Andrew Dismukes SNL 50

Variety

Famous hosts, musical guests and “Saturday Night Live” alumni turned out in full force for Sunday’s “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” tribute.

Transcript

00:00What is it like to be on the cast during this landmark year, and like, can you walk me through your week?

00:04Because I think we're curious, like, how does this all come together?

00:08Um, I mean, it's been pretty chill for me.

00:11They've just been bringing us in and out for rehearsals.

00:13The writers have had the really hard time.

00:15They've been, like, working 24 hours a day for the last, like, seven days.

00:19And it's cool. It's very much like an episode of SNL, where, like, everything's kind of still coming together to the last minute.

00:25They're rewriting stuff up to the last minute.

00:28So it's been kind of the same, but just with way more famous people and celebrities, yeah.

00:32Have you gotten any time with any of these SNL greats, like, to pick their brain at all?

00:37I played some basketball with Adam Sandler a couple days ago.

00:40That was awesome. We talked a little bit about stuff, but mostly we just hooped, you know?

00:45But that was really fun.

00:47And how is he on the court?

00:48He's crazy. He, I mean, he's, you know, he dimes you up.

00:51He's unselfish. He's an assist man.

00:53It was a lot of fun.

00:55Can you give us any sort of hint as to what we might be seeing tonight?

00:58You know, it's a lot of old sketches with the original people in those sketches,

01:03as well as some other people from different casts.

01:06It's a lot of mixing casts together to do, like, the iconic old sketches.

01:10So people are going to see a lot of stuff they love with, like, some new faces.

01:13One thing I'm asking almost everybody is,

01:16do you have a sketch that did not make it to air that you're still angry about?

01:21Yeah, I have a few.

01:23I'm trying to think of one that would be appropriate.

01:25Most of them don't get on because they're like, we can't do that.

01:28That's wildly inappropriate.

01:31I wrote a lot with Beck Bennett, where it would kill at the table and then would not get picked.

01:37So any of my sketches with Beck that didn't get picked would be my choice.

01:42One of the things that's deep in SNL lore is dealing with the censorship woman.

01:47Have you had any notable run-ins with that?

01:50I did. I did a sketch my first year when I was a writer that had a phallic joke in it.

01:59And it got a big laugh, but then she came storming in through the doors and was like,

02:04we can't do that. And we were like, OK, OK, OK.

02:07But she's great. She does a great job, but you can't get anything by her.

02:11She's she's sharp. Yeah.

02:12Is there something that you didn't think would work that ended up being a big triumph that you were surprised by?

02:18I mean, really, any of my, you know, we did a sketch when I was a writer with Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett

02:26called Del Taco Shoot. That was a very goofy, very weird, very wacky idea.

02:32And it killed. And I was very surprised that it killed as hard as it did.

02:36But it's one of my favorites. Who's been like during your tenure, the most surprisingly great host?

02:43Surprisingly great.

02:45You know, I think any time like a really serious actor comes in who's maybe not necessarily known for comedy,

02:51they usually are really great. So like Austin Butler was really great.

02:56Ryan Gosling, who now is obviously very funny, but he's Adam Driver.

03:02I think Adam Driver is one of the best hosts we've ever had.

03:06But you wouldn't necessarily think of comedy with him, but he crushes it every time.

03:10Is there a piece of advice that you've gotten from Lorne Michaels that you cherish or that you've taken like throughout the years?

03:17You know, he does a really good job of relaxing you and like lowering the stakes kind of.

03:23I think on camera he kind of has always just told me to like breathe, relax, just be yourself.

03:28He's very much encourages you to like just be you out there and don't feel like you have to overperform,

03:36like be charming and be yourself is kind of the thing he always says.

03:39And he's right. People also can say that Lorne can sometimes be brutal when things bomb.

03:45Do you have like any like the funniest note you've gotten from him or one of those types of moments?

03:49I wrote a sketch with Will Steven, who is a writer on the show, and it bombed.

03:54It did terrible. And we were like under the bleachers watching it with Lorne.

03:59And the sketch ended, got no laughs. And Lorne just turned to us slowly and went.

04:03The problem is there just aren't any funny jokes. And we were like, OK, yeah, that is bad.

04:09We do need some funny jokes in there.

04:11What does he think of everybody? Everybody who's ever worked on the show has an impression of him.

04:14Like what is what does he think of that?

04:17I don't know. And sometimes I do it pretty cavalierly and I worry that he is like silently resenting me for doing it.

04:24But I feel like he's got to like it. Everybody does one. He's got to like it.

04:27Who do you think does the best Lorne?

04:30My buddy James Austin Johnson does a pretty good one.

04:32But the one that Bill Hader does where it's like Lorne talking about serial killers is pretty great.

04:37Yeah. My last question, if you could plop yourself into any classic SNL sketch, what would you put yourself in?

04:46Oh, I mean, any Will Forte sketch.

04:49I'm a huge Will Forte fan. Maybe potato chip or the Falconer.

04:53Any of those. I would love to have gotten to work with Will Forte.

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