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What REALLY goes on behind the scenes of SNL UK? We sit down with the cast of SNL UK as they reveal the sheer chaos that goes into making the legendary live show, from last-minute rewrites (sometimes after the show has already started) to narrowly avoiding disaster during live sketches.They also reveal their SNL audition horror stories, and which comedy veterans have reached out since Season 1.From backstage chaos to live-show mishaps, the cast spill their biggest secrets in The Independent’s Trunk of Truth.

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Transcript
00:00What's crazy about this is...
00:02FING IT BURN!
00:04Sorry!
00:05It's basically when I'm doing that!
00:06That was in the dress. That was cut for time, that one.
00:08We all wear like adult nappies.
00:10That's why we have all these elaborate characters, because we're all...
00:12We're sh**ing.
00:13No, I- sorry, I'm not allowed to say that.
00:15It's not true.
00:16It's the cast of SNL UK!
00:18That's us.
00:19That's true.
00:19The best ones, and anyone.
00:20How are you guys doing today?
00:21Very good, thank you.
00:22Yes, I'm getting some intrigued looks about the trunk.
00:26So, this is my trunk of truth.
00:30Thank you for that.
00:31That's what we're meant to do.
00:32What the hell is that?
00:34I beg your pardon?
00:35Inside the trunk are questions you have to answer truthfully,
00:38because the trunk can tell when you're lying.
00:41Okay.
00:41It's about time we had a haunted trunk.
00:43Does it react? Does it do something when you lie?
00:45It will in the edit, yes.
00:47Who wants to go first?
00:48Trunk of truth.
00:49Trunk of truth.
00:51Which SNL legend would you be most terrified to perform a sketch in front of?
00:57Like, most of them, I guess.
00:59Yeah, like every last one.
01:01I mean, Fallon just arrived on set, and as I was doing my Weekend Update feature,
01:06I think it's fair to say he's famous for kind of, he's quite a generous laugher.
01:10He didn't laugh.
01:10Not a thing.
01:12That made me really...
01:13What a ****.
01:14No, no, no.
01:14Lovely man.
01:16Great taste.
01:17But that put the fear of God in me.
01:20Will Ferrell?
01:21Yeah, yeah, because...
01:23Though I think you'd be a very generous audience member.
01:25Will Ferrell or Amy Poehler, like any of that generation of...
01:28I would probably **** my damn pants.
01:30I mean, Tina was like...
01:31That was scary.
01:31That's the hardest one, because you're basically like...
01:33And now to try and be funny in front of, basically, the CEO of comedy.
01:38I received a really nice little message from Tina Fey after my Melania.
01:43Which was like...
01:44I love that.
01:46Amazing.
01:47How have I ever been friends with Jeffrey Epstein?
01:51It's just like a little message that was like, you know, great or something.
01:55I've been dining out on that for years.
01:57Yeah, I think this is my first dine out, and maybe I should continue to dine out.
02:01Now is not the time to be...
02:03Don't be bashful.
02:05Yeah, it's impossible to describe how much something like that means.
02:07Especially when the next day after doing these things live, you're like,
02:11what have I done?
02:12You know, was that okay?
02:13So, yeah, it's so special.
02:14Yeah, she reached out to me about your Melania as well.
02:16We text a lot.
02:17If Maya Rudolph reaches out to me, I may pass away.
02:20It will, honestly, it will change the trajectory of my life.
02:24Al.
02:24I believe it's you.
02:26Did you leave your audition thinking you got the job?
02:29No.
02:29No.
02:30I left being like, oh, I haven't got it.
02:31Like, kind of ****ed it, basically.
02:33Then the screen test, I have to say, I left being like, look, cars on the table.
02:37Whatever happens, I've done my absolute best.
02:39Everyone was like, oh, they don't laugh.
02:41And I was like, they were laughing for someone in there.
02:42I think you'd have to be a narcissistic psychopath to come away from that situation and think
02:48you'd got the job.
02:48I think you've done it.
02:49And one of the senior members of staff, like, shook my hand as I left.
02:52And I was like, that's not a golden handshake, but you know.
02:55Yeah.
02:55I left being like, I've done well there.
02:57Al was on before me, and I remember you sang.
03:00And for those, I mean, everyone knows because you've done it on SNL, but like, you're an incredible singer.
03:05That's kind.
03:06A terrible person.
03:07That's the way, yeah.
03:08But you finished, and then the first line of my screen test was, hi, I'm Jack Shepp,
03:12and this is my audition to play gay guy.
03:15I really didn't think I got it until, and then I did a weekend update screen test with Paddy.
03:20And when we did it together, I was like, that was the first thing I felt like that was an
03:24enjoyable experience.
03:25Yeah.
03:26In my life.
03:27In my life.
03:28I came online.
03:29Paddy Young brought me online.
03:31So many comedians in the UK would have gone up for this.
03:34Like, were you going up against friends of yours?
03:36Were you talking about your auditions with each other?
03:38They were friends.
03:40Everyone auditioned for it, basically.
03:41Was that awkward?
03:42Going up against your friends?
03:43Like, how open were you?
03:44It's quite normal, though, in the industry.
03:45You're always auditioning for a lot of similar stuff, yeah.
03:48I can't believe I'm in season two, and I still feel like I didn't get it.
03:52Okay, okay.
03:53What's the closest you've come to completely f***ing up a live sketch?
03:57Wow, you used the everyone in your chest.
03:58I'm ready.
03:58I read out the editors.
04:00I have no power over this.
04:00I'm merely the trunk's handler.
04:02This is a really clever way of being able to ask really direct questions that are like, you might be
04:06cheeky,
04:06but you're going, I have no role in this, she said.
04:08Well, it's an easy answer for me, because I did.
04:12It made it better.
04:13I actively ruined the book sketch by laughing all the way through at how insane it was.
04:17It made it better.
04:18It added physical personal charm for the fact that you had physical beating off that demon.
04:22of that thing stuck in your head.
04:25You think it burned?
04:26Sorry.
04:27It's basically when I'm doing that.
04:28That was in the dress.
04:30That didn't make it to the line.
04:31That got cut.
04:31That was cut for time, that one.
04:33There was one of the updates where I spoke a bit of Korean.
04:38And I was so worried about it, and then when it was finished, I then just forgot that I had
04:44to carry up.
04:44Like, do an intro to Miguel.
04:46So someone was waving behind the camera.
04:49And I suddenly came, because I was like, God, I can't believe I got to the end of the sentence.
04:52And then I realised, yeah, the show is happening.
04:55I can't be in a sketch with Hamed, because he always makes me laugh.
04:58Hamed is dangerous to be around, because he knows when the camera's not on him, and he knows when...
05:05He's like a good...
05:07He's a sniper.
05:08Thrice, he's done it to me.
05:09One is the pigman in the pork sketch.
05:12In the aeroplane sketch with Nicola Coughlin, he's right in front of me looking up at me.
05:16And in the seagull one, he knew every time the camera goes off him, he's like...
05:21We all wear, like, adult nappies.
05:23That's why we have all these elaborate characters, because we're all...
05:26No, I... sorry, I'm not allowed to say that.
05:29That's not true.
05:30Come on, let's do it, let's do it.
05:31Have there been any SNL crushes, romances, or flirtations behind the scenes?
05:35What's crazy about this is...
05:38This is really sweet, and I'm glad that we got this one.
05:40It's that all of us are bi-slash-pan, and we are all having sex with each other all the
05:45time.
05:46I have been told that there was a 12-person polycule with Jamie Dornan.
05:50Yeah.
05:50I've got such a love for Jamie Dornan.
05:52We all fell in love with Jamie Dornan.
05:54Yeah.
05:54All in a relationship.
05:55Yeah, we're all in a relationship.
05:56We're in a 12-person polycule with Jamie Dornan.
05:58Oh, God.
06:00What a mess.
06:02Do you want to clear up those rumours right now?
06:03Absolutely not, we want to muddy those waters.
06:05We want to muddy those waters.
06:06Let me tell you we're all in bed, we're eating gnocchi.
06:08Yeah.
06:08He's making us gnocchi.
06:09He does a lovely tray bake for after.
06:11He's making us a pasta tray bake.
06:12We're all jumping into one big bed, long this way.
06:16Yeah.
06:16Can we have that on the poster for season two?
06:18What, us all having an audio bed and Jamie Dornan?
06:21Just the face is blurred out.
06:22Yeah, just the face is blurred out, body's out.
06:23Body's full.
06:24Thank you very much.
06:27What's the most last-minute rewrite you've had to pull off?
06:30Ooh.
06:31Ooh.
06:31We had to cut, well, we had to cut like two minutes from a four-minute sketch.
06:36And it was a lot of prop stuff and it was so last-minute but it was alright.
06:39Oh, weekend update.
06:40Ooh.
06:40Yeah, my aunt was weekend update.
06:42Charlie, for all of us is weekend update.
06:43Yeah.
06:43Martin Lewis, money-saving expert.
06:45We were down to the wire.
06:47Are we talking Saturday afternoon, Saturday?
06:49Hey, hey, hey.
06:50We're talking Saturday nights.
06:51Yeah.
06:52We're talking, we're talking, look at the clock, okay?
06:57That's where you want to collapse timelines and try to go back in time just to get, I
07:02need five more minutes.
07:03Stop.
07:03Give me five more minutes.
07:05Yeah, no, no, I'm having a panic.
07:06I'm actually having a panic attack, like thinking about that.
07:08I'm shivering.
07:09Because if you read, if the comma, semicolon, dash, if it's in the wrong place, timing.
07:14Yeah.
07:14We're in the business of time.
07:16Yeah.
07:16It's live, baby.
07:18Why are you stumbling?
07:19I have goosebumps.
07:19You can cry.
07:20Yeah, you can cry.
07:20But you need to be making the edits as you're crying.
07:22Yeah.
07:23And we've got makeup artists, you know, they come and sit there.
07:25This is true.
07:25This is a power move, actually.
07:27It's gonna, literally, it's gonna haunt me.
07:30Just turn it face down.
07:31You don't have to look at it anymore.
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