy had ruined his career.
Years later, Maron interviewed Michaels on his podcast, WTF and learned that Michaels had a completely different recollection of the meeting. First of all, the candies on his desk were Tootsie Rolls, not Jolly Ranchers, and the "candy test" was a figment of Maron's imagination. Michaels also explained why he didn't hire him. It wasn't because he didn't believe in Maron's talent. It was simply a matter of TV production. The show was in a period of transition and was receiving criticism from both critics and network executives. Ultimately, Michaels just couldn't find a spot for Maron in the lineup.
After years of building up Michaels as a villain in his mind, Maron was finally able to let it go.
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(#9) Victoria Jackson
- 59
SNL is known for hiring comedians of all stripes, and not just sketch comedy specialists. Victoria Jackson got the chance to audition in 1986 after producers saw her standup comedy routine in which she stood on her head and recited poetry. Making her audition even more challenging, she was given just one day to prepare. She'd just given birth three months earlier. And finally, when Jackson flew to New York, the airline lost the ukulele that was central to her routine.
Jackson showed up for the audition wearing a French maid outfit she often wore during standup. Lorne Michaels liked her performance, but was hesitant to hire her because she didn't do celebrity impressions, and she didn't get the job. But soon after, she saw an opportunity to change Michaels's mind. She had been scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and asked Carson's producers if she could try out some new impressions as a sort of extended audition. They agreed, so long as she didn't name the show she was auditioning for. She spent two weeks practicing impersonations like Edith Bunker, Teri Garr, and Tina Turner, and performed them on the show. It worked, and Michaels gave her the job.
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(#5) Kenan Thompson
- 40
Kenan Thompson went into his SNL audition in a stronger position than most, since he'd already starred on a sketch comedy TV show in Nickelodeon's All That. It still took him three years of submitting tapes to finally get an audition in 2003. Then, when he finally got in front of Michaels, he didn't feel like he made the best impression. Thompson was required to do standup comedy, which isn't his strong suit. To showcase his celebrity impression skills, Thompson then did a scene that involved the Reverend Al Sharpton having a phone conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about budgets in Harlem.
Thompson still doesn't think the scene was very good, but it was enough to get him the job. He would go on to become SNL's longest-tenured cast member - 17 seasons and counting - and even ended up playing Sharpton on the show.
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(#7) Chevy Chase
- 75
When a performer hears they'll be auditioning for SNL, they typically spend as much time as possible polishing their material to give themselves their best chance. But for the show's inaugural cast in 1975, things were a lot more loose. According to Chevy Chase, Michaels brought all the prospective cast members to a room with a desk in Studio 8H and told them all to just sit down and do something. Since Chase had a background in political satire, with experience writing for Mad magazine and The National Lampoon, he opted to a faux-news style piece about a strange story involving then-president Gerald Ford. Chase thinks this audition gave Michaels the inspiration to create "Weekend Update," of which Chase was the first anchor.
But Chase also thinks his audition was only part of the reason why Michaels hired him. Never known for modesty, Chase told The New York Times, "It was pretty clear that I was a funny guy, just as a guy. I was taller than everybody, and very handsome. [Laughs.] It was a good choice, really."
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(#2) Molly Shannon
- 54
Molly Shannon moved to Los Angeles after graduating from NYU's drama school to pursue comedy. She had previously auditioned for SNL and never heard back, so she kept honing her craft and her characters until she got another opportunity. When that opportunity arrived, the audition coordinator told her not to use one of her strongest characters. "Whatever you do, please don't do that Mary Katherine Gallagher character. You'll never get hired. Lorne won't like that, he'll think it's disgusting and dirty," the coordinator apparently said. Shannon ended up heeding the advice and didn't do the character, but the rest of her audition went so well that she didn't even mind being mugged in Tribeca later that night.
Luckily for us, once Shannon got the job, she did manage to convince Michaels to give the armpit-smelling Catholic schoolgirl a shot. The character would end up being one of Shannon's most popular.
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(#10) Kristen Wiig
- 45
Kristen Wiig was understandably anxious when she got the opportunity to audition, and she channeled that anxiety into being as prepared as possible. Her manager advised her to prepare only five minutes of material, and she rehearsed and rehearsed until she was at exactly five minutes. Later, she found out that others who auditioned had gone as long as 11 minutes without being penalized.
Wiig did well enough in her audition to get a brief conversation with Michaels and producers in his office. But while Michael was telling her a story about Chevy Chase, Wiig was fixated on the large fish tank in Michaels's office. She doesn't remember anything else from that chat.
Ultimately, Wiig got the job, and many of the characters Wiig auditioned with ended up on the show, including the movie critic Aunt Linda and the Target Lady. Wiig also auditioned with an impression of former Today co-host Jane Pauley. She thinks all of these characters cemented her status as "the cast member who always played older women with short hair."
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About This Tool
For nearly 4 decades, Saturday Night Live has been the most influential TV show that continues to produce comedy stars, and it has also become the beginning of the career of outstanding comedians such as Dana Carvey, Jimmy Fallon, and Kristen Wiig. Although the SNL cast members have different backgrounds and experiences, there is only one way to get on this NBC show, to impress Lorne Michaels through auditions.
Lorne Michaels and his colleagues spent lots of time looking for talented comedians in impromptu comedy theaters and clubs across the country for Saturday Night Live. There are random 12 SNL actors who shared their interesting audition stories.
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