What It Was Like Seeing Saturday Night Live, Live

Sooo… this isn't something that I usually write about, but I saw Saturday Night Live last Saturday. Seeing the show has always been a dream of mine since I started watching at the age of 12, and it's something that's been incredibly influential in my perception of how comedy works and my future aspirations of becoming a comedy writer.

The first episode of the show I watched was Christina Applegate's 2012 stint as host, and one sketch in particular always stood out to me: "Tech Talk." Taking the form of a show discussing technology, it found several phone critics complaining about the latest Apple product before the host (played by Applegate) brings out three Chinese employees to effectively shame the privileged reviewers for the audacity of their complaints. It's a hilarious and fairly sharp sketch, but it underlined Saturday Night Live's diversity problem rather frustratingly; this is a show that has never had an East Asian castmember, and here were three people effectively performing some variant of yellowface for the sake of the joke.

As an Asian-American person myself (I'm half-Chinese), I've found SNL's struggles with diversity to be particularly frustrating, but when Awkwafina was announced as host— hot off of a fantastic summer in two blockbusters (one being the first movie with an all-Asian cast in 25 years), I knew I had to get out there. This was someone like me (let alone the first host of East Asian descent in 18 years) hosting the show that fostered my love of comedy; I didn't have to look at Aziz Ansari or Kumail Nanjiani as a sort of proxy hero, and that felt good.

I got in-line around 4 PM on Friday, after spending a night with a friend. I had initially planned to go with her to see the show, but she ended up having other commitments that I learned about post-plane-ticket-purchase, so things fell through and I was all by myself, sitting in front of the open road with nothing but a chair, a blanket, a copy of Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance that she'd lent me, and a few hours of sleep from the previous night on top of two yoga mats on hardwood floor.

Nevertheless, I quickly found myself to be in good company. A very underrated aspect of the SNL standby experience is just how great the line is; sure, the 14 hour waiting time I went through sounds daunting, but being able to talk to like-minded fans of the show was an excellent time-killer, and I walked out of it having made a lot of awesome friends in the progress. In front of me were Weslyn, a student of the arts, and Amanda, who works on marketing for Nickelodeon; behind me were Kevin, and Ash, a hipsterish couple (romantic or not, I'm unsure) and soon-to-become veterans of the standby line, having previously attended last season's episodes hosted by John Mulaney and Donald Glover. Meanwhile, I was making my fresh-faced debut, not knowing what to expect. I was quickly won over by Kevin's general SNL pedantry and ended up spending a lot of the rest of my time picking Amanda's mind, herself a half-Asian improv performer whom agreed that "representation matters." At around 8 PM, Kevin held out a cigarette, offering it to me—I had been inducted into the circle of trust. (Sadly, I had to deny it against my temptations as it would've been my first cigarette, and I didn't want to lose all of my newly-established standby cred in a coughing fit from a failed attempt to smoke it.)

At 6 AM I was rudely awoken from my uncomfortable half-slumber (I was contorted in a sleeping bag draped across my fold-out chair) by a security guard telling us to pack up our belongings and compress the line, and after a few exhaustive rounds of moving forward, standing for a bit, and moving forward a bit more, it was 7 AM, when two pages came out and started handing out tickets. I got #22 for live; all of my new standby buddies, save for Weslyn, opted for dress. After that, I hung around Rockefeller for a little bit, watching the Today Show crowd from afar alternate between exuberant shouting and complete apathy whenever the camera was off of them, then headed back and did nothing until showtime.

I arrived at the NBC building a bit before 10:30 and quickly got in-line at the NBC giftshop. After briefly reuniting with my friends in the dress crowd, I was ushered through security and up some steps, then through an atrium with giant LED screens flashing photos of sketches and bumpers of SNL's past (featuring an elusive sighting of Bobby Moynihan, who walked past us without looking for a second). After that, you start walking through the hallways of the studio, past framed photographs of memorable sketches from the past season (including, among other things, Sam Rockwell's f-bomb and Melissa's Nickelback sketch), and before you know it, you're in the upstairs seating. I was in 52A on the right corner of the seating chart, with the main stage jutting out from my right.

For reference, here's a diagram of the studio that I wrote on, showing where my seat was and where the sketches were shot.

Michael Che came out first to warm up the crowd by going over how things are going to generally unfold, as well as getting everybody excited and asking who's coming from where (giving a characteristic "Fuck you" to the large portion of the audience cheering for Boston) before introducing Kenan, backed up by Cecily, Melissa, and Heidi, for a performance of "Gimme Some Lovin'." Shortly after, the SNL band started playing some rousing jazz, and a bit later, the cast emerged, in-costume, ready to tackle the cold open. The seconds were counted off (the person announcing the seconds gives an exaggerated "ONE SECOND!" which is why you'll hear the audience laughing briefly before the cold open even starts), and like magic, the show began, being broadcasted to millions across the US as I watched it unfold, then and there, only a few yards away.

After the cold open, and after the season's sweet new opening montage, Awkwafina took the stage, and I was briefly on-camera for a split second, which was pretty cool to discover after the fact. (At the beginning, Che asked "Who's excited to be on-camera tonight?" before responding, after applause, "Well that's not gonna happen." So take that, Michael.)

After a few fun jokes, Awkwafina started talking about her botched attempt to see her idol Lucy Liu host an episode of SNL in 2000. Even though she knew she wasn't getting in, she just wanted to be near the building, saying the episode changed her understanding of what was possible for an Asian-American woman. Though she didn't get in on that fateful night, though, here I was, another starry-eyed Asian kid, but I'd actually gotten in, and when that first photo bumper appeared on the TV monitor in front of me, overwhelmed with distinct pride, I teared up a little—she'd made it. (That reaction, meanwhile, has nothing to do with the sketch that followed, which featured, among other things, Travis Scott freestyle-dancing to the Jeopardy theme song, which was an unexpected highlight for the night.)

I don't know what else to put about the live show itself, so I'll just right a few notes here for the curious:

-I was seated right behind the Cleopatra sketch, but sadly did not appear in the commercial break bumper because a black cloth was hung over the set (for the sake of inducing natural lighting), obstructing my upper body in the shot. However, I got a great angle to stare at the cue cards and read along with the sketch as it was delivered, as well as seeing Cecily's quick make-up job. A stagehand ran in and pressed a white cast of Cecily's face against her, imprinting the cosmetics on in a matter of seconds. (Awkwafina's name was also marked as Nora on all of the cue-cards, for those curious.)

-Travis Scott sounded fantastic, even though my seat was incredibly far away from the stage; I could only see the performance through the walls on the right of the stage, which pretty much amounted to watching John Mayer's head float around. The entire studio pulsated with the bass, though I'd like to call out the asshole who sat behind me shouting half the lyrics to the second song. 

-For Weekend Update, two black walls are set up on each end of the desk to block the guests/characters who get wheeled out. I was in one of the only places where the wall wasn't obstructing us, so it was fun to watch Mikey and Alex's Trump wigs getting perfected and Pete just sitting around before the rest of the audience knew what was coming.

-During the "So You're Willing to Date a Magician" sketch, Leslie and Pete were breaking the entire time, even when the camera was off of them. I believe Leslie was laughing primarily at Kenan's facial expressions, and Pete broke as a result of Leslie's breaking. 

-During the "Pumpkin Patch" sketch, at the beginning, there's a moment where Awkwafina does this really weird walk that made a lot of people in the audience laugh, though the microphones didn't seem to pick that up. I only say this because now I laugh every time I see it, and I still have literally no idea why she does that.

-Kate calling Awkwafina a "cinder ho" in the Film Panel sketch wasn't on the cue cards.

-The show ends precisely after the goodnights. There's not a moment where the camera is off and people are still celebrating; they all walk down and out immediately once the cameras are off. (Awkwafina did wave at the person seated directly above the entrance, though, which was cute, and Beck got a picture of everybody walking out.)

-While not on-camera, the cast of the show was also hugging during the goodnights in the corner of the studio, which was really cute.

-Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu was apparently in the audience of the show, though he sat on the upper part of the studio in the crowd. According to the person who sat next to him, he wanted to see the show "just like everybody else," which more likely just meant he wanted a good view of Travis Scott.

Once the show was over, we were escorted back down the hallways we came from. Kenan walked out in the same direction (I assume the castmembers' and writers' rooms were a bit down the hall because there was a distinct scent of weed) and I was able to shake his hand and congratulate him on being awesome, for a lack of better words. I then headed out to one of the building's back exits to try to see some castmembers running out to the afterparty afterwards, though I ended up standing at the wrong exit, which turned out to be where people left discretely who didn't want to be seen, which was still pretty interesting. I got to see Lenny Pickett, the show's saxophonist and musical director, walk out, during which we had this entire conversation: 

"Hey Lenny!" "Hey dude." "The band sounded great tonight!" "Thanks!"

Kenan exited quietly wearing a baseball cap, hoping not to be seen. Bobby Moynihan also walked out shortly after wearing glasses and a flat cap; I said hi to him and he grinned at me without saying a word before putting a cigarette in his mouth. Lorne walked right out the doors, causing everyone in the crowd to quietly say something amongst themselves to the extent of "Dude, it's Lorne." I said hi to him and he gave me a wave without looking back with his hand contorted like a crow's talon, which felt very in-character.

Perhaps the unexpected highlight, though, was getting to see Bowen Yang, the show's only current Asian writer. After a few attempts, I was able to call him over, and we had a nice talk about representation in comedy and advice in my pursuit of a comedy major. It was apparently his first time being recognized in public, which felt cool to hear, and we both conceded to one another that we had cried at some point during the night. (I found out after the fact that he had gotten his first bit of writing on the show that night, having worked with Awkwafina to write her monologue—I'm rooting for you, dude.)

By the time I realized I was in the wrong line, though, the night's festivities had pretty much ended. After that, I headed back to where I was staying, slept as long as I possibly could, then flew back home. 

So yeah, that's how my weekend went.