The “finest comedy actor in America right now”, according to Mike Myers
Comedy is a constantly evolving beast, but people like Mike Myers seem to be able to adapt to those shifting sands better than most, becoming a regular fixture of the American comedy scene from SNL sketches to big-budget blockbusters.
It was within the hallowed halls of 30 Rockefeller Center that Myers found his ‘big break’, joining the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1989, and quickly becoming the stand-out member of the cast, during a period in the show’s history that was particularly awash with talent – the likes of Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, and Phil Hartman also propping up the cast.
Such was the extent of Myers’ comic mastery and mainstream appeal that, by the time he left SNL in 1996, he had made his entrance into the film world with the SNL spin-off Wayne’s World, and he was on the cusp of creating another beloved comic character in the form of Austin Powers. It didn’t take the actor overly long to eclipse the success of his time under the leadership of Lorne Michaels, but he never forgot his roots at 30 Rock, either.
In addition to returning to SNL on multiple occasions, once as a host in 1997 and countless other times in cameo and guest appearances, Myers has also kept up to date on the promising performers to progress through the ranks of the show and on the wider landscape of American comedy.
Back in 2017, one appearance on SNL prompted Myers to tell CBS News, “I think Melissa McCarthy might be our finest comedy actor in America right now”.
One of the most ubiquitous American comics of that era, appearing in a multitude of blockbuster films and primetime television programmes around the mid-2010s, it was McCarthy’s impersonation of then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer that Mike Myers fell in love with.
“I think that thing with Sean Spicer is just everything I love in a comedy performance,” Myers went on. “It’s precise and crazy at the same time.” Certainly, the sketch that contained that impression is among the most memorable performances from a special guest in recent SNL history.
McCarthy’s Spicer impression first appeared in a February 2017 edition of the long-running sketch show, and she returned to the role in three subsequent episodes, including the episode she hosted in May. No stranger to doing impressions of typically unfunny people on SNL himself, Mike Myers is well aware of how tricky they are to pull off.
In more recent times, in fact, Myers made a surprise return to SNL to play tech billionaire and apartheid nepo baby Elon Musk last year, reaffirming his already well-established talents as a sketch comedian and impressionist.
Nevertheless, even Myers would likely contest that, in a competition of impressions of reprehensible figures in American politics, McCarthy’s Sean Spicer surely has him beat.
