It’s no secret that “Saturday Night Live cast member” isn’t exactly the highest paying job on TV. Last year, Pete Davidson made headlines for revealing that he only made “like three grand an episode” after being asked about the “biggest indulgence” he spent his first SNL paycheck on. “I think I got dinner,” he joked. Jason Sudeikis similarly said that he used his SNL money to splurge on rent.
And, as we’ve mentioned before, Taran Killam once divulged that SNL’s one-time sketch comedy rival MADtv actually paid substantially more per episode than NBC.
The surprisingly paltry pay scale has seemingly been going on since at least the late ‘80s, back when Mike Myers joined the cast.
At a recent Toronto event celebrating the release of Myers’ brother Paul Myers’ new book John Candy: A Life in Comedy, the Wayne’s World star told attendees about his early SNL money problems. “When you work at Saturday Night Live, the first year you make no money,” Myers explained, admitting that things got so bad that he “had to borrow money off Lorne.”
Myers said that he waited outside Michaels’ office for 12 hours, which isn’t that unusual, before finally getting the chance to ask his boss for a loan. “I understand you’re having money problems,” Michaels said to Myers. “Are you spending wildly? How much is your rent?”
When the young comic told him, the producer responded, “Could you find cheaper?” Myers said that he couldn’t, and would need around $10,000 since “New York is expensive.”
“Okay, that should be fine,” Michaels concluded.
When Myers later went to cash his paycheck, the bank teller laughed when she saw the name. “Michael Myers, you’re not going to kill me are you?” she exclaimed, in reference to the iconic Halloween slasher.
After looking at the check, “She said, ‘Is this a joke?’” Myers recalled. “I said, ‘No why?’ She goes, ‘It’s for zero cents.’ He took the money out of my paycheck!”
Yeah, instead of loaning him the money, Michaels just gave him an advance on his first payment, then apparently cut him a check worth absolutely nothing.
Myers doesn’t seem too upset about it, though. He also referred to Michaels as a “fucking genius,” and confessed that he “got away with a lot of shit” at SNL purely because Michaels liked him and looked out for him.
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