He's Mixed SNL for 40 Years

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The stories behind the world's most iconic and fascinating sounds.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

I am here at 30 Rock in New York City.

Last spring, I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine.

The home of NBC, the home of the Tonight Show, the home of Seth Meyers.

I went to 30 Rockefeller Plaza and went backstage in Studio 8H.

And most famously, Saturday Night Live.

And that's what I'm here for.

I interviewed 17 people from SNL's incredible audio team.

I'm going to get a tour of all the rooms, how the booms work, how the whole show operates from a sound perspective, including one of the lead boom mic operators, the sound effects designer, the music mixing team, the floor A2s, and the post-production team.

I've never seen any profile on how deep the audio is for Saturday Night Live.

I've heard it's quite extensive, but the main reason I was there was a little more personal.

I'm here to speak with Bob Palladino, who's been mixing Saturday Night Live for 40 years because the show's A1 production mixer was about to retire, who in two days is mixing his final show for SNL.

On Saturday Night Live, the production mixer handles the final stage in the mixing process, receiving audio from roughly 20 crew members and three entire consoles.

They mix all of the booms, lavalier mics, audience mics, sound effects playback, music playback, the house band, and the guest band into one unified sound that the viewers hear at home.

And I had the opportunity to come in, interview him, and learn how Saturday Night Live's audio is done.

Bobby's final show would be the finale of SNL's Season 50.

It would be a historic moment for the sound of SNL.

I'm blown away that I even have this opportunity, and I'm so glad that I can take you with me.

So let's go inside and check this out.

So I walked through the doors of 30 Rock and rode the elevator up to the eighth floor, where I was introduced to Bob Palladino, who goes by Bobby.

Then, Bobby led me into his mixing room, a tightly packed space with an enormous state-of-the-art mixing board, as well as computer monitors, speakers, outboard effects, and all all kinds of expensive gear.

Okay, I think that this is your home, right?

Yep.

Amazing.

We got settled in.

I really love the lighting in here.

Can I scoot you up right here?

Sure.

You want me to turn it up?

Ooh, that would be really nice, too.

And I launched into my questions.

What was your path that kind of led you to here?

Well, I'm a musician.

And back in the 70s, I was writing some production music for a production library out on Long Island.

Production music is the music that can be licensed out for commercials, TV shows, movies, and more.

Just like the music you're hearing behind my voice right now.

And eventually the guy, wonderful guy, beautiful guy, hired me as an engineer.

So I learned a great deal from him.

Broadly speaking, engineering is the technical side of recording and mixing music.

But as much as Bobby loved it, the gig didn't last.

I guess you could say I was laid off for a little bit and I had just gotten married and I was kind of freaking out so I flooded the New York area with resumes.

And one of the people that I approached was a client of ours at the studio.

He happened to be a director here at WNBC.

And he said, look, I can't get you a job, but I know who to talk to.

You can write him a letter and mention my name and so forth.

And that was very fortunate because in that year, NBC still had baseball, so they had the World Series.

That's it.

The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series in fourth straight.

It was a sweep.

It was a convention year, so they had a lot of conventions.

And to see that our bicentennial celebration and our bicentennial convention.

With all of these events to broadcast, NBC needed lots of vacation relief or VR workers.

So I was one of the people who was hired as a VR.

And they said, this was only going to be for three months and then you're out of here.

So I said, okay, fine, whatever.

You may have to travel.

Okay, fine.

You may have to work overnights at crazy hours, weekends.

Fine, okay.

But those three months came and went.

And while many of the other VRs got laid off, Bobby never did.

So that led me to NBC.

I worked on a variety of shows that was being produced in the building at the time.

And then I got assigned to The Tomorrow Show.

The Tomorrow Show was a late-night talk show that came on after Johnny Carson.

And I was the audio tape playback person.

So it was just editing bumpers and music, that kind of thing.

And I played them back on air for the production mixer.

And she ended up leaving, and I became the production mixer for The Tomorrow Show, which was a really good experience.

Like SNL, The Tomorrow show had guest bands that could completely change the audio setup so every day that we had music everything had to be struck and then set again for the following day depending on what the music requirements were we did santana the allman brothers george benson the tubes once again the music of santana this song is called search and welcome back santana here they are

and then tomorrow show went off the air.

I mixed nightly news for like three years.

And then along came Saturday Night Live.

SNL was 10 years old at that point and was in a transitional period.

Show creator Lorne Michaels actually left SNL for five years in the early 80s due to burnout.

During that time, NBC producer Dick Eversall took the reins of the show, but ratings gradually declined.

And in 1985, Dick ended up leaving.

At that point, NBC convinced Lorne to come back and help revitalize the show.

With the show in danger of cancellation, Lauren Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live, is returning after a five-year absence.

On Saturday, he presented the new cast.

Randy Quaid, a cast member.

Michael Hall, a cast member.

Robert Downey, a cast member.

Joan Cuzak, a cast member.

John Lubbets, a cast member.

And when he came back, he brought with him a technical consultant.

And between the two of them, they decided that the show should be in full-time stereo which it wasn't at the time and that it should be a separate room just for music mixing which hadn't been done before anywhere really so it created two new job positions one was to record the show on 24 track multi-track tape big two inch machine and the other one was mixing the music and they came and interviewed me for it because i had a lot of music mixing experience on the tomorrow show with tom snyder and uh they made me an offer to join up with the crew so that's when i joined up

those first shows were tricky because I was so new and we had a new director, new cast.

I mean, it was a whole experience.

Fortunately, Bobby had a great mentor.

I had someone with me at the time, Joel Specter, who is a wonderful mixer, and he has a whole history onto himself.

He was one of the people who worked on the very first show.

Live from New York, it's Saturday night.

So he knew the show and he knew a lot of the people and he kind of guided me through navigating the first early shows.

So that was my first job.

That was in 1985.

And in 1986, they decided to make a change for production mixers.

So I moved out of the music room and moved into the production mix.

And that's where he's been ever since.

One year just turned into two and then it turned into five and then it turned into ten.

Before I knew it, it was, you know, 30 years and then another 10.

So I think it just kind of evolved through the years.

Since Bobby started in 1985, the sound of SNL has gone through lots of changes.

The mixing boards have gone from analog to digital.

Wireless lavalier mics, also called radio frequency or RF mics, have become much more prevalent, although boom mics are still crucial.

The show has gone from recording and stereo to 5.1 surround sound, and there's now even a described audio feed for visually impaired viewers.

A panel exposes Jack wearing a khaki shirt and fedora.

Hi, I'm Gene.

I can't think of a pun for my name.

I'm just Gene.

But in some places, the old school methods are still going strong, like having real paper scripts to write on.

My script is my lifeblood.

I really depend on it.

I tried several years ago to try to use a computer instead of using a tactile script, and I really gave it a chance.

I really tried and it didn't work.

I went back to paper like the next day.

Bobby uses his script to keep track of the crucial details like which sketches will use boom mics versus RF mics, where various cast members will be on stage, and any lines that have been cut or added.

And all of this is constantly in flux.

It's always been kind of chaotic, only because there are constant script rewrites.

Yesterday, for example, I looked at the studio map and certain sketches appeared in certain places.

And then when they went to mount the sketch, they said, no, it's not going to be over here, it's going to be over there.

So that changes the whole sound design, basically.

And these changes continue all the way until showtime.

There's a production meeting that happens on Saturday night, and each writer will go through what changes there are in the script and usually they're cuts.

So what I rehearsed in my book and I'm looking at it and I'm seeing this speech is cut, this one is not in the show anymore, they've added this person, so that's what makes the show the most challenging.

There were changes right up until air.

If one detail gets missed, it could completely derail a taping.

But that unpredictability fuels the energy of the studio and keeps the crew focused through these long, chaotic workdays.

I think adrenaline plays a part because the activity is such a high level that it's just go go go and you really don't have time to be complacent about it you know it's got to be adrenaline because when I'm home I don't stay up till one o'clock in the morning.

When people ask Bobby what it's like to work on SNL he likes to say it's hours of relative calm punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

The start of each week on SNL is relatively calm.

Then it gradually builds to a huge crescendo on Saturday night.

Rinse and repeat.

The show starts on Monday.

They have a pitch meeting and they decide what sketches are going to be written and on Tuesday they write them.

And Wednesday is when I come on board.

So that's when my work week starts.

And they do a table read up on 17, this massive conference room.

They read through some 40 sketches and someone from lighting is up there.

Design is up there.

Costumes are up there.

All the department heads.

And I'll make my little notes on what I think might be a boom, might be an RF, might be, I have have to read this again because it's too complicated, that kind of thing.

I make all my notes.

Wednesday night, they have another meeting which I don't go to, and that's when they decide what's going to be in the show, or at least in the dress rehearsal anyway.

So Thursday morning, they'll have a tentative rundown, and I will make a scribe sheet.

The scribe sheet is where Bobby writes out what he thinks all of the audio requirements are going to be that week.

I'll make copies of it.

They'll take that out to the floor.

The boom guys will look at it and see what sketches they're in.

The A2s will look at it and see what sketches they're in.

The A2s are the audio experts that are in the studio.

They're in charge of things like microphone management and relaying info from inside the studio back to Bobby in the mixing room.

And we'll confer along the way because there's always a lot of last-minute changes.

While this is all going on, the music department is setting up the guest band.

They're doing their line checks.

They really have a lot on their plate because sometimes they're big acts that have a lot of inputs and so forth, you can imagine.

And then they balance the guest band and we have camera rehearsals for the music on Thursday afternoon.

During the music rehearsal, the band runs through their set along with the music, camera, and lighting teams.

And oftentimes, other crew members will pop in and see a rare, intimate set from one of their favorite artists, like when Paul McCartney came on in 1992.

The story I heard was that Lorne wanted a third song because he had done two songs from his current LP, or a CD rather.

So Lorne wanted a third song and he wanted it to be a Beatles song.

And he and his band went out there and they played Hey Jude, Let It Be, and Lady Madonna, I believe.

And the sound must have wafted through the vents because you couldn't move in that studio.

I mean, everybody was in there.

Bobby's mixed partner knew that Bobby was a huge Beatles fan.

So he insisted that Bobby let him manage the board so Bobby could run out and join the crowd.

So I took off and I went into the room and it was really crowded.

And it was just, it was electrifying.

It was really quite something hearing him do those songs.

Let it

After the music rehearsal, they'll shoot the promos for that week's episode.

These usually feature some kind of meta-sketch involving the host, like this soap opera parody with John Ham.

This week on Saturday Night Live.

Doctor, is Sarah alright?

With special guest John Hamm.

I'm sorry, Chloe, there's no easy way to say this, but she bald.

Clear a path, clear path!

We have to get her to the after party.

Stat.

I thought my farting grandpa would

kill.

From there, they'll be blocking and rehearsing sketches with camera and sound, with Bobby noting any audio changes along the way.

This continues through Friday, which is pretty malleable depending on the week.

And before you know it, Saturday has arrived.

Bobby's day starts at 9 a.m.

By then, we'll have a dress rundown.

This is the official running order of sketches for the dress rehearsal.

And again, I'll do a scribe that has all the audio requirements written next to the sketches.

At 9.30, the A2s arrive, and Bobby gives them the latest info.

Then it's time for mic checks.

Check every mic that we're going to use for the show.

We do our line level checks.

I'll check videotape.

I'll check audio tape playback.

Sound effects.

We'll do all our level checks.

This includes checking the audio for any pre-recorded segments, which used to be very rare, but now appear two or three times in almost every episode.

And then he just randomly selected papyrus.

And meanwhile, at about 10.30, the house band starts to play, and the music room will balance them.

And then we're usually on camera at, I want to say 12.30, and then it's sketch rehearsals all day.

Everything builds up to the dress rehearsal, which is basically its own full show.

It has a full studio audience who are different from the people who will be seeing the live taping.

It's all filmed, and when the sketches go up on YouTube, they sometimes upload the rehearsal version instead of the live one.

And there's always a few sketches in the rehearsal that don't make the show.

The dress rehearsal...

It's longer.

It's almost two hours.

And when we have that production meeting at 10.30, Lauren will have a rundown that usually reflects something that's been cut that's not going to make it to the show because the show is only 90 minutes.

After the production meeting, it's time for final checks and everyone gets in place to go live at 11.30.

Live from New York and Saturday night!

While Bobby mixes the show, he's doing much more than than just sliding faders.

For example, he's also in constant communication with the boom mic operators, letting them know where they should be headed on stage.

Boom mics are the ones that stretch out over the set and dip down over the actors' heads just out of frame.

The boom operators I probably talk to the most because I'm following a script book and they're not and they get familiar with what the sketch is more or less, but I'll give them cues to this one's coming in from upstage or now we've got to split it to get to this person, that kind of thing.

That almost sounds like you're kind of directing yourself.

Yeah, for the booms at least anyway.

To open up a radio channel to the boom ops, Bobby uses a foot switch down beneath the mixing board.

And for his other foot.

I have a secret weapon and that's this gas pedal on the floor.

Awesome.

It's a pedal that controls the volume of the audience mics, which means one less thing to do with his hands.

Because it's just too much to turn pages and mix and then worry about writing the applause.

You have to write applause.

You can't just leave it it in one place, as you know.

Like a gas pedal in a car, when you take your foot off, it returns to the top position.

So when a character makes a joke, he'll press down with his foot to allow the laughter to come up.

Football, sir?

Yes.

It's a sport where you throw a ball with your hands.

So in football, there is no kicking?

There's a little kicking.

Then, as dialogue resumes, he'll ease up on the pedal so the audience fades back down.

You kick the ball to get points.

How many points, sir?

Sometimes one and sometimes three.

So you just feel this.

At this point, is it almost unconscious riding that foot?

Yes.

I've missed other shows that have an audience in which the A1 does not use a pedal.

And there are times when I feel my foot trying to reach for an imaginary pedal that isn't there because I'm just so used to it now.

At one point during our interview, Bobby was showing me the printed rundown sheets from previous weeks, and I noticed that many of them were stamped with the image of Bugs Bunny.

Bobby also had a Bugs Bunny coffee mug, and there was a cutout of Bugs Bunny on the door to the mixing room.

What's the Bugs?

I've seen it pop up a few times.

Yeah, that's my mascot in life, Bugs Bunny.

Is it?

Why?

I don't know.

Ever since I was a kid, I was always kind of drawn to the character.

So I get these gifts people give me.

Yeah.

He shows up from time to time.

Bobby uses his Bugs Bunny stamp like an official signature.

So when the audio team gets a script with Bugs on it, they know it's Bobby approved.

And for the rest of my visit, whenever I'd spot another Bugs, it was a beautiful reminder of the personality that had been in this room and this studio for so many years.

This is a big moment.

The show's 50th finale.

This is 40 years for you.

What are you feeling this week?

Bittersweet.

There's some people that I've been been with for so long, I'm going to really miss them a lot.

I'm going to have to come back and visit from time to time because

they're good people.

Some things I will not miss, like I'll go out and have a meal on Saturday and right before I'm going to leave I'll get a sheaf of script changes that I'll have to go through and integrate into the book and change that.

And then I'll go and eat something.

I'll come back to be another one to go through.

So all those last minute changes that I won't miss.

And

like I said, it's bittersweet.

I figured 40 seasons was enough.

I feel, and I've said this to my crew, I said, when you know in your heart that it's time to leave, move on, that's when you move on.

And I know it's time to move on.

But before he could move on, Bobby still had one last show to mix, and it was a big one.

Two days later, I'd be sitting right next to Bobby as he mixed the finale of season 50.

I'd also sit down with the man who's replacing him to learn what led to this incredible moment in his career.

That's all coming up after the break.

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It's May 2025, and I'm in New York City to witness the season finale of Saturday Night Live's 50th season from Behind the Scenes.

I've spent the last few days interviewing all kinds of people from the show's vast audio crew.

And now, it's Saturday, the day of the show.

That morning, I go back through the doors of 30 Rock and head into the crowded mixing room of Studio Studio 8H.

There, I check in with the A1 production mixer Bob Palladino for the last show of his 40-year career.

So how you feeling today?

Good.

Yeah?

Yeah.

You ready to do this?

I think so.

All right.

I see a lot of people coming through, giving hugs, all of that stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you have, what, 16 more hours or something and you're done.

And then that's it.

All right.

Bobby's wearing a custom t-shirt that says, you say goodbye and I say hello.

Hello, hello, retirement.

Which of course is a reference to a classic Beatles song written by one of his favorite artists, Paul McCartney.

And can I see the back of your shirt?

Sure.

On the back, it says, SNL Audio Production Mixer, established 1985.

Below that are the classic colorful rings of the Looney Tunes, along with the words, that's all, folks.

And at the bottom, live from New York, I'm retired.

Who made that shirt?

My daughter had it in for me.

Amazing.

At this point, the mixing room is buzzing with activity, and I know Bobby has a lot to do.

So I head out to chat with some other members of the audio crew.

Then, later that afternoon, I snag some time to sit down with the new production mixer, who will be taking over in season 51.

Okay, so what's your name and title?

My name is Fred Hadamark, and I am the A1 broadcast sound mixer for Saturday Night Live.

And it turns out he's actually a friend of mine.

So I heard that the last guy had that for 40 years.

What are you going to aim for?

Oh, my gosh.

Let's get through season one first.

Fred first started at 30 Rock back in 2009.

He was hired as an A1 for MSNBC, which is the news branch of NBC.

Early on, he bounced around a lot.

And have gone through basically the entire schedule of what MSNBC has done.

I've done the day side, done breaking news, done the large events, done elections.

But what he really wanted to do was work on one of the late-night shows or SNL.

My manager for my time at MSNBC also had a dual role as the tech manager for Saturday Night Live.

The tech manager oversees all of the technical departments like audio, video, camera, and lighting.

And every time we'd have a yearly review, I'd talk to him about my aspirations about working in entertainment in this building and that I felt like I had a pretty decent skill set to accomplish that.

Eventually, his manager introduced him to one of the producers at SNL who was heavily involved with the audio team.

We had a real nice chat and at the end of it, kind of had this feeling that he was looking at me to become the A1 for the new Late Night with Seth Meyers show.

And that was about a year before the show launched.

And so I eventually got the gig because of that conversation.

Welcome back, everybody.

Welcome back.

I am absolutely thrilled to have this person as our very first guest here on Late Night.

You know her work on Saturday Night Live and the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.

I know her as one of my best friends.

Please welcome the lovely and wonderful Amy Poehler.

I spent the first eight years on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and then that was at the point where we decided that it was time to take a step away from it and focus more on the family and get back down to where our roots are down in North Carolina and South Carolina.

This was right around the time that I first interviewed Fred for 20,000 Hertz.

It was for an episode about mixing Seth Meyers, and we recorded it just as he was leaving New York to change careers.

The last time we spoke, you know, on the podcast that we did for late night, that was kind of like my swan song and my little love letter to late night.

I thought I was walking away from this building and never going to see it again.

Tell me about that pull that started to pull you back to the city.

Yeah, I moved into an occupation and a position that wasn't audio-centric, And it was difficult to find that kind of joy that I had when I was here at 30 Rock.

And so out of the blue, I got a text one day from the tech manager of SNL saying, hey, you know, we're starting to plan for when Bobby retires and we'd like to put your name in the hat if you're interested.

And I was just like, this is.

amazing and crazy.

I just never thought in a million years that that would even become an opportunity.

And when I told my wife, she couldn't believe it either.

We kind of talked it out and really started to discuss to see if this career change would benefit the family.

And we figured it out, we made a plan, and now here we are.

But along with Fred, there were a couple other people who were selected to audition for the role.

And the first step for them was to get to know the producers and the crew.

Luckily, I already had that established because of my experience back in the building before.

Next came the hands-on testing.

The only way you can really show if you can do the show is by sitting there and doing the show.

So after a few weeks of observing Bobby, it was my time to get in the chair with Bobby next to me and start mixing a show.

Started off mixing not an entire show, but segments of it and kind of built up from there to where I got to the point where I mixed a few shows by myself with Bobby next to me and got a lot of incredible constructive notes about how to make it sound like Bobby Mix's, which was great.

But it was a really fun and interesting time to try and put all of my skill set together to mix this thing because you're not just mixing the show, you're also directing a team, you're directing your booms, you're reading a script, you're using your foot for an audience mix.

There's a lot of things that were relatively new to me, but it was nice to put it all together and prove to myself and also to others that I could do the job.

Ultimately, Fred was chosen for the role, and it's another huge milestone in his career.

But despite everything that's led him here, he still can't quite believe it's real.

I'm still pinching myself.

It definitely still is surreal.

You know, when I walked away from 30 Rock, I thought, well, first of all, I was walking away from my dream job because I loved it so much.

It was very difficult to do.

But never thought I'd have the opportunity to come back again.

And certainly not as sitting in the chair as A1 for SNL.

I couldn't be happier being back here working with all the wonderful people in this building.

I definitely feel the gravity of it too.

It's a big, big position to be in.

I feel a great amount of gratitude for the opportunities that I've had and all the navigation that everybody has played in my life because little Fred has not done this by himself, especially the imagination.

I've had a lot of help along the way.

And also being grateful for the opportunity to mix all three shows in this building in the crown of late night entertainment, you know, late night with Seth Meyers, backing up Fred and mixing a handful of episodes on the tonight show starring Jimmy Fallon, and now Saturday Night Live.

I don't think you could have ever told my 14-year-old self that this is what you'd be doing later on in life.

Life is weird and fun and strange, and

you just have to enjoy the ride

and take chances when you can, be confident in your skills, and just shoot for the stars.

And sometimes it happens.

A few hours later, it was nearly showtime, so I went back into the mixing room and settled in to watch Bobby mix the last show of his career with Fred by his side.

Stand by in 10 seconds, everybody.

Stand by 11.

check the

Saturday Night Live

with

Michael J.

For me, watching an episode of Saturday Night Live being mixed right in front of me was unreal.

When it comes to audio, I consider SNL to be the pinnacle of live live studio television.

There are so many moving parts and so much spontaneity that it requires an incredible amount of skill and focus.

Bobby's name might not be widely known, but it's hard to overstate the impact he's had on this show.

Just think of the casts he's seen come and go.

Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Will Farrell, Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler, Bill Hayter, Kate McKinnon, thousands of unique and hilarious sketches, and for almost every single one, it's been Bobby behind that mixing board making the show and the performers sound great.

And now, I'm so proud that it's my friend Fred taking over this crucial role, because I know he's going to do a fantastic job.

I was thinking about all of this as the house band played the credits music, and Bobby made his last few adjustments on the faders.

Then, as soon as the show ended, people started to congratulate Bobby, giving him hugs, and wishing him farewell.

Congrats on Season 50!

Yeah, Bob.

Thank you all.

Great season, everyone.

I pushed it.

Yeah, Bobby.

Congratulations to those that are retiring.

Enjoy the rest of your time.

Thanks, fellas.

Made it special.

I'm blessed.

I am blessed.

Thank you, good boys.

You are, my man.

People are wonderful.

Now, let's go to a party.

Congrats, Bobby.

Congrats.

Bobby!

Hi.

Congrats.

What stories we had.

Congrats, Bob.

Thank you for everything.

Real pleasure to be here.

Likewise.

I met Bobby 15 years ago, and he is the nicest gentleman in the world.

He's incredibly open, shares anything that you want him to share in terms of audio.

Loves what he does.

You can definitely tell that from the way he works, mixes, communicates with people in the building.

And I have the utmost respect for him.

And I just really want to do good by him going forward.

I'm just very grateful for the opportunity to try and take the torch from Bobby and continue to carry it.

And

just try and do as great as Bobby has done for the last 40 years.

And I hope I make him proud.

A few months after my trip to 30 Rock, Bobby and his team won an Emmy for mixing SNL's 50th anniversary special.

Every Every sound engineer, the A2s, boom operators working on this show dedicated themselves to perfection.

We are deeply honored to be recognized for our contribution to one of the longest-running, most respected comedy institutions of all time, Saturday Night Live.

Thank you.

Now, to get the full experience of my trip to Saturday Night Live, you really need to see it.

Over on my YouTube channel, you can watch Bobby give me a full rundown of his mixing board, and join me inside the audio control room as Bobby and Fred mix the season finale.

I also shot a video with one of SNL's boom mic operators, and I even got to try it for myself.

I'll also be rolling out more videos from inside SNL in the coming weeks.

To see them for yourself, just search for dallastaylor.mp3 on YouTube, or tap the link in the show notes.

You can also find clips on Instagram and TikTok under that same name, dallastaylor.mp3.

20,000 Hertz is produced out of my sound agency, DeFacto Sound.

To hear more, follow DeFacto Sound on Instagram or visit de factosound.com.

This episode was written and produced by Casey Emmerling.

With help from Grace East.

It was sound designed and mixed by Brandon Pratt.

And Joel Boyd.

Thanks to Bob Palladino, Fred Hedemark, and everyone from SNL who allowed me in to make this episode possible.

Thanks for listening.

Before we go, I want to tell you about one of my favorite music podcasts called Broken Record.

Each week, Justin Richmond and Leah Rose talk with musicians from all kinds of genres and generations.

People like Smokey Robinson, Jack White, St.

Vincent, Damon Albarn, and many more.

These artists open up about their creative lives and the stories behind their most meaningful songs.

It's always so much deeper and more interesting than the generic interviews you normally hear with musical icons.

Subscribe to Broken Record right here in your podcast player.

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Finally, head over to my YouTube channel to see my incredible audio journeys, including my recent trip behind the scenes at Saturday Night Live.