I went to SNL!

Yesterday I went to a Saturday Night Live dress rehearsal, which happens a couple hours before the real thing & is a 1/2 hour longer because they cut sketches that don’t go over well. Last night Brian Williams (NBC Nightly News anchor) hosted, Feist was the musical guest, and the opening sketch featured a surprise appearance from Barack Obama, which was pretty neat.



The stage area is a lot smaller than it looks on TV, but they do a lot with it. Sets are arranged quickly and kind of miraculously (the audience overlooks everything from above), and one especially fun thing to watch was the crazed woman in charge of grabbing the host’s arm after each sketch to race him backstage for quick costume changes.

Feist was lovely, and Brian Williams was one of the smoothest hosts ever, which I guess makes sense since he’s already such a pro at reading teleprompter screens. But he really was so funny and charming and likeable! The kind of dude who no doubt would be the most awesome dad or older brother.

I couldn’t find my favorite sketch online (one where Williams played a Bronx firefighter on a local talk show hosted by Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler). But here’s a parody of “new and improved” Nightly News opening credits that I think his darling-ness comes across well in.



Look at him! He’s so nice!

Anyway, I got my tickets through SNL’s annual August e-mail lottery, though you can also get them the day of if you wait in a long stand-by line. Info here if you’re interested.