If any of you have ever stayed in line at 30 Rock on a friday night in hopes of getting into Saturday Night Live taping via standby tickets, then you've probably met him. He's a charming guy who's made 12+ hours of waiting in line practically a pleasure for thousands of line standers. Well, the guy who brought us pre-pixelated shirts for reality shows, and the Mr. T Virual Playset took some time to interview the most famous and consistent audience member in America. I won't spoil any of the interview by much more of an introduction below enjoy excerpts from David of IronicSans' interview with Louis Klein.
MYL
Fifteen years ago, I spent a Friday night camped out on the mezzanine level of 30 Rockefeller Center, hoping to get one of the standby tickets to Saturday Night Live that are handed out on Saturday mornings. The line forms at around 8:00 Friday night. That's when I met Louis Klein, the SNL fan who had seen almost every episode of Saturday Night Live in person, going back to the very first episode.
Last Friday, I decided to go back to the SNL Standby Line and see if Louis was still waiting in line to get his ticket. In the years since I camped out there, the line had moved from the warmth of the indoor mezzanine to the chill of 49th street, but Louis was still there, right behind a group of teenagers who beat him to the first spot (one of the teens asked about my website, "Ironic Sans? Does it have anything to do with Horatio Sanz?"). When Louis stands in line these days, he is accompanied by his wife Jamie, whom he met on-line around six years ago. And by "on-line" I mean on the internet, not the standby line.
I spoke with Louis about his SNL Standby hobby.
When Saturday Night Live started, nobody knew it was going to be a big hit. Why did you go to the first episode of a new show that nobody really knew?
Prior to SNL, I was going to a lot of game shows. Like, I watched the game show called Jackpot, which was done in Studio 8H prior to SNL. It ended its run in the summer of '75, hosted by Geoff Edwards. I was also going to the Pyramid -- any one of them, whether it was 10, 20, 25, 100 thousand, 2 cents, you know, whatever it was. I went to all of them over at TV-15 which doesn't exist anymore. Any game shows that were done here, if any, I went to them also. So I was notorious as far as NBC was concerned. They knew who I was because I went to all the shows.
Then in April of '75 I found out that the show SNL was coming up, so I went to the Guest Relations department and said I hear you're doing this show. They said, Well, they want 500 people in 8H. They want to do a show that's going to be a run through for sound purposes. We're going to have an audience for that, and you can float around the building and find somebody who's going to give out standby tickets. So I come over here right after work, and I found the standby ticket and I got it and I went inside and I stood in line.
I got upstairs. I saw a full fledged comedy routine by George Carlin. I saw a full fledged comedy routine by Billy Crystal. I saw performances by Janis Ian and Billy Preston. I saw comedy by the Not Ready for Prime Time Players including Jon Belushi and Gilda Radner among others. Now that's three and a quarter hours of pure entertainment for free. And I could come back tomorrow night. And I did. And I got in a second time. I came back the following week and I didn't get into the second show but I wasn't going to give up at this point. This is a great thing to do on a Saturday night. I went to the third show, I got in, and in the first 5 years I've seen 59 out of 106 [episodes].
My memory from meeting you 15 years ago was that you had seen every episode live except for a few. But I guess you've missed more than that.
In the first 5 years I'd seen 59 out of 106. So I missed 47 shows then. To date I've missed I think 83. That means in the last 27 years I've missed 36 shows.
How many have you seen?
This is my 528th show.
Comments (3)
They should have this guy move in with Lenny, the guy who goes to the Today Show every morning, and do a sitcom about them.
1 of 3 | Posted by JasonR | Posted on November 14, 2006 10:01 AM
I would like to have heard which seasons this guy liked most and least and what cast members were his favorites.
I know a lot of people have nostalgia for those mid 70s casts, but for my money the golden age of SNL was around 1989-1995 when they had Mike Meyers, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Dana Carvey and Chris Farley. I still laugh thinking about Phil Hartman doing Frank Sinatra and Bill Clinton and Mike Meyers doing Wayne's World and Sprockets.
2 of 3 | Posted by JasonR | Posted on November 14, 2006 10:05 AM
^ Jason, I'm with you. I think they absolutely were the best cast ensemble.
Phil Hartman was so brilliant. We especially liked the Anal Retentive Chef / Carpenter sketches.
Man, only last night we were remembering how broken up Jon Lovitz was when his best mate Phil was murdered (by his psycho, jealous wife).
So sad.
3 of 3 | Posted by Donna Martin Graduates! | Posted on November 14, 2006 10:21 AM