That Time I Was (Kinda) on Saturday Night Live

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Listening to Hannah’s tales from her time in the New York late-night television world is one of our favorite things here at the Revelator office. Our latest blog entry is another in Hannah’s increasingly popular series of behind-the scenes, first-person accounts from late-night. Today’s entry is a harrowing tale about Saturday Night Live, Louis CK and Hurricane Sandy…as told by Revelator’s very own Project Manager.

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I’m back with another riveting tale of near stardom in late night television, with a small side of name-dropping. What started as one of the scarier weeks of my life ended with another chance to get my face on late night TV. In the fall of 2012, I was an intern at Saturday Night Live in New York. During the week of my near-stardom, NYC and the surrounding areas were put through the ringer by that old bitch, Hurricane Sandy.

I had made it through Hurricane Irene the year before, so when warnings of the impending storm started hitting my newsfeed I took it with a “yeah yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude. I got a couple candles together, bought some Halloween candy, and filled my bathtub with water- expecting things to blow over in a day. Needless to say- I was dramatically underprepared. My apartment on the lower east side lost power for a whole week- as did many buildings in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. The weather post storm was frigid and windy. Cell towers were down and New Yorkers were struggling to get a signal. I found myself texting people in telegram speak that week- “I’m okay stop looking for a generator stop toilet still works thank god full stop.”

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I spent that week in a post apocalyptic mindset. My black moto boots were coming in handy as my friends and I took to the streets looking for power and provisions. We wore headlamps at night because without the shining Manhattan lights it was hard to see two feet in front of you. But because we’re Millennials, there’s never a bad time for a photo op. Before the week was up we had almost all updated our profile pictures.
That fall I had an internship at Saturday Night Live, and in one of the truer uses of the phrase “the show must go on,” the team was in office all that week prepping for the show. The host was a local, Louis CK, who stuck it out to come to rehearsals all week amidst the madness of post Sandy New York City. One of the more popular sketches from that week was the “Louie” Parody where Louis CK plays president Lincoln. Few people may know that the intro to that digital short (which reenacts the “Louie” intro) was filmed downtown, where no one had power. The video team had to bring in lights and generators to make it look like the Subway, pizza shop, etc. were all up and running.

So, back to me being on TV. It was an election year and my department, Weekend Update, was always looking for new ways to parody what was going on. There was a segment that week where Aidy Bryant played a “social media expert” who was explaining to Seth that the opinions of people on social media are an accurate barometer for public opinion. She then started reading posts from “real people” saying some extremely ridiculous things. My boss needed people to offer their Facebook/Twitter profile pictures for the fake posts in the segment, so of course I volunteered as tribute. I wasn’t allowed to pick what fake quote my real face would be attributed to, but I am happy with the results. To clarify- the quote you’ll see in the video was about Mitt Romney, and I like to think that this is something I would have actually posted.

And so, my cold, dark week ended with a satisfying moment of almost fame. Even better, I came home that night to an apartment with power! Things were looking up. It was my most exciting and least embarrassing moment at SNL. Maybe someday I’ll tell you the story of when I walked in on Bill Hader taking a nap, or the time I sang live band karaoke to a song a didn’t know in front of the whole cast and definitely Olivia Wilde at a Christmas party (see, told you there’d be name dropping). Maybe I’ll just keep my mouth shut and leave you thinking that I’m a super cool gal who people keep putting on television for short periods of time.

-Hannah Murphy
Project Manager, Revelator

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ABOUT REVELATOR: Revelator is a full service film & video production company in Austin, Texas. We like to write, produce, & edit projects for t.v. and the web. We specialize in brand films, corporate identity work, as well digital advertising and t.v. broadcast advertising. If you need help with your script, production, or just an idea, give us a call.

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