The comedian has had ties with the show through working with many of its stars on his own show ‘Louie,’ such as Amy Poehler and Chris Rock, but this is the first time he will be in front of the camera.
Louie C.K spoke with A Special Thing about his early experience with ‘Saturday Night Live’, when he initially auditioned as a cast member way back in 1993. At the time, SNL held a showcase audition in a club called ‘Catch A Rising Star’ in New York City, as they were sourcing a lot of material from stand up comedians at the time such as Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler.
"I was going broke, and SNL was like the last chance, the last boat leaving,” the Emmy winner recalled.
“So Dave Attell, Laura Kightlinger, Sarah Silverman, Jay Mohr and me and a bunch of other people all auditioned. I remember that I was put first on the show, and the SNL people hadn’t shown up, and the guy that ran Catch, Louis Faranda, was trying to put me on anyway. He was like, 'Go on.’”
“It was cruel as sh*t. And… Jon Stewart was there and he offered to go on and stall for me, which he did. But finally I had to go on, and as I went on stage they all filed in, and I remember that David Spade was with them, and he had seen me, so he made them sit down, [head writer] Jim Downey and them, and said, ‘Watch this guy,’ which I’m forever indebted to him for even though I didn’t get on SNL,” Louis continued.
“It made a difference, because I went on and I had a really solid, good set, and then over the following week, Laura Kightlinger got cast, Dave Attell, Sarah, Jay, everybody but me [got cast], like everybody that was on that [showcase] but me."
Despite not being cast in the show, his audition was good enough for Louis C.K.’s name to be put forward as a writer for ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’ which propelled him to writing even more sketches, popular stand up shows and eventually his own show.
Written by Miranda Boyce
Copyright : Comedy Central New Zealand