Bowen Yang looks back on bombing his first screen test after a conversation with Lauren Michaels.
Stalled before the release of Standout, in which he plays Pfannee. During his appearance, he recalled his first screen test for the sketch series in 2017.
“The final step in the process is that you have a one-on-one meeting with Lorne. It was him and another producer, Eric Kenward,” Yang said. “The first thing out of my mouth was, ‘I’m Canadian too. I grew up in Montreal. I grew up in Quebec — and immediately it was, it was a vibe killer. I couldn’t get a job because I didn’t have that. Kay was inclined to be Canadian, and it was a disaster.
The comedian and actor went on to explain that the executive producer asked him if he spoke French and then went outside to talk to Kenward about how the French have good books. Yang later revealed that he got some advice from former cast member Eddie Bryant when he joined the show the following year on how to communicate with the comedy show’s creator.
“Eddie Bryant was the one who told me, ‘You can be friends with him now,'” Yang recalled. “I think Lorne was hanging out with Eddie at one point and was kind of laughing about, ‘I think Bowen sees me as a mountain to climb, and I don’t want that. He should think so now.’ That kind of gave me the push I needed to go up to him and be like, ‘Oh, we can relate to each other on a human-to-human level,’ which I never thought I could. It will happen to him.
Yang previously spoke about the screen test and his last seven years — the first as a writer and the next six as a cast member.
“Going for my first screen test, it was completely underwhelming,” he said. “I knew no one was going to laugh — it’s a screen test legend, no one laughs — I remember walking away from that first audition going, ‘Okay, I’m not nervous. I’m never nervous again.’ It will be.”
All these years later, the podcast host also noted that he’s still “constantly reminded of how special the show is,” adding, “We have the ability to bring a comic idea to its full creative fulfillment. So there are all these opportunities, and we’re very lucky that this is the only live show that people watch as it happens.
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