This Is Lorne Michaels’ Test for ‘SNL’ Stardom
We may never fully understand exactly how Lorne Michaels’ mind works. Although we do know that the Saturday Night Live producer likes white wine, hanging out with Paul Simon and movie posters featuring puffy white clouds in bright blue skies.
Well, now we have a little more info about Michaels’ thought process, specifically in terms of how he spots potential breakout stars on SNL, separating the Adam Sandlers of the world from, well, those cast members whose names we can’t remember.
This tidbit comes from Colin Jost, who, along with Michael Che, guested on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast this week. It wasn’t long before the conversation turned to Michaels, specifically, some of his memorable pontifications. “Marriage is a prison that everyone’s trying to escape into,” was one Lorne-ism Carvey recalled.
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Jost shared that Michaels’ has a very specific way of judging whether or not an SNL cast member will become a big star: their Weekend Update performances.
“Lorne’s thing is — I don't know if he always said this or not — but his view now is that you can’t be a star on the show if you can’t be a star on Update,” Jost explained. “Like, coming out and doing a feature. It’s really rare for someone to become a star if they don’t score in a feature on Update.”
“That’s interesting. I didn’t hear that,” Spade replied. “He just told me, ‘Where you live is important.’”
As he thought about it, Spade began to see the logic in Michaels’ reasoning, noting, “I think that’s a great thing to say about Update. Like they have to buy you on your own, not in a sketch. You know what I mean? Like, just ‘we like you’ or ‘we don’t.’ That’s kind of an interesting thing to say.”
“I’ve never heard that before,” Che added. “Actually, that’s a good one.”
It’s true, Weekend Update pieces require an ability to command the audience’s attention while flying solo, without the ability to rely on other performers and sets. When you think about it, most of SNL’s biggest stars had massive Weekend Update segments — from Adam Sandler’s Operaman, to Gilda Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna.
Carvey, on the other hand, had a slightly different impression of the Weekend Update slot, viewing it almost as a demotion for sketch characters, such as the Church Lady.
“Sooner or later, it’s where characters, when they have less heat, then they pop out,” Carvey claimed. “The Church Lady doesn’t have a set or a show all of a sudden… ‘He had a giant set. He had a theme song. He had movie star guests. Now he’s just next to Colin. He’s got one minute.’”
Of course, it does seem a little convenient that, according to Colin Jost, the most important part of the entire show involves performing next to Colin Jost.
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