There’s been a lot of talk regarding Saturday Night Live lately, thanks to the SNL 40 special. A lot of people have tried out for the late night sketch series over the years, and recently former Nickelodeon star Kel Mitchell, who is most known for stints on All That and in Good Burger, spoke out about his disastrous SNL audition during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session.
In the session, he explains the first sketch he did as part of his audition. Apparently, Tina Fey was on hand for his disastrous audition, and Kel knew from her response that his bit was probably a little weird.
I did like, I think it's hilarious now thinking about it, but now doing standup and being good at it now, i realize now what I did was not good. But basically I did this joke about DMX - if DMX was in Toy Story. It was so bad, it was good, to me. And I remember Tina Fey was there, and I remember afterwards she was like "Good job!" but I think it was a little too crazy for SNL.
The weirdness doesn’t end at DMX. Mitchell also mentions that he had another out- there sketch that was part of his audition, involving Michael Jackson and a dancing bit.
I did a song about Michael Jackson if he was allergic to trees! Because, you know, he used to love to sit in trees, if you saw that classic interview that he had, and I thought it would be funny if he was allergic to trees and he's sitting in one sneezing! So I remember I starting dancing, I think my energy was so crazy, I did like a moonwalk move and actually stepped on one of the tables right in front of the stage, and flipped the table with someone's drink on it over, it was a MESS!
If you know the story behind the Saturday Night Live audition, you should already know that both Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson ended up auditioning for NBC’s weekend series. Kenan Thompson was hired to join SNL in 2003, and has shown up on the show ever since, while Kel Mitchell’s audition didn’t go so hot. The actor still seems pretty positive about the experience, however, even if it didn’t turn out in his favor. In the time since, he has kept up with acting through projects like the animated series Wild Grinders. In fact, the actor also mentions in his AMA that he has plans to return to Nickelodeon for a new project, soon.
Clearly Kel and Saturday Night Live weren’t on the same page during his audition, but the man still seems to appreciate the experience. He also does not seem to have any hard feelings over how things played out. But I like his story the most because it helps to demonstrate some of the over-the-top comedy the writers and Lorne Michaels see on a yearly basis when looking for new talent. Some of these over-the-top comedians thrive while others don’t, but it’s still interesting to see how it all comes together.
You can read more from Kel Mitchell’s AMA over at Reddit.
