Why Jim Breuer Quit SNL

the experience jurogan had even won snl I didn't want snl now you and I know it was uh no one came out of going that's the best concert it's very strange that people came out, they came out like they were in a fight absolutely like They just got out of a fight in a bar is exactly what Phil Hartman was like when I started working with Phil Hartman in '94. He had just left SNL and it took him a while to get comfortable with us being the news radio people that were the actors. super friendly, everyone liked to get hit, that was the most important thing - we would get drunk, yes, but we were all really like in terms of similar, genuinely supportive actors, like Dave Foley, who was the most supportive guy ever , like I'm always writing jokes for you.

He was always rewriting scenes for you, like Jim would come in and say this, well he wrote really great lines, but Phil seemed like he was in a competition at first, he thought everyone was going to compete and then once he. relaxed it feels like weed smoke and once it relaxed it's like you knew what was going on there was like everything was like a dog and everyone was on each other's necks it's dog eat dog and there's no rhyme or reason , yeah, there's no rhyme or reason, it's like politics in other words, I can't help with Congress what bill they're going to pass even they know even they know this is going to work no, same kind of thing, it's exactly the same because you're fighting to get your parts right, you're fighting to get your pieces, you're okay to get your little sketches, yeah, and the worst, the worst part is you know something is going to work and someone comes along to you towards the end, that made me feel that way. a dark human being because I'm the man, let's all go, yeah, let's all be a team and I used to do it when I was working with hats, I said, let's look at this list, holy shit, let's see who's going to the Boston comedy club. just buy a script and put everyone on it and let them play off the strength of it.

Wow, you know, I wish I had the business intelligence to go back and do that because it would have been like that. very funny, I mean, maybe it would have been a disaster, maybe this guy would maybe end up buying leather pants, so I bought my white lion leather pants, but it lets you know that I don't want to be better, you never, you never had memories. I never became bitter but you understood that bitterness is a correct choice and I started smoking an intense amount of marijuana, yes, just to numb myself. I remember when you told me you left him, you're like a friend, I'm hearing voices, I think the government is following me. you went so far I went far I would have

quit

and then I talked to him like oh he could have gone to the land of never again he was he went to the land of no return well, when you start to think that the government is watching you non stop, no - stop, they're honoring me because they know I think for myself that it's like the Goodfellas scene, the damn helicopter, I love that scene, but I will say this, yes, I have brought you back into the fold, I have not returned you to the path.

I've done it in the past, but a little bit but I've done it, you'll never see me, it's very private, you're a private pot smoker, yeah, how does that work? In other words, I don't do it with people anymore because it keeps the paranoia away because I don't trust anyone oh, I don't trust anyone. I still don't and I haven't smoked. I smoked. I like it. I went a little. I went out to Colorado and the five milligrams and the tenderloin. all five are good those little edibles oh my god all five are good yeah just eat that yeah and then have like a martini extra dirty martini not too dirty I like it dirty I like it I like it no crazy, dirty, but a little dirty, a little dirty, I like it.

That olive juice is delicious, I like it too, so this is what happened, my wife, that's why, that's why my wife is a powerhouse. When you find someone who doesn't care about the industry and only cares about you, it's very difficult as an artist who's chasing a star because you're always chasing the star and you're always chasing the mansion she would go I'll never forget it she's like why you just

quit

like me seriously you're stupid you don't quit santa lives hell it's her and she's like look at you, you come home you're miserable they control everything they steal your ideas this one stole I saw my own eyes how they treated you in this how they stole your ideas here we go I'll give you You, I'm sure you don't want to get high first, let's take a pee break, let's have a p-ring, no, here it is and again, I've released all of this, okay, you know, I have a strong spine moral backbone, I'm good, so no, I don't have any bad feeling, what happened was and I'm not going to publish it, I don't want to change names and all that, but what would happen is something like this: you're writing a sketch and then one of the head writers would walk in the door and say hey, I see you're writing a sketch about blah, blah, blah, because we have the main server and we review everyone's sketches.

I just want you to know that I'm writing the same thing as him. he's like, you can continue with yours, but you know I'm in the room with Lauren, I'm just, oh yeah, so this is it, so they would go to the server and see the sketches that you're writing and then there was. There were times when a cast member would come in and look at my board and say, oh, what does that mean? Oh, that's a sketch and I know so-and-so has come in and I know the ratings are going to be high that week. , so I'm waiting to bring my stuff for everyone to get their fangs out when this one is on, so I'm going to save that sketch for when it's on and then this person would ask me, oh.

Oh my gosh, what did I say exactly, well, I'll take him out of his element, you know, the way he was back then, he was like peshy, I'm like pesky, he'll read to the kids about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and he'll tell them that I explained to them. why his nose is red and the big joke is because he's a rat and i compared him to a whole neighborhood he's a rat that's why his nose is red when you go and end up beating up certain moba kids next week the whole room it's set and and you're sitting there and then this person that you know, lauren goes next, the next sketch is, you know, al pacino or scarface reading to the school kids rudolph the red nose reindeer, and you go, you , you, and you look, you see his eyes. you're down, you know what's going on, you know what happened, you can't say anything right when you say something I finally did, buddy, I think I can be it and I want to challenge all the actors and writers on snl.

He may be the last to threaten. violence that I was in, I was in a room with one of the guys and I literally said I'm going to put my teeth down your throat, if you don't want to be here, get out, don't do it, because you don't. I want, oh man, wait, and I was and I told him I was going to hit him and break his teeth. I'm not, I'm not from the writing world, so that's where that place brought me, wow, and that particular instance was seeing. Now I'm going crazy, that has to come from the top down because when I was alone with Philip Phil and I became close and you know, we would hang out together, especially in his dressing room, we had a nice dressing room. all set up I had a guitar looking at his aviation books and he, uh, we were talking about his time there and he says that he just made me feel bitter and angry, yeah, yeah, but it seems like it's always been that way. from top to bottom and this particular year you were at 95 to 98, so you were right after Phil left, yeah, because I was with Phil at 94.

And when that person did that, I went up to them and waited and It was like he said no, no, I didn't take it. Now this one is also getting more airtime because they're with this specific head writer and then the head writer comes to see me. Hey, leave him alone. Go. Hey man stop him from stealing well you know I don't care what he does just leave him alone during my sketches like why you do it it's like you're in high school and yeah it's what it does to you and then Here I remember doing something where I played a drunk guy and I didn't know exactly how to do it, but I always wanted to be another Foster Brooks.

Long story short, I want to do something else Foster Brooks type, so I played the character that I'm not a great writer, I'm not a good writer at all, but I'll think about the character and try to eat it, and if we could put it somewhere cool, I remember the writer came up saying yes, Lauren didn't. I don't like drunks because you know the past and John and blah, blah, blah, oh okay, and then two weeks later, John Belushi, yeah, I guess that's what he meant and then two weeks later, it's the drunk character, like what guy, what are they, it's just little things. that mind fucks with you like that, so by the time the big finale was towards the end, you know, someone told me, you know what Sandler did, Sandlin went through this, everyone went through this, comedians went through this, what you gotta do is get on the update and you have to get on the uh, do everything you can to continue the update and all over again opening the monologue because the head writers can't mess with you because that's not really their game so crazy it's something what you have to think about.

So that's why I started doing it, if you notice, in '98 I started getting more monologues and then even there they were saying we got this and then it was a final monologue, it was Matthew Broderick and it was when Matthew Broadwork was on the show and he , he. He couldn't understand some of the sketches I was doing with him and he'd start laughing, so when we went to him he really wanted to do this monologue with me and this one, these particular head writers were like, no, we're not doing it. Although Matthew said, "I want to do Gems, I want to do Jim and Tracy," and there were two, three sketches that we did together and he laughed during the dress like he couldn't stand upright and then I remember the head this writer had in particular. a problem with probably never I just didn't like whatever you had a boner for me whatever I can't I don't understand the ego if you have an ego that's what it is and he said um yeah It's a shame he laughed because now we don't know if it works, so that's going to be caught in this cut and listen, we filmed the monologue, it worked, but we're going to continue with my monologue during the air show.

I was like you. You know what man I'm going to talk to, Lauren, he says, no, no, I said, no, I'm, I'm talking to Lauren now, I'm not afraid to talk to Lauren anymore because he's an author, it's like you know who I am. we'll talk to the president don't talk to the president they put this up so he would say no, you're not going to talk to lauren 100, we'll talk to him, what not, we'll both go talk to him and So I knew that from the moment there was finished, I knew it was done and then that summer this guy named Gary Considine ran the tonight show and he said Jim, what happened, man, I said, what's up, he does such and such. and so and so are really the same you're out not really doing well I tell you what I don't want to be there anymore my wife says please stop smoking it's just that you said in your life if there is any job it doesn't matter how much money they pay you it makes you into a miserable human being and it changes the person you are you weren't going to work there it's like looking at yourself you're angry all the time you smoke weed all the time to numb yourself you're not jim anymore Where's the dumb uplifting gym?

And I wanted, I wanted, I'm sorry you're so stupid, but what a shame, but she was so smart, she was so smart, and it was the best, and I give a lot of credit to Lorne because Lauren told me, um. Jim, you're too nice for this business. Wow, and he said something I'll never forget. There are a couple of things Lauren said and I never blamed Lauren. I always admired Lauren a lot. I said, "Uh-oh, he goes and if you ever want to, you want to do something." I'm your producer, I'll produce it for you, and I never took that opportunity, but I'll never forget when he told me that, so I was really grateful that he was understanding and let me watch new episodes of Joe.

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