Adam Sandler’s SNL Dinner With Batman
Adam Sandler doesn’t talk about the old days at SNL that often, but last night he sat down with Conan and talked about the early SNL days. Some people remember Sandler’s time at SNL as successful with his great weekend update characters, but in reality he had a very tough time on the show. But last night he shared some great stories about his own cockiness when he joined the show, one of his favorite ‘host dinners’ while he was with the show, and what it was like to go out to dinner with Chris Farley.
When Sandler joined the cast, he was 23 years old, and full of confidence, and admittedly maybe a little bit cocky. Sandler remembered telling Conan, Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel that he was going to be a huge star, but that was nothing compared to Sandler telling Lorne he was going to be the next Eddie Murphy, repeatedly. His predictions of stardom on SNL may not have come true, but if there’s a last laugh to be had here, Sandler definitely had it.
Sandler shared a great story with Conan about the SNL ‘host’ dinners. Every week the writing staff would take that week’s show host out to dinner, and one of Sandler’s favorite host dinners was the night the staff took Michael Keaton out. Keaton tried to grab the check, and the writers all kept arguing with him, because SNL of course normally picked up the check for these dinners. According to Sandler, the writers kept protesting, saying no, we’ve got this, its on SNL, and so on, but Keaton really wanted to pick up the check. Keaton finally won the argument with two words. He leaned over, took the check and said, “I’m Batman.” That’s either the greatest or most uncomfortable story ever told. Sandler and the SNL team loved it.
Conan and Sandler reminisced about going out to dinner with his old friend, Chris Farley, who loved to eat. Sandler described what it was like to go to a restaurant with Chris Farley.
“The waiter would make the rounds of four or five of us and you’d give you order and you’d feel Farley’s energy like, ‘alright, come on let me go already.’ He would order his food and then he’d name like six things, and then he would say okay, ‘I’ll take two of those.'” Sandler said. “He would always double down and they’d bring out two steaks, two salads, two sides and it was the quietest Farley. He would just quietly do his thing.”
