Writer and producer Ian Maxtone-Graham’s comedy writing résumé includes Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and Veep. But his path to SNL began with Jack Handey.
While working at National Lampoon, Maxtone-Graham called Handey to ask if he would sell the magazine some of his “Deep Thoughts,” which had already become a fixture on SNL. Months later, after Maxtone-Graham was laid off, Handey called him back with a suggestion: “Maybe you should apply to SNL.”
Given two weeks to put together a packet, Maxtone-Graham submitted four sketches. He was eventually hired for a three-show tryout at the end of the 1991–92 season, working episodes hosted by Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Hanks, and Woody Harrelson.
He went on to become closely involved with “Weekend Update” after Norm Macdonald took over the desk, handing the staff lists of news topics early in the week and taking Macdonald to clubs to test jokes before dress rehearsal.
Maxtone-Graham was so invested in making “Update” work that he sometimes paid freelance joke writers out of his own pocket.
“I would have paid even more money out of my own bank account to get great jokes on ‘Update,’” he says, calling it “a labor of love and a gift of love for Norm.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Maxtone-Graham recalls working with Adam Sandler on “The Hanukkah Song,” writing “The Chris Farley Show” with Al Franken, contributing to sketches with Phil Hartman and Christopher Walken, and learning an early writing lesson from Handey after re-pitching a joke that hadn’t landed: “They heard you.”
Click the embed above to listen to Mark Malkoff’s full conversation with Ian Maxtone-Graham now, or find Inside Late Night on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
