Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018: Chris Kattan

After David Tennant and Krysten Ritter’s panel, our Sunday at Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018 began to draw to a close. But not before we went to two more panels. We left Room 220BC, where we had attended all of our panels thus far, and headed over to a smaller room, 212ABCD.

First up in the room was Black Holes: The Science and Science Fiction – with Special Guest Sir Roger Penrose, presented by NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The room was completely packed for this panel, moderated by astronomer Andrew Franknoi, which, in addition to Sir Roger Penrose, who worked alongside Stephen Hawking for many years, also included Dr. Roger Blandford, Dr. Ryan Lau, and Christian Johnson. The panelists talked about not only the science and theories on black holes, but also about the use of black holes work in the movie Interstellar. I was also interested to learn about micro black holes, which are smaller than atoms, as I had not heard of those before.

Not having a very scientific mind, a lot of the panel discussion went over my head, but the panelists did try to keep their presentation to layman’s terms as best they could. There were some very scientific minded audiences members, and when it came time for audience questions, an audience member asked a question which the moderator commented was too technical for a convention panel, but suggested he stick around afterward to talk to the panelists. Another audience member tried to ask Roger Penrose about his work on artificial intelligence, but he kept the answer brief, redirecting things back to the topic at hand, black holes.

After the panel concluded, several audience members stayed behind to talk to the panelists, and the staff had to ask several times to get them to clear out for the next panel!

Apparently there’s not a lot of crossover between people interested in black holes and people who watched Saturday Night Live in the late 90s-early 2000s, because I was easily able to move up to the front of the room for Chris Kattan’s panel!

Initially, Chris Kattan said that this was his first convention (he later remembered he had been to San Diego Comic-Con), so he started off by giving his impressions of the con, saying that it had been fun. He made sure to get Stan Lee’s autograph, and since he is a Star Wars fan (his favorite is Empire Strikes Back), he got his picture taken with R2-D2. Chris also pointed out that the woman who starred in the 1953 War of the Worlds, Ann Robinson, was at the con, and remembering that his father (Kip King, who had changed his name to a stage name) had taken her to his prom, went to talk to her about it. She recalled that she had accepted his invitation to prom even though she was several years older than him, and that everyone at the high school seemed afraid of her. However, Chris assured her that it was probably because they were intimidated by her.

Having grown up at Mount Baldy, Chris wanted to be a stuntman, as he had done a lot of physical things like climbing and swinging from things while living there. “I got very good at falling and not hurting myself,” Chris recalled. But then he did an impression of a teacher at school, and realized it was getting him a lot of attention from girls. His first impression he started doing was Rod Serling (Twilight Zone) — even though kids didn’t know what he was doing, but their parents did. So he would do the impression at parties when adults were around. Of course, Chris demonstrated his impression for us, which he pointed out was more of a physical thing (in the way he positioned his teeth).

Chris also talked about his time on Saturday Night Live. His SNL character Mr. Peepers (the half-man, half-ape missing link) came from when he was in the Groundlings, an improv comedy troupe from which several other comedians hailed, such as Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy, and Kristen Wiig. There had been an exercise where they were supposed to do a bad improv, so Chris had jumped on Roy Jenkins, wrapped his legs around his waist, and hung upside down from there. Chris, Roy Jenkins, and Will Ferrell went on to do a sketch about an animal talk show on which Mr. Peepers appeared. When they were writing it, they decided that Mr. Peepers needed to have some sort of talent. Chris said that he could eat really fast, and that’s where eating the apple came in. It was the longest running sketch the Groundlings ever had. Then he did it at SNL. Chris recalled that SNL creator/producer Lorne Michaels didn’t want to do the sketch at first, but when Chris pitched it to Tom Hanks, and showed the tape to him, Tom Hanks was on the floor laughing! It then became the first sketch of the night when Tom Hanks hosted.

As for what Chris is working on right now, he is writing something for a series with a friend. He didn’t want to say much about it, but he did reveal that it’s about a rock band in the 80s. Chris also recently finished writing an autobiography called Baby Don’t Hurt Me, which will be out in January.

Delving more into Saturday Night Live, Chris walked us through how pitches work. Every Monday, they have a pitch meeting with everyone, including that week’s host, in Lorne Michaels’s office, to which you should bring one or two ideas. The best way to make sure your idea gets used is to make it fun for the guest host. Chris recalled the week that Gwyneth Paltrow was hosting, he only came in with one idea, which was for him to be Mango and she would play his girlfriend and they would sing three songs. Also that week, Chris happened to get invited to Sam Rockwell’s birthday party, where he ran into Matt Damon, who he asked to do a cameo during the Mango sketch. Chris remembered that Matt Damon was nervous because he had never done live TV before.

Among Chris Kattan’s favorite guest hosts on SNL were Tom Hanks, Drew Barrymore, and Jim Carrey. In fact, Chris credited Jim Carrey for being the reason A Night at the Roxbury became a movie, because he made those characters “come alive.”

Chris told us the story of how he and Will Ferrell came up with the Night at the Roxbury characters. One time after a Groundlings class, Chris and Will went to a bar, where they saw an older man with his hair slicked back doing essentially all the things that we see the Roxybury characters do: the head bop, the pointing at girls to try to get them to dance with him (but then they would decline), the odd dancing. Chris acted all of this out for us. After watching this guy do this all night as he got more and more drunk, the two decided they had to do a sketch about him. Chris admitted that the head bopping became more extreme for the characters, but the characters were based on that guy.

The moderator asked if there was anyone in Groundlings that Chris could tell would make it big. Chris answered Will Ferrell, because he was just so naturally funny. He told us about a trip out to the river that he and Will took on a weekend off, and Will took a nap. Chris demonstrated the way Will was sleeping (his hands were curled up on his chest as if holding a blanket, but he wasn’t), and recalled thinking that Will was even funny while sleeping! Chris also mentioned Kristen Wiig, who was always so focused and great at “channeling,” as well as Molly Shannon, who would often get “lost in her character.”

Chris left SNL after 8 years because his father was sick, at which time he moved back to Los Angeles to take care of him. He recalled getting a phone call from Seth Meyers, who told him how much they missed him, and that often they would be doing certain things for a skit, but then realize “That’s too Kattan.”

Chris offered some words of advice: Take chances and believe in yourself. He pointed out that the people who made it big, like Will Ferrell, it was because they were fearless. Chris remembered the night that Jim Carrey hosted, and he pushed them to be fearless, which then set the bar for that SNL cast to be fearless and take chances from then on out.

When Chris first auditioned for SNL, which was with Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, he didn’t get it. Lorne Michaels had happened to stop by Groundlings one last time, but Chris was out of town that weekend. He was very angry that he didn’t get it. But then 6 or 7 months later, Will called Chris and told him that Lorne wanted him to come on the show. This was odd, because there were only 6 shows left in the season. Later, he found out that the reason he was brought on so late was to “set a fire” under everyone else and bring energy to the show as it neared the end of the season.

Audience members also got a chance to ask questions.

One question was about his experience working on Undercover Brother. Chris praised the immense talent that was on that movie, including Eddie Griffith, Dave Chappelle, Neil Patrick Harris, and Billy Dee Williams. He said when he was offered the role of Mr. Feather, he was told they were open to whatever he wanted to do or say as the character, which made it a lot of fun for him to have so much input.

As for his inspiration for the Mango character on SNL, it was actually based on his dog, a dalmatian named Winnie. Whenever you would call her she would just shyly look over her shoulder at you, but not come to you. Chris demonstrated this for us, and it was hilarious!

He was also asked about his experience on How I Met Your Mother, when he played Jed Mosley, the parody character of main character Ted Mosby. Chris said that even though it was a pre-recorded separate segment, it was a lot of fun, and he got to come back to the show for the episode when the mother was revealed.

To wrap up the panel, Chris shared with us where we would be able to see him in the near future. He said we could see him in a new Tales from the Crypt movie, as well as an upcoming series (he didn’t mention the title) that he believes will be on Netflix, and that he does the voice of the title character in the animated series Bunnicula. Chris also mentioned that he does stand up.

Hearing Chris Kattan talk about his various characters on Saturday Night Live was a really nostalgic experience for me, bringing me back to my high school days when I used to watch the show. It brought up a lot of memories that I had forgotten about, and I hadn’t realized that Chris Kattan’s characters had had such an effect on me. I basically grew up watching this guy. It brought a smile to my face, and he kept the audience laughing throughout the panel, while also giving us some interesting behind-the-scenes info and insight.

And so ended Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018 for us. The panel ended at 5:00pm, which was also the time that the con closed. We caught an Uber and headed to the airport with a good amount of time to spare before our flight back to Orange County after a successful, fun-filled first time experience at this convention!

You can view more of our photos of Chris Kattan below.