A BREAK I DEFINITELY WASN’T READY FOR

I’ve told parts of this story before, and it’s not a commemmoration of any anniversary as much as just a reminiscence of a near break I got waaaaay too soon in my career. This story began on January 2, 1986, when my solo career was barely two months old. It was my first time performing in the Comedy Store’s Main Room, which has a capacity of up to 350, and at the time the comics would be paid a split of 60% of the door. With there being two shows on weekends, there would usually only be 5 or 6 acts splitting around $1000, which wasn’t bad for 15 minutes stage time. On this night I was going on ahead of Sam Kinison, whose star was very much on the rise, and who I would usually have to follow after he decimated the room. This would be lucky for me.

There that night to see Sam were Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, along with his friends Paul Simon and actor Harry Dean Stanton. I would meet them after Sam’s set as Michaels tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to join him and Sam. I had a nice chat with Paul Simon about working solo after working in a duo, and he acknowledged, “Yes I had a partner once.” He would later in that year release his banner “Graceland” album, which would firmly establish that Simon & Garfunkel reunions would no longer be necessary.

Before I left the club that night, Michaels asked me to call him the next day at his suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I didn’t think anything would come of it, but still I called the hotel, and the operator said he was out on the tennis court, and could I leave my name and number. I did so, and forgot about it until about two hours later, when he called back. “Rick,” he said, “I’m calling because I want you to come to New York. I want you to be on the show.” He did specify that there was a standup spot on the show that they hadn’t filled all the remaining spots for yet. He also asked what sort of time frame I had in the coming weeks, and when could I be in New York.

Three weeks later, there I was, flying across the country on a flight paid for by NBC TV network. I didn’t realise I could have also asked for a hotel, but I had a friend in Manhattan that I could stay with and decided to go ahead with that. I was invited to come to the studios during the day where the cast would be rehearsing, and that evening, I would have a showcase that night at Manhattan’s Comic Strip, whose most famous alumnus was also by then an SNL alumnus, Eddie Murphy . There was a limo dispatched to take me to and from my friend’s flat to the venue. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

That first day, I was invited to hang out on the set, and ran into a few people I knew, including Penn and Teller, who were there for a meeting with Lorne. I would see Lorne for a total of about two minutes, and most of the rest of the day, I was getting bored watching the cast rehearse a dreadful sketch that was slated to be the opening bit. (The show was almost cancelled after this particular season.) The bit involved a group of monks breaking their vow of silence, and featured a terribly homophobic line aimed at the show’s openly gay cast member Terry Sweeney. The talent coordinator for the show tried to be accommodating to me, but was rather busy, and I was a bit jet-lagged, so I asked if there was any space where I could lie down for awhile. Well, that took care of an hour!

I went back to my friend’s flat, then called the limo driver, who took me to the Comic Strip, where the talent coordinator and one of the head writers for the show would come see me. For the first time since I got off the plane, I felt welcome, as the crowd really enjoyed me, the manager of the Comic Strip liked me, and happily so did the SNL staff that was there.

I got the limo to take me back to my friend’s place, and the next day I chose to do a little sight seeing, and not bother coming by the set. I would have another spot at the Comic Strip that night before flying back to LA the next day. For that night, the other head writer, Al Franken, came to watch. Franken of course would have a future career in politics as a Senator from Minnesota until a mini-scandal over a mostly-innocent photo of him surfaced, and he chose to resign. When he came to the show, I could tell by talking to him that he was about 20 hours behind on sleep, but he did stay and watch me, and said nice things before heading out.

It was clear by then that all I would get out of this trip to New York was a free trip to New York. I heard nothing more from Lorne Michaels until I ran into him again in March at the Comedy Store. He was about to introduce me to Martin Short, but before he could start the intro, Martin said “Rick! How are ya? Great to see ya!” At least that boosted my credibility with Lorne and I would see him once more in September of ’86, as he sat with Sam Kinison to watch me perform again, but he had already added and subtracted the cast members for the new season so nothing else came of that either.

My confidence was boosted from that January night, but mostly in the vein of “Wow, if this happens after only two months, the sky’s the limit!” Unfortunately, I never got another offer of that magnitude, but I had a good many fun years anyway.