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There are few formerSNLcast members more ripe for reappraisal than Taran Killam.
(Killam finished first among his peers for three straight seasons from 2013 to 2016.
Not evenKenan Thompsonhas done that.)
Still, its hard to snugly fit Killams contributions in a box.
It got me eligible, then the next job made me SAG, which wasNaked Gun 33 13.
Your uncle is Robert Stack, who helps facilitateUnsolved Mysteries.
He said,If you see Leslie, go up to him and tell him that Bob says hi.
There was a big line waiting to meet Leslie Nielsen at the premiere.
I waited my turn, took all my courage, and went up.
I was 12 at the time and had a squeaky voice: Hi, Mr. Nielsen.
Um, Im in this.
I have a small part … My uncle is Robert Stack.
Hes my moms uncle; hes my great-uncle.
He said to say hi to you.
Thats just me, Im just saying hi.
Hes just like, … What did he say?
Could you hear him?
I couldnt hear him.
Were you happy with it?
Which I thought was very generous and magnanimous of him.
It made me feel so much better.
Like,Oh it wasnt just me.Maybe.
It was probably mostly me.
Airplane!he would talk about a little bit.
He liked to talk aboutUntouchablesbecause that was his heyday.
He would talk to me aboutWritten on the Wind,that he was nominated for an Oscar.
He was very protective of Judy Garland, who was a close friend of his growing up.
He wrote letters of recommendation for me for college.
My dad did a lot of work on their place in Bel-Air.
You were back on Broadway this wasnt your first rodeo in a musical.
So, key question: Why didnt you sing inStuck in the Suburbs?What an important question.
I sang Everly Brothers Unchained Melody for it.
It was built-in that this might be a requirement.
I go to test at the studio; that day,Stuck in the Suburbsreaches out.
It was maybe a week or two later: Okay, we want him.
Well give him X amount of dollars if he doesnt test.
It was a significant check.
And youre in the running!
I turn downStuck in the Suburbs.
My sneaky suspicion is theyd offered it to somebody else who also turned it down.
Maybe I was second choice or there was a debate.
Then I go to this studio to test for this pilot, and its me and Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Im stressed out because this is an icon and holy cow.
And Id turned downStuck in the Suburbs!
Im hating my life.
In that time, theyd already recorded the music.
It was locked in because the earliest filming days were themusic videos.
I went in and read for Cameron Crowe forAlmost Famous.
The audition scenes were about a kid following his politician uncle, running for Senate on the campaign trail.
Obviously, that was to protect the rock and roll of it all.
There was a movie I read for a couple of times that I really wanted calledThe Cure.
Joseph Mazzello and Brad Renfro.
Really sad but beautiful script.
The one I was closest on was in that run ofFree Willykind of movies:The Amazing Panda Adventure.
And they went the other way.
I gotMADtvindirectly because of Kenan.
I was with Tollin/Robbins Management Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins, who now runs Paramount.
WhenMADtvcalled, I was just a freshman in college.
They were calling about Kenan and thought he would be a perfect fit.
I auditioned kind of on a fluke.
So Kenan and I crossed paths then.
ThenWild N Out, we were around each other on the set of that too.
He is the king of the 90s.
But he is also kind of the king of every decade.
Id like to go on record that Kenan deserves to be king of all time.
I heard you recently returned toSNL.I did.
I took my 14-year-old daughter because she was very interested.
It was theJason Momoa episode.
There was some apprehension of,Am I remembered?
Did I ruffle feathers?
What is the reception going to be?
It was kind of emotional for me.
Vanessa Bayer went with me, which was nice.
We said hello to Lorne, and he was beyond kind to my daughter.
It could not have gone better.
It was actually a beautiful revisit my first time back on a show night since Id been gone.
And when youintroduced Kids Choice Awards.With Vanessa on the red carpet?
Yes, two minutes.
And you did the Disney Channel Brother 2 Brother sketch with Chris Hemsworth.
I think my mark on kids basic cable in the late 90s and early aughts is very niche.
You see Kenan, and you rememberAll That; you rememberMighty Ducks.
Hes obviously now made peace with it.
His attitude was never to complain.
Kenan was always one to be like, How lucky are we?
Look at where we are.
Theres guys out there making fake snow for us to look at a dumb bunny.
He always just had that perspective of gratitude that I looked up to and emulated.
The Undercover Boss sketch with Adam Driver has become a beloved modern classic.
Id never seen that much passion and care go into a pre-tape from the art-direction side of things.
Its one of my favorite pieces we did.
Who came up with the initial idea?I think Mikey Day deserves the credit for that concept.
Then you hear [groans and yells]thud!And Han Solos corpse lands in front of us.
You didnt see anything.
Mikey was like, Yeah, thats pretty good.
I went home, but Bobby was willing to stay because Mikey was so busy.
I came back at 11 and they had a scripted version, then we restructured and rewrote that.
And Adam just understood it.
His line delivery: This means something to me noowww.[Laughs.]
Like, why does he put the emphasis onnowlike that?
But it makes sense, and its so funny!
To see him do Burt Reynolds, literally next to me, was surreal.
Then have Jim Carrey in it and do McConaughey.
If you watch it, theres a little verbal stumble, like he repeated a word.
It was not a big deal; everybody loved it.
But afterward, Jim was like [clicks tongue], You wish you could have it back.
Thats the best part of the live thing its out there!
Were really breaking it down with Jim Carrey!
And from that hes like, Are you guys going to the after-party?
So he gave me and Jay a ride in his car to the after-party at the Plaza.
Any other memorable stories from that night?My Eddie Murphy moment was pretty beautiful.
There was a party the night before at the Top of the Rock.
I went from the Californians sketch rehearsal that we did thatended with David Spadedoing his buh-bye guy with Cecily.
David and I went up to the party together, so I was talking with him.
Then over his shoulder, Eddie Murphy walks in with Brett Ratner.
I was like,Dude dude dude.
And the first person Eddie Murphy walked up to was David Spade.
It was very gracious, a lovely exchange.
Then I got to shake Eddies hand!
My first conscious memories ofSNLare hisBest oftape.
Sloppy Swish was such a big moment for you, for the show, online.
How did you resist the urge to not bring that back?
The desire for recurring sketches by the time I got there in an era of YouTube and online …
I creatively did not feel the necessity of it.
Ididhave ideas for it, but nothing that was so exciting to revisit it.
It was such a special moment just in its production.
I dont know if youre familiar with Matts story, buthe got really sick.
There is more emotion packed into Mokiki Does the Sloppy Swish than one might realize or perceive.
Vanessa Bayer was playing the Anne Hathaway character.
We tried it withGlice,too, when Bruce Willis hosted.
We didnt quite capture the same essence or game of it.
I always wrote from a place of human interaction or feeling, then built off of that.
Trying to recapture a feeling as opposed to a structure was not one of my strengths.
It felt like something I could slot into.
That was the first sketch I wrote that got on the show.
Seth Meyers has shared his breakdown on apotential Stefon movie.
But I have never set out to write anySNL-based character movies.
Nothing will ever be funnier thanMacGruberto me.
Thats the apex ofSNLcharacter films.
