Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Inside Late Night: Chris Kattan

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

This week on LateNighter's Inside Late Night podcast, former SNL cast member Chris Kattan joins Mark Malkoff to reflect on his eight seasons at Saturday Night Live.Make sure to follow us on social media (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@latenightercom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) and subscribe on all podcast platforms and YouTube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@latenightercom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to never miss an episode!

From Late Nighter.com, it's Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Hey everybody, John Schneider coming to you from Late Nighter today to set up our conversation that Mark Malkoff is about to have with Chris Katan, the former S&L cast member who was at the show from 1996 to 2003. Chris joins Mark to talk about his career at the show, some of his biggest moments and sketches. And then I join the conversation towards the end. So I hope you enjoy our talk with Chris Catan. Chris Catan, nice to see you. Yeah, nice to see you, Mark. So March 16th, 1996, I was actually there for Dress and Live. It was your very first show. It was John Goodman. Oh, wow. Now, the sketch that you're in, it's very rare that the person they're very first show gets their own sketch and it absolutely kills when you're the substitute teacher.

And I wanted to revisit the Wednesday when you were at read-through because you annihilate a dress rehearsal. And of course, it makes it to the live show and you annihilate again. But it read-through, were you exaggerating when you say that it played the silence? Yeah, I wasn't very, didn't get very bit of laughs. But that's okay because, you know, I was new and it was my first week. And I was hired like six weeks into the end of the season. So it was an odd spot to be hired. It wasn't mid-season. It wasn't the beginning of the season. It was six weeks before. So it was an odd spot. So not a lot of people knew me. I knew Will, Farrell, and Sherry O'Terry and Molly Shannon with the people that I knew. But everyone else were new to me.

So when you went into dress rehearsal, did you feel good about the sketch, even though it didn't do well at the table? Well, it made the cut, so I knew that they liked it, so they're willing to give it a chance. So I knew that. And then when it went live, or went for dress rehearsal, the audience went crazy, so they really enjoyed it. So that's when I knew that it was popular and that I may have found a home. I remember a Conan writer coming in.

I was in the green room coming in and pointing at the monitor. when you were doing it at air and being like, who is that? Just because the audience was so over the top. Now, a little bit later, Phil Hartman hosted, and you wrote the acting class sketch for, you came up with the idea, correct for that? Yeah, I wrote that sketch, yeah. Now, my recollection, and once again,

I'm a big Saturday Night Live nerd, and I was there for dress rehearsal. My memory is it was like the last sketch of the night at dress, or it was close to the last. And normally the last sketch at dress rehearsal normally does not do great and gets cut. But it did really, really well, I remember. Yeah.

Did you do that at the Groundlands or did you write it that week? I wrote, I did write it at the Groundlings. I wrote that at the Groundlings for myself. I was the teacher in the Groundlings. And in this situation, I gave that role to Phil Hartman for, because he was hosting. Because Steve Higgins, the head writer at the time, he wanted he's allowed to be a good idea to give him the role so i can get a sketch in that week so yeah it's like this is something this is um yeah it was so funny with with that a name dropping gordon

jump and then jack handy wrote the johnny piece right that was in black and white where you're is it a police office or oh i don't know if he did write that or not maybe he did yeah there was a scene where where it was black and white and with phil he was holding up a diner and he was the cop. Yeah. It was pretty cool. I thought it was Jack Handy. He usually wrote when there was a character named Johnny. A lot of times it was, um, it was him. But the John Goodman show is such a good one to debut because they did the real world with Bob Dole and they didn't normally do tape pieces like. And the audience was just, um, absolutely on fire. So yeah, you have such a unique story because the only, the only people I know that, uh, that came into SNL that had never been to New

or you and Mike Myers. So the summer of 95, you fly from L.A. to New York. What were your impressions when you get there and do you go right to Rockefeller Center and audition? What, I mean, talk about fish out of water. I had auditioned before with Will and Cherry and Jennifer Coolidge was the other groundling that auditioned as well. And I was just staying at the Paramount Hotel. And they put me up. And the first time I ever been in New York was the first week that I started SNL. So I never even been to New York yet. It's unbelievable. And your audition, you did, I was reading an interview.

You did Christian Slater interview in a vampire for an interview with a vampire. And then I know you did Peepers with a boom box. And then the coffee guy you put online recently. Yeah. Those were my audition pieces. Did you feel good about the audition? Yeah, I felt pretty good. I mean, it was hard to tell because they're not supposed to laugh, usually.

Usually they're not supposed to laugh at you. And there's only three people watching you because it's via satellite in Burbank where they have the NBC studios there. And there's a lot of executives watching online. So they were told to be quiet. So you're so used to an audience, you know, at the growlings. Did you know that you were possibly going to be brought in midseason? No, I didn't know.

I thought I just didn't get the part. I thought I just wasn't going to make it. So I went back to the groundlings. So, yeah, that's what happened. But then I was, all of a sudden, Will calls, and I said, Lauren asked me to ask you if you wanted to join the groundlings. And I said, yeah, heck yeah, I'd love to, you know. So it was not a lot of time to have any anxiety or any excitement.

you know, I just went right in the middle of it and just got lucky and got my sketch in the show. And luckily, the audience loved it. So I just aimed to get a sketch in every show and it worked out for me. Yeah, you did an amazing that season. And then at what point, I guess on Monday when you arrive, you find out on 17 that you're going to be with David Spade in an office. Is that when you, I guess him when you found out, was he helpful to talk you through everything that you were going through? or did he was just kind of focused on what he was doing with Hugh Fink? He was pretty focused on his Hollywood Minute excerpt that he did on Weekend Update.

So he didn't really, he was very kind. He was a cool guy, but he didn't really help me, you know. He wasn't doing sketches, so he was just doing the Hollywood Minute. But we did share an office with him and Hewink and who's his writer for the Hollywood Minute. So that's where they put me. And then the next season, I got my own office. Oh, that's great. You got your own office.

Yes, Spate was gone by then. I wanted to talk about, because you mentioned this in your fabulous book. There's a sketch the next season with Bill Pullman hosted, and it's the AT&T operators, and it's you and Will. And it's the first sketch after the monologue. And you said it was one of the first times that you did a sketch, and it played to silence.

So I wanted to ask you, a dress rehearsal, it must have killed because they had it. right after the monologue. What do you think happened? And did it kill it dress? I think it did. I think it did well. But they trusted that it would do better, but it didn't do as well as we thought it would. But it still did well. You know, that was a sketch that Will Ferrell and I also did at the groundings together. And that was, you know, we were 18T operators. So we just like, hi, this is 18T operators. It's what you're calling. And we both sat on. the same and um it was you know it did well it just didn't do as good as we thought it would

do yeah talking about the danishes um did robert smigel come to you with the idea for carrie uh strug and update with with you playing kippy which is another um that was that was i think the season premiere with um it might have been tom hanks yeah it was tom mangs it was a season premiere i also did mr peepers that same episode um with tom hanks who who brought brought to life that character. He's the one that shows it, because I tried to get it on there before, and it wasn't chosen.

But Carrie Strug was in the news, and she was very big, and she broke her leg, and she won the gold, and it was a big deal in the Olympics. And I found out I could do her voice, you know? I could talk like Carrie Strug. And so I just ran into Robert Smigel,

who was submitting a sketch. He was... He wasn't part of everyday life at S&L, but I came to him. I just said, I'm having trouble thinking of a catch, you know, some sort of a, you know, we could probably get Kerry Strug to fly out and be in the sketch, but I don't know what to do as opposed to just be Carrie Strug with Carrie Strug. And he said, well, what if you're her brother Kippy, Kippy Strug? and uh and i so that gave me the idea to do kippy strug and uh i would be a character that

supported kippy strug or kerry strug while i played kippy strug and i was in the audience and uh that's what was that was that was the birth of it basically robert smigler helped me out with that i'm always fascinated with some of the writers who uh worked on what home shopping which it was so funny because i i know who it's based on those two guys with you and Will, who wrote those sketches? Was it you and Will and who else helped out, if you remember? Sometimes Dennis McNichols. He helped out have had anything to do with Star Wars.

And the one that we did with Mark Hamill had to do with Star Wars. So we did that, and he helped out on that one because he's a Star Wars freak. But essentially, it was just Will and I riding together. They were so much fun, those sketches. And then Mark Hamill at the time, The other I wanted to ask was the Zimmermans. Who wrote that, if you recall? That was Sherry and I. Just Sherry and I wrote that. Yeah, I know people still talk about that.

Yeah, that was a fun sketch. I don't think you could probably do that now. Maybe you could. It's possible. It was on the line. Yeah, it was on the line. I did want to ask because it was really, you wrote some really nice comments about Norm McDonnell when he passed away. When he came back to host the show, though, you were not in the show. at all. I know that you both had some, a little bit of issues. You both publicly talked about it here and there. Was that on purpose

that you wanted to avoid being in that particular show since there was a little tension at the time? No, not at all. I would have loved to have been in the show. The sketches didn't get chosen and Norm wanted to do other sketches, so that's just how it worked out.

I did see you at Goodnights, that's why. And I know nobody went up to Norm at Goodnights too. I know some of the writers were not thrilled with his monologue. Did you witness that? Like, people weren't thrilled with him. I can't remember his monologue. Yeah, he kind of said, I haven't gotten any funny or the show's just gotten really bad. The writers were booing him, but it was a long time ago. Yeah, but it's so much fun watching your sketches. Fred Wolfe was the one that came up with, because at Roxbury, I remember, I think was Phil Hartman hosted.

You and Will did Roxbury. Yeah. That was, and then Fred Wolfe was the one when Jim Carrey came in that said, we should bring Jim Carrey in and make it three, correct? Yeah, that was his idea to add a third one. He said, like, why don't you have a third guy since Jim Carrey's on the show, and he could definitely do the head bopping? And that's what gave birth to that sketch, really.

The first time we did it with Phil Hartman, we just did it alone. Phil Hartman wasn't in the sketch. It was just Will and I. and it was exactly like how he did it at the ground lengths and the second time was uh you know we did it with three guys and jim just elevated the sketch so high you know because he was mr rubber man and uh you know his head was like over here on to way over to the other side when his head bopping so um it was pretty amazing yeah no that's unbelievable longevity with that i talked to tishan shannon i asked him about the infamous benny

Hana sketch that he wrote in response to Chris Parnell being fired. And he told me when you and Will Barrell read it at the table that it complete, it was complete silence. Is that your recollection as well? Not, not, not, I don't recall. I don't recall that. I mean, I don't remember. I mean, maybe I should recall, but I don't remember the response for the Benihana sketch. I had such a small part in that sketch. Did you know it was about Parnell because Tishan told me some people knew about it, but a lot of people did not know that it was in reference. No, I didn't know. It's wild.

Yeah, it's amazing to kind of look back. I was going to ask you about the L, and when you played Anne Hage, is it true that one of them wasn't thrilled with that impression, and did they tell you that, or did you hear about that? No, nobody told me that. I mean, I could assume

always somebody's feathers get ruffled, and I assume Anne Hache wasn't happy about it, but I met And hey, she after that, and she didn't mention it, and she was very nice to me. Oh, that's good to know. No, no. One of my, I have this friend who still talks about Mr. Peepers, and it's his favorite sketch.

He's really in the physical comedy. Was it hard doing that sketch, knowing Lorne that that was not his favorite? He kind of, you know, he would call it, even though it killed, he would call it hack because he just didn't like animals and he thought it was an easy joke. Were you cognizant that wasn't Lauren's favorite piece and was that an issue at all? I mean, obviously he put it on. I heard he didn't like the piece, but, you know, it wasn't really an animal. It was more of the missing link, you know? So, I mean, he ate apples and he hung on people.

It was kind of different than just being an animal. And it killed. I mean, it did. You can't argue with the crowd. So, yeah, he couldn't argue with the crowd, and it became a hit. And I did it many times. And when Tom Hanks hosted, you know, he's the reason why it got on air. So when Tom Hanks wants, you know, Tom Hanks gets.

Did you know Leonard Cohen growing up? I know he was friends with your parents. Did you know? Yeah. I knew him was a child. He was friends with my parents. They all studied Buddhism and he was a Zen student. And they both had the same teacher, which means eroshi.

They call it. That's what means teacher in Japanese. And they all said. together. And yeah, so that's how I knew him as a child. I've known him for a long time until he passed away. What was that like, though? Because you're living in Washington, and then like your 10, you meet Robin Williams. You meet Frank Sinatra as a teenager. Can you recognize that this is not normal? Yeah. No, I guess it wasn't normal. I mean, I was brought up, you know, when I was six years old, I got to see my dad perform. He was one of the founders of the

groundlings. My dad was, and I got to see him perform at the grounding stage when I was six years old. So I had a little bit of that blood in me, and I got to see how my dad used that blood and how he performed. And I had a little bit of a performing bug in me as well. But it wasn't time yet, you know, I wasn't old enough. What was it like in August 1986 when you drove six hours to Spokane to see Stevie Ray Vaughan. What was it like? Yeah. It was a long drive.

Yeah, but Stephen Ray Vaughn, I mean, unbelievable, a performer. This was his last concert, yeah, before he took off in the helicopter, and I guess the helicopter crashed, apparently. Yeah, I mean, he was unbelievable. The concert was Joe Cocker and Stevie Rayvon. Oh, wow. Yeah. What talent, that's unbelievable.

Yeah. Adrian Brody was asked, Raysie. about when he hosted the show, S&L in May of 2003. And there's been several cast members that have talked about him. And he improvised, he didn't tell Lauren he was going to do, put on dreadlocks and introduce the music. Oh, right. What is your recollection about him doing that, which every second is timed with a

stopwatch? So what is your recollection? Well, I had no idea he was going to do that. I don't think the rest of the cast did, but he did do it. And I think some people poke fun at him for doing it. I myself, I didn't think anything was too wrong about it, or I didn't get the joke. It was definitely dangerous to do something like that on air that was Elvis Costello pulling something that Lauren didn't know that wasn't agreed upon.

I can't really think. Damon Wayans level. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it was. Yeah, I guess it was. But it wasn't like he wore blackface or anything. No, no. He wore a dreadlock wig.

Yeah. And he was doing Jamaican, taking Jamaican accent. 30 seconds that was not timed into the show. How did that happen in 2001 at the Emmy nominations when they had all the S&L writers and you, they showed your face for each one and you kind of condorted your face to look like them and dress like them? How did that come about? That was the great Paul Appel, who's a wonderful writer, and she still writes for S&L sometimes. But she has her own show.

She's acting now as well. And she's a terrific performer, an incredible writer. And she had the idea of if I dressed up as each of the writers. And we ended up winning Emmys that year. So when they showed on the Emmys, you know, and they named and listed all the writers, they showed a picture of me dressed up as each writer, doing my best impression with the wig

an outfit on. So it's pretty funny. It was a little bit inside, but the people that knew the writers got it. People loved it. I was going to ask you about that sketch with Juliana Margulies when she hosted about the two brothers that can't produce saliva.

And it said in the newspaper, Margoise was mentioning that you really told her in between dress and live to go for it more or less than that she was playing a little bit small in dress. Can you explain set up that sketch? because I don't think it's available for people to watch. You mean the bird family?

Yes. Yeah. Is it not available? I don't think so. It might be, but I wasn't able to find it. But it was one of those sketches where I couldn't believe. Yeah. I mean, it totally killed, and it was just shock value, but in a very funny way.

Yeah, well, the joke was that we needed our food chewed by our mother bird, like, who was just a parent. and to be spit into our mouth to do the swallowing. So it's pretty disgusting. But, you know, we are committed and it's pretty funny. I think Will and Chris Barnell wrote that sketch. Oh, it did very, very well. So do you have any recollection when you were nine years old and you went over to Furnwood tonight with your dad,

who was a big deal, a big actor? I think it was Martin Mullen Harry's share. But what stands out at nine years old over at Furnwood? oh my god very little i mean i wasn't ever on set you know i just stay home and i just he would show me the tape that he did it he had a famous character called rabbi abraham stein and he did that at the groundlings and um you know it was a big hit there and so he would do it on furneward tonight and uh yeah they had him on that show a few times and then he became friends with fred willard um your dad your dad kip kink i know he did a batman episode with caesar romero did he ever tell you any

stories about filming batman not really no he just showed me the episode he had clips of all his work back in the 60s he was a character actor and he did shows like the rifle man and you know jefferson's and different strokes the facts of life and bosom buddies small wonder we're forgetting small wonder oh i forgot about small wonder yeah i mean it's drag net, Beverly Hillbillies. I mean, it goes on in and on. Did Norm give you a hard time? Jim Brewer told this story about when Pamela Anderson was hosting, they did a Twilight episode, Twilight Zone episode. The way Brewer says it is that Norm wasn't committing to Rod Serlin in dress rehearsal. And at the live show, you were giving him a hard time. You need to do this. And

Norm was kind of messing with you. And then it was like three, two, one. And then he goes into Rod Serlin. Was that your recollection? that's not how it went no I don't know how it went but he was doing he wasn't doing Rod Serling he was doing Clint Eastwood and I thought that wasn't

Rod Serling I said you should do Rod Serling because that's the host of Twilight Zone Clint Eastwood didn't do Twilight Zone and I think that bothered him and he said he said something that was kind of rude to

the audience and uh but our kiff was like we didn't it was it was just for fun really it was like fred allen and jack penny can you talk about that that the ground lanes writer who got who was over at saturday night live who would dress up like mark twain for the pitch meeting on mondays um he would just do these wild pitches who's dressed up as mark twain it was a gentleman who was friends with was a groundland i forget it was it stephen clegg is that his name or something clegg um Oh, Stephen Craig. Is that it, the one that he would do these weird pitches and dress up, like, in character and do things?

I guess so. I fairly remember that. I guess he was dressing up. Yeah. Yeah, he was on, he wrote for S&O for a couple years. Yeah, it was, I just, I've heard some of the stories. I just didn't know. Yeah. Had any, but I know that that was a long time ago. I was going to ask you about, when you were on. Conan the first time. I remember watching this. There was a fire in the studio and they almost canceled it. And then instead, it's you and Samuel L. Jackson out by the skating rink. It was completely last minute. What stands out? What do you remember from that?

Well, I remember that we had the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree behind us. It was freezing outside. And we did the whole show outside, you know, because we couldn't do it inside because of the fire. And I was one of the guests. And I was early on. That was like my first season. that I was asked to be a guest and my first show my first talk show to promote SNL so that was pretty fun and exciting for me

my first time on Conan too yeah it was a great appearance what was it like going on Letterman three times what was it like your first time going on with Dave I remember the stage being cold I remember being very nervous because Letterman was my hero I mean I used to

you know after school I would retort I would tape his airings and then the next day I'd watch, I'd do my homework and then I'd watch David Letterman and you know, it was it was a blast, you know,

it was, I really loved Letterman the most. So when I did his show, I was very nervous. He didn't go backstage and meet anybody before the show like most hosts. Like Leno. Yeah, like Lennon.

Yeah. but um he uh he he was very he's just very sweet he's very kind man but you know when you're such a fan you know you're still nervous you can't help it sure were you how were you when um monty python when when john clays and michael palin came in because i knew monte python was your almost favorite thing growing up so they come in with kevin spacey's hosted hosting and they come in to do uh the dead parrot and the sketch it was i mean you the audience probably had no idea who they were and it just completely died on air but what was it like being around those guys and what what do you remember about that sketch dying i it was really

i don't think they i think i just think they didn't know what was happening i think the crowd was a little confused and they didn't recognize them i guess they just didn't recognize monty python which was a shame you know because they're all heroes of ours of our cast and we knew certainly who they were and we knew the famous parrot sketch and so we were excited about it seeing it you know um but uh yeah i mean i don't know why it didn't do as well as it could have done you know yeah i mean it was such a classic sketch i just yeah i think maybe people didn't know who they were yeah how old were you when you would go to the groundlands and watch the show? You were too young to watch

the show. You'd be in the lighting booth on somebody's lap watching your dad and it was Eaddy McCleur and Paul Rubens and Phil Hartman. How old were you? Yeah, I was like six years old. Six, seven years old. What was that like at the time?

I mean... Oh, it's very exciting, you know, to get to see my dad. I was very proud of my dad and get to see him perform and on stage for people. Yeah, I was a big fan of my dad. He was hilarious. He was like the funniest man I ever knew. Yeah, he was very, very proud of you too. And I'm glad I got to see you work and come over to the show. I know that you also were saying that originally when you didn't get SNL, you watched,

I think it was the Quentin Tarantino episode and you watched Tom Arnold host. And you didn't think those episodes were necessarily funny. So you weren't that upset about not getting the show. Is that what you still? What show is this? It was, you said to Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller in the oral history that you watched when Quentin Tarantino hosted the show. And that was when you did not get the show. It was early, it was the Will's first season, but you hadn't been cast yet. So you watched a few episodes and you didn't find the show that funny. So you weren't really that upset. You didn't get it. Is that? Well, they were trying to find their laurels and they're, they're inching into a cast. So I just wasn't like, I still had the groundlings, which, you know, fed my creative buzz.

And I, I, it wasn't, it didn't really have a hook yet until they did the cheerleaders to one, and Sherry did the cheerleaders. And it felt like they had some magic going on. Yeah, that was show number five or six. It was something like that. So when you did, you did Bono, your sophomore year of high school, I read an interview with Bob, McAllister, who was your English teacher and theater coach, and he was talking all about, like, so then when you get to

meet you, too, and you get them to sign everything for you, do you tell Bono that you impersonated him and in high school? What was that life? Yeah, I did. I did tell him that. I don't think he was, you know, he was, he thought it was cute.

You know, I did do, I did do Bono during a pep assembly. And I I think he liked that, you know. But I was like, I'm such a huge Bono fan. Oh, yeah. I think he's such an incredible performer.

Yeah, you put on Instagram, which I love that you'll put on certain things that you have from the show. I know when David Bowie was another person, when he was on, you had him sign something, correct? Yeah, that's true. A cover of a song called Little Wonder is what he's performed on the show, too. Was there anyone else that you would do that with, a host or music that you would kind of go back that meant something to you uh well everybody i guess i mean it'd be nice to have everybody's signature

in the book i know absolutely did you write mango with scott wainia was that his idea or your idea and did you write it with him originally the character was my idea but then i joined up with scott and we wrote the scenarios together when we had guest hosts on the show so it was uh we both we both took a whack at the sketch. Was it one of those things? Because I heard Will Ferrell and Molly talk once, and they said that they didn't want to be repeating the characters as much as they did, but it seemed to me they felt pressure from Lorne.

Did you want to be doing Mango as much as you did? Or was that kind of self-came from Lauren, did you feel? No, I liked doing it. I didn't mind it because it worked, you know? I did. I just wanted to see the character. So if Lauren wanted it, that was like fine with me. Yeah, in the audience, the sketches,

always, always killed. What is your, what are your memories when Chris Barley came in to host? Obviously, that was a rough week, but what stands out? Well, he was a very sweet guy, very sweet and self-deprecative, and he was just a really kind-hearted person, and, and he was just really tremendous, and he gave all, gave himself to the, totally to the, uh, read-through table and to the show, you know. He may have had a little bit of a cold that week. But that's about it. I mean, I didn't know him outside of the show. That was my experience with Chris Farley. He was just a sweet guy, like the sweetest guy. When you did Corky Romano, did you take that initially to Lorne? Or how did Robert Simons come about? Did Lorne pass with Sandler? I know that happened,

and then he took it to somebody else. No, it wasn't approached. Lauren. It was struckly from Disney. Disney approached me and it was negotiated with my agent. So it wasn't, it had nothing to do with Lauren. I wasn't sure about that. What is your favorite Peter Falk story? I'm so, he's one of my favorites from working with him on that. I don't know. I don't know if I have a favorite story. I mean, it was just in general, just working with it was such a joy, you know, I remember watching all the cast of Eddie's films and his performances. You know, he was such a great actor and uh i remember you know working with him uh on that movie and he was so nice you know he he wanted me to i did a pilot after that and he wanted me to audition his wife so

i i did i auditioned his wife wow so but he was a very nice guy such a sweetheart yeah i like that when you that happens yeah what was it like being at the 50th was that who was some of your Who were some of your favorite people to reconnect with or meet the 50th of the SNL? Oh, God. That was just too overwhelming to say. Everybody was there, you know, just everyone. I mean, I think one memory that popped out was dancing with Paul McCartney and my fiancée. That was pretty fun.

Yeah. Did you know your final SNL that that was going to be your final season? Did you make the decision that this is going to be my last show? Or was it that summer that you said, I've had it? I think I'm yeah I decided to go I just took a lot out of me and I my dad was getting sick and I needed he needed to be back in California because I didn't know how long he was going to last so that's why it was my last season who were your favorite people to write with at SNL oh everybody was great I mean there really wasn't somebody that wasn't great to work with you know Matt Piedmont and Harper steel yeah Harper was on the podcast yeah God, so many people. I mean, everybody was a great writer. It was an honor to work with any of the writers

because they've been around for years or, you know, off to better things very quickly. And, or bigger and better things, I should say. Yeah. Yeah, they were just great to work with. So it was always fun to work with writers because I usually wrote alone, and I'd rather work with the writers.

Yeah, it's more fun. You did an interview once, and Norm has talked about, talked about this, I think, as well, or maybe it was Will Ferrell, about how Norm as a prank took your sneakers on an airplane. And you were barefoot and you couldn't find them. And then you took the famous black jacket and that Lori Joe called to try to get it back. How long did you hold the jacket hostage before you gave it back to Norm? Not even an hour. I was wondering. But I didn't get my shoes back for like a week. Oh, I didn't know you ever even got them back. So Norm did finally admit that he took them. Yeah, he did. He threw them in a garbage can. For Norm to actually admit something, I had no idea. Yeah, that was kind of rough.

He took my shoes off a plane, so I didn't have shoes walking off the plane. Yes, that's very, very norm. You were good friends with Fred Willard. What are some of your favorite memories from knowing him? Well, he was closer to my dad than to me. He was very funny. He taught classes in comedy as well. And he was just a really class A guy, very close to my dad, and just very funny.

He was always very funny. I wish he was still alive. That would be great. He was a really nice man. Him and his wife married very nice people and a bunch of times. Who wrote this sketch that you guys would do every Christmas? It would be you, Tracy, and Jimmy singing that song in Horatio. Who wrote that?

And did you ever think that that would reoccur so many times? Horatio wrote the song and Jimmy and Horatio shared a writer's room they shared a room together and so they kind of came up with the idea that Jimmy would hold the keyboard as he played and Horatio would play the guitar

and I would just hold the keyboard because they need someone to hold it and Tracy just walked by the office and said what do you guys work it on so he he he just decided to just dance just do a simple dance i couldn't believe it did okay the first time but it just seemed every year it would just keep coming back and it became after like a year or two it just became an annual tradition did you ever foresee that that would happen um no i had no idea it was such a hit yeah yeah became a big hit in high school when you were doing

the crucible and doing man of la mancha did you think you might go in that direction more serious No, I didn't know if I would be more, I wanted to be in comedy more than serious, although I could do comedy. I mean, I could do serious, you know, it'd be nice to do that sometime. But I, I, I, my heart was in comedy for sure. You were 19 when you started at the groundlands. How long did it take you to make the main stage? Probably about four years. It's amazing. I mean, to that you, you got it. You got it. it and then you um you got to was there anyone that you recommended to loren from the groundlands either or anybody i know for example i know um bill hater recommended um i believe it was pt david's and i know mcgan maloney um was the one that recommended bill hater um is there anybody that you recommended to lorne by chance i didn't no i didn't have um no i i didn't know i was um my cast was

the same cast that made it on so they made it right before me yeah um i know um i'm only going to bring him in our producer john um because he's with the saturday night network and they've interviewed almost so many people from saturday night live and some of the fans had a few questions john i don't know if you can come in and ask chris um a few but this is our producer john schneider john yeah gray's or properly meet you uh well there's a lot of lore in the fan community about your time at the show and this injury that occurred. Are you able to talk about how that came together, what really happened, and when that injury occurred during your career?

Yeah, I'd rather not. It's not really an exciting thing to talk about. It's kind of a lull. But, you know, it was a, you know, I broke my neck and, you know, and I was out of commission for years, and it was kind of sad. Yeah. I was unable to work for years, so. I can't imagine.

Yeah, of course, I really understand that. When Tina and Jimmy took over on updates, it seemed like you got a lot more involved with the, you know, coming in front of the desk and doing some sort of bit there. Is there a reason that happened more in the Tina Jimmy era of update versus, you know, Colin Quinn or Norm? No, the head writer was Michael Schur, and he just, I don't know. There was the terrible reenactments that I would do in the weekend updates.

There's always bad reenactments or something in the news where some accident happened and I would do a terrible reenactment whether the queen's tripped or john mackerel got mad or something like that so I would uh I wouldn't I would interpret that movement and that act and I would just say thank you and it was a quick like 30 second thing yeah it was really great um I also wanted to ask you about your final season at the show I know mark mentioned it earlier but you had this late career uh moment that I think all the fans really enjoyed, which was the Rialto Grande, where you were playing that Buddy Mills character. Yeah.

And do you have any memories of that coming together and that being something, you know, later in your career where it's like, oh, I just hit on a new character? Yeah. Well, it was Lucy based on my dad, who was kind of a goofball. And, yeah, he was a bad lounge singer or a bad lounge comedian. And Fred Armisen was the drummer. And all the, what was great about that sketch, my favorite part were the, all the females in the show and the cast were the waitresses. And they just walked by the camera and give these sneering looks, you know, whether it was Tina or Maya or Amy Poehler or, you know, Rachel.

And they just gave these hilarious looks. They were so funny. That was my favorite part of the sketch, well, when the girls were waitresses. But there was a lot of people in that sketch, but it was about a lounge singer that told bad jokes. And Fred Armisen was always, he did the d-dunton, you know, with the drums, but he was always a little late. The timing on that was fantastic. I thought you and Fred made such a good pair. And I am always curious to know, you were there sort of at the start of all of these really incredible performers' careers.

We had Amy and Seth and Fred and Will Forte all coming in at the end. Did you feel like there was a moment when you were handing the reins off to them? Or was there anything as like the elder statesman of the cast that you felt like, okay, I can go now because the show is in really good hands? No, no. I just, it wasn't good hands, of course, but I didn't need to feel that. I mean, it wasn't good hands. It wasn't like they need.

Well, they didn't want me to leave. I do remember there was pressure on me not leaving. The writers didn't want me to leave, and, you know, but my dad was sick, so I was just explaining earlier that he was sick, so he needed my help. So I came back to L.A. But, yeah, no, there was no, no, the show is always in good shape since I was there from day one.

Mark, I got one more, which is that I just wanted to ask you about there is a very famous sketch that you have a very brief appearance in, which is the She's a Rainbow sketch. That is when Kristen Wigg had her goodbye to the show, and Mick Jagger was performing. And all of a sudden, Chris Catan is there. And if you're like a longtime fan of the show, you're like, oh, this is so cool.

Chris Catan showed up. What were you doing there that night? Oh, I was just there. I just came to see the show. And then, well, Forte asked me to go up on stage in the end. and they asked me to be in a sketch since I was there. So that's how that happened. I just came to see the show because I heard of it was Kristen Wig's last show.

Yeah, it adds to the lore of that sketch, a little bit that you ended up being in it. So, yeah, those are the major questions I had, Mark. I do have some spreading credits, but we can go over those. I'll get back to the credits. I wanted to ask, did you and Will go to Lorne about Jack Nicholson doing Roxbury? Was that you and Will that went to him? To pitch?

I don't know if we did. I don't recall. I don't know if it was Lauren's idea. I mean, he was there to see the show because Hello Hunt was hosting, and they just did. As good as it gets. As good as he gets. And so he was there as a friend. And we asked if he'd come in and do a little bit, little Roxbury, you know, bopping up his head for a cameo.

And that was pretty cool. Did he do dress rehearsal? I can't see Jack doing dress. I can just see him doing it on air. Did he do dress? Do you remember? Yeah, I don't remember. I don't recall.

I think he did. I think you kind of have to, or you try your best to get the person to do so. Yeah. Yeah, but I think he did. John just has a few more questions about writing, and then we'll let you go, but this has been amazing, John.

Yeah, Chris, I just have, I would love to rapid fire you some sketches is that we would love to know if you have any memories of or writing with any particular writer. One is the Terry Gantner family workout. That's from the Marty Short episode in season 22. Oh, yeah, Will Ferrell wrote that sketch. And that was very funny where we hit a,

it was a block of Balserwood that we hit, obviously, so it wouldn't get heard. Yeah, that was really good. Then an episode later in the Christmas soft sketch, that was from the Rosie O'Donnell episode. You did a Bill Gates impression. any memories of that. God, I don't remember that.

I know I did Bill Gates, but I didn't remember what episode it was. Yeah, that was really, really funny. I think later on a couple episodes later, David Allen Greer's episode, there was this big Spice Girls sketch where you and all the guys were dressed. There was a bunch of you dressed as Spice Girls. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, I do remember that, yeah. I thought we did that with Sarah Michelle Geller.

I think you did it a couple times. Yeah, I guess we did. Yeah, we did that. Girl power. Yeah, any memories of who put that one together? No, I don't. I don't remember who put that together. I think a female writer, I'm going to guess.

Okay, got that. Then I have the, there was a job interview sketch. I think that one, that's from season 23, episode 17. So I'm going to say that that was in the Steve Buscemi episode. Oh, yeah, that was a pretty... I love that sketch. Yeah, you remember that sketch. You talked about it before.

I wrote that sketch. That sketch I wrote. Instead of UCLA, he's like, what is Yucla? Or, like, hopefully pronounced it. What is Ucla? It's like, it's UCLA. Yeah, he was like just a, he just was demented and not very bright. And it was a job interview.

Yeah, it was really, really funny. But you wrote, like that's great. I just got influenced by his kind of attitude in his films, you know, see what he should be such a great, strong character actor. that one's really an all-timer there was a sketch called wrap it up i think that was a sketch from the john goodman episode yeah i wrote that i wrote that he's a bad christmas rapper in the wrapping section oh that was fun that was really good physical yeah that was a seth myers favorite sketch that's what he used to tell me oh yeah that i really like that one uh also we talked about

sarah michel geller before but there was a sketch called shame attack i think it was a game show from when she hosted with the Backstreet Boys. God, I don't remember that one. It's a long time ago. That one I don't remember. I liked when you were doing the luggage with the suitcases and you're the Bell Boys throwing the luggage, the suitcase. Did you write that?

That was one of my favorites. Yeah, we wrote that. Will and I and Jim Brewer all wrote that because we were the bellhops. And we just destroyed people's luggage as it was handed to us. The idea came about as we were on the 17th floor where we wrote and we were just kicking around empty water barrels

and we're just like throwing them around and thought that could be funny if we just threw things around and actually normally and so we came up with the idea of being bellhops in a luggage you know

a lobby of a hotel of a high class hotel and just throwing around people's luggage yeah in In 2000, you did Elion Gonzalez on like a cold open for an NBC special report. Any memories of that one? I knew it was a cold opening.

No, it was neat to get always handed a cold opening. That's always great and exciting. But yeah, that was just in the news. And I played Leon, who floated over from Cuba. And, yeah, that was neat to get cast as that character. I think you did Ricky Martin that same episode on Charlie Roads. Oh, really? I did.

Yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah, there was a funny one. There's also Siegfried and Roy's Night of a Thousand Tigers. I think that was from the next episode. That's from the Allen coming episode. Yeah, you guys remember everything. Jeez, Louise. We have a full, full vaults of all the details.

Yeah, you do. Some missing stuff that the fans want to know. Like, how did that stuff come together? Right, yeah. Yeah, we, I just could do a Ricky Martin impression. I was very physical. So I did a Ricky Martin impression, and so they shaped a sketch around it, that impression I did. Yeah, people still talk about it because of music rights. I don't think it's online. Am I right on that?

Yeah, it's another one that you can't find, unfortunately. I did a lot of sketchy with music, and that's unfortunately he can't find a lot of the sketches. Chris, do you remember anything about the Christopher Lowell Show? That's from the John Goodman episode in 2000. just that I used to watch because it was so funny and that my beard fell off during the dress

rehearsal and they used that in a blooper reel the spirit gum kept falling off and I went ah oh did you put that together

with anybody I know I wrote that I made that with Wayneo with Scott Wayneal okay very cool Yeah, I think I got what I was looking for, Mark.

Chris, I know this was very nerdy SNL. Thank you for making John and I happy, but this was great talking to you. Well, thank you. You guys had different questions that I haven't heard before. So thank you for being so bright. No, I'm glad that we got to do that. And is your podcast going to come back? Most likely.

It might be coming back in a different form. It might be doing it solo, but I'm not quite sure. I think people really want that. You had some great guest, and it was fun. And following your Instagram, you do such a great job posting stuff from your current life and from SNL. And you do a really good job on that. So, yeah, everybody check out that on Instagram. Thanks so much, Chris.

I've got to be joining us. Thank you, Chris. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. On Apple Podcast, please rate it and leave a review. Be sure to go to late-nighter.com for all. all your late night TV news, and you can find my podcast at latenighter.com forward slash podcasts. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.