It's hard for myself to understand that it's been 23 years since Paul McCartney appeared on Saturday Night Live to promote "Off The Ground". As I was in High School at the time, and recently became a fan of McCartney as a solo artist, due to the single release of "Hope Of Deliverance". I will refer you back to ES-Say #4 in which I discuss how this newfound interest led to a juvenile fight.
Saturday Night Live(SNL), the popular NYC sketch program, was highly popular among my peers. Some of the cast in 1993(like Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, David Spade) would become even more popular in years to come, but SNL was the comedy training ground for up-and-coming actors. The live program came on at 11:35pm that Saturday night. I don't remember the month or date, but I remember hitting "record" on my VCR when host Alec Baldwin began his opening monologue and he paused momentarily for effect to loudly inform the audience that "Paul McCartney Is Here!"
Even if I was well psyched and watched at least half the program live, more than likely, I would have fallen asleep by midnight and watched the rest on Sunday morning. Usually, even if you taped the program or not, by Monday morning at school, you could fill someone in on the main sketches(at least shown up to "Weekend Update").
As the years passed, and YouTube and streaming videos on the internet didn't exist until the next decade, I watched the blank video copy I made of the '93 for a long time until I lost the video years later. (A bootleg DVD may be my only option of recovering the full telecast).
Not surprisingly, the sketch in the program where Paul was "Interviewed" by the late Chris Farley is most fondly remembered("I wasn't really dead!" Paul said assuringly to the nervous character of Farley). Alec Baldwin had memorable moments, as well, in this episode, but he is usually always associated to the "Schwetty Balls" sketch from another episode. However, I think we need to review my recollection of "The Mimic" the first live sketch after the monologue from this McCartney\Baldwin episode. (good luck finding this one clip outside the US or on non-NBC streaming services)
"The Mimic" (AKA Mimic See, Mimic Do) featured Baldwin in a spy-spoof character("The Mimic") with a catchy theme song ("TheMimicTheMimic..THE MIM-ICK!). A rich lady(played by Sweeney) invites "The Mimic" to her estate to help solve a mystery(maybe her husband was kidnapped?). "The Mimic" hilariously tries to "Mimic" the rich lady's voice over the phone to the kidnappers which is poorly and unconvincingly imitated.*
The rich lady gets fed up and calls in her butler, Jameson, played by none other than Paul McCartney! Jameson(Paul) walks in and begins to say a line but then waits to speak as, the SNL live audience, cheers loudly for a bit. (Ed. Note-Paul may have walked out once during the scene and comes back during the end, but this will be recalled as one, rather than two scenes)
The rich lady, at this point has had enough of the phony impressions "The Mimic" had originally declared to her were genuine. She get angry and instructs Jameson to "thrown him out". "The Mimic" at this point is mimicking (or mocking) the rich lady's instructions to her butler at the same time.
Paul as Jameson, goes to sort out "The Mimic," who turns his voice(terribly) into a Liverpudlian accent ("you cont get rid of me, eyem yoooou!). The SNL audience, as well as myself watching at home, was inconsolable with laughter as Paul wearing a dark butlers uniform, takes on a serious manner to act as security, to "eject" the fraudster, and the scene ends.
Now that over twenty years have passed some of the lesser known parts of this McCartney episode are forgotten. To me, it was a showcase of Paul's wit(during a few different cameos in other skits) and performance style with the new songs. I grew to love this line up of the full band(including Linda, Wix, and Hamish) during this period. His appearance on the show either got me to buy "Off The Ground" on cassette around this time and I began to be more interested in the Beatles than previously before.
Linda McCartney's whistle solo during "Get Outta My Way" must have been the albums selling point for me, I was still an "impressional" (like "The Mimic") teenager and it was truely unforgetable memory of watching this episode.
If you want to see the official transcript order of the 1993 program Click this link here
*recollections are hazy after 20 years, this is how I think it happened.
I remember The Mimic saying to Jameson:
ReplyDeleteMimic (Liverpool accent): Oh, Jameson, can't throw yourself out, huh?
Jameson: C'mon, lad. Don't make me rough you up.