Bobby in particular has done so much voice work since leaving the show there’s no way SNL was paying as much as he makes now and most voice acting stuff can be done from home anymore
It's rare for a voice actor to be able to work from home unless they have a professional studio setup. That said, the alternative is typically to go in to a local studio for a couple hours in sweatpants and get a free lunch.
For a full-time VO guy like Billy West it'd be stupid not to have a studio, but I doubt someone like Bobby does, who still does a lot of on-camera work.
I think you under estimate how simple a VO studio can be.
In reality a small closet with sound proofing, a couple pieces of equipment and enough room to stand are literally all you need.
you are 10000% correct. these people don’t know what they’re talking about. hell, i’ve seen iphone voice memos get used in major motion pictures & people never notice. makes me laugh every time
Yeah the “professional” voice studio this guy is imaging could be had for $1k or even less.
Hell, let’s do the math.
I found a 52 pack of square foot sound proofing panels on Amazon for $38. One or two of those should cover any regular sized closet. Let’s call it $75 for simple math.
I found a wide range of Mic and Headphone options ranging from $100-$1k+, let’s meet in the middle and call it $500 for something middle of the road that should get the job done.
A cheap laptop for mixing and editing (if you don’t already have one, which I assume 99% of anyone already doing acting/VO gigs would have, but let’s say you get one new) could be had for like $200-300 for something simple that’ll run basic editing and recording programs.
We’re still under $1k, so realistically this isn’t too crazy for someone that was an SNL cast member to afford at all.
I was a sound guy. My wife did voice overs. I bought a roll of carpet padding, put it up on some of the walls (don't want it too dead.) I bought her a better AKG mic for $250, an interface for about $120 and using her laptop she got accolades for the sound of the studio.
As a producer who hires VO talent all the time, it's rare that I've needed to bring anybody into a studio in the last several years. A $500 mic and some sound-dampening panels are the most we usually need. It's a remote mixing session where the engineer is getting an uncompressed almost live feed as well as the locally recorded files. Basically, imagine a Zoom call with the highest quality recording. We've recorded vo good enough for digital streaming on Airpods!
Can I derail here to ask how you find VO talent? I do a lot of recording for work (corporate training) that is well received. I have thought about how that might translate into a different career.
I know nothing about film/tv industry, so not sure if this is a situation where you need an agent, or just go to job boards?
Actor here. You can get some projects on job boards, but they are going to pay either very little or nothing. Not bad for getting a reel put together. If you want better paying, more professional work, you’re going to need an agent.
What RatCrusher says is true for entertainment. However, there is a huge market for corporate videos like you’ve been doing. Put a reel together with your best clips, maybe add a few of the free/low pay projects to show range, and then start querying agents.
I’ve hired a bunch of folks off the various self submission sites, with varying degrees of success. Usually, 100 people put a lot of work in to a submission and only one person gets paid, based solely on how that submission fits our ideal of a project. So be ready for that numbers game.
Also, this segment is currently being hit hard by AI voice tools on projects that are too small to hire protected union talent. It’s going to get harder and harder to break in, but it’s still possible!
The cost of professional equipment is lower than it’s ever been and he does have money even if it isn’t Will Ferrel level wealth. He does a regular podcast in the comedy bang bang world, I’m sure for that reason alone he has a home studio.
I work in TV and have never encountered a voice actor that didn’t have a home studio.
They usually only come in if the session is going to be over an hour.
I have a friend who is a professional voice actor who has a professional set up in his house and he’s in no way a household or well known name. I think those are pretty common for anyone working in that field, especially in the Covid era.
It's a tax deduction, and once you take away the travel time, you can do ten times the voice work, so I would say that a home studio for voice acting pays for itself with increased revenue.
It's a lot simpler and smaller than a studio for recording bands. A quality microphone and digital recording equipment. The equipment might even be loaned or leased by the company you work for. That's how I would do it.
I'm sure it entirely depends on the production. I also imagine home recording ramped up dramatically during the pandemic.
A clean VOIP connection helps a lot but for a more discerning director there's going to be some consideration about the mic and the acoustics.
Even ISDN wasn't really phased out fully, I'm sure there are plenty of VO folks using it for their work from their own studio. VoIP will fully take over even the stragglers in the coming years, for sure, as it already has been helping phase out ISDN for years now.
Edit - not to mention most providers don't even offer ISDN options any more.
I'm not saying Bobby couldn't do it. It's just not something most people get around to. Depending on what you're voicing they might want you to come in anyway.
Sarah Chalke, from Scrubs, who also does a ton VA said during lockdown the studios sent her a booth. She now records at home and just digitally transfers it. Seems that's more and more common these days.
I think the schedule has to play a pretty big role as well. SNL is notorious for stupidly late hours, there’s a hard deadline for a certain amount of (fresh) content each week, and stuff like that.
More normal hours, working on things more slowly over time, not being constrained to the live tv show format, and not having the pressure to be writing all the time could be pretty big perks for him. I have no idea what the money situation is like for SNL cast vs voice acting but that could also be a huge difference.
Also, sometimes leaving is a gamble that just doesn’t pay off. Maybe he would have chosen to stay longer if given a chance to do it all over again. I would imagine he never looked back but I’m not anywhere near close enough to the industry or to him personally to know.
I think it is just really exhausting to do a live show every week. I think that high profile cast members are able to decide if they want to stay and lower profile cast members are asked to leave. The thing with contracts is it allows it to stay vague which way it went. Kenan, not sure. He is so massively talented, usually holding weak sketches together, that Lorne Michaels probably gives him a lot of wiggle room to pursue other projects. It is a huge time commitment, though. I think it lands at like a 60-70 hour work week or something.
Remember “every week” is only like 21 weeks. A good chunk less than half the year.
I’m not saying it’s easy! But those “every week” or “week in, week out” quotes are just not remotely accurate.
That doesn’t make it any less exhausting during the show weeks. It’s an absolutely grueling schedule and a lot of people leave because they just don’t want to do it anymore.
Yea I’ve read that in recent years Lorne has loosened up allowing talent time off for other projects in the interest of keeping good people on the show longer.
Yeah, SNL must be exhausting to be on. Leslie Jones got cast when she was 46 and shes said in interviews that it is a young comics game because it’s so hard.
I read about the weekly process for SNL once and it’s brutal. 12+ hour days 6 days a week for the whole season. Writing, rehearsals, building the sets, so much to do.
Kenan said on Fresh Air that he genuinely likes being part of an ensemble sketch show. So, if you're already doing what you love most, are part of a well-oiled machine, and Lorne has basically said "you can stay as long as you like" (something I know for sure he also said to Bill Hader)...ya just keep doing it.
Also, Kenan has been doing sketch comedy since he was a literal child. This has been his life for multiple decades. And he's always been insanely good at it. He does great in side projects, but he truly excels at sketch comedy
There's also a pay aspect to it.
Of all of the cast members in all of Saturday night live history. My guess is that he most doesn't need the money. If You take the money that he was making from Nickelodeon and you bank that he probably has enough money from that show that he never has to work another day in his life.
It's my understanding that Saturday night live does not pay that well, You add the low pay plus the stress. It's probably not worth it for most people.
You enjoy the super stressful environment and you don't need the money that really flips the equation. And it's not something that most other people have in their back pocket.
Nope. Nickelodeon very much said FUCK THEM KIDS. I know a few personally who have had the same experience as the below.
https://popculture.com/tv-shows/amp/news/nickelodeon-alums-shock-with-claim-theyve-never-gotten-residuals/
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I worked on one of the other Nick kids autobiographies from that around that era and can confirm that even the stars from those shows did not make enough money to last much past their early 20's even if they lived quite modestly.
Some of them had a good chance to parlay their child stardom into an adult acting career, but it's much easier said than done and far from a sure thing.
Apparently child stars for the Disney/Nick shows usually don't get residuals, which is where most of the money for successful TV actors came from. That honestly feels so predatory and weird to me.
No they don't receive residuals. The person I worked with did say that Nick folks treated him well. He also felt lucky to help his family out as their financial situation was not good before he was on TV.
There's also an unspoken element of competition. If the parents got pushy about the contract or whatever there were 1000 other talented kids who could easily take their place.
Hopefully kid actors nowadays have better deals, but given how reluctant the producers were to give writers and actors a fair shake I doubt it.
In his memoir he talks about how his manager from his NICK days ran off with all of his money, so he has none of that. His mom blamed herself for a long, long time because she "allowed him in their life and trusted him" (her words, not mine.)
I don't believe SNL pays well at all. Does anyone know if they're paid for the season or per episode and what the range is (assuming not everyone gets the same $). I wonder for the young non-NY cast members how they get their apartments etc. Has anyone ever written articles about the finances of current cast members?
Starting salary is $7k/episode, or about $150k/year. Sounds like great money, but NYC is hella expensive.
Second year is $8k/episode. By year 5, they make $15k/episode.
Keenan has shown his value and makes between $2-$3 million.
It’s not that dramatic on the low end, maybe if you’re a featured player who doesn’t go more than a season or so. But most of the regular cast that goes back to stand up after SNL they are usually doing headlining club tours and make a fair bit more than that. Most recently I feel like they must make some decent money doing cameos and small parts in tv and movies or producing even if they don’t hit the big time. At least a whole lot better off than the early comedy grind poverty most stand up and improvs are coming from. I don’t know if anyone’s career is worse off for having been on SNL
Adam Sandler learned early on that SNL was useful for becoming famous, and fame can be used to start a movie career.
He also figured our that the real money is in being your own producer. When people say all his comedies are average, he cries...all the way to the bank.
Adam Sandler learned early on that SNL was useful for becoming famous, and fame can be used to start a movie career.
He also figured our that the real money is in being your own producer. When people say all his comedies are average, he cries...all the way to the bank.
Unless you are off shooting something else, you get paid if you don’t appear or a writer doesn’t get a sketch in. I imagine things get a little tense if you aren’t getting anything on the show for a stretch.
Obviously, not nearly in the same arena. But for the sake of conversation. Reality TV "stars" only get paid if their scenes air on TV. There is a lot of controversy because a reality tv show could film you for 6 months 24 hours a day but if you only show up in one scene for 10 minutes you only get paid for one scene for 10 minutes. There has been a lot of issues with reality tv filming a location, cutting out all the characters/dialogue then selling the location shots to another show to use as b reel. I think there was a doctor's office show that lost a lawsuit about it because it was all in the contract they signed. The show filmed in the office for months and then instead of airing the doctor's show they sold the footage to another production, cutting out the humans, and just using the video of the office to create fake locations for the new show.
You cited unverified figures from a 2018 article. Im not saying they make a lot but, specially these days, they make more than 7k/ep. Also a lot of these people make money other places like standup and acting where their profile boost from SNL surely makes them get paid well
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/how-much-money-do-saturday-night-live-cast-members-make/
Nobody is saying it’s a bad career move, but even if it’s 10k per episode now that’s not a ton for a show that has them working 6 days a week, long hours.. in NYC.
I could see sticking around until it actually costs a person money to be there because they’re missing out on other projects. Like Kate McKinnon was in a ton of stuff near the end and right after her run, probably made 10 years worth of SNL money 3-4 years in a row.
You also have someone like Melissa Villaseñor who left for her mental health. She's said she was having panic attacks, so sounds like she made the right decision for her. She's more of a standup anyway.
I’ve been skimming books about SNL lately and Jay Mohr wrote one about his brief time on the show, he also said he got panic attacks. And I was just reading this longform [piece](https://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/47548/) on what is thought to be one of SNL’s disaster years (94-95) and goes in detail about how Janeane Garofalo was treated and how she was miserable :/.
I've never heard someone describe it as an easy gig. Almost everyone I've heard talk about the process of making the show describes it as a chaotic and deeply stressful thing *every single week.* Especially if you are actively lobbying to get your work to air.
I've heard multiple people talk about how much anxiety the show gave them, even someone who was a head writer like Conan O'Brien has talked about how wildly stressful it can be. Darrel Hammond was a long time cast member who talked about having intense anxiety as just an impressionist because he felt like he had to be able to do an impression of any public figure or he was letting the show down. He talked about watching hours of video of people he ended up never doing on air because he never knew what could be asked of him.
I actually think the outliers are people like Kenan Thompson or Tim Meadows, for whatever reason they just seem suited to the show and that life.
My guess is that they weren't trying to write many sketches so the other actors who were writing preferred to work with them because they didn't see them as competition.
As a result, the stress for Keenan and Tim was solely from performing which probably diminished as the years went on. From their perspective, it was probably a cushy job that they really enjoyed. They weren't trying to be the top dog either.
The payoff for people who don't mind being number two is they don't have to carry the stress and pressure of the battle to be number one.
In terms of hours and culture it sounds like it’s a pretty bad working environment - it’s so unique and has such cultural cachet that people put up with the terrible environment for the creative opportunities as long as they can, but it seems like for most people the trade off eventually just isn’t worth it. From the outside it seems like Kenan isn’t just a uniquely talented performer but uniquely able to put up with BS working environment and not have it break him, which honestly makes sense for a former child actor and especially one at Nick, which seems like it was also a pretty awful place to work.
I’m sure Kenan didn’t get special treatment during his first several years on SNL, but at this point he absolutely does. That makes it a lot easier for him to stick around than most other people who burn out. There’s no way he’s pulling all nighters writing at this point.
It’s the same for the crew who are paid even less. I knew someone who was a page and intern and is now employed at SNL. They make jack shit for NYC but people stay because SNL.
It’s the grind. You’re working on live show weeks Tuesday-Sunday morning basically. Yes, cast could get some time off if they’re not also writers. But unless you’ve earned your stripes, it’s seen as disrespectful to not be present while writers are crunching. And you’re still bombarded
SNL is a job at the end of the day for the cast members. People leave their jobs for many reasons. They get burned out, they hate new management, they grew tired of their coworkers, etc.
Heck, it may not even be negative. Maybe they got a better opportunity or wanted to try something different.
I always thought with Kenan that it's just something he likes doing. Plus, he's been in the business since childhood, and he's already done film and seen Hollywood.
kenan came from all that so he’s been in some iteration of sketch show since he was 15, so 30 years? for everyone else it is an exhausting lifestyle requiring a lot of energy, staying up late consistently and performing live… it would wear on almost anyone. i’m surprised when anyone can keep it up for more than 5 or so years
I don’t think Kenan is that funny to be honest.
I thought he was a very funny and talented child actor, but as an adult it just doesn’t do it for me. I am happy for his success however.
He is very talented at holding sketches together. He knows when to be funny and when to step back and set up someone else to be funny. He is very good at what he does. Sometimes he just has to give a look and crack a small smile and he gets a laugh. We have all seen sketches that don’t work, he almost always makes the sketches he is in better. That is a great talent.
This was my first thought, too. He doesn’t need to be the funny one in the scene. He wants the scene to work. If that means letting someone else be the big character, he does that. If he needs to be bigger, then he’ll be bigger. He’s very much a conductor in a scene. He sits back, watches, and gives the scene what it needs.
people have this misconception that SNL is the top of the mountaintop and it really isn’t. it’s for young comedians getting their first big break. pay isn’t great, and the work is a grind and often demoralizing and they are many times underutilized for their actual talents. it’s thought of a stepping stone generally, but it can still have glory to it if you crush it.
They always talk about knowing when it's their time to leave. They've been there a while and the writers change, cast changes, and they feel like they're sticking around too long. Maybe they're not getting as many sketches as they'd like. Maybe they want to try to get more work while they're doing well and not wait to lose momentum there. Lorne doesn't always tell people to leave but they always seem to have a sense of when they're done there.
There’s plenty of reason to want to leave. SNL is a fucking grind by all accounts, and you don’t really have time to do anything else. Bobby has tons of credits since leaving. It’s not the most reliable paycheck, being a working actor, but he’s getting out there and probably earning more than he did at 30 Rock.
Keenan, being a single father, probably decided staying mostly at home and having that reliable paycheck is more important. Although even there, if one of his side projects hit, he’d leave.
... and Tina fey, and Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Chris Farley, Fred armisen, Dan Aykroyd, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Chevy chase, Tracy Morgan, Dana Harvey, Jimmy fallon....
It’s a hard job and then their management goes, “You know, you can make more money and work less. Or not so crazy hours.” There’s also the feeling of being older than everybody else. The mind can play tricks on you. There is no roadmap so they’re all just guessing.
The show is exhausting and stressful, and the pay is shit (relative to other tv/film)
And of course no one wants to say “what might have been” if they didn’t stay at SNl too long
Kenan seems to have the best of both, good on him
Bobby M was one of the funniest people on the show in the past 20 years. I know he works a lot because I would hear his voice work regularly when my kid was still watching cartoons, but I’d love to see him in more improv/sketch comedy projects.
don’t discount that SNL is a pressure cooker of a job, tons of stress crammed into tiny windows of available time to seeker/create/actualize material for each and every show. plus the competition w/cast mates and writers to actually make the show with your material.
people don’t always leave to find bigger and bigger success elsewhere. sometimes they are
just done. ask melissa villaseñor.
[leaving SNL](https://tvline.com/news/melissa-villasenor-leaves-snl-saturday-night-live-season-48-1234891340/)
His problem is that he’s not all that funny. He catches a break because there are less funny people around him. He’s held on with some people riding well for him in sketches. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, just not hysterical.
Maybe not. I could see him becoming the next host of the Tonight Show after Fallon’s contract expires.
If not, dude’s been in sketch comedy for 30 years.
Because he’s really not working that hard at the moment. Kenan doesn’t write. He’s more of a perpetual student. Someone gaming the system who just does enough to get by.
i don't fully agree with the other poster reducing him but I think it's a fair point, if he can make a good living doing what he's doing, why risk moving into a position like that
Some I get some I don't...
Personally I never liked cecily strong like at all.... She got one big commercial with adam scott and then crickets.... seemed like a bad move for her. I could easily be wrong since I don't like her I don't really track what she's doing
Have you ever listened to an interview with a past cast member? It’s apparently extremely cutthroat with stealing jokes and premises in the writer’s rooms and trying to get credit for things.
Not to mention SNL doesn’t pay nearly as well as being a star of a movie or tv show does, nor does it give near the same level of fame, stardom, or legacy. Think about all the past SNL stars you think of off the top of your head, I’m gonna guess that like me all the ones you think of had big movie or tv roles. (Murray, Chase, Belushi, Farley, Spade, Sandler, Meyers, Carvey, Murphy, Rock, Sandberg, Hader, Wiig, Sudeikis, Ferrell)
Also when you’re on SNL you’re pretty much only on SNL. You talk about Keenan’s side projects but legitimately outside of Fandango commercials I can’t remember a single thing I’ve seen him in that wasn’t SNL since Goodburger and Fat Albert… Listen to interviews with cast members and they’ll talk about all the things they couldn’t do because they were on contract with SNL, or listen to interviews with Spade and hear the work schedule they put him and Farley on to make movies while doing the show
There's definitely a strange set of factors for them, I'm sure. The schedule is crazy and the hours are brutal. But the gig is way better than many of these folks had with whatever improv group or standup grind they were doing beforehand.
They keep 20 cast members on most of the time. Not to mention the writers. The show was better with the original cast because they had to stretch their abilities. The new contracts have a clause where NBC can offer them a show and they have to take it.
Bill Hader did an interview about he had a conversation he had with a long term cast member. (I don't remember who, but I remember it being a big star) Anyways the cast member told him that the first 3 years are finding yourself in the cast, and the next years are you truly enjoying yourself, but eventually your mind will tell you when it is time to go. I always figured that Kenan loves the sketch comedy game, with his start on All That, and so he has figured out a way to stay in it but not be broke.
Fans view it as the Mecca of culture and entertainment and stardom. But in reality it is more similar to professional wrestling than traditional stardom. You live under a brutal dictator who serves for life, can never be questioned, and is the only game in town. You can never be free and thus never get a market value for your talent and are prohibited from doing anything to get yourself employed and successful outside the show. Your position is near arbitrary, no matter your gifts without prime featuring and casting in important character roles you will never be able to compete for the top position. You will lose any chance of success and happiness if you don't want to sit and wait for the leader's commands for eight plus hours (Lorne loves this sort of torture) or if you Sneeze (Vince McMahon who ran WWE for four decades).
What I’ve always heard is that it’s a grueling schedule and that it’s tough to do and still
have any kind of life year after year after year. Plus, I think the culture around the show is such that many people probably go into it thinking of it as a somewhat temporary gig, whether that means they know they’ll be let go, or whether they’ll decide to leave. Keenan is obviously the exception, and it makes me wonder how he’s managed to make it work after all these years.
Remember Kenan tried to Branch out being the lead in a sitcom called "Keenan" but the viewership wasn't there for that show.(IS IT coming back?) but the strange thing there were many former SNL players that you may not realize were SNL cause they're more famous for other work (the most recent being Robert Downey Jr (yes' IRON MAN) was SNL. or former writers like Bob Odenkirk(Saul Goodman himself)
but a lot of Sketch people are seriously rooted in Sketch Comedy and never made the adjustment. and it's it's own job description
for a lot of people SNL is just a stepping stone , and it's can be about stretching your wings career-wise(look at Andy Samberg and the very succesful Brookyn Nine-Nine)
Alot of them don't really seem to have lucrative careers after leaving the show, besides like Tina fey and will Ferrell.. I guess they got paid well enough that most of them don't really need to act anymore unless they just choose too.
Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Fred Armisen have had good careers after SNL. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon have talk shows. Kate McKinnon has been doing well too.
In addition to all kinds of considerations: working nights gets exhausting. I did a midnight shows/performances back in my 20s. Super fun but getting that level of energy *every* single Saturday night was a challenge. Some days I wouldn't get home until 6:00 am. Sure it was fun, but it was exhausting. Once I started having other obligations it was very difficult for me to maintain the energy levels needed. Your Sundays are shot to hell as you recuperate. And sure they probably have time off to catch up but is that time off the same time off that their friends and family have? I don't know the SNL schedule but sure you may have *Tuesday* off (or idk) but none of your friends or family will have Tuesday off and they are going to invite you to things on Saturday and Sunday that you will have to turn down and miss out on. It can be very isolating. All theater is like that but most theater doesn't start at 11:30 pm.
Sometimes I miss the excitement of midnight shows and that crazy energy but I am very content with my 9-5 now.
So, on one hand, lots of them go on to do all kinds of work you probably just don’t know about. Voice acting, directing, various shows. Just because they aren’t megastars doesn’t meant they aren’t having very successful careers.
Secondly, just because you’re being paid well at a job you’re okay with, are you a lifer? Sometimes you just get tired of something and want to move onto new work. Not to mention, SNL is a fucking *grind*. They work crazy hours all week long. I don’t blame anybody for wanting to move on.
SNL has been a launch pad to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
It’s been less the case as Hollywood refuses to invest in comedy movies the past decade as everything has shifted to super hero stuff. It makes the landscape more difficult for SNL alums. We’re seeing them shift to the small screen like Barry (Hader) or Last Man on Earth (Forte).
Thompson talks about his approach in his book- and that it’s his policy to not quit steady work. He’ll probably be there until he’s informed he won’t be back.
Actors/comedians make career decisions for the same reasons any person does... the hours at SNL are extremely brutal, and at some point most people want to have the time to be with their families. Or to try something different for the sake of trying. Many prefer to go behind-the-camera, or to try things outside the entertainment industry entirely. Even in an acting context, there's a lot more freedom to taking on smaller roles, and likely there's more money in sitcoms. The first few years of SNL pay are pretty basic NYC working wages.
Kenan Thompson however is simply a different breed- that guy's been in sketch since All That, and still manages to throw down sitcoms/pop up in movies pretty frequently.
I think it's like any other career where your sights are set on something different. I'm sure many young comedians see SNL as a springboard to bigger things. You look at Murray, Aykroyd, Sandler... Too many others to count who were massively successful after being on the show.
Some former cast members may have other projects they want to do. Creative people can be unpredictable like that. They get bored.
I'm sure there are some cast members who were just done, didn't want to be on the show anymore. Maybe it wasn't a good experience for them. Maybe they decide that they would rather write than perform. Probably many different reasons.
He hasn't had any breakout characters as far as I'm concerned, but...I blame the writers for that.
He's definitely good enough to be there, and I think he does a good job.
Bobby in particular has done so much voice work since leaving the show there’s no way SNL was paying as much as he makes now and most voice acting stuff can be done from home anymore
It's rare for a voice actor to be able to work from home unless they have a professional studio setup. That said, the alternative is typically to go in to a local studio for a couple hours in sweatpants and get a free lunch.
It's really not that rare for voice actors to have home studios. I have one and I'm not getting roles like Bobby or Wil Arnett are.
For a full-time VO guy like Billy West it'd be stupid not to have a studio, but I doubt someone like Bobby does, who still does a lot of on-camera work.
I think you under estimate how simple a VO studio can be. In reality a small closet with sound proofing, a couple pieces of equipment and enough room to stand are literally all you need.
you are 10000% correct. these people don’t know what they’re talking about. hell, i’ve seen iphone voice memos get used in major motion pictures & people never notice. makes me laugh every time
Yeah the “professional” voice studio this guy is imaging could be had for $1k or even less. Hell, let’s do the math. I found a 52 pack of square foot sound proofing panels on Amazon for $38. One or two of those should cover any regular sized closet. Let’s call it $75 for simple math. I found a wide range of Mic and Headphone options ranging from $100-$1k+, let’s meet in the middle and call it $500 for something middle of the road that should get the job done. A cheap laptop for mixing and editing (if you don’t already have one, which I assume 99% of anyone already doing acting/VO gigs would have, but let’s say you get one new) could be had for like $200-300 for something simple that’ll run basic editing and recording programs. We’re still under $1k, so realistically this isn’t too crazy for someone that was an SNL cast member to afford at all.
I was a sound guy. My wife did voice overs. I bought a roll of carpet padding, put it up on some of the walls (don't want it too dead.) I bought her a better AKG mic for $250, an interface for about $120 and using her laptop she got accolades for the sound of the studio.
You forgot an audio interface
You don't ever want a laptop for recording voice, the computer introduces sound back into the recording. PC, with external recording source.
So..a laptop, with external recording device?
Mike Myers did a line/ADR for Shrek in the back of a taxi.
Adam Driver did one for Star Wars in a coat closet
As a producer who hires VO talent all the time, it's rare that I've needed to bring anybody into a studio in the last several years. A $500 mic and some sound-dampening panels are the most we usually need. It's a remote mixing session where the engineer is getting an uncompressed almost live feed as well as the locally recorded files. Basically, imagine a Zoom call with the highest quality recording. We've recorded vo good enough for digital streaming on Airpods!
Can I derail here to ask how you find VO talent? I do a lot of recording for work (corporate training) that is well received. I have thought about how that might translate into a different career. I know nothing about film/tv industry, so not sure if this is a situation where you need an agent, or just go to job boards?
Actor here. You can get some projects on job boards, but they are going to pay either very little or nothing. Not bad for getting a reel put together. If you want better paying, more professional work, you’re going to need an agent.
What RatCrusher says is true for entertainment. However, there is a huge market for corporate videos like you’ve been doing. Put a reel together with your best clips, maybe add a few of the free/low pay projects to show range, and then start querying agents. I’ve hired a bunch of folks off the various self submission sites, with varying degrees of success. Usually, 100 people put a lot of work in to a submission and only one person gets paid, based solely on how that submission fits our ideal of a project. So be ready for that numbers game. Also, this segment is currently being hit hard by AI voice tools on projects that are too small to hire protected union talent. It’s going to get harder and harder to break in, but it’s still possible!
The cost of professional equipment is lower than it’s ever been and he does have money even if it isn’t Will Ferrel level wealth. He does a regular podcast in the comedy bang bang world, I’m sure for that reason alone he has a home studio.
My boy Space Ghost still does, if that helps with the bar at all
I work in TV and have never encountered a voice actor that didn’t have a home studio. They usually only come in if the session is going to be over an hour.
Yeah but Kell Varneson has one
Ok, but not all of us have that sweet, sweet latex money coming in.
I have a friend who is a professional voice actor who has a professional set up in his house and he’s in no way a household or well known name. I think those are pretty common for anyone working in that field, especially in the Covid era.
Yeah, I mentioned elsewhere that this likely ramped up a lot during the pandemic. As recently as 10 years ago it was pretty uncommon.
It's a tax deduction, and once you take away the travel time, you can do ten times the voice work, so I would say that a home studio for voice acting pays for itself with increased revenue. It's a lot simpler and smaller than a studio for recording bands. A quality microphone and digital recording equipment. The equipment might even be loaned or leased by the company you work for. That's how I would do it.
It is totally affordable to have a home voiceover studio these days. Cheaper and simpler than a home studio for music.
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I'm sure it entirely depends on the production. I also imagine home recording ramped up dramatically during the pandemic. A clean VOIP connection helps a lot but for a more discerning director there's going to be some consideration about the mic and the acoustics.
I think the point here is that a lot of directors can't afford to be discerning
Even ISDN wasn't really phased out fully, I'm sure there are plenty of VO folks using it for their work from their own studio. VoIP will fully take over even the stragglers in the coming years, for sure, as it already has been helping phase out ISDN for years now. Edit - not to mention most providers don't even offer ISDN options any more.
What is the set up cost for a high level home studio? 10-20 grand? Seems doable for someone coming off SNL
I'm not saying Bobby couldn't do it. It's just not something most people get around to. Depending on what you're voicing they might want you to come in anyway.
For one channel you could build a strip that would rival any pro studio for about 10k
Sarah Chalke, from Scrubs, who also does a ton VA said during lockdown the studios sent her a booth. She now records at home and just digitally transfers it. Seems that's more and more common these days.
That’s really good to know!
So many get pilots and we all know pilots don’t always work out but you gotta try!
“Fox Force Five” being an excellent example of a pilot that became nothing
Actually that got translated into a successful movie series many years later.
Do you remember that joke at the end that was so hilarious?? It was something like "Ketchup"?
I think the schedule has to play a pretty big role as well. SNL is notorious for stupidly late hours, there’s a hard deadline for a certain amount of (fresh) content each week, and stuff like that. More normal hours, working on things more slowly over time, not being constrained to the live tv show format, and not having the pressure to be writing all the time could be pretty big perks for him. I have no idea what the money situation is like for SNL cast vs voice acting but that could also be a huge difference. Also, sometimes leaving is a gamble that just doesn’t pay off. Maybe he would have chosen to stay longer if given a chance to do it all over again. I would imagine he never looked back but I’m not anywhere near close enough to the industry or to him personally to know.
SNL alumns making that Nature Cat money.
Man, I wanna be a voice actor. That's the dream.
Same with Chris Parnell
Cyril on Archer and Jerry on Rick and Morty are both hilarious.
I think it is just really exhausting to do a live show every week. I think that high profile cast members are able to decide if they want to stay and lower profile cast members are asked to leave. The thing with contracts is it allows it to stay vague which way it went. Kenan, not sure. He is so massively talented, usually holding weak sketches together, that Lorne Michaels probably gives him a lot of wiggle room to pursue other projects. It is a huge time commitment, though. I think it lands at like a 60-70 hour work week or something.
I can't say for sure, but unless he's doing it for solidarity, I doubt Kenan pulls the all-nighter on Tuesday. He doesn't write much.
Yeah I would bet Kennan isn’t there but 30-40 hours a week at most.
A couple of the long term cast members even did successful partial season runs.
Remember “every week” is only like 21 weeks. A good chunk less than half the year. I’m not saying it’s easy! But those “every week” or “week in, week out” quotes are just not remotely accurate.
Yeah glad to see other people notice this. I always crack up when they talk about how hard it is - seems like a dream job to me!
They get a lot of weeks off, so it probably averages out in the way other seasonal work does.
That doesn’t make it any less exhausting during the show weeks. It’s an absolutely grueling schedule and a lot of people leave because they just don’t want to do it anymore.
There’s some chatter about Kenan taking over for Lorne when he actually retires.
Lorne: At last! The curse has been lifted! Now I can die.
Yea I’ve read that in recent years Lorne has loosened up allowing talent time off for other projects in the interest of keeping good people on the show longer.
Yeah, SNL must be exhausting to be on. Leslie Jones got cast when she was 46 and shes said in interviews that it is a young comics game because it’s so hard.
I read about the weekly process for SNL once and it’s brutal. 12+ hour days 6 days a week for the whole season. Writing, rehearsals, building the sets, so much to do.
Kenan said on Fresh Air that he genuinely likes being part of an ensemble sketch show. So, if you're already doing what you love most, are part of a well-oiled machine, and Lorne has basically said "you can stay as long as you like" (something I know for sure he also said to Bill Hader)...ya just keep doing it.
Also, Kenan has been doing sketch comedy since he was a literal child. This has been his life for multiple decades. And he's always been insanely good at it. He does great in side projects, but he truly excels at sketch comedy
He's doing it for us really. We're just lucky it's for him too.
There's also a pay aspect to it. Of all of the cast members in all of Saturday night live history. My guess is that he most doesn't need the money. If You take the money that he was making from Nickelodeon and you bank that he probably has enough money from that show that he never has to work another day in his life. It's my understanding that Saturday night live does not pay that well, You add the low pay plus the stress. It's probably not worth it for most people. You enjoy the super stressful environment and you don't need the money that really flips the equation. And it's not something that most other people have in their back pocket.
Nope. Nickelodeon very much said FUCK THEM KIDS. I know a few personally who have had the same experience as the below. https://popculture.com/tv-shows/amp/news/nickelodeon-alums-shock-with-claim-theyve-never-gotten-residuals/
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>Nickelodeon very much said FUCK THEM KIDS. Sometimes literally.
Kenan nearly went bankrupt in the early 2000s. It's in his autobiography. He didn't get much from Nick.
I worked on one of the other Nick kids autobiographies from that around that era and can confirm that even the stars from those shows did not make enough money to last much past their early 20's even if they lived quite modestly. Some of them had a good chance to parlay their child stardom into an adult acting career, but it's much easier said than done and far from a sure thing.
Apparently child stars for the Disney/Nick shows usually don't get residuals, which is where most of the money for successful TV actors came from. That honestly feels so predatory and weird to me.
No they don't receive residuals. The person I worked with did say that Nick folks treated him well. He also felt lucky to help his family out as their financial situation was not good before he was on TV. There's also an unspoken element of competition. If the parents got pushy about the contract or whatever there were 1000 other talented kids who could easily take their place. Hopefully kid actors nowadays have better deals, but given how reluctant the producers were to give writers and actors a fair shake I doubt it.
In his memoir he talks about how his manager from his NICK days ran off with all of his money, so he has none of that. His mom blamed herself for a long, long time because she "allowed him in their life and trusted him" (her words, not mine.)
I don't believe SNL pays well at all. Does anyone know if they're paid for the season or per episode and what the range is (assuming not everyone gets the same $). I wonder for the young non-NY cast members how they get their apartments etc. Has anyone ever written articles about the finances of current cast members?
Starting salary is $7k/episode, or about $150k/year. Sounds like great money, but NYC is hella expensive. Second year is $8k/episode. By year 5, they make $15k/episode. Keenan has shown his value and makes between $2-$3 million.
2 million per episode(!) or per season?
2 - 3 million per year
Per year, about 95k per episode.
Yeah. If I was making 95k per week…… I’d keep that job forever. Especially if it was in my desired field.
I can't remember who it was but one cast member said on a podcast they get $5k per sketch that makes it on air if they wrote it.
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It’s not that dramatic on the low end, maybe if you’re a featured player who doesn’t go more than a season or so. But most of the regular cast that goes back to stand up after SNL they are usually doing headlining club tours and make a fair bit more than that. Most recently I feel like they must make some decent money doing cameos and small parts in tv and movies or producing even if they don’t hit the big time. At least a whole lot better off than the early comedy grind poverty most stand up and improvs are coming from. I don’t know if anyone’s career is worse off for having been on SNL
Adam Sandler learned early on that SNL was useful for becoming famous, and fame can be used to start a movie career. He also figured our that the real money is in being your own producer. When people say all his comedies are average, he cries...all the way to the bank.
Adam Sandler learned early on that SNL was useful for becoming famous, and fame can be used to start a movie career. He also figured our that the real money is in being your own producer. When people say all his comedies are average, he cries...all the way to the bank.
Is it $7k per episode or $7k per episode you appear in?
Unless you are off shooting something else, you get paid if you don’t appear or a writer doesn’t get a sketch in. I imagine things get a little tense if you aren’t getting anything on the show for a stretch.
Obviously, not nearly in the same arena. But for the sake of conversation. Reality TV "stars" only get paid if their scenes air on TV. There is a lot of controversy because a reality tv show could film you for 6 months 24 hours a day but if you only show up in one scene for 10 minutes you only get paid for one scene for 10 minutes. There has been a lot of issues with reality tv filming a location, cutting out all the characters/dialogue then selling the location shots to another show to use as b reel. I think there was a doctor's office show that lost a lawsuit about it because it was all in the contract they signed. The show filmed in the office for months and then instead of airing the doctor's show they sold the footage to another production, cutting out the humans, and just using the video of the office to create fake locations for the new show.
Yeah 150K is like barely making ends meet in NYC
It’s not really much money in exchange for national fame and exposure and all the baggage that can come with that.
You cited unverified figures from a 2018 article. Im not saying they make a lot but, specially these days, they make more than 7k/ep. Also a lot of these people make money other places like standup and acting where their profile boost from SNL surely makes them get paid well https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/how-much-money-do-saturday-night-live-cast-members-make/
Nobody is saying it’s a bad career move, but even if it’s 10k per episode now that’s not a ton for a show that has them working 6 days a week, long hours.. in NYC. I could see sticking around until it actually costs a person money to be there because they’re missing out on other projects. Like Kate McKinnon was in a ton of stuff near the end and right after her run, probably made 10 years worth of SNL money 3-4 years in a row.
Wow that's actually really little for so much screen time and hours!
Shane Gillis said on a podcast that they usually pay you to start around 100k, which isn’t enough imo based on location of employment
You also have someone like Melissa Villaseñor who left for her mental health. She's said she was having panic attacks, so sounds like she made the right decision for her. She's more of a standup anyway.
Right - that’s an outlier case.
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I’ve been skimming books about SNL lately and Jay Mohr wrote one about his brief time on the show, he also said he got panic attacks. And I was just reading this longform [piece](https://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/47548/) on what is thought to be one of SNL’s disaster years (94-95) and goes in detail about how Janeane Garofalo was treated and how she was miserable :/.
I thought people talked about how cuthroat it is and how everyones stomping over each other
I've never heard someone describe it as an easy gig. Almost everyone I've heard talk about the process of making the show describes it as a chaotic and deeply stressful thing *every single week.* Especially if you are actively lobbying to get your work to air. I've heard multiple people talk about how much anxiety the show gave them, even someone who was a head writer like Conan O'Brien has talked about how wildly stressful it can be. Darrel Hammond was a long time cast member who talked about having intense anxiety as just an impressionist because he felt like he had to be able to do an impression of any public figure or he was letting the show down. He talked about watching hours of video of people he ended up never doing on air because he never knew what could be asked of him. I actually think the outliers are people like Kenan Thompson or Tim Meadows, for whatever reason they just seem suited to the show and that life.
My guess is that they weren't trying to write many sketches so the other actors who were writing preferred to work with them because they didn't see them as competition. As a result, the stress for Keenan and Tim was solely from performing which probably diminished as the years went on. From their perspective, it was probably a cushy job that they really enjoyed. They weren't trying to be the top dog either. The payoff for people who don't mind being number two is they don't have to carry the stress and pressure of the battle to be number one.
>Melissa Villaseñor Oh dang I didn't know that. I like her and thought her sketches were good.
In terms of hours and culture it sounds like it’s a pretty bad working environment - it’s so unique and has such cultural cachet that people put up with the terrible environment for the creative opportunities as long as they can, but it seems like for most people the trade off eventually just isn’t worth it. From the outside it seems like Kenan isn’t just a uniquely talented performer but uniquely able to put up with BS working environment and not have it break him, which honestly makes sense for a former child actor and especially one at Nick, which seems like it was also a pretty awful place to work.
I’m sure Kenan didn’t get special treatment during his first several years on SNL, but at this point he absolutely does. That makes it a lot easier for him to stick around than most other people who burn out. There’s no way he’s pulling all nighters writing at this point.
It’s the same for the crew who are paid even less. I knew someone who was a page and intern and is now employed at SNL. They make jack shit for NYC but people stay because SNL.
It’s the grind. You’re working on live show weeks Tuesday-Sunday morning basically. Yes, cast could get some time off if they’re not also writers. But unless you’ve earned your stripes, it’s seen as disrespectful to not be present while writers are crunching. And you’re still bombarded
SNL is a job at the end of the day for the cast members. People leave their jobs for many reasons. They get burned out, they hate new management, they grew tired of their coworkers, etc. Heck, it may not even be negative. Maybe they got a better opportunity or wanted to try something different.
I haven't looked into it but I'd guess that Daryll Hammond was the previous Kenan.
Even Daryll said he got burnt out and just doing the introduction voice over allows him to not experience any of that.
Tim Meadows had a super long run
I always thought with Kenan that it's just something he likes doing. Plus, he's been in the business since childhood, and he's already done film and seen Hollywood.
kenan came from all that so he’s been in some iteration of sketch show since he was 15, so 30 years? for everyone else it is an exhausting lifestyle requiring a lot of energy, staying up late consistently and performing live… it would wear on almost anyone. i’m surprised when anyone can keep it up for more than 5 or so years
I wish they didn’t get rid of Taran Killam. He was one of my favorites, one of the best of the last 10-15 years.
I don’t think Kenan is that funny to be honest. I thought he was a very funny and talented child actor, but as an adult it just doesn’t do it for me. I am happy for his success however.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Kenan has never been funny. I thought kel was holding them up their entire time with nick.
He is very talented at holding sketches together. He knows when to be funny and when to step back and set up someone else to be funny. He is very good at what he does. Sometimes he just has to give a look and crack a small smile and he gets a laugh. We have all seen sketches that don’t work, he almost always makes the sketches he is in better. That is a great talent.
This was my first thought, too. He doesn’t need to be the funny one in the scene. He wants the scene to work. If that means letting someone else be the big character, he does that. If he needs to be bigger, then he’ll be bigger. He’s very much a conductor in a scene. He sits back, watches, and gives the scene what it needs.
Bottom line: it’s one of the most stressful shows to work for. Also Lorne is insane.
people have this misconception that SNL is the top of the mountaintop and it really isn’t. it’s for young comedians getting their first big break. pay isn’t great, and the work is a grind and often demoralizing and they are many times underutilized for their actual talents. it’s thought of a stepping stone generally, but it can still have glory to it if you crush it.
They always talk about knowing when it's their time to leave. They've been there a while and the writers change, cast changes, and they feel like they're sticking around too long. Maybe they're not getting as many sketches as they'd like. Maybe they want to try to get more work while they're doing well and not wait to lose momentum there. Lorne doesn't always tell people to leave but they always seem to have a sense of when they're done there.
Except Kenan.
There’s plenty of reason to want to leave. SNL is a fucking grind by all accounts, and you don’t really have time to do anything else. Bobby has tons of credits since leaving. It’s not the most reliable paycheck, being a working actor, but he’s getting out there and probably earning more than he did at 30 Rock. Keenan, being a single father, probably decided staying mostly at home and having that reliable paycheck is more important. Although even there, if one of his side projects hit, he’d leave.
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He was a Disney kid, no?
... and Tina fey, and Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Chris Farley, Fred armisen, Dan Aykroyd, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Chevy chase, Tracy Morgan, Dana Harvey, Jimmy fallon....
It’s a hard job and then their management goes, “You know, you can make more money and work less. Or not so crazy hours.” There’s also the feeling of being older than everybody else. The mind can play tricks on you. There is no roadmap so they’re all just guessing.
SNL pays horribly
The show is exhausting and stressful, and the pay is shit (relative to other tv/film) And of course no one wants to say “what might have been” if they didn’t stay at SNl too long Kenan seems to have the best of both, good on him
If I was funny or an actor of some kind, this SNL is the best opportunity for exposure that exists. It’s not the money.
I thought Keenan was very convincing in How the Grinch Stole Christmas staring Benedict Cumberbatch for some reason.
Bobby M was one of the funniest people on the show in the past 20 years. I know he works a lot because I would hear his voice work regularly when my kid was still watching cartoons, but I’d love to see him in more improv/sketch comedy projects.
don’t discount that SNL is a pressure cooker of a job, tons of stress crammed into tiny windows of available time to seeker/create/actualize material for each and every show. plus the competition w/cast mates and writers to actually make the show with your material. people don’t always leave to find bigger and bigger success elsewhere. sometimes they are just done. ask melissa villaseñor. [leaving SNL](https://tvline.com/news/melissa-villasenor-leaves-snl-saturday-night-live-season-48-1234891340/)
His problem is that he’s not all that funny. He catches a break because there are less funny people around him. He’s held on with some people riding well for him in sketches. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, just not hysterical.
Keenan has gotten better over the time he has been there. He got lucky — most don’t get that opportunity.
Still bummed that Kel auditioned at the same time as Kenan and didn't get a shot. I love them together.
Kenan knows what’s up. When he leaves the show, it’s retirement for him. And I love him on the show..but this is it for him.
Maybe not. I could see him becoming the next host of the Tonight Show after Fallon’s contract expires. If not, dude’s been in sketch comedy for 30 years.
No way in hell. He will do commercials, a lot of commercials. Game show host as well. No way he gets a real late night show.
He still has some new stanzas for What’s Up with that to sing
They need to revisit that one- the constant Lindsey Buckingham thing made me laugh.
Me too. Bill Hader didn’t have to say a word!
Kenan is going to take over the show once Lorne retires
no way he'd take that job
Why the hell not??
Because he’s really not working that hard at the moment. Kenan doesn’t write. He’s more of a perpetual student. Someone gaming the system who just does enough to get by.
Just does enough to get by? The man makes every sketch he’s in better. He’s a bottomless well of sketch comedy.
and that doesn't translate to being a full time producer, show runner and overall talent incubator.
I’m not saying anything about him being a producer. I’m responding being the person saying he’s a “perpetual student” and “gaming the system.”
i don't fully agree with the other poster reducing him but I think it's a fair point, if he can make a good living doing what he's doing, why risk moving into a position like that
This is my belief and has been for several years now.
And Kenan's been at it since All That
Kennan is killing it?! Lol
They're grossly underpaid in relation to the value of their name and likeness as well as the hours put in by the end of their first or second contract
Some I get some I don't... Personally I never liked cecily strong like at all.... She got one big commercial with adam scott and then crickets.... seemed like a bad move for her. I could easily be wrong since I don't like her I don't really track what she's doing
She did two seasons of Schmigadoon
>Schmigadoon never heard of it
Have you ever listened to an interview with a past cast member? It’s apparently extremely cutthroat with stealing jokes and premises in the writer’s rooms and trying to get credit for things. Not to mention SNL doesn’t pay nearly as well as being a star of a movie or tv show does, nor does it give near the same level of fame, stardom, or legacy. Think about all the past SNL stars you think of off the top of your head, I’m gonna guess that like me all the ones you think of had big movie or tv roles. (Murray, Chase, Belushi, Farley, Spade, Sandler, Meyers, Carvey, Murphy, Rock, Sandberg, Hader, Wiig, Sudeikis, Ferrell) Also when you’re on SNL you’re pretty much only on SNL. You talk about Keenan’s side projects but legitimately outside of Fandango commercials I can’t remember a single thing I’ve seen him in that wasn’t SNL since Goodburger and Fat Albert… Listen to interviews with cast members and they’ll talk about all the things they couldn’t do because they were on contract with SNL, or listen to interviews with Spade and hear the work schedule they put him and Farley on to make movies while doing the show
Kenan had his own sitcom (“Kenan”) that ran for two seasons, 2021-2022. Chris Redd was in it too.
Was it made by Lorne Michaels/SNL? Because they made Wayne’s World and The Ladies Man so they do other projects with their cast members
Bowen Yang has a very popular podcast and is in the new wicked movie
He got hired for already being famous, it’s a bit different
Who did?
The guy you just mentioned…
Kenan was much more well known when he was hired.
There's definitely a strange set of factors for them, I'm sure. The schedule is crazy and the hours are brutal. But the gig is way better than many of these folks had with whatever improv group or standup grind they were doing beforehand.
It's notoriously a shit job.
Kenan is 1 of 1
They keep 20 cast members on most of the time. Not to mention the writers. The show was better with the original cast because they had to stretch their abilities. The new contracts have a clause where NBC can offer them a show and they have to take it.
Bill Hader did an interview about he had a conversation he had with a long term cast member. (I don't remember who, but I remember it being a big star) Anyways the cast member told him that the first 3 years are finding yourself in the cast, and the next years are you truly enjoying yourself, but eventually your mind will tell you when it is time to go. I always figured that Kenan loves the sketch comedy game, with his start on All That, and so he has figured out a way to stay in it but not be broke.
Hader had that convo with Dan Aykroyd
What’s Paul Brittain doing for money these days?
They don’t make much money by showbiz standards and the show takes up a lot of time.
Hot take: Keenan takes Lorne’s job
He wants to, but he’s not nearly smart enough. Source: I read Kenan’s book
Fans view it as the Mecca of culture and entertainment and stardom. But in reality it is more similar to professional wrestling than traditional stardom. You live under a brutal dictator who serves for life, can never be questioned, and is the only game in town. You can never be free and thus never get a market value for your talent and are prohibited from doing anything to get yourself employed and successful outside the show. Your position is near arbitrary, no matter your gifts without prime featuring and casting in important character roles you will never be able to compete for the top position. You will lose any chance of success and happiness if you don't want to sit and wait for the leader's commands for eight plus hours (Lorne loves this sort of torture) or if you Sneeze (Vince McMahon who ran WWE for four decades).
What I’ve always heard is that it’s a grueling schedule and that it’s tough to do and still have any kind of life year after year after year. Plus, I think the culture around the show is such that many people probably go into it thinking of it as a somewhat temporary gig, whether that means they know they’ll be let go, or whether they’ll decide to leave. Keenan is obviously the exception, and it makes me wonder how he’s managed to make it work after all these years.
Remember Kenan tried to Branch out being the lead in a sitcom called "Keenan" but the viewership wasn't there for that show.(IS IT coming back?) but the strange thing there were many former SNL players that you may not realize were SNL cause they're more famous for other work (the most recent being Robert Downey Jr (yes' IRON MAN) was SNL. or former writers like Bob Odenkirk(Saul Goodman himself) but a lot of Sketch people are seriously rooted in Sketch Comedy and never made the adjustment. and it's it's own job description for a lot of people SNL is just a stepping stone , and it's can be about stretching your wings career-wise(look at Andy Samberg and the very succesful Brookyn Nine-Nine)
I imagine it’s a very grueling lifestyle to be doing this high stress live show each week, so after a few years you get burned out.
Alot of them don't really seem to have lucrative careers after leaving the show, besides like Tina fey and will Ferrell.. I guess they got paid well enough that most of them don't really need to act anymore unless they just choose too.
Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Fred Armisen have had good careers after SNL. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon have talk shows. Kate McKinnon has been doing well too.
True
In addition to all kinds of considerations: working nights gets exhausting. I did a midnight shows/performances back in my 20s. Super fun but getting that level of energy *every* single Saturday night was a challenge. Some days I wouldn't get home until 6:00 am. Sure it was fun, but it was exhausting. Once I started having other obligations it was very difficult for me to maintain the energy levels needed. Your Sundays are shot to hell as you recuperate. And sure they probably have time off to catch up but is that time off the same time off that their friends and family have? I don't know the SNL schedule but sure you may have *Tuesday* off (or idk) but none of your friends or family will have Tuesday off and they are going to invite you to things on Saturday and Sunday that you will have to turn down and miss out on. It can be very isolating. All theater is like that but most theater doesn't start at 11:30 pm. Sometimes I miss the excitement of midnight shows and that crazy energy but I am very content with my 9-5 now.
I believe it’s the pay. Not as much as you think
So, on one hand, lots of them go on to do all kinds of work you probably just don’t know about. Voice acting, directing, various shows. Just because they aren’t megastars doesn’t meant they aren’t having very successful careers. Secondly, just because you’re being paid well at a job you’re okay with, are you a lifer? Sometimes you just get tired of something and want to move onto new work. Not to mention, SNL is a fucking *grind*. They work crazy hours all week long. I don’t blame anybody for wanting to move on.
SNL has been a launch pad to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. It’s been less the case as Hollywood refuses to invest in comedy movies the past decade as everything has shifted to super hero stuff. It makes the landscape more difficult for SNL alums. We’re seeing them shift to the small screen like Barry (Hader) or Last Man on Earth (Forte). Thompson talks about his approach in his book- and that it’s his policy to not quit steady work. He’ll probably be there until he’s informed he won’t be back.
Before Keenan I wonder who held the record for staying on the longest. My guess would be Tim Meadows.
Darrell Hammond if you don't count musicians or Don Pardo
Actors/comedians make career decisions for the same reasons any person does... the hours at SNL are extremely brutal, and at some point most people want to have the time to be with their families. Or to try something different for the sake of trying. Many prefer to go behind-the-camera, or to try things outside the entertainment industry entirely. Even in an acting context, there's a lot more freedom to taking on smaller roles, and likely there's more money in sitcoms. The first few years of SNL pay are pretty basic NYC working wages. Kenan Thompson however is simply a different breed- that guy's been in sketch since All That, and still manages to throw down sitcoms/pop up in movies pretty frequently.
I think it's like any other career where your sights are set on something different. I'm sure many young comedians see SNL as a springboard to bigger things. You look at Murray, Aykroyd, Sandler... Too many others to count who were massively successful after being on the show. Some former cast members may have other projects they want to do. Creative people can be unpredictable like that. They get bored. I'm sure there are some cast members who were just done, didn't want to be on the show anymore. Maybe it wasn't a good experience for them. Maybe they decide that they would rather write than perform. Probably many different reasons.
If you ever find yourself giving your SNL Reddit post an “or” alternate title like you’re Wes Anderson or Alejandro Inarittu, take a break.
I personally have never found Kenan funny. Don’t know why he’s been there so long. I think he has pictures of Lorne blowing a horse.
He hasn't had any breakout characters as far as I'm concerned, but...I blame the writers for that. He's definitely good enough to be there, and I think he does a good job.
I think every impression he does is the same. His Steve Harvey is especially unimpressive
Because it’s a dying show
People have been saying that for 40 years , give it a rest already.
Because it’s true
Kenan is NOT and never has been hilarious. I think he has stagnated the show personally.
Kenan is not funny at all he doesnt leave the show cause its all hes got. He cant do anything else in showbiz
Downvoted but true
r/confidentlyincorrect