SNL’s Lindsay Shookus on Comic Who Auditioned Naked and Didn’t Get the Gig ArticlePure

Building the cast of Saturday Night Live is no easy feat.

The people responsible for picking the actors and comedians who take over studio 8H once a week speak about the process in the first episode of the new four-part Peacock docuseries, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.

Lindsay Shookus served as the head of talent and as a producer on the beloved late-night show for two decades. In the docuseries, she discusses what it’s like to see comedians who showed promise not get picked after their auditions.

“When someone comes out and doesn’t get a laugh, it’s just the worst feeling because it was like, ‘I picked these people,’ ” she says.

Shookus recalls actor and podcaster Henry Zebrowski’s audition. Though he started off pretty traditionally, he had a secret twist in mind.

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“Three minutes in, he came out from the wall and he was completely naked,” she shares.

“It was such a shock and I’m not even sure, I have no idea what he did at that point, the naked guy. But he was the naked guy. He didn’t get hired but not because he got naked.”

Elsewhere in the first episode — named “Five Minutes” after the amount of time prospective cast members get to audition — Shookus talks about going out to scout talent.

“Sometimes you’d see something in an audition and you’d be like, ‘This could be in a sketch tomorrow,’ ” she shares.

“And that was always nice, right? That they had already come in and there was already multiple things you could put on the show immediately.”

SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night is streaming now on Peacock.