Like many creatives pursuing their craft in the digital age, comedian and writer Caleb Hearon opted for a less tried-and-true path after being rejected from Saturday Night Live twice, something that he now looks back on with gratitude.
During a recent appearance on Vulture’s Good One podcast, the standup recalled prepping for the rigorous audition process for a year while doing improv and working day jobs in Chicago.
“That first year I did it, I just got all the way through to the round in front of the producers, and I killed, to be honest,” he recounted. “I just really murdered that night, and it doesn’t always go that way for you, but it was a good night for me, and they loved my stuff.”
He continued of the process, explaining how he made it past several rounds featuring hundreds of comics and sketch artists: “I mean, everything with that place is so fucking archaic. But they ask you to go to drinks at the Ritz with Lorne — before you leave Chicago if they like you — and so you get in a van with a bunch of other comics, like the six other people who got asked to go.”
At the social hangout, Hearon said the comics would “speed date” and mingle about before being flown out “to screen test, and then you go to New York and you screen test on the stage, and you hear all the different stories about, like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be dead silent, or one person will be laughing.’ Or you don’t know what to expect.”
Because of the pressure associated with the process, Hearon said he practiced his sets 15 times in a row in front of friends who would stare at him in silence: “The minutes pass like days, it’s horrible,” he described.
Hearon added of not making the cut, “I would’ve killed for that job the first time. I had no career, I had no followers, I had no team, I was just making comedy in Chicago. I would’ve killed for that job, it would have changed my life. I’m glad I didn’t get it, not a place for me to work, for many reasons, not the least of which I’m fat and they’re telling people to lose weight who work on that show. No one likes to talk about that, but that’s reality. And then when they didn’t hire me, that, if anything, lit a fire under my ass … I was pissed. I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
The Long Story Short actor said he began posting videos online shortly thereafter and by the end of that year had acquired a team and racked up hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
“I genuinely mean it when I say the two best things that ever happened to me are that I didn’t get that job twice because I am not meant for that place,” he concluded. “I don’t like being told what to do, I don’t like routine, I don’t like crazy schedules. The way that it all worked out for me, that I get to be in charge, that I get to hire the people I want to work with, et cetera — way better.”
Hearon’s Model Comedian special is currently streaming on HBO Max. Next up, the multi-hyphenate will also be seen in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and will soon be commencing production for his star vehicle Trash Mountain, which he co-wrote.
Watch the full podcast episode below:
