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  • live from New York.

  • It's gonna get weird.

  • Hey, everyone, I'm Rebecca and welcome to watch Mojo.

  • Today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 crazy stories behind SNL auditions.

  • My heart is black.

  • Oh, sweet Jesus.

  • That means we're looking at the most unique and unexpected experiences that performers had during their auditions for Saturday Night Live, but they don't necessarily have to have been successful auditions.

  • All right, let's get to the list.

  • If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out the full song at the link below number 10.

  • To Prop or not to prop Bill Hater auditioning for Saturday Night Live could be a nerve racking experience.

  • Should you go with what you know and do the stand ups that you've perfected for years?

  • Or should you try something fresh and new?

  • For Lorne Michaels and Company?

  • These thoughts were running through the mind of Bill Hater as he recalled stepping into a 30 rock elevator and seeing another comedian holding a bunch of props.

  • That comedian, oddly enough, was future SNL cast member Andy Samberg, who was auditioning the same day he encounter probably lead both to second guess the whole prop thing.

  • But now we know that both hater and Samberg ended up just fine.

  • Okay?

  • And, Anthony, what is your puppets?

  • Name?

  • Number nine is New York.

  • Okay, Seth Meyers.

  • So the show is live from New York, meaning that working in the city that never sleeps should be sort of a given, right?

  • Well, for some reason, Lauren Michael still went ahead and asked Seth Meyers whether or not he'd be ableto live in N.

  • Y.

  • C.

  • Should he be given a spot on the cast.

  • Myers was doing a final meeting with Michael's before being offered the job, and he told The New York Times that he couldn't help but wonder if quote, anyone blew it.

  • At this stage.

  • It's not like the iconic sketch comedy show could be held anywhere else, especially not for the convenience of a new cast member.

  • Number eight contractual obligations.

  • Mindy Kaling.

  • The office has seen its share of alumni trying their hands and joining the cast of Saturday Night Live wide rigor and slot.

  • Steve Carell once auditioned alongside his wife, Nancy Walls.

  • They passed on Carell but offered walls a spot during the shows.

  • 21st season.

  • Mindy Kaling also auditioned for us an elder in the second season of the office, making a deal with showrunner Greg Daniels that she could be let out of her contract if approved.

  • As a cast member, she was offered a writing position on the show, but that wasn't part of the deal.

  • So she stayed on the office despite knowing the potential for parlaying that position into an eventual slot on the main cast.

  • What might have been?

  • Sometimes I get so bored, I just want to scream.

  • And then sometimes I actually do scream.

  • I just sort of fuel out with the situation.

  • Calls for Number seven Time Crunch Kristen wig We mentioned earlier about how stressful choosing material for an SNL audition could be, and this also applies to making sure everything is timed correctly.

  • Sometimes down to the millisecond, Everybody just has to act natural.

  • Can you do that soon?

  • Natural?

  • Yes, yes, I'll just look at my hand.

  • Kristen Wig had this nailed down for her turn at bat for the SNL cast after being told that all auditions had to be five minutes maximum.

  • We told The New York Times that she even brought a stopwatch in order to make sure her material could fit in the allotted time.

  • Then, when she was actually in the 30 Rock building, she heard that other performers were doing sets in excess of 10 minutes, which really let the wind out of her sails.

  • Number six The right Obama.

  • Donald Glover.

  • Okay, so how did this not become a thing?

  • Donald Glover wasn't auditioning to become a member of the Saturday Night Live, cast its featured players or even on the writing team, but threw his hat into the ring to play former president Barack Obama during the Shows 7 4008 season.

  • Glover was already writing and performing on the 30 rock TV show alongside Tina Fey and had proven his strength of comedy.

  • And we think he could have done a very presidential job with his impressions.

  • The role was eventually given to cast member Fred Armisen, however, leaving us all to imagine the scenario in our heads until the end of time.

  • Number five Lauren Laughing on the inside Jimmy Fallon Lorne Michaels is the ultimate deciding factor when it comes to landing a job with SNL and meetings with him.

  • Congar Oh, a myriad of different ways.

  • Jimmy Fallon was waiting three hours for his meeting when he was informed by an assistant that Chris Farley was kept waiting over eight.

  • Then there was when Fallon was told by no less than three people not to be dissuaded.

  • If Lauren didn't laugh during his audition, his reaction quote.

  • He's doing a comedy show.

  • Why does he not like toe laugh?

  • It ended with Jimmy doing an Adam Sandler impression, Forlorn, which he must have found.

  • Funny weather.

  • It showed it or not.

  • Number four.

  • No women this year.

  • Rachel Dratch.

  • There's been an ebb and flow to the cast of Saturday Night Live, with performers of different genders, races and sexual orientations passing through over the years as a result, sometimes casting directors air looking for different things, depending upon what kind of holes they need filled within the featured players.

  • Rachel Dratch didn't get in the door during her first audition for the show, with SNL hiring Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell in her place, she was told the show quote wasn't hiring women that year, which is a funny thing to hear.

  • But Dratch told the new York Times that she eventually felt quote at peace with the decision.

  • Number three.

  • Don't Do Mary Katharine, Molly Shannon.

  • Hey, sometimes you just shouldn't listen to anyone other than yourself.

  • Molly Shannon certainly followed her instincts when she auditioned for SNL and was told that Lauren Michaels would quote Hate her character of Mary Katherine Gallagher.

  • Sure, it would have been easy for Shannon to listen to this bad advice from one of the shows, Talent Scouts, but she listened to her gut and eventually created an iconic character for the ages.

  • I wanna be a singer just like you.

  • What's love got to do.

  • Got to do the lesson here.

  • Go with what you know, even if what you know is doing an awkward, accident prone, armpit smelling Catholic school girl obsessed with MEREDITH Baxter Birney that you're not still nervous.

  • Yeah, that was very good.

  • Very good.

  • Number two.

  • Awkward callback.

  • Will Ferrell.

  • Well, Ferrell was back in New York for a second meeting with Lauren Michaels.

  • So he sat down and started to go through his act.

  • Michaels told him that he basically needed to come up with something entirely new.

  • Farrell had actually planned an elaborate joke for the meeting.

  • Bringing along a briefcase full of fake money to offer is a bribe.

  • We're doing the interview now, not you.

  • But the atmosphere was tense and he changed his mind at the last minute.

  • I'm Will Ferrell, and, uh, this will be the voice of the Chicago Cubs, Mr Harry Carey.

  • The next day, he ended up doing a sketch about a businessman who rolls around on the floor playing with cat toys when she was sure bombed.

  • Tell Don Jacobs to hold.

  • Yes.

  • No, I'm busy.

  • Thank you.

  • Fortunately, he was wrong.

  • Or we would never have gotten more cow Bell.

  • Be doing myself a disservice on every member of this band.

  • Performed the hell out of this before we continue.

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  • Number one persistence pays off.

  • Eddie Murphy.

  • Oh, look.

  • An eviction notice.

  • Eddie Murphy wasn't even 20 years old when he felt the urge to inundate and SNL talent coordinator with daily phone calls for a week, begging for a chance to get on the show.

  • That coordinator eventually relented, intending to use Eddie as a non speaking extra in the background.

  • Eddie, perhaps predictably killed at the audition, and he was made a full member of the SNL cast.

  • This is the last episode of 2019 But if you're Black, this is the first episode since I left back in 1984.

  • Murphy served as one of the shining stars and saving graces for the show's tumultuous sixth season, known as SNL 80 and went on to not only become a serious staple but on absolute comedy icon.

  • Maybe you should consider Give me my own slack.

  • Not it means I'm totally experience.

  • Do you agree with our picks?

  • Let us know in the comments.

  • And, hey, if you're a fan of the song playing right now, be sure to check out the music video for it right here.

live from New York.

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