The SNL Audition
Jim auditioned for SNL in 1986. Jim recalls, "I got out of my car,
started walking through the parking lot, and I heard, 'Don't jump!
Don't jump!' I looked up to the top of the roof and there was a guy
in a blue blazer trying to work up his nerve to throw himself off
the building. The whole time I was auditioning, I was thinking, 'Is
he dead? Is he dead yet?'" The guy did not jump and Jim didn't get
cast by SNL.
Wayne Flemminmg on Clowning Around
Wayne Flemming remembers Jim being silly even while being wheeled
out of an operation room where he had gall bladder surgery in June
of 94. "He's heavily sedated and he's trying to stick-shift the gurney
and drive it making 'brrrmm-brrmm' sounds with his mouth."
Jim In High School
"I know it sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully
shy. The turning point was freshman year when I was the biggest geek
alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me. Then I suddenly realized
that the shick I pulled at home could also work at school. I went
from 'Jim the geek' to 'Jim really is a moron, but we like it!' From
then on, there was no stopping me. I was relentless."
Who Inspired Jim?
"The comedians who inspired me are, like, Dick Van Dyke. Loved Dick
Van Dyke. Jimmy Stewart. Well, he wasn't a comedian but he was a character
that I really, really liked. I learned how to say F*** by listening
to Richard Pyror. No. But those guys, like that who opened the door
to realms for me. You watch them, and then you go, well maybe you
gotta give up a little more to, you know, push the buttons these days."
