Mike Myers Had Never Seen ‘SNL’ Before He Was Hired for the Most Canadian Reason Ever
Over the weekend, the Chicago International Film Festival and Second City honored Mike Myers with a “Career Achievement Award,” in recognition of his work in beloved movies such as Wayne’s World, Austin Powers and Shrek. Thankfully, the event didn’t end with one of the organizers suddenly remembering that The Love Guru exists and attempting to wrestle the award out of Myers’ hands.
The ceremony also included a “lengthy conversation” between Myers and Kids in the Hall’s Dave Foley. The talk touched on a number of different subjects, including Myers’ fears that the studio wouldn’t release Wayne’s World, his fears that the studio wouldn’t release Austin Powers and how Michael Caine couldn’t get Beyoncé’s name right while filming Austin Powers in Goldmember. “He’d just go, ‘Hey, Be-YONTS,’” Myers recalled.
They also chatted about how Myers’ Wayne’s World 2 co-star Christopher Walken seemingly couldn’t remember Foley’s name while making the 1999 comedy Blast From the Past, and just kept referring to him, simply, as “Senator.”
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When discussing his early days at Saturday Night Live, Myers made a surprising revelation. “I actually hadn’t seen the show,” Myers confessed to the audience. Yeah, apparently, when Lorne Michaels hired Myers, he had never watched SNL. Why? Well, for the most Canadian reason ever. Apparently, Toronto Maple Leafs superfan Myers was too busy taping hockey games on Saturday nights to check out the late-night sketch show.
Myers was less interested in joining the cast of SNL than he was about joining his friends in the Kids in the Hall. And over the years, Myers has made no secret of the fact that his comedic influences were mostly British, citing names like Monty Python, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Plus, he took inspiration from Canada’s own SCTV as well as U.S. humorists like Mel Brooks.
Weirdly, as we’ve mentioned before, Michaels hired Myers for SNL without ever having seen him perform. Michaels took a chance on Myers at the recommendation of Martin Short, Foley and producer Pam Thomas. So, in retrospect, his casting was basically the sketch comedy version of a blind date. Thankfully, it worked out.
At the time, Myers was killing it at Second City, and had already come up with the Wayne Campbell character, performing Wayne on stage and in several Canadian TV segments, sans Garth, of course.
Myers has claimed that, if he had been asked to audition for SNL, he never would have gotten the part, owing to the fact that he’s “the shittiest auditioner.” Never having watched the show also might have been a pretty big drawback.
Since Michaels similarly hails from Toronto, and once made a short film about a drought affecting “hockey puck trees in Canada,” presumably he didn’t take offense.
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