Bill
BILL is not leavingBill Hader is a chain-smoking Italian talk show host. He’s also a certain giddy New York City club kid, Fleetwood Mac singer Lindsey Buckingham and an elderly news reporter who hits his interview subjects in the face with a microphone. But most important for Saturday Night Live fans, he’s sticking with the NBC sketch comedy for another year.
With Kristen Wiig departing the show in a Rolling Stones-infused blaze of glory, Andy Samberg joining new British series Cuckoo and Jason Sudeikis possibly leaving too, all eyes are on the master impressionist, who joined the show in 2005.
“I’m going to be there next season and I have one more year on my contract,” he tells TV Guide Canada on the line from New York. “I really love it there. It’s like family. I’m very, very excited to come back.”
The 34-year-old Oklahoma native, whose club kid Stefon has become a breakout character on the show, has a full dance card these days. On July 24, he will host and perform in a Just for Laughs comedy gala in Montreal (he’d previously co-hosted an event at the Sketch Show and did a last-minute bit in a 2008 Judd Apatow tribute).
On the big screen, the Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall star appears in The To Do List (directed by his wife, Maggie Carey) and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Television-wise, South Park’s former creative consultant and co-producer is an onscreen love interest for Mindy Kaling (The Office) in the premiere episode of Fox’s The Mindy Project.
The latter is a role that could bloom into a regular gig, although nothing has been finalized. “You never know how these things pan out,” he says. “The talk was that it would be a character that kind of would pop in and out throughout the season, which I’m very excited about because I had a lot of fun working on that.”
But to be sure, once Saturday Night Live kicks back into production Hader will focus on the show, playing the go-to parody game show host, possibly reviving favourite characters like Vincent Price (“we should do him again soon,” he says) and breaking into laughter during his Weekend Update bits as Stefon, which he writes with John Mulaney.
“Aw, man. Stefon is a lot of fun because you can be so loose. Usually when you do sketch comedy you have to be kind of theatrical and play to the back room. With Stefon you can play it loose and low energy,” Hader explains, adding that people regularly stop him in the street to dish about the faux-tattooed, heavily hair-gelled guy.
“(Mulaney) changes stuff on the cards without me seeing it to throw me off and make me laugh, which I’m shocked hasn’t gotten too old for people. What you guys don’t see is I go backstage and flip out and get mad at myself. Every time. But (SNL creator) Lorne Michaels said, ‘If what you’re laughing at isn’t funny then we have a problem. But every time you laugh it’s at something it’s legitimately funny.’”
According to Hader, plenty of things outside of SNL are currently tickling his fancy, including the stand-ups on his Just for Laughs bill such as Hannibal Buress (The Eric Andre Show), Dave Gorman (The Daily Show), Mark Little (Picnicface), Neal Brennan (Chappelle's Show) and Paul F. Tompkins (Bob's Burgers).
“The funniest thing – and I’m not just saying this because they employ me – in the last 10 to 15 years is The Book of Mormon. Larry David makes me laugh on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Louis C.K. – what he’s doing right now is just unbelievable. It just feels really good right now in comedy. Network comedy, I love 30 Rock, Community and Parks and Rec. There’s some good stuff.”
BILL is not leavingBill Hader is a chain-smoking Italian talk show host. He’s also a certain giddy New York City club kid, Fleetwood Mac singer Lindsey Buckingham and an elderly news reporter who hits his interview subjects in the face with a microphone. But most important for Saturday Night Live fans, he’s sticking with the NBC sketch comedy for another year.
With Kristen Wiig departing the show in a Rolling Stones-infused blaze of glory, Andy Samberg joining new British series Cuckoo and Jason Sudeikis possibly leaving too, all eyes are on the master impressionist, who joined the show in 2005.
“I’m going to be there next season and I have one more year on my contract,” he tells TV Guide Canada on the line from New York. “I really love it there. It’s like family. I’m very, very excited to come back.”
The 34-year-old Oklahoma native, whose club kid Stefon has become a breakout character on the show, has a full dance card these days. On July 24, he will host and perform in a Just for Laughs comedy gala in Montreal (he’d previously co-hosted an event at the Sketch Show and did a last-minute bit in a 2008 Judd Apatow tribute).
On the big screen, the Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall star appears in The To Do List (directed by his wife, Maggie Carey) and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Television-wise, South Park’s former creative consultant and co-producer is an onscreen love interest for Mindy Kaling (The Office) in the premiere episode of Fox’s The Mindy Project.
The latter is a role that could bloom into a regular gig, although nothing has been finalized. “You never know how these things pan out,” he says. “The talk was that it would be a character that kind of would pop in and out throughout the season, which I’m very excited about because I had a lot of fun working on that.”
But to be sure, once Saturday Night Live kicks back into production Hader will focus on the show, playing the go-to parody game show host, possibly reviving favourite characters like Vincent Price (“we should do him again soon,” he says) and breaking into laughter during his Weekend Update bits as Stefon, which he writes with John Mulaney.
“Aw, man. Stefon is a lot of fun because you can be so loose. Usually when you do sketch comedy you have to be kind of theatrical and play to the back room. With Stefon you can play it loose and low energy,” Hader explains, adding that people regularly stop him in the street to dish about the faux-tattooed, heavily hair-gelled guy.
“(Mulaney) changes stuff on the cards without me seeing it to throw me off and make me laugh, which I’m shocked hasn’t gotten too old for people. What you guys don’t see is I go backstage and flip out and get mad at myself. Every time. But (SNL creator) Lorne Michaels said, ‘If what you’re laughing at isn’t funny then we have a problem. But every time you laugh it’s at something it’s legitimately funny.’”
According to Hader, plenty of things outside of SNL are currently tickling his fancy, including the stand-ups on his Just for Laughs bill such as Hannibal Buress (The Eric Andre Show), Dave Gorman (The Daily Show), Mark Little (Picnicface), Neal Brennan (Chappelle's Show) and Paul F. Tompkins (Bob's Burgers).
“The funniest thing – and I’m not just saying this because they employ me – in the last 10 to 15 years is The Book of Mormon. Larry David makes me laugh on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Louis C.K. – what he’s doing right now is just unbelievable. It just feels really good right now in comedy. Network comedy, I love 30 Rock, Community and Parks and Rec. There’s some good stuff.”
