This is a weird bit for me.  So weird, it was rejected by my usual sites.  I'll admit to being a fan of the quirky SNL troupe member Jane Wickline.  She seems like she's from outside the usual SNL mold and I can't quite put my finger on what pulls me in.  So, thinking on it, I decided to write it up.  And, full disclosure, a lot of if came to me in that semi-dream state as you're between sleep and waking, my little Neverland of comedy.  Granted, a lot of ideas come to me in that twilight time, but I actually remembered the stuff that came to me this time and wrote it down and emailed it to myself.  It started with the a couple of thoughts I've been knocking around, I added some absurd bits of non sequiturs and finally, brought the bit together by adding the stalker backstory.  It's like writer John Bono, who wrote about his time at National Lampoon, you have the main drive of the story, but what makes the piece work is some sort of running gag or subplot that anchors the material.  It was something I also learned from Olympia Dukakis from my time at Style Without Substance.  And it feeds in nicely to my SNL Fetish.

I worked on it and sent it out, but (as I suspected) it didn't click with those places, so here we are, on my blog.  I hope you get a chuckle out of it.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I've really been taking in all the SNL50 content.  I've enjoyed it all, but it's made me melancholy as well.  The idea of writing for SNL was always a dream.  Anytime I had a chance to submit, I jumped on it.  The topic came up again and again.  And I've written about it here again and again.  Now, 50 years later, the possibilities for it happening are diminishing.  Writing the prose piece and putting this video together were my ways of becoming part of the celebration.

After watching the Beyond Saturday Night documentaries, I finally got an idea for a sketch.  I was going to write a documentary from the fans' POV.  But here's the thing, out here in the 'burbs, I really don't have what you might call a comedy support group.  So, thinking it over, I (along with my inner ham) decided to do it from ONE fan's POV.  And then I figured, WTH, I'll just be that fan.

I have SNL books.  I have SNL Christmas ornaments.  I had recently unearth some SNL related magazines.  I had posters, t-shirts and the internet.  A definite approach was coming together.   In the end, I had too much stuff.

I wrote out a sketch.  I was liking it.  Then, at work, I decided to see if I could record myself, as a character, talking about SNL.  I did.  I realized afterward that I was using my "inside voice" on the video, but it worked for the character and didn't attract attention at the job.

I searched the internet to find some images I wanted to reference.  I had to figure out how to get my phone video onto my PC.  Then I had to convert my .MOV file to MPG4 file that my editing software would recognize.  I found the original SNL theme.

I attempted to record a VO myself, but both my microphone and my voice weren't up to the task.  I found an online site that converted text into an announcer's voice.  I found an image of the SNL documentary title card and matched up the fonts for my title to superimpose on it.

 Over the next few days I started to edit the bits I had together.  I was disappointed in one of my video takes so I decided to re-do it.  Only, I decided to record it in my car, instead of my office or at my PC.  It "opened up" the video a lot.  

It was actually fun putting it together.  Editing it, cleaning up takes, overlapping things.  But I was becoming aware of time.  I couldn't let it run too long.  I figured it should be 5 minutes max.  Ideas were dropped. One piece I really like didn't work in the body of the video, then I thought it would be one of those scenes that plays while the credits roll.  But the sound wasn't that great.  I couldn't reshoot it because I wouldn't be able to get that location privately again for days.   I decided to re-do the audio, and convert the video into a series of screen caps.

Titanic it ain't, but I really like the way it came out.  I uploaded it Youtube, sent it out on FB, LinkedIn and Twitter.  People are watching it and liking it.  I hope you will too. So, I've got the video below.  Thanks for checking it out.

Here's a little comedy journey.  I've been trying to keep up with all the SNL50 content hitting the airwaves.  I got to see the 4 documentaries they released in January '25.  I loved them.  And with all the hype about the anniversary for the past year, it only hit me last week about a parody.  The idea started as a documentary parody...the fan-viewpoint.  They issue was I don't have a lot of access to people, what being anti-social and all.  So a DYI version of the idea worked itself out.  And it was pretty good.  I started to think personally, and realized all the SNL-related stuff I had on hand.  I could essentially record something on my phone and create a video bit.  I could.

Thinking about it, I considered my other options.  Once the concept had been hashed out, I could write it up as a prose piece and send it to my usual contacts.  So I did that.  I thought it had topically.  I thought it was a different approach to the idea.  And the comedy sites should like a take on SNL, we're all fans to one extend or another.

They didn't bite.  So, to get it out there, I was going to have to go full DYI.  So, I present here the prose version of my mockumentary: 

Okay, a follow up to my last SNL post about season 6.  I started watching season 7 of the heavily re-launched SNL.  It was now officially Dick Ebersol's show.  Hold overs from the season 6 finale, Denny Dillion and Gail Matthius, were gone.  New hires, Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Tony Rosato made the leap.  Christine Ebersole and Mary Gross joined the cast.  And, of course, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy would stay and rule the roost.   Old man background
actor, Andy Murphy, made it too.
 
After a brief cold open, the new intro began, calling NYC the most dangerous city with  a video reel showing a less-appealing side of New York (this has newly-rehired head writer Michael O'Donoghue written all over it).  And the stage looks like they’re doing it from a abandoned warehouse instead of some iconic NY location.
 
 There was no host.  The cast just ran out, took a bow and ran off into the first sketch.
 
The first sketch was a strange two-hander with Gross and Duke as vacationing nuns.  It took a while for the audience to warn up to it, but there was a solid laugh at the end.  It reminded me of Will Ferrell's first sketch about telling the kid's to get off the shed. Obviously, they were committed to it, but it didn't rock the audience.
 
They did a sketch about a one night stand, went to a commercial, then came back to a funeral sketch that WAS A CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS SKETCH!  Weekend Update became SNL Newsbreak.  Oh, and Brian Doyle Murray was still around and now the Newsbreak co-anchor (with Gross).  It seemed to be renamed so they could do a clever sight gag the first night that they would be stuck with to diminishing effect for the rest of the season.  And the cast had the lines memorized. Not much use of cue cards that I could see.