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Three cast members leave, three cast members enter.
It’s not an official policy or rule, but comedians auditioning for Saturday Night Live are keenly aware that Lorne Michaels considers alchemy as much a part of casting as how talented any comedian may be. He’s not as much about quotas as he is about slots. How do you gel with the rest of the cast? What role will you fill within the greater whole? Can you impersonate one or more icons in today’s culture? Can you sing and dance? Can you play the straight man to someone else’s crazy?
SNL said goodbye this summer to Vanessa Bayer (nominated for an Emmy, losing to SNL superstar Kate McKinnon), Bobby Moynihan (starring in a new CBS sitcom, Me Myself & I) and Sasheer Zamata (hired to play Michelle Obama, among others, after public outcries for Michaels to increase diversity).
And joining the cast this week for Saturday’s debut of season 43? Heidi Gardner, Luke Null and Chris Redd. Here’s what you need to know about each of them.
Chris Redd
Let’s consider Redd first because Decider and I already told you last year he’d join the show! What happened? In Redd’s own words, from an interview this summer with the Chicago Tribune:
“I auditioned like everybody else, they called me to New York and I performed on stage for Lorne Michaels and then they flew me back out again for a meeting with Lorne and it was a dope conversation.” After we posted that a deal was in the works: “So I call my people and they’re like, ‘Well, no — Lorne wants to put you on hold (meaning, the show is interested but hasn’t made a decision) but as far as getting hired today? That wasn’t the plan.’…’Being on hold with SNL is hard because you’re just waiting, but it’s also a stamp of approval. There were jobs that started looking at me because I had this hold. It tells Hollywood in a way that ‘Hey, this guy is good.'”
He is good. He will be great.
Just check out this short teaser for a project he did, “Adventures of Black Chaplin.”
A veteran of The Second City in Chicago, Redd already had multiple ins with Michaels, from his scene-stealing work as Hunter the Hungry in The Lonely Island’s movie, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, to hosting a webseries for Broadway Video’s sports site, The Kicker, interviewing NFL rookies. In the year while holding for SNL, Redd also co-starred in a Netflix series from Chuck Lorre, Disjointed, and put out his first half-hour stand-up comedy special for Comedy Central.
Heidi Gardner
Gardner continues two grand traditions for SNL: one old, as she comes straight to 30 Rock from The Groundlings in Los Angeles, like many stars before her; and one newer, literally and figuratively, as she was plucked from the New Faces Characters showcase this July at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival.
In her showcase, Gardner pulled off an impersonation of Kristen Schaal’s sister, a portrayal of every woman in every boxing movie, and a Mary Kay sales director inspiring her saleswomen through fear of death.
Online, she’s also voiced the character of Cooch on Crackle’s SuperMansion. She’ll provide that mix of offbeat character work and stable straight woman that’ll give her plenty of opportunities in sketches. Here’s something in between, when she starred last year in a TV ad for Nintendo:
Luke Null
Null seems like a wild-card pick. His work with The Newport Hounds, a Chicago-based improv/sketch trio with iO, shows him in a variety of everyman (read: white guy) roles. But then check out this short in particular, called “Alexa.”
Could he be striving to be the next Adam Sandler? Well, here’s a longer look at Luke and his guitar, so see and hear for yourself.
Redd, Gardner and Null will make their SNL debuts this Saturday with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z in the 43rd season premiere.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
