Chapter 1: What special memories from 'Saturday Night Live' are shared?
Hello, everyone, and welcome to a very special episode of Good Hang. You know, we have done 52 episodes. Deck of cards, baby. And it is time to celebrate. And we are going to celebrate with a few clip shows that puts together some of our finest and most fun moments. And our first one this week is all of our SNL stories. So we have had cast members on here. We've had people who hosted.
And we've had a lot of people talk about their time on SNL, the good and the bad. And so we've grabbed some of them and put them together. And you're going to hear from some amazing people. You're going to hear from people like Maya Rudolph. Seth Meyers, Martin Short, Andy Samberg, Tina Fey, Jack Black, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Wiig, Ana Gasteyer. It's going to be incredible.
And we are going to start this episode with someone who worked behind the scenes, someone who was...
Chapter 2: Who is Mary Ellen Matthews and what is her role at SNL?
and is still the most incredible photographer who took all the pictures of your favorite people, and they are their favorite photographs. And just recently, her new book, The Art of the SNL Portrait, has come out. Mary Ellen Matthews is joining us. And let's get the skinny about what it takes to work at that crazy place. Mary Ellen, hello? Hello?
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Chapter 3: What unique challenges does a photographer face on SNL?
Hi. Hi, honey. Hi, honey. This is, I'm so, I'm so thrilled to be here. Like never in my wildest dreams.
This is so, this is amazing. Are you kidding me? I'm so, you know, so we're like doing our clip show of all the SNL peeps that have come through. So many of them are in your book. The art of the SNL portrait, your book. I'm so excited to see it in your little paws.
Yes.
Tell everybody like what your job, what does your job consist of? What does the week look like?
So we find out who's going to be on the show like the week before or a couple of weeks before that, hopefully.
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Chapter 4: How do cast members prepare for their roles on SNL?
And and I just kind of have to come up with some ideas and talk to the stylist, talk to whoever's team it is, because it's collaborative. It's between you and I. It's between whoever it is and myself. I don't want to drive.
the vision just what I want to do so um you know try to include whoever it is in those decisions and also it's like it's not about just doing these you know uh conceptual ones it's just about you know you being you in this time and and space because it's all you know it's a documentary also about the about the time of you doing the show and what's going on in the world and
It's so true. You're right. Like everyone has an era that they're in.
Yeah, for sure. And like, for instance, there was a blizzard happening, one in 2016. It was on a Saturday. Ronda Rousey was on the show. So grabbed her between dress and air, threw her on a sled and just put her outside on 15th Street. So things like that, if you can really like nail it down to the actual minute that it's happening is pretty special.
That's cool. You want, you want the pictures to feel like live, like part of a live show.
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Chapter 5: What funny behind-the-scenes stories are shared about SNL?
I mean, I wish I could do that more often, but you know, that's not, no one else wants to do that, but, but me.
Let's talk about Tom Broker. What does he do at the show and how do you guys work together?
Tom is the costume designer. He designs all the costumes in the wardrobe for the entire show. And for me, I work with him on the photo shoots. So if he styles the photo shoots, if the person doesn't come with their own styling team, and if I have an idea of like, I want Amy to be in a...
you know, 17th century Dutch masterpiece, you know, of course that idea doesn't come till about 1.30 when you're going to step on set. So it's like, I'm like, Tom, you know, I'm so sorry this idea just came to me, but it happens sometimes. But, you know, so he has an archive and he's just a genius to know what to pull and know exactly how to make sense of this sort of, you know, wacky idea.
Well, I'll give a perfect personal example of what it's like working with Mary Ellen. So Mary Ellen's like, I have this idea where you have an apple on your head. You're balancing an apple on your head, right? And I'm like, okay, cool. And then props gets the apple.
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Chapter 6: How do SNL cast members handle live performance pressure?
And then Tom's like, what are you thinking? And you're like, maybe something like angelic. And I put this like kind of white dress on. It looks kind of culty. And you're like, that's cool. That's cool. And we're like, that's cool. That's cool. And then the apple goes in your head and someone's behind me holding the apple on my head.
And you're like, don't worry, we'll, you know, we'll paint it out. We can paint out the hand so it looks like the apple's on the head. But then you're like, but it looks kind of cool with the creepy hand holding the apple. Yeah. And that's a perfect example of like, All of these things are happening in real time.
Chapter 7: What memorable sketches are discussed during the episode?
And the creativity part is the part you're getting the most excited about.
100%. And you know, it's like, I think, who was it? Quincy, I'm gonna quote Quincy Jones right now and say, let's leave room for God when you walk into the studio because you don't know what's gonna happen.
Mary Ellen, anyone that's worked with you, like your proof that if you're good at your job and you're wonderful to work with, like it should be easy. It shouldn't be hard. It shouldn't be torturous. You know, everyone that has worked with you comes away with their favorite pictures of themselves.
That's so nice to hear. It's true. And it's a collaborative thing. I've got so many great people working with me. And, you know, the styling goes into it, our prop department. You know, I'll tell a funny story if you have time. Yes, please.
Chapter 8: How has SNL evolved over the years according to the guests?
Of course. Okay. So Paul Rudd was on a Paul McCartney. And I thought of this at the very end. You know, we were all like, you know... I couldn't, you know, he's watching the rehearsal. I'm like, you got to come over here. We got this done. And at the end, I was like, we should make you into a 60s version of Paul McCartney, the mop top.
And so, you know, he's got to go on and do his rehearsals and whatnot. Speedy or Sir Speedy, who is who is, you know, the wonderful guy who the gentleman who takes care of all the band's equipments and logistics. He goes running down to like Chelsea Guitar, gets like the left handed bass for the Paul McCartney.
Jody's doing the wig and Tom's pulling together this and we put it together during meal break. And he is like he nails this. I could show you. Yes. He nails this. I'm I'm a mop top Paul McCartney. And it's one of my favorite.
Oh, my God. I remember that picture. So listeners, it's a black and white picture of Rudd looking like Paul McCartney. And this is Mary Ellen in a nutshell, which is like, I have an idea and then everybody steps to it. It's a complete collaboration, like you said, and it looks incredible.
And you can't ask that kind of get from people unless you know it's a good idea.
Well, you took an amazing picture of Tina and I when we hosted where we were Simon and Garfunkel.
behind the scenes picture in there by the way at the very end um you two like laughing when you were doing that well everyone should check out the art of the snl portrait mary ellen matthews the best photographer around mary ellen everyone that has worked with you adores you and um you are aging in reverse love you mary ellen thank you so much for doing this and congrats again on your book yeah i hope to see you soon honey bunny okay honey bunny i'll see you soon thanks again bye
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