>> funding for "overheard" with evan smith is provided in part by mfi foundation. improving the quality of life within our community. and from the texas board of legal specialization, board certified attorneys in your community. experienced, respected, and tested. also by hillco partners. texas government affairs consultancy. and its global health care consulting business unit, hillco health, and by the alice kleberg reynolds foundation. and viewers like you. thank you. >> i'm evan smith, she's an actress and comedienne who joined the cast of "saturday night live" in the featured player as in the show's 39th season. is it's noel wells, this is "overheard." >> chilly there are not two sides to every issue. >> yeah. we can't fire him now. >> i guess we can't fire him

now. >> the night that i win the emmy, being on the supreme court was an improbable dream. >> it's hard work and it's controversial. >> without information there is no freedom and it's journalists who provide that information. >> window rolls down and this guy says, hey, goes to 11. [ laughter ] >> >> noel wells, welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> so nice to meet you. congratulation osen -- on your success. 140 -- fewer than 140 people have been on the show in 39 seasons. this is exclusive club that you are now a member of. whoo, whoo, whoo. but that's got to be something to think that this show which launched so many great careers, honestly people have scrambled over the years to get into the position you're in, at 27 you're in front of the whole world on this show every week. >> it's insane.

it's crazy, yeah. >> how did you get it? tell us the secret of how you got on the show. >> it's crazy. there's just so many different paths that had to come together for me to get on the show. the very short answer is i submitted a tape. >> right. >> and then i had an audition in los angeles at a theater, and i had a call back at that same theater and lauren michaels and producers came and watched, from there, they flew me to new york, i addicted on the monologue stage. i came out and i took my moment and then -- and then like a week later, they told me, they called me, or loren michaels called me. >> it has to be nerve wracking. this is not any audition for any show. >> it's very nerve wracking, something i basically had to admit i wanted my entire life. i didn't even really feel like i had time to process it. when it happened, now that i'm coming to the end of the season, i've been able to look back, how -- what the heck, like -- yeah. >> you had been -- you watched

the show for a kid, the show had already been on for more than a decade when you were born so you new the history of the show. >> exactly. i think everybody kind of falls in love with the era when you were watching -- >> what was your era. >> it was like will farrell. >> oh, my, you are young, aren't you. >> yeah, that was my era. they also showed, like after that they would show old episodes of "saturday night live." >> you backfilled. >> yes. >> you saw some of the stuff those of us who were older got to watch. >> yeah. >> i wanted to badly to get on, i went with my friend, he got on. first crack out of the gate. >> that's not true. >> you didn't tell that story. >> i tried to make it easy. >> had you tried to make it before. >> yeah, the long story. >> the long story. we have time. >> we got 23 more minutes? >> it's pbs just go on as long as you want.

>> fair enough. >> right. >> in 2010 when i graduated from ut i was here over the summer and i was planning on moving to los angeles. i had gotten like a smaller agency in los angeles, make an audition tape, we promise they will see it. so i made a tape that turned out to be 8 and a half minutes long, which is insane. >> too long. >> very much too long. i think normally they're like 3 to 5 minutes, but i was really stupid. i sent it in, i didn't hear from them. >> yep. >> but i ended up putting it on the internet. to show my family and friends and genuinely thought i would take it down, everybody was positive and supportive about it, that became one of my videos i had online. all of a sudden that video kind of went viral. >> right. >> from there later on i ended up getting a manager who then had me submit a tape in 2011. >> right. >> they -- i got an audition, they just flew me to new york. they didn't hire anybody that year. and -- >> but they saw you.

>> they saw me. they hadn't seen it the year before, which made me feel vindicated. i got good feedback, she's not ready, she's really green, i submitted another tape last summer and it worked out. >> it wasn't just that easy, but still pretty good, not a bad story. >> there was a lot of pain and crying in between we cut out. i do have 20 minutes, we could -- >> no, going to reenact it in real time, it's a pretty compact story. let's give you the credit for cracking the code. >> yeah, i feel like i was just dumb enough to make it happen. >> what was in your audition this last time, the successful time, do you remember what it was? >> yeah. >> how did you think about what you needed to show them that you knew would get their attention. >> the previous time i had done it, i would do these impressions and characters and kind of a narrative, trying to make it like this cohesive thing, you know what, i might as well just

break everything that i'm doing into little funny bits, keep it as punchy as possible, this time i presented things a little differently, i did a bunch of impressions and characters. this is what i'm doing. kind of took out the narrative part of it. got to the punch. >> fantastic. >> yeah. >> the life of somebody in your situation, whether you're a cast member or feature story. the stories on this show, it's a little bit like a hamster wheel, off switch, constantly running, running, running all week. >> that is for me, at least, the show itself is always going when it's in production, and i am constantly thinking about the show and what i'm going to right, what i'm going to do and how i'm going to get better so i don't stop. >> take us through a typical week. what would a typical week look like? >> monday. monday we go in and we pitch to the host. the pitches are very short, they're like kind of ideas. kind of make appointments with writers. tuesday you come in and you write all night. >> uh-huh. >> i tend to leave around --

between 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. in the morning and come back wednesday for table read that takes place at 2 or 3. then they pick the show after the table read. everything goes into production, you rehearse thursday, friday. friday they shoot all the videos. >> yep. >> and saturday's the show. >> and you have a fair amount of ideas i'm sure. you were the kind of person who had enough ideas to make videos that went on the internet, you have ideas. you probably come in like everybody else, you're pitching away in the week. >> everybody pulls their weight, every cast member contributes almost as much as writers in however ways that they can. >> are the featured players considered less worthy of pitching ideas than the full fledge cast members. >> the pitch meeting, actually everybody -- loren goes around the room, he will call your name out, he moves on. it's kind of like a formality, but everybody gets a chance to say something. >> everybody is equal. >> oh, yeah, if you say something that people like, oh,

we like that, you should write it. >> you do a fair amount of writing on the show. >> yes. >> writing for yourself as well as others. >> you have to write for the host, yourself and as many people as you can include, especially with casting. >> it's a very large cast. >> it's a very large cast. i think everybody is cognizant of trying to get people involved. >> honestly, just about everybody is on a fair amount, there aren't people who have been like put them on a milk carton, they're on the opening credits but you don't see them. >> we all are on the show. every week i manage to get on somehow, i'm like, oh, thank god. >> let me go right to you on the show. my memory of the opening show of the season, tina fey came back to host, there was the cold open and there was the monologue. and the very first thing after that was a girls, the hbo series girls, it was a parody, a bit like a trailer for girls. then you were playing lena dunham, this i i think of as

equivalent to somebody coming up to the majors, first time at the plate hits a home run, that's an amazing thing to be the first shot or the of the gate. >> it happened so fast. >> you see how significant it was. >> yeah. >> it was a defining thing both for you and for the season. >> yeah. >> people are still talking about it. >> yeah. i'm glad to hear that. >> is that a character you came to the table with before you got on the show, was it something that you developed? how did that all come about. >> the impression. i forgot to audition with it. >> so you actually had it. >> i had it and it was actually something that i had a bit for and then i forgot and then i got to audition again, i remembered that time, everything was already in motion, and when they wrote it, they were like, hey, doing lena at the disable read, oh, gosh, the table read fortunately went really well, it happened to all come together in such a way they were able to use

something i basically had worked on and was ready to do. >> well, it was incredible. >> thanks. >> i guess she also loved it. >> yeah, she got to host. that was really fun to have her around. it was weird because i would hear her, wait, that's not -- it got really confusing for me. >> the things you've done this season, that character stands out in my mind, zooey deschanel stands out in my mind. physically you're not transforming so much but you've got her down. >> that was actually when i moved to los angeles, that was one of the first thing i did for the internet, i'll do this parody show where i do this impression of zooey deschanel. i looked her up, and you do a good job. she just so happened to have -- >> it helps if the person you're doing becomes a big star. >> yeah, it works out great. >> right. >> but i did that impression mostly as like to challenge myself, you know who you remind me of is that girl, i might as well do that.

>> just do it. >> yeah. >> the last one i was thinking of that was very memorable for me was nancy grace, who somebody who just strikes me as so repug nant as a human being. >> i actually feel differently about her. >> go on. >> i think her heart is actually in a very good quadrant of the right place. >> i'm not sure i agree with your premise, but keep going. >> i think she's probably -- i'm going to defend her. i mean, yes. >> what's great about that, though, is that zooey deschanel seams like a smaller and less broad impression, but nancy grace is much broader, it's more like you're having fun with it. >> that's good. i was really nervous when i did that, and i don't know if i did it justice. >> the fact that i could name those three and the fact that i remember other things you've done over the course, as first years go, as feature player years go -- >> i feel like i have a -- i have a lot of things that i need to write down as victories. >> yeah. >> and even like the low points where just as far as myself, i

have learned so much that it's just a win. >> what's been the hardest thing or the worst thing about the first year. >> there's just a really steep learning curve. no matter what you think the show is, you glue up watching it, you think you can write for it, you think you're perfect for it, you get there, it's a totally different ballgame, it's like a mix between theater and television and you're doing the things that you do but you have to hold still and i'm a very physical person, i like will watch myself, look moving all over the place, what are you doing, you crazy person. so i think it's just been getting used to that, and also i'm writing more than i've ever written before. >> right. can't be bad. >> no, it's great. there's -- there are a lot of rules. there's things that have already been done, there's a lot of history, just like wrapping your mind around all of that, okay, now that i know the rules, how do i play the game. >> right so it's mostly just working within the confines that exist on the show.

>> right. >> institutionally. there's also of course the pressure. there is a history as you say, look at all the people who have come before you. a number of people who have succeeded, a number that we now know as celebrities, started out as feature players on the show but never progressed beyond that. >> i think what people take for granted is that every person that is on the show is is incredibly talented. like in their own -- no matter what they're doing, writers, performers, like everybody has a skill set that is unique and like very, very high. >> right. >> and it doesn't necessarily always translate to the show which is why there's so many people, but like obviously they have talent. >> yeah. >> and try to make it work, it doesn't necessarily work out, but it's not going to hold them back. >> excellent. i want to understand your frame of mind going into this, frankly going into college thinking this might be something you want to do. >> born in san antonio. moved all around. >> ended up at ut, the

university of texas at austin. when you got to college did you know something this is what you wanted to do. >> i think deep down inside, my aunt told me when i was like ten i had said i wanted to be on "saturday night live," but it took me until i was 23 to admit i wanted to do comedy, i went through school, i tried to -- i had two degree, i don't know what i'm going to do, maybe i'll be a lawyer, maybe i'll be a film director. and then by then the college was like, oh, no, you just want to make movies and like be funny and be a performer. yeah. >> that's what you want to do. >> all right, that's what i'm going to do. everybody is like what? where did this come from? i was like i don't know. >> but better to try it and not succeed but get it out of your system, if it was not going to work. >> at that point there was like there's no turning back. i just made, i had already spent most of my life lying to myself, thinking it wasn't going to work out, i realize, well, it won't

ever work out if you have that kind of mind set. as i kid i don't think i knew i wanted to do comedy, everybody on "saturday night live" i absolutely adored, when people asked me what specific -- i don't know, all of them. i loved -- i really love tim meadows, tracy morgan and anna gast hire as a kid, in like a broader sense i liked jim carrey and whoopie goldberg. and then i also love like people that make movies, like i fell in love with a lot of directors and like different, like i really love the cohen brothers, raisegion arizona is one of my favorite movies and i -- that kind of defines my sense of humor in a really good way. >> as reference points go, not bad. i like that -- you cleared the hurdle. >> okay, good, i'm like, i don't know, i'm not giving you specifics. >> no, no, i think that's actually good. in fact you have aspirations to

do more than just a show. >> yeah, i think we all -- >> you've done one film, you have as aspirations to do more. >> i was writing movies, i had written a tv pilot, and i had planned on shooting a movie in austin if i didn't get on "saturday night live," and i still hope to shoot like an indy movie here. i've been reworking. >> the schedule is also a little unforgiving. >> the schedule is unforgiving. i got to break like more opportunity to really work on a movie and really put everything i have into it. >> but that still can happen. >> it will happen. >> it will happen. i want to understand what it's like to be in comedy now as to opposed say the previous generation. now we have funnier, we have college humor, youtube. i think the number i heard was 13 million views of your -- >> i have a couple of viral videos. >> one you mentioned earlier, things you've done that really got people --

>> i'm thinking about other people on the program, you have a new cast member -- joined the show in the middle of the season, who herself actually had quite a following on the internet. this is today what it's like to be an up and coming comedian, you have this venue at the do it yourself field where you have a platform to be seen on the internet. in the old days you had to take a very different path to get here. >> if you made a video, you would have to get people together to go to a screening, 30 people, and get feedback. >> earlier than that it was a problem of having to get around the country, you appear at this club or that club, you hope that word of mouth eventually builds, maybe you end up on a david letterman couch or johnny carson couch, it seems like that moment has morphed into this one. >> and there's good thing. >> technology gives you that platform. >> anywhere in the country, you can put your work out there. when i put my video up, i didn't anticipate anything happening,

in a weird way it supported like saying you're going in the right direction. i think the only downside to that is i think people that sometimes maybe get like seen maybe before they're ready to go to the next level, before you're toiling away for years and then when you hit, you're ready, you've been waiting the whole time, i feel like the internet i put up one video, a week from now i could be on the today show, you know what i mean? so i think that it's great and i'm glad that the opportunity is there, yeah, there's really no obstacles any more. >> well, the fact is people take that form of communication, that distribution platform seriously. after all, the president went to -- between two firms to sell his health care plan. right? i mean the fact that that's a topic of conversation out in the world, president went on sack galifinakis, that is an acceptable venue. >> yeah. >> why shouldn't someone like

you attempting to build a career for herself, start there, leverage that, try to get in front of people. >> i agree. i have no arguments. >> have i just kind-- oh. >> shut it down. >> i've shut the whole thing down. coming to the end of the first season, tell us what happens now, as you sit here, you've got three more shows left. >> all right. >> so roll us forward the next few months, the next year, tell us what happens. >> what happens. oh, ideally? oh, in a perfect world -- >> don't tell me what is going to actually happen. >> i will shoot a movie this summer. i will sell a movie this summer. they will demand i come back to "saturday night live." and i'm like telling i'll think about it, at the last second i ak acquiesce and show up and save the day. >> that's the ideal. back here on planet earth, what actually happens in a case like this. >> i think the idea is to work over the the summer, if i don't book something, i will keep myself busy writing. >> do you have anything

scheduled right now to do. >> well, man, makes me look like a scrub right now. >> oh, is that right? >> i don't have anything like shootingwise scheduled, but i have projects i'm working on for sure. >> and when does the -- what happens with the show going forward? when will you know about what happens for next week. >> i don't know. i don't know. you might know. >> i'm sitting here asking you, actually. >> i don't know, you know, i try not to think about it. >> yeah. >> it could make me very sick. >> point is you would like to go back? >> sure. yes. i think that would be a very -- it would be crazy not to want to go back. >> it almost might be a problem if you said no. >> well, what do you mean -- >> if i really didn't want to go back, this would be a perfect way for me to keep from going back. like nah and just send it to them. >> deliver your message right now. >> flip off the camera and leave. >> right. well, let's hope that it all actually works itself out. >> oh, yeah, come back and this

will haunt me too. >> what else would you like to be doing? we caught you at a moment when you are about to do some standup. tell us a little bit about that. >> well, i don't want to do standup necessarily, but i really like the idea of being able to do my characters in a format that people can come and watch without it -- without it being like a one woman show, i like being able to have like a conversation like element to it. i love people coming and listening to me talk. that's pretty cool. >> right. >> but, yeah. i -- i have a lot of anxiety as well, and i think like just being able to get up in front of people and just bomb is a special skill i'm looking to hone. >> oh, is that right. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. "saturday night live" is like doing theater. you've got people in the studio and you're getting a immediate reaction. >> yeah, for the most part. yeah. the way the studio is set up, sometimes you're doing sketches nobody can see, which is interesting, and also people

that come to the show, they also are more inclined to like laugh at things they recognize or people that they know, so it's like -- >> maybe it's not a legitimate reaction. >> no, i'm not saying it's not a legitimate reaction, the reactions are so varied, depending on like the circumstances of where those sketches are. i don't know -- maybe i didn't need to say any of that. >> most people don't have the opportunity to sit in the studio and don't know what the experience is like. >> actually being on a show, i have my respect for the show, i always love the show. >> talk about what that is. >> it's the hardest job in the industry. it's a miracle that there's a show any week. i think that everybody on the show is so talented and i feel like people -- i don't know, i just -- it's so -- it's amazing. i have such -- my respect for it is -- i have a lot. >> and of course we only -- of course the part that we see is probably only a portion of it, there's an enormous amount. >> oh, yeah, you don't see -- i think the biggest thing, people

come to the show, oh, it's so much smaller, there will be one portion of the studio where they will put up three sketches, there's not space to put everything. the fact that it's such a well oiled machine, people have been working there for such a long time. >> the fact that it's a live show. >> and it's a live show. the odds are stacked against us in every way. >> right. >> it's really kind of awesome. >> when you were in college you actually worked at esther's folly, a famous place in austin, that has had some success -- >> it's been around just about as long as "saturday night live." >> what is the difference between doing a small thing like that and a big thing like snl. >> esther's follies is basically the same show from week to week, it's a magic show, there are a lot of like quick changes. >> you did some time as a magician's assistant, did you not. >> yes. >> how did you enjoy that. >> well, i actually really liked it, but i'm a terrible dancer and i don't think i have a very good poker face, i think every time i was like always really

surprised, like everybody else. oh, wow, check that out. i think also like i'm very -- like i told you, i now make my physical weirdness like a comedy thing, but before trying to take it very seriously, i was probably very embarrassing. [ laughter ] >> and so the idea was show was the same every week. >> it's totally -- it's a very small cast, and we do everything in esther's follies, i remember at esther's, we would write, we would make our own costumes, we were in charge of everything, and "saturday night live" there are people that do all of those things. >> in a lot of ways, though, the diy comedy role we talked about earlier, the making of videos and the presenting of yourself, having all that experience from esther's follies probably prepares you very well. >> one hundred percent. >> to sell yourself.

>> no: it's like you learn all the skills to be able to do that, and also getting a film degree and learn to be in front of and behind the camera, all of that -- all the paths are converging. >> people don't appreciate how hard this stuff is. >> it's so hard, you guys. >> so it's interesting to hear and maybe impressive to think that you've been able to make it work, and again while it may not be your first crack out of the gate to make it on the show, it makes it all that more impressive that you've been able to get on and as successful in the first year so -- >> thank you. >> let's hope it continues. >> let's hope. >> noel wells, thank you so much for your time, congratulations. good, thank you. [ applause ] >> we'd love to have you join us in the studio, visit our website at klru.org/"overheard" to find invitations to interview, q and@, with our audience and guest.

>> i had basically decided i was going to be an editor in l.a., so i kind of just made sure i had a real put together, had some things on my resume so when i moved out there i was able to get a job pretty quickly. yeah. [ music playing ] >> funding for "overheard" with evan smith is provided in part by mfi foundation. improving the quality of life within our community. and from the texas board of legal specialization, board certified attorneys in your community, experienced, respected, and tested. also, by hillco partners. texas government affairs consultancy. and its global health care consulting business unit, hillco health. and by the alice kleberg reynolds foundation, and viewers like you. thank you.