Live, From New York! It’s an Evening with Saturday Night Live!

“Live is not easy,” said Seth Meyers.

Ironically, he wasn’t talking about his day job, as SNL head writer and Weekend Update anchor. Actually, the “live” he referred to was the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences “An Evening with Saturday Night Live,” held at the Pierre Hotel in New York City April 12.

When all the participants were seated, they discovered one of the microphones didn’t work. And to make matters perfect, that mike belonged to Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator and executive producer. But matters soon were straightened out and, much to the delight of a packed house, the ensemble went on to discuss everything from the advice Michaels gives new cast members to the advice he gets from his mother.

In addition to Meyers and Michaels, the panel included long-time producer Steve Higgins and cast members Fred Armisen, Bill Hader Andy Samberg, Kenan Thomas and Kristen Wiig. The event’s moderator was Jimmy Fallon, an alumnus of the show who now hosts Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, also on NBC.

Michaels tells newcomers the “general audience has to make eye contact with you. If they can’t see your eyes, they won’t trust you. It’s the same as in real life.”

Conversely, he gets notes from mom, who watches the show in Canada on a television that also serves as a mantelpiece for one of her son’s Emmys. She lets him know when she feels he goes too lowbrow or pushes the envelope a bit too far. “I don’t like that kind of thing when you do it,” she tells him.

Mother’s sensibilities aside, Michael’s primary criterion is: Is it funny? “If it works, and is original, something that will hold you, you put it on.”

If there was a repetitive theme to the evening, it was that the cast members grew up watching the show and revered it and its traditions. Samberg, who creates digital shorts, among other tasks, auditioned (at the recommendation of Fallon) with two writing partners, friends since junior high school. The agreement going in was that if Andy made it and his friends didn’t, he’d take the job anyway.

“We discussed it,” Samberg said. "It’s always been my dream. All I ever wanted to do is be on that show.” Ironically, an extension of the deal was that if only one of the two writers — Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — made it, he would decline the job.

Fortunately it never came to that. All three were hired, and among their accomplishments is writing the famed (or notorious) Justin Timberlake “D--k in a Box” skit, which earned them a 2007 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Being a longtime fan of the show, however, doesn’t make things easier. On the contrary, Thompson noted, “It’s a lot of pressure. It’s a 35-year-old show, and try to be funny against that stuff” — the work of Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and others who came before him.

Pressure, in fact, was one of the evening’s other recurring themes, whether it originated externally or internally. For Meyers, the pressure came from outside expectations, especially during the last election season, when he wrote most of the Sarah Palin material, performed by Tina Fey as the former Alaska governor and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate.

“I believe it’s too nerve-racking [to consider the political implications],” he said. “It’s hard enough trying to be funny. The scary thing about the Palin stuff is that how high the expectations were. We had [one month between her nomination and the new season]. Everybody was ready to see Tina do her, and the one thing you hate to have in comedy in high expectations.”

Fo Wiig, high expectations are self-imposed and, she noted, the pressure is greater the longer you’re on the show: “You always want to one-up yourself. If you do a character, you want the next one to be better.” What makes it easier, she says, is “to be part of the writing process.

Higgins believes part of the program’s success is attributable to the fact that writers and cast are all stuffed in together on the infamous 17th floor of the General Electric Building, “On 17, writers and performers are equal, because that’s the way great comedy is done.”

With his insider’s perspective, Fallon aimed his questions everywhere, and the answers provided intriguing anecdotes and insight. Michaels revealed that he wanted to be a movie star, but because that was not a common ambition in his neighborhood, he told people he was going to be a lawyer. Though it is not commonly known, Michaels said the “expectation was that I would do it,” the “it” being anchor of the show’s news segment, Weekend Update. Ultimately, though, he decided he couldn’t serve as executive producer, deciding what cast members’ times would be cut, when he was going on the air himself.

So he turned to a young man who’d been hired as a writer, cut his hair and let him do it. That was Chevy Chase.

Also, in the first season, the cast used to gather Mondays at noon to watch the previous weekend’s show. “It was bleak because [the show] wasn’t made for noon on Monday,” Michaels said.

After that initial year, cast members gathered to watch the show after it aired, but now, he says, he no longer watches it — “sometimes not even when it’s on.”

In the Q&A that followed the panel session, an audience member asked if there was ever a problem with a guest host. Not many, Michaels said, although “some hosts have been overwhelmed, had flop sweats.”

But not all: “In the ’70s, someone came out with great confidence — which was not adrenalin.”

One of the reasons for the use of guest hosts at all was to avoid jealously among cast members. “The cast is equal,” Michaels said. If one of them were to host, then the question would arise: “Why are you opening?”

And, yes, Betty White will be doing this year’s Mother’s Day Show. “We offered her the show in the’70s, ’80s and ’90s. She’s 88 now, so she’s ready.”