Saturday Night Live Is 50

I owe a great debt to Saturday Night Live.



Odd, only because I do NOT have a direct link to that battleship of late-night television vehicles, the one which spawned movie stars, TV stars, comedy stars, internet videos and clips. Not to mention some of the most iconic phrases, sayings, and terminology used in everyday language here in the USA and abroad.



(“COWBELL” anyone?)



I have surfed the crest of the comedy wave (it was a tsunami for a while!) these past few decades, and part of that good fortune is Saturday Night Live.



My non-connection is not for lack of trying.



I auditioned for the show and the casting people, director, and producers.



I was rejected.

Soundly.

Twice.



In addition, I sent the producers a 12-page “example” of my comedy sketch/music parody/punchlines and jokes ideas which was - as far as I know - rejected out-of-hand.



That makes three total rejections (how many do you need to get the message? See below*) and therefore the writing - I use that word purposefully - was on the wall. (I think the writing on the wall said something to the effect of “NO! NOT YOU”)



I have worked with many past cast members:

1. While doing a three-year stint as a (substitute/touring company) piano accompanist at The Second City Theatre in Chicago, some of the main stage cast members became SNL alumni: including Mary Gross, Jim Belushi, and Tim Kazurinsky. (I’m pretty sure Belushi and Gross never knew my name.) The Director, Del Close, worked closely with the SNL cast in the early-to-mid 1980s.
   
2. Down the street just one block, on Chicago’s near north side, I was the emcee at Zanies Comedy Club when Al Franken, whose SNL/TV career is one that anyone would admire, came to town with his comedy duo/writing partner Tom Davis (stage name: FRANKEN AND DAVIS).
   
3. And, while emceeing at Catch A Rising Star in New York City, I often introduced some of the cast members who came into the joint to do their stand-up act. These included Ellen Cleghorne, Dennis Miller, Chris Rock, Kevin Nealon, David Spade, and Jon Lovitz.

My personal history with Saturday Night Live cast is not something to brag about. Two cases-in-point:

1. Mr. Franken told me, after our first show at Zanies, that he felt he got a “higher quality laugh” than I did in my performance. OUCH.
   
2. Some years later I was scheduled to be the ‘opening act’ for the fine impressionist and SNL cast member, Darrell Hammond, at an event in the Quad Cities, Illinois. This never happened as Mr. Hammond rejected me for the following reason (which came to me third-person). He did not believe my act would be “appropriate.” OUCH AGAIN.

NOTE: at this time, I will introduce my friend ‘Marty,’ short for Martin. You may know him as “MARTY R DOM” or the colloquial ‘martyrdom.’ Marty is the name I gave to the large (size of the Rock of Gibraltar) “chip” on my shoulder. The one that no surgeon or chiropractor on Earth could possibly amputate. Or ease.



Still.



I was in college at the University of Illinois when Saturday Night Live became the culture-defining legend that it is. One day there was nothing worth watching on Saturday nights. A week later nobody ‘went out’ until 11:30 pm (Central Time in the USA) because EVERYONE watched the show from 10:30 to 11:30.



It was 1975. I had been thrown out of one fraternity (this was right around the time I met my friend “Marty”) and had joined another one: SIGMA CHI - which is the shift plot or turning point in my story - if it were a paperback novel. So now I will try and encapsulate a) my career, b) my fellow Sigma Chi brothers, and c) why I am forever indebted to them and to Saturday Night Live.



Saturday Night Live combined hilarious comedy sketches (sometimes improvised right on live television!) and popular music.



Get it? Comedy and music. Saturday night. Live. Topical. Cutting edge. Hip, hot, and oh-so-happening.



Cut to me. Sigma Chi has a state-of-the-art sound system. It was the mid-70s. Disco was king.



DO NOT DIS THE DISCO!



I don’t believe in irony or coincidence, except as theatrical/artistic motifs.



Here is what happened...

I started a (very) small-time comedy-and-music business. I used the sound system at the Sigma Chi fraternity, without permission, hijacking it every weekend to perform short (sometimes ribald and insulting) comedy routines between dance songs. That led to a defining part of my life where I was booked solid every weekend doing comedy-and-music at my fraternity (basically a live audition for the entire campus who attended these late-night parties), then getting PAID to perform at their events!

I didn’t know or acknowledge it at the time - but I stole the concept that SNL employed: comedy mixed with the latest music. I was live, doing improvised comedy routines between dance songs.

(One of my big jokes was describing food served at the dormitories: “AAAAHHHH! Make it jump back on your plate!”)

Without knowing it or understanding why, I had tapped into the mood and the atmosphere and the sensibility of my generation: comedy and music in live performance.

To be gut-punchingly honest, I was a (very) poor-man’s Saturday Night Live, except there was only one cast member, one musician, and one microphone.

So, The University of Illinois, it’s entire Greek system, not to mention every dormitory and all the live venues where I performed, taught me self-employment. Sigma Chi was my first audience, my original casting agent and booker - a definitive ‘wild bunch’ who changed my life and gave me a career.

But for the purposes of this newsletter, I say a sheepish, respectful, belated thank you and CONGRATULATIONS ON 50 YEARS SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!

NOTE: Though I never met her, I have performed for Gilda’s Laugh Fest, which is part of the programming at “Gilda’s Club” in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gilda Radner, an original member of Saturday Night Live, died of cancer in May of 1989. The organization is named for her - hence, GILDA’S CLUB - and it is an organization for people with cancer offering support, education, and empowerment for patients and families. They do exemplary work.

*THE THEORY OF THREES: this is an old adage in theater and comedy and humor writing (and all other kinds of communication to be honest).

The concept is that any idea presented as a group of three will be more memorable and effective. E.g., “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Related to comedy: you write a joke. Then try and add two “tag lines” - two extra punch lines stemming from the original punch line. So:

JOKE

I was in line at the college cafeteria. The serving person held up a plate of goop and shoveled some of it on my plate. I think whatever it was mighta been alive! It was moving! I shouted, “MAKE IT JUMP BACK!”

TAG I:
The server said, “No way! Last time I did that it bit me!”

TAG II:
“So I entered it in a contest at the science lab. It won first prize and is now dean of the department.”

Thanks for reading!

Taylor



P.S.

Some upcoming live appearances:
February 22 I am at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts in Tecumseh, Michigan. Tickets

February 23 I am in St Marys Ohio at the St Marys Theater. Tickets

March 4 I appear at St Michale Lutheran Church in Portage, Michigan! Tickets