00:00Apparently, when Lorne Michaels hired Mike Myers, he had never watched SNL before. Why?
00:05Well, for the most Canadian reason ever. Apparently, Toronto Maple Leafs superfan Mike Myers was too
00:10busy taping hockey games on Saturday nights to check out the late night sketch show. He was
00:14admittedly less interested in joining the cast of SNL than he was about joining his friends in
00:18another sketch group, Kids in the Hall. And over the years, Myers has made no secret of the fact
00:22that his comedic influences were mostly British, citing names like Monty Python, Peter Sellers,
00:27Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore. Plus, he took inspiration from Canada's own SCTV, as well as
00:32U.S. humorists like Mel Brooks. Another fun fact, Lorne Michaels hired Mike Myers for SNL without
00:38ever having seen him perform. I didn't audition. I just got a call and I and I just then I was just
00:43in the cast and I didn't really actually know I was hired for the first little while. Exactly.
00:48Michaels took a chance on Myers at the recommendation of Martin Short and a few others. At the time,
00:52Myers was killing it at Second City and had already come up with the Wayne Campbell character,
00:57performing Wayne on stage and in several Canadian TV segments. Sans Garth, of course. But in
01:02retrospect, his casting was basically the sketch comedy version of a blind date. Thankfully, it worked
01:07out.
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