Hammond impresses his SNL friends, fans
During a record 12 years on “Saturday Night Live,” Darrell Hammond has provided pitch-perfect impressions of Donald Trump, Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, even Jesse Jackson.
Onstage at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan, where he has performed regularly during his long run on SNL, Hammond follows former “Weekend Update” host Colin Quinn.
“Please do Jesse and Sharpton!” Quinn calls out, leaning forward like an impatient 8-year-old.
Hammond obliges, swapping his slight Southern drawl for some Jackson before distorting his voice into a blustery sound-bite machine to do Sharpton. “I did not call (Rudy) Giuliani a Bozo,” he says in Sharpton’s familiar cadence. “I said Bozo could have done just as good a job as Giuliani!”
Then he does Trump, generating laughs by ending every thought from the self-promoting real estate mogul with a pause and two words – “The Apprentice.” Next, President Bush, drawing cascading laughs.
Other voices follow in rapid succession: Ronald Reagan, Homer Simpson, Popeye, Dick Cheney, Kim Jong Il, Dr. Phil, Bill Clinton.
To measure what works, Hammond has placed a tape recorder on stage.
“I want to be good. I don’t think I’m good,” Hammond says.
The hunger is not so much for fame or fortune as it is to perfect an art form that brought him salvation once his dreams of professional baseball died, killed off at the University of Florida by his inability to hit the slider.
The detour took him to a radio job and later to 18 years as one of hundreds of other struggling young comics across the country. Now he is applauded even by his subjects.
“I’m not sure how a world leader reacts to the work of a clown,” he says. “When you visit a White House or shake a president’s hand, I’m really impressed with them and happy I’ve come this far.”
In his down time he helps people battle addictions, just like others helped him overcome alcohol and drugs.
“I’ve never really gotten into it how bad it really was,” he says. “It was an ugly story.”
He was added at age 39 to the cast of “Saturday Night Live.” He’d been rejected twice before. Despite his success, he remained sad and cloaked his pain in his addictions.
Sober for several years, Hammond talks about some day having his own Vegas act or becoming a character actor in Hollywood.
“I’m starting to wear colors,” he says. “Maybe I’ve decided to get over it all. I know I’m enjoying it more. All of a sudden I remember the gifts. I perform in the major leagues of what I do. It’s incredible. I don’t have to indict the world anymore.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Joe Cocker is 63. Singer-actress Cher is 61. Actor Dave Thomas is 58. Guitarist Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s is 49. Actor Bronson Pinchot is 48. TV personality Ted Allen (“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”) is 42. Rapper Busta Rhymes is 35. Actor Matt Czuchry is 30. Singer Naturi Naughton (3LW) is 23.