NOTE FROM YOUR UNCLE GRAMBO: For five years now, Jason Nummer has been covering the SNL beat for whatevs (dot org). In that time, both he and H-Bomb (who retired after the 2005-2006 season) have been lauded for their constructive critiques of the show, mainly because they refuse to fall into either of the two main divisions of SNL fans — those that blindly support all things Lorne vs. those that constantly have the show on Death Watch. Through a fortunate series of occurences, both Nummer and his fiancée Jenn were able to attend BOTH the dress rehearsal and live broadcast of Saturday Night Live’s 2/10/07 episode, featuring host Forest Whitaker and musical guest Keith Urban. What follows is a recounting of their experiences that evening … enjoy!

We arrived at Rockefeller Center around 6:30 PM on that legendary Saturday, as Dress Rehearsals begin promptly at 8pm. As you are taken up to Studio 8H, you wait in a long hallway littered with endless amounts of framed pictures featuring past hosts and classic SNL moments going back to Season 1. Waiting here also provides a glimpse into the working atmosphere of SNL. Andy Samberg darts by into a hallway where Seth Meyers’ dressing room is visible. Writers walk past carrying scripts marked with circles and arrows. SNL band leader Lenny Pickett escorts what I’m guessing was his family into the studio. I absorb it all in like a drug fiend.

Jumping ahead to the live show, we’re ushered into the studio around 10:50 PM. Walking into 8H and seeing all the sets, stage hands and Lorne Michaels (!!!) scurrying around below you is amazing. On the main stage where Whitaker will soon be giving his monologue, Pickett and the Saturday Night Live Band (with Christine Ohlman on vocals) begin a 20 minute set of bluesy warm-up music while the rest of the audience members find their seats.

After the band’s fourth song, Don Pardo pops on stage to introduce the band, talk about show policy and provide some background on tonight’s host (“We may be seeing an Oscar winner” he repeats to pump up the crowd). After Pardo’s brief comments, Jason Sudeikis jumps on stage to put the finishing touches on audience prep. Jason successfully engages the crowd by pointing out how he doesn’t know if the monitors in the studio are LCD or Plasma, explaining that Pardo is great but “has absolutely no idea where he is due to old age”, before finally closing with some famous pre-show words from Dennis Miller, “Be sure to laugh your asses off.”

From there you watch the stage hands and crew scurry around for about five more minutes while Lorne approaches Hammond and Wiig as they settle into the Cold Opening’s set. A few minutes pass, and we hear the 60 second warning. Cut to just 15 seconds remaining, and the cue to close all studio doors comes from somewhere in a darkened area of the room. Lorne remains on set until 10 seconds are left before NBC picks up the live feed, speaking to Hammond and shaking his hand. He then jets into a corner and watches with a smile as a joke about Scooter Libby gets the night’s first big laugh.

Dialogue from the studio floor during the cold opening, and all the sketches for that matter, is somewhat quiet. I’m guessing this is to avoid feedback from all of the microphones and monitors? However, once the show-starting “Live from New York, its Saturday Night” is screamed, those opening drum beats from the SNL band hits you loud and hard. The band plows through the opening theme as Pardo introduces the cast and host until Forest comes through the main stage door. As all this is happening, Maya walks into the shadows just off stage waiting for her cue to join Forest on stage for their rendition of “Get Ready”.

Taking in SNL sketches live is a totally different animal from watching it on the couch with a box of Cheez-Itz. First off, due to the setup of 8H, a number of sketches may not even be visible to you. Except for a few rows of chairs on the main floor, a majority of the audience sits above the studio floor where some of the action may actually be happening beneath your seat. The only time this was a factor for us was during the “Am I Crazy Street Person?” sketch. The only way we saw any of that as it was happening was by watching the overhead monitors (which again, could be either Plasma or LCD).

Second, like the freedom of watching a sporting event live, you’re free to look anywhere you want. I enjoyed watching Forte, who was off set, look approvingly at Whitaker as he sang Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun go Down on Me” during the Assagios sketch. I loved how Maya and Poehler got into their Bronx Beat roles early and talked to the audience (in character) before NBC came back from commercial break. It was nice seeing Keith Urban’s band hanging out on the music stage watching a sketch in progress at the other end of the studio. And finally, you’d be amazed how fast the stage crew jumps on stage after a sketch, taking Forest or a cast member by the hand and running them off to some area under your seat to prep them for the next segment.

Sketch preparation could be a whole piece onto itself. What goes on during the commercial breaks or while pre-recorded segments are playing is NUTS. For example, after the Assagios sketch, a repeat of the Urigro commercial parody runs. This segment is about 1 minute long. During this time, a portion of the Assagios set is removed and the locker room scene from Animal Planet (which goes live after Urigro) is put up. Everything has been pre-marked on the floor and everyone knows exactly how all the pieces must fit together. To say this is done at breakneck speed is an understatement.

As for the dress rehearsal, this was the second time I had attended one (the first being the Justin Timberlake episode back in 2003). Similar to Timberlake, some of the funniest stuff was left on the floor. Cut from Whitaker’s episode was a cold opening COPS spoof built around Astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, a sketch about Idi Amin running a kitchen supply company, a parody of Food Network’s “Top Chef” where Whitaker played an intimidating amateur chef who made it to the final rounds with a dish involving a burrito and a Kit Kat, plus another installment of “A Moment with the Out of Breath Jogger” (this time from 1933). Also cut was an odd sketch about Bill Hader working in an office with air conditioner trouble and a sketch probably called “Potato Experience” where Armisen and Whitaker attempted to pick up girls in a food court.

I was really hoping the Top Chef and Idi Amin sketches would make the live show. Both gave Whitaker something else to do besides sing and his Mr. T-like voice in Top Chef alone was making me laugh out loud. Jenn, whose favorite cast member alternates between Samberg and Wiig, was also a bit bummed about Samberg’s stuff getting cut – he only appeared in the live episode via digital short.

I also got to interact with the show a bit during dress. While Sudeikis was doing his warm-up routine with the Dress crowd, he closed by asking if anyone in the audience had a question for him. Nobody said a thing so I yelled out, “Are you doing Bush tonight?”, which I figured was a valid question since it’s been a few episodes since his George W. Bush impression had been seen. Sudeikis then repeats the question so everyone can hear before answering, “Maybe after the show … 100% riffed, everyone! 100% riffed!” Then a lady in row in front of us flashes me a “you were planted here for that” look. Classic.

In conclusion, the whole experience, especially dress rehearsal, showed how the current cast is truly made up of funny, talented people. It was also an eye-opening portrayal of why the show isn’t spitting out instant classics week after week. By the nature of network TV, SNL must appeal to as many people as possible to remain on the air. Nowhere tonight was this more evident than the cutting of the Idi Amin sketch based on “The Last King of Scotland”. If just a few more people in the audience had seen that movie, the Amin segment would have killed. Instead, what makes it to air is a Whitney Houston spoof with Maya complaining about Bobby Brown for the umpteenth time. The same woman sitting next to me bored out of her mind during Idi Amin could now be seen laughing so hard at lines like “Hell to the No” that she felt the need to repeat it, in her own Whitney Houston voice, to the man sitting next to her. Crazed.

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