This Summer, Bobby Moynihan is a Monster
Comic Bobby Moynihan is in his fifth season as an SNL cast member. Since 2008, he has played many well known characters like Snooki, Guy Fieri, Chris Christie and Drunk Uncle on Weekend Update. He’s also spent nearly ten years as apart of the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. This summer, he’s also in the big summer Pixar prequel to Monsters, Inc– “Monsters University”. He recently sat down with Ron Bennington at the SiriusXM studios to talk about SNL and “Monsters University”. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
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Ron Bennington: It’s good to see you. I’m a big fan across the board of Saturday Night Live. When people get into this season – to me it’s always like guys bitching about a football game. When they’re watching one game they’re talking about the ‘80s Niners. It doesn’t matter to me.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah. Everyone says, “It hasn’t been good in years,” and you say, “When’s the last time you watched it?” and they say, “Oh, in high school.” (laughs)
Ron Bennington: Yeah, right. But here’s what I love about you. When you first started, this pal of mine that I always talk to about Saturday Night Live, I said, “This is the sixth man. This is the guy, he’s coming in, and when everyone else is tired, he’s coming off the bench. I don’t care whether Bobby has a small part, a big part – he attacks it.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, that’s awesome. Thank you.
Ron Bennington: It’s really old school. You’re like a throwback performer.
Bobby Moynihan: I’m still super excited to be on the show, so even if I only got one line, I’m still really excited about it. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: You’ll come out, a quick pratfall, whatever it takes. So, you still love doing that show?
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, it’s the greatest. I have no complaints. I still can’t believe it.
Ron Bennington: And look what it leads to, you’re in movies now and doing voiceover stuff in a giant film like this.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, it leads to amazing things. I can’t believe I’m in a Pixar movie. It’s the best, I feel very – this week is reminding me how lucky I am.
Ron Bennington: Do you feel that way?
Bobby Moynihan: Very much so, yeah. I mean, being on SNL alone was one of the – there’s not many people who’ve been on it. And even auditioning for it, I was like, “Well, I’m not going to get this, but at least I’ll get to see the studio in person.” And then you get on the show and every week you’re reminded of the history of it and the legacy of it and how terrifying it is that you have to live up to that. (laughs)
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Bobby Moynihan Talks About The SNL Week
Ron Bennington: It’s a strange thing that it’s been on so long, and that Lorne – I mean, could you even think of anyone in history who’s done what Lorne has done with that show?
Bobby Moynihan: No, I mean, he’s given so many people their lives and their careers, and he’s just got an eye for that. And that show – I mean, it’s 38 years it’s been on, and we’re still doing game show sketches, and we’re still doing all this stuff, and it still works. I think people don’t realize how insane of a process it is, and that every single week – people are like, “You do it all in a week,” and it’s like, “No, not really. We kind of do it all in three days,” because we go in on Monday and we have a meeting, and then writing night is Tuesday, but nothing is really finalized until Wednesday night, and then Thursday and Friday you’re just scrambling to get stuff done. Half the time we’re shooting stuff ‘till six in the morning on Saturday. There was an episode this year with Jeremy Renner where I wrote a sketch called “The Stand Off”, and it was me, Taran and Jeremy Renner, and we were pointing guns at each other. And the whole thing is, we just kind of went through our entire day in a Mexican standoff. At 6 AM on Saturday I was on the ice rink shooting that and then slept for two hours and then went and rehearsed all day and did the show that night and then slept for like 13 hours after that.
Ron Bennington: And that’s the kind of shit you’ll enjoy years from now, when you can say –
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, I’m just doing it while I still can, while my body can still take it. (laughs)
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Bobby Moynihan Talks About Monsters University
Ron Bennington: How do you end up doing a Pixar? How does that happen, that you get the call and you’re involved in something like this?
BM; I wish it was a better story. My phone rang one day and said, “Do you want to be in a Pixar movie?” and I was like, “Yes.”
Ron Bennington: Yeah. “Don’t even talk about money with me” –
Bobby Moynihan: Don’t care, don’t care.
Ron Bennington: “Don’t bring it up.”
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, don’t wanna – just, I’ll be there. Tell me when and I’ll be there.
Ron Bennington: I’m trying to figure this out, though. It’s a kid’s movie, but then it takes place in a university.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, very confusing, right?
Ron Bennington: Because, a lot of little kids really interested in university life.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, it’s – did you see “Monsters, Inc.”?
Ron Bennington: Yeah.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, it’s kind of the prequel to “Monsters, Inc.” It’s seeing Mike and Sully, it’s seeing them grow up and go to college and how they are becoming scarers, and seeing their whole back story about how they got where they are. And there’s a lot of great nods to “Monsters, Inc.” in it. Steve Buscemi’s character, this guy Randall, is kind of the bad guy in “Monsters, Inc.” and you kind of see how he got there in this movie and stuff. It’s a lot of fun, it’s like “Revenge of the Nerds.”
Ron Bennington: Do you work with Billy Crystal at all, or do you just go in and do your stuff –
Bobby Moynihan: Me and Billy Crystal do voiceovers every morning at 6 AM together, we go to John Goodman’s place, we have some pancakes.
Ron Bennington: That’s so great! Everyone’s together being friends.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, everyone’s just the best. Billy won’t leave me alone! No, I just met them all for the first time at the premiere. You kind of go and record stuff on your own. I was lucky enough to go to the Pixar complex itself in Emeryville and record down there, which was great.
Ron Bennington: What did that look like?
Bobby Moynihan: It’s the craziest place on earth. They treat everybody so well, and it’s beautiful. All the Pixar artwork is on display, it’s a really serene, beautiful place. They have a volleyball court, a basketball court, an Olympic size swimming pool, there’s like everything.
Ron Bennington: All these genius animators, just –
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, and I think they make the place so nice to work at, because they’re there for 40 hours sitting in front of a computer going insane. I don’t envy their jobs, but –
Ron Bennington: Like, live here. Live here, and you’ll be happy.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah. (laughs) Live here and then go jump in the pool and then come back and do it again.
Ron Bennington: Pixar is one of those things – they invented their entire audience. This thing didn’t exist before, and now you turn around and everybody else is doing their impression of Pixar films.
Bobby Moynihan: It’s a Pixar movie – they call it a Pixar movie no matter what. It’s not like they’re doing that for other places. (laughs) It’s pretty amazing. The quality and everything is so – they hold themselves to such high standards, I think it really shows.
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Bobby Moynihan Talks About SNL History
Ron Bennington: Mitch Glazer was in here, and he and I spent a lot of time talking about Belushi. Like, when Belushi’s thing just exploded, and he’s like, “I would have said, ‘I wish we knew how great it was,’ but we did at the time. We got it completely.” There’s a guy, 38 years ago, he did that show that you’re on, and he’s still missed. We still talk about him after all this time.
Bobby Moynihan: People talk about him at the studio like he’s still around. One of the craziest things that ever happened to me at SNL was the Jude Law episode. It was a super special episode for me, it was my first “live from New York.” I wrote this Twilight Zone sketch that got on where I was the monster on the wing of the plane. The last sketch of the night was this sketch – we thought it was something else. A lot of times, during the commercial break, you’ll hear over the loudspeaker, “We’re not doing that, we don’t have time, we have to do something else.” Because if a sketch is 30 seconds longer than we need, they’ll just cut it and we’ll do something else. So, I was in a full costume – like a cop costume, and then they were like, “We’re not doing that sketch, we’re doing a different one.” Nasim (Pedrad) had written this sketch called “Talk Show With Ravish” – I think Nasim wrote it, well, she was in it. And all of a sudden, I realize that I have like 40 seconds to change into this ‘70s style suit, a fake beard and a turban. And if you go online and watch it, you can actually see me sitting down right as the camera turns on, and you see the wall come up behind me. And for the rest of the sketch you see fingers in the wall because somebody’s holding it up, because we almost didn’t make it. They actually have the entire set change from the commercial break online as well, because since I’ve been on the show, it was the closest call we’ve had. Because it is live.
Ron Bennington: And it’s almost always a close call. The way that that thing runs, if you’re there watching the show, you’re like, “They’re not going to make it. They’re not going to make it.”
Bobby Moynihan: There’s a lot of times where the second we go on camera is the second we got there. We just got there. But, that sketch in particular, it was the last sketch of the night, it was this crazy long episode. I was so proud, I was so happy with the “live from New York” and everything, I’d written something that got in. And then I’m in this ‘70s style suit, and we’re changing for the goodnights. And you only have 30 seconds to change if you don’t want to be in costume for those goodnight parts. And I look inside my suit, and it just says “J. Belushi” on the inside of it.
Ron Bennington: Wow.
Bobby Moynihan: And I was like, “Oh, they’re still using this stuff.” Like my Snooki bra, the bra I wear for Snooki says “Linda Tripp/John Goodman” inside of it. It’s like, the history that’s involved. That was a special moment. I also wanted to steal the suit. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: Well, you have that thing where you get it. And again, not everybody does. Not everybody gets the fact that, “Oh man, it is just so cool to be doing this.”
Bobby Moynihan: I’m still a little fanboy-ish, yeah.
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Bobby Moynihan Talks About Loving SNL as a Kid and the UCB
Ron Bennington: What age did you start watching the show?
Bobby Moynihan: Ever since I can remember. I think I’ve said it before in other interviews, I was the kid – I would just tape record the audio of those – when they would do the clip shows, or the anniversary shows – I would just tape those and listen to the them on the bus like constantly. I knew all the words to Eddie Murphy singing “Hot Tub” and I didn’t know popular music. But yeah, I was that kid. I was that kid who knew Coneheads before kids knew what it was, and stuff.
Ron Bennington: Before anybody should have.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, I used to go to like, I think the Museum of Television and Radio and watch, because we couldn’t get the old episodes. So I would go watch them wherever I could.
Ron Bennington: Well, even like, when you started doing the UCB stuff, that now has also taken on that type of feeling where younger kids –
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, I wouldn’t be on the show if it wasn’t for UCB.
Ron Bennington: Yeah, but younger kids go there going, “I can’t believe who came out of here.” You know what I mean? So, that theatre started to feel that way.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah. Every single one of the people that I started with is working in comedy in some capacity. And sometimes it’s like, I haven’t seen my friends in awhile, I just turn on NBC on Thursday nights. Because they’re all on “Parks and Rec” or “30 Rock” or – everyone’s working. People always say, “If you want to be in comedy, what do I do?” I say, “Go to Upright Citizens Brigade and just go there every night for 10 years.” (laughs)
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Bobby Talks About Wally the Cue Card Guy at SNL
Ron Bennington: Charles Barkley is one of those guys that even when he’s attempting to be serious is so god damn funny.
Bobby Moynihan: He pulled a bit on us, he got us pretty good with Wally the cue card guy. He’s been the cue card guy forever.
Ron Bennington: I know Wally, I love him. Love him.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, amazing. He’s the best. He’s absolutely hilarious. And he went after Wally, started screaming at Wally, just tearing him apart. And it was a complete bit, they had set it up beforehand.
Ron Bennington: That’s so funny.
Bobby Moynihan: It was – I mean, people were terrified. They were cursing off Wally. I was like, “Oh my god! Charles Barkley’s gonna kill Wally!”
Ron Bennington: Wally told me one of the funniest stories, too, of hosts that come on there and will ignore him in the beginning of the week and pay attention –
Bobby Moynihan: Of course. And then realize that he’s their only lifeline. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: (laughs) – as the week goes on, they’re just holding onto him. “Where are you going to be, Wally?”
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah. I truly hope that if someone’s mean to Wally he does the cue cards slower so that they panic on live television. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: And can no one do that but him? I mean, you turn around and he’s working all kinds of places.
Bobby Moynihan: I’m going to go so far as saying maybe not. You think it’s like, “You know, it’s not that hard, you just hold cue cards.” But there truly is an art to it. Especially now, being on the show for so long. And no offense to these kids that work for him too, but when they first start – Wally’s got it down. There’s an art to doing cue cards. When you are sitting there on live television playing a politician that you know nothing about (laughs) – which in the case for me all the time – I think I’ve played Newt Gingrich eight times, I’ve never heard him speak. When you’re sitting there, even just the thing of what’s on the next card – you’re in ten sketches that week, and everything changes in between dress and air – so you’re literally, when you see us, we’re just reading. So if something changes, it’s all up to Wally. It’s like, there are some times, he’ll have the next card, and you’re like, “Thanks, Wally.” Like, “You got me, you got my back.” Yeah, it’s terrifying.
Ron Bennington: Wally brought me over there once, and he’s showing me around, and he goes underneath the –
Bobby Moynihan: The bleachers.
Ron Bennington: The bleachers, and he’s like, “Well, this is where it all takes place,” and I’m like, “What?”
Bobby Moynihan: In between a stack of paint cans. Yeah.
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Ron Bennington: That’s so great. Dude, I’m so happy for you. Seriously, man.
Bobby Moynihan: Yeah, man. It was an honor to meet you guys. I’ve loved the show for a long time, so it was really great to be here.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liLpmVDLvng]
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“Monsters University” comes out in theatres everywhere Friday, June 21st. Go to Disney.com. Follow Bobby on twitter @bibbymoynihan.
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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free trial subscription.
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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.