Bob Odenkirk is remembering his time as a writer for “Saturday Night Live.”
The “Better Call Saul” and “Breaking Bad” actor recalled a conversation he had with his 24-year-old son Nate, who aspires to become a comedy writer, during a recent appearance on comedian Tig Notaro’s podcast “Don’t Ask Tig” in which the two discussed Nate’s professional goals.
Odenkirk, who started working on “SNL” when he was 25 years old, admitted that he had self-doubt when he first started writing professionally. He says, “I was unsure of myself. It was hard. It was existentially dangerous. I had feelings of ‘I should erase myself.’”
He continued,
“I was too young when I got hired at ‘SNL, that was not a good thing. That could’ve gone wrong. That could’ve gone so wrong. It came this close so many times to going so wrong. You gotta believe me. And it’s hard for kids to believe you when you say, ‘I had no f—ing clue what I was doing and I was scared outta my wits for years.’”
Odenkirk wrote for celebrities including Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Tim Meadows, and Chris Farley while working on “SNL” from 1987 to 1991. Despite his failures on the late-night live television sketch comedy, Odenkirk has already recounted a few great memories from his time on the show, most notably Farley’s Matt Foley sketches.
On a March edition of “Hot Ones,” he said, “I played the dad in the sketch, and we did it seven times a week at Second City. Every time I did that was the most fun I had in show business.”
Listen to the complete episode of Don’t Ask Tig below.
